We are Already Cyborgs: my Small Admech Team

I think most of us remember Elon Musk’s words: “We are already cyborgs”. I found this phrase very cool. It reminded me of my skitarii guys.

If somebody doesn’t saw this interview, I’ll explain. Elon Musk told about our smartphones and other gadgets in the context of artificial intelligence. Our phones contain information which is valuable for us: photos and contacts of closest people, reminders, important notes. All these gadgets are our databases, they aren’t implanted in our bodies yet. It’s probably only a matter of time. So, this idea not only impressed me but also reminded me of how much I love steampunk and cyberpunk. I was very grateful to Games Workshop when they represented the Adeptus Mechanicus army. Here’s how I painted my skitarii rangers team.

My First Painted Skitarii Ranger

This guy was the first one. I made a few mistakes here. I tried to paint the cloak in Khorne red, not Mephiston red. That’s not very good, because Khorne red used on the base. When the model’s main color and color of the base are similar I prefer to color the base a little darker.

The next misstep is related to metallic details. I used leadbelcher as the base color, this paint liquid so I didn’t water it. You can see the results on the shoulder and on the right hand, they’re a little speckled. Besides I applied baharroth blue to lenses, that’s not the best choice. But in general, it turned out well I think.

Second Painted Skitarii Ranger

As you can see this skitarii ranger painted better than the first one, and for my painting skill that’s really not bad. Unfortunately, I accidentally applied some gold paint on the figure’s finger on the galvanic rifle’s trigger (it’s already fixed). By the way, on skitarii rangers, I used brass scorpion and warplock bronze paints, not any gold paints because I think it’s more suitable for ordinary soldiers. According to Skitarii Codex Adeptus Mechanicus have a strict hierarchy. So using bronze paints for soldiers and golden paints for tech-priests, I emphasize this feature of admech background.

I also draw your attention to one thing, no need to buy too many shades of one color, these paints are quite expensive. By the way when your figures are on the game table difference between these colors is almost not noticeable, especially on such small details. I usually try to save my money in such cases.

Skitarii Ranger with Plasma Caliver

The most important part of this miniature was the plasma caliver. For painting plasma, I used the same colors as for lenses. The base color here is caledor sky. Then we can use edge paint baharroth blue in a smaller area. After applying these colors I used layer paint white scar. Baharroth blue is not necessary, it’s almost invisible after applying white color. Painting lenses are really easy: cover it up by caledor sky and put a small dot of white scar in the center of the lens.

Painting plasma caliver was a little harder. First of all, I painted a full plasma area with a common wet brush with blue color. The plasma glowing effect is achieved by using dry brushing technique with white paint. For dry brushing, I use old hard brushes, or you can buy a cheap flat synthetic brush.

Skitarii Ranger Alpha

Fourth in this team is skitarii ranger alpha. Well, there’s nothing special in this model. Its distinctive feature is the position of the hands, which makes the body comfortable for painting. But even on this model, I see my inaccuracy on the body and in weapons glowing effect. Need more painting experience!

Sometimes it’s hard to imagine for me, how some people paint really big armies so carefully. There is something to strive for!

Skitarii Ranger Radio Operator

It was interesting to paint this guy. I haven’t had very much experience with painting heads of figures. I decided that such cyborgs like skitarii must have pale skin, caused by poor blood circulation. So I painted not mechanized half of head in rakarth flesh and then shaded it a little by agrax earthshade.

Logically every team must have a radio operator. This miniature is very nice, I like its pose with a galvanic rifle on the shoulder, its unusual backpack, and head.

My Small Admech Skitarii Rangers Team

Parts under the cloak are very hard to paint, so I primer and paint feet and base separately from body, head, hands, and backpack. Then I clean connection places before gluing. Or I cover up connection places during primering and painting with something like a medical patch and uncover before gluing.

These guys are painted in original admech colors. Don’t take it as an advertisement, I use citadel paints because it’s comfortable for me, but there are no less worthy analogs like the army painter for example.

For painting this admech team I used:

Primer:

• any black primer (it hides some painting mistakes)

Paints:

• rakarth flesh (inner part of the cloak)
• abaddon black (for pants and for admech symbol)
• mephiston red (cloak)
• leadbeltcher (for iron parts)
• rhinox hide (for wooden part of galvanic rifle)
• brass scorpion or warplock bronze or balthasar gold for bronze/golden parts
• caledor sky (for lenses and for plasma part of plasma caliver)
• white scar or ceramite white (for lenses and plasma part of plasma caliver glowing effect; and for admech symbol)

Shades:

• nuln oil or agrax earthshade (both fit, I applied nuln oil for cloak as shade effect and agrax earthshade for metallic parts for oily effect)For painting bases:
• khorne red
• martian ironearth (technical paint – very cool effect!)

Highlighting:

• ushabti bone (for rakarth flesh highlighting)
• evil sunz scarlet (for mephiston red highlighting)
• ironbreaker (for leadbeltcher highlighting)
• baharroth blue (for caledor sky highlighting)

I often use the same base colors on bright parts after shading and it works like highlight color. For example skitarii robes: mephiston red (full robe) – nuln oil – mephiston red (only bright parts as a highlight). It seems I have not forgotten anything.

Please don’t be too harsh, I just learn to paint Warhammer miniatures. For me, that’s a good result. In my opinion adeptus mechanicus is one of the most interesting armies in Warhammer 40k. When I’ll decide that I’m experienced enough to paint Onager Dunecrawler and Tech-Priest Dominus I’ll definitely show you the results of the painting.