Monday, April 20, 2015

WIP: Skitarii Rangers and Vanguard

This weekend I got my first box of Skitarii warriors.  I picked up the basic troop box which can make the Skitarii Rangers and the Skitarii Vanguard. Over the weekend I assembled and painted up 6 of the 10 that come in the box.  Caution lots of pics incoming.



I went with a purple cloth, bronze metal, and leadbelcher for the hoses. All of the optics are yellow and the gun stocks are a dark grey with a wash. The purity seals were done with a white undercoat and screaming skull layer on top.  The bases were done using the brown technical paint with a brown wash. 

Here is a Vanguard with an Arc Rifle (haywire gun). I used my usual blue with light blue highlights for the power supply. I might go back over this with a green since this is not plasma and the rest of my armies use this pattern for plasma.  Let me know if you think they should be different.
This was the first model I painted.  I am very happy with how it turned out.  The scheme was not hard and I think they will be a bit different than other Skitarii armies out there.  It will also give me an army with colors I have not used before which is always a plus.

Here is the ranger with the Transuramic Arquebus (special sniper rifle).

The sniper was a bit dificult to assemble.  My big meaty hands actually broke the stick but it seams to have gone back together decently.  I added a few rocks to help break up the big flat area on the sniper base.

The first regular Vanguard.

For some reason the technical paint did not crack a lot on this base.  I guess I didn't lay it on thick enough.  It still worked good enough to make this trooper uniform with the rest of the troops.

This is the first regular Ranger.

On this guy, if you look at the top of the back pack, you can really see the gold highlight. I tried not to go to overboard so the bronze really shined through.  I have a problem with getting these small detail picked out with my big hands.

Here is the other Ranger.
You can see here how I went over board on the eyes. I am not sure if I want to try to go back and rim the eye with the bronze with a chance to really muck it up or just let it go as is. 
Here is the other regular Vanguard.

I am happy with how the visor turned out.  While painting it got filled in with bronze but the wash covered it up and now it looks right.  Again you can see some subtle gold on the ridges of the gun.

Here is a shot of the first 4 .
There is two of each type. I took the pictures of the other two on Monday hoping to get it out before work.  I have 4 more to paint Two regular troops, the gear that lowers the cover (omnispex?), and another special weapon (plasma Caviler).

I did not make any sergeants yet. Since they do not have to have a pistol / cc weapon combo, I just might not make any with that setup.  I will need to do it if I want one of them to have the special relic pistol but that is only one guy and I might just add that option to the Infiltrators.  I have at least three more boxes of these so I am not in any hurry to make any decisions just yet.

My plan is to have two squads with three of each special weapon.  That will mean I will need two more boxes, do some trading, or buy them outright on Ebay.  I have a feeling those weapons are going to be $5-10 each.  With those prices I could buy the two boxes and sell off the normal guys if  needed.  I will cross that bridge when I get to it. A full army is a long way away.

My plan for the sniper rifle was to have two small squads of five rangers with two snipers each.  I think the range of their regular guns (30") goes decently with the long range of the sniper.  The other two special weapon the Haywire (24") and Plasma (18") tend to go with the Vanguard with their 18" standard gun.

I also need to figure out Squad markings.  Maybe I can add color to their shoulder pads to help distinguish them or add a stripe of color to the hem of their robes.  Help me out and tell me which is better.   

I need to get my light box back. I have not seen it since the move and I am afraid it has disappeared. Hopefully I can get something set up.  While my phone does a good job with the photos they tend to have shadows that hide painted detail.  hmmm on second though maybe that is a good thing.

Questions? Comments? 01101001 01101110 01110001 01110101 01101001 01110010 01101001 01100101 01110011?