Ever since my first video on this channel where I converted a techpriestess,
I’ve been wanting to make another techpriestess. This time though one that was more aesthetically
similar to other techpriests, hunched and gaunt, body a husk. But… finding a female model to base
it on proved difficult because there aren’t that many female miniatures in Game Workshop’s
catalogue to begin with, and those that do exist all skew towards the attractive or sexualized.
There is one though that’s nicely hag-like: Fecula Flyblown from the nurgle wurmspat warband.
I started by snipping away her arm pin and carving off some of her nurgle flavor.
For her right arm I chose the techpriest dominus cane arm, though I had to slice off the secondary
arm because it wouldn’t fit. I love the cane arm because it adds an edge of refinement
to basically every miniature it’s attached to. For the left arm I chose the matching tech ax,
though I had to snip off the end because of her reduced height compared to the dominus.
For both arms I used globs of greenstuff to attach them. With them in place I started
dry fitting on different mechanicus heads. While they all matched her well,
the exposed bone structure of this one I thought really sold the crone aesthetic I was aiming for.
With arms and head in place my techpriestess was looking good… but she wasn’t looking great. Her
energy was a little too grandmotherly, not hag or crone-like enough, silhouette not bizarre
enough for a true follower of the machine god. To shake things up, I decided to layer on this front
portion from a tech-priest manipulus. I’ve always liked it, but never had a build it would work for.
In this case I thought it would add a nice hunched forward silhouette and some of the insectile
plates that are so key to the admech aesthetic. To get it to fit I started carving away at her
shoulders and sides to narrow them. I also snipped off the belly plate portion of the
manipulus front, careful to minimize the damage so I could use the plate later for another project.
With the belly gone the manipulus front fit really cleanly over the hag base, but I decided
to affix it a little more forward to enhance her hunched over silhouette. I also cut off the armor
portion of the back of the manipulus so I could layer it over the back of my tech-priestess.
With the new manipulus front, the head I had been using no longer really worked.
What’s ironic is that it’s one of the heads from the original manipulus kit,
but the way I’d affixed the manipulus front was tilted more downward than the original so it
kind of just looked like she was whispering to the ground now. I tried a few different
head options. I actually liked almost all of them, especially this strange peering one, but
ended up settling on the servitor head from the dominus kit because of just how creepy it looks.
I fit it in so it looks like it’s peering out from a shell of armor.
I added the techpriest cane and axe arms back to my techpriestess, and dry fitted on an engineseers
reactor. While I liked how broad and messy it was, I eventually decided against including
a backpack of any type because I felt like it took away and confused her hunched silhouette.
I also tried dry fitting on third arms behind the techpriest limbs.
They looked cool, but in terms of overall shape felt like it fit the model better to
add a pair of vestigial limbs held close to the body beneath the manipulus arms
so her energy would be turned inward, not outward. To make space for the vestigial arms I clipped off
my tech priestess's gut and layered greenstuff over the resulting hole to mimic robes.
This is the vestigial limb from the dark eldar talos pain engine.
All of the vestigial limbs from that kit are wonderfully creepy, and this one in particular.
Unfortunately while I eventually got it to fit by performing a boob job, the vestigial limb
was a little too large, and also basically impossible to see under the manipulus arms.
I don’t actually like the pose of those arms or how strong and meaty they are,
so I decided to replace their forearms and open up my techpriestess a little.
I snipped off the forearms and dug into the sleeves so that new limbs could be fitted in.
I experimented with a few different ones, but settled on the chordclaw from the restalker kit,
and one of the pincer arms from the katephron one. The chordclaw is always good for making
a model scheming and sinister, while the pincer arm’s extra joint helps mechanize the whole limb
and give it a transhuman edge. Together they give her a bit of a pray mantis look.
With her front more visible, I went in and carved out more of the original model’s body. I thought
about adding back in the vestigial limbs tucked up against the body now that there was space for
them, but it felt a little excessive for a model of this size, so I simply greenstuffed her front.
And with that my techpriestess was ready to serve the omnisiah. I’m really pleased
with how she turned out, and I think is a much more in character techpriestess than my first
one, her body a husk. The manipulus armor really helps give her an insectile, almost roach-like
silhouette, and replacing his praying hands enhances it even more. I think she still reads
as female as well despite being almost entirely draped in ragged robes, her face a pitted skull,
and her flesh replaced with servo and steel, which was one of my main objectives with her.
All genders deserve to be unsettling and insectile in service to the machine god.
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mechanicus builds. I also have a patreon if you want to support the channel. Thanks for watching.