This project started in the most kitbashing way possible: I was randomly putting pieces
together and it sparked the concept for a new model. In this case it was the bottom
half of a delaque gang member and the top half of a skitarii ranger. To me it immediately
had a feminie silhouette, hips narrowing into her waist and the two coats looking like layers
of a skirt. Non stripper-esque female figures are really kind of rare, so it seemed worth
pursuing though I wasn’t quite sure initially what direction I was going to take her.
To make the skitarii torso fit on the delaque waist required a lot of carving, but it mostly
got there in the end. I used greenstuff to fill the remaining gap and extend the skirt
up to the belt of the skitarii torso. With the two combined she had a faintly saintly
look to me which I decided to pursue by putting on one of the fantastic statuesque female
heads. They’re great, but in this case it looked a little too young so I eventually
swapped it out for a skitarii head whose hood helped pull the model together.
I decided to pursue the skitarii angle by making her a full on tech priestess. The fun
in being a converter is in doing something new and pushing the limits of what’s out
there, and there aren’t canon female tech priests or even skitarii models, so this seemed
like a cool concept to try and make work. Once I’d made the decision to go in the
tech priestess direction it was pretty easy to decide what to do with the rest of her.
For the left arm I opted for the tech priest dominus tech ax arm which required shaving
down the cables on the side of the skitarii torso, and then cutting down the pole length
to match her height. I like the axe for her because it looks almost like she’s holding
up a standard more than a weapon. I really love the dominus cane, it always
gives models such a sense of character, but in this case it didn’t really match the
standing tall vibe of our tech priestess. I had an idea for adapting it though. First
I snipped off the pointing finger which fits the dominus model perfectly, but wouldn’t
work here. Next I sliced off the cane, attached it to her, and replaced it with a censer which
I felt like fit the arcane and baroque religiosity of the adeptus mechanicus.
For the censer itself I snipped off a bit from a skitarii backpack that looks like one.
It’s a little too small, but the best I had right then. I eventually replaced it with
the morningstar from a deathwing terminator which fits a lot better. The arm pose is a
littler artificial but I still think works. Interestingly, out of all the male body parts
I used, this is the only one that still reads male to me. It’s just a little too thick
I think. Overall I’m really happy with how my tech
priestess turned out, and the lessons I learned from her in terms of how to make male bits
look female is something I’ll apply in the future. I may take another swing at the idea
of a tech priestess in the future because this one is a little more saintly than the
hunched and wizened bodies of most admech tech priests, but this is an interesting interpretation
I think. She needs a skitarii bodyguard though. Just as with my tech priestess the bottom
half of these skitarii are delaque robes. In this case that meant cutting the delaque
model just below the belt. For the torso instead of going with a skitarii torso like I did
for the tech priestess I instead opted for one from a sicarian rustalker. I wanted the
skitarii to have a warped and exaggerated female silhouette, something a little posthuman,
and the rustalker torso already has that vibe going on.
To get it to fit on the delaque legs took snipping off it’s hips. Initially I thought
about adding on the robes from a skitarii ranger like I had for the tech priestess,
but they didn’t fit. Before merging the torso and bottom half of
the model together I used a piece of plasticard to create a platform to drill in a hole for
a wire to connect the two. I find adding greenstuff is always that way and less frustrating to
work with. This project slowly downsized as I went on;
I started out working on three servitors, then went to two, and the ended with one.
The main reason is that my objective with kitbashing is to build cool models, not actually
fill out a warband or army, and I didn’t want to waste cool bits on what are essentially
copies with minor variations. I decided on a necron immortal rifle for the
skitarii’s main weapon. It’s original pose is in front of the chest, but it works
equally good for being cocked or hefted up in the air which is one of my favorite poses.
For the other arm I went with an astra militarum sentinel saw. Any decent skitarii should be
able to handle close combat as well as ranged, and it’s a great bit even if it’s a bit
awkward. I actually think it’s awkwardness helps the overall impression of the skitarii
though as more machine than woman now. I played around with some different heads
for the skitarii. The original rustalker head works really well and probably would’ve
been good enough… but I wanted to try something a little bolder. I’m not sure where this
servitor skull comes from, but I’ve had the idea for a while now of using it as an
admech head. It’s creepy and a little ridiculous, and deciding just how high I wanted. I eventually
settled on snipping it about halfway down so that it’s still high but not completely
implausible. And with that final alteration our skitarii
bodyguard was ready to protect her tech priestess. Overall I’m pretty happy with how she turned
out, though she’s a little stiff looking. I probably could’ve got something a little
more dynamic with one of the other delaque robes that’s in movement like the tech priestess’,
but she’s still quite creepy and transhuman looking.