Starting a Skitarii force

[JeffTibbetts]

A while back I added a Start Collecting! Skitarii box to my Amazon wish list, and lo and behold someone actually bought it for me. I wasn't all that serious about starting a new army, but I am now! 

 

I loved the AdMech stuff and I can't wait to paint it up. So, I'm going to dump some thoughts here and see if anyone can help me with a little guidance, as I'm new to this force. 

 

First up: Game mechanics.

 

I'll be allying them to my Eagle Eyes space marines, for whom I use Raven Guard chapter tactics. 

 

First, it seems to me I'll need to use the Skitarii themselves as Rangers, since that's what's called for on the formation that came in the box. I won't be able to field the Magos without that, so if I want to stay BattleForged I'll need to use it that way. I guess I'm okay with that. Not sure what I'm missing out on, or if there would be other formations I could use instead? I'm still working my way through the codex. 

 

If I take them as Rangers, using just the stuff in the box, what has experience taught you about fighting against MEQ armies, Tau and Necrons? In my small group that's about all we have. My marines can obviously cover a lot, so I'm hoping to use these to do things the marines aren't as good at.

 

The Onager could obviously cover anti-air very well, but are the other weapons worth looking into as well? 

 

Second (maybe more importantly): Aesthetics

 

I love the way these models look. I'll be painting them with my marines in mind, whose main colors are ork-flesh green and crimson. I was hoping to do something with the Skitarii that would contrast, but be somewhat unique. Red robes would be the obvious choice, and I'm not ruling it out, but I'm wide open to alternative schemes.

 

I would love to do the metalwork in a brass or bronze color, since I so rarely see that and I dig the steampunk vibe it can bring. If I do that, though, red robes will probably not have the contrast I'm hoping for. Green robes would be better, but then again I'm a little bored with painting green and I want them to pop against my marines. At this point I'm leaning towards deep blue robes, or just ditching the brass armor and doing something like yellow robes. 

 

Basically, I'm just trying to wrap my head around an entirely new army, now colors, new tabletop tactics and all that. I would love any and all suggestions, or pointing me towards resources that would help. 

[Vel'Cona]

Welcome to AdMech! I'm on a brief hiatus from Forgeworld Triplex Phall but I can still weigh in a bit.

The Rangers are solid infantry with their only major flaw being points inefficiency compared to Vanguard; that said, they have excellent firepower that rivals Astartes boltguns but have better AP and Range. Don't forget their Precision Shots for sniping out Sergeants and Special Weapons! I'd recommend giving them an Arc Rifle to help with anti-tank work, though the Plasma Caliver delivers dangerous firepower at a premium cost if you fight a lot of Terminators or Centurions.

The Onager is an excellent walker for its cost, and can fill a number of battlefield roles with ease. The basic Conversion Beamer (or ray or whatever) keeps points down and is probably your best overall option for thinning infantry ranks, while the Neutron Laser is excellent ranged anti-tank. If you need AA though, the Icarus Array is truly a beast and with Death from the Skies bearing down it could be a prime unit (though keep in mind it loses most of its punch vs. anything that's not a Flyer).

As for the paint scheme, you can't really go wrong with Skitarii and AdMech in general. Most of the schemes I see choose a brighter color for the exterior cloaks and a dark color for the interior, but other than that I'd say the sky is the limit! Take a look around the WIP threads in this forum for inspiration. Also, take a look in the downloads section for a huge variety of alternative Forgeworld icons.

FOR THE GLORY OF THE OMNISSIAH!!!

[shandwen]

A copper/brass with white robes would be interesting. (Being the third most common color set for them that I've seen after red and orange).

[JeffTibbetts]

Thanks for the tips, guys.

 

I'll poke around the forum here a bit and see what you're all working on, but keep the ideas coming! 

[Tiger9gamer]

May I suggest taking a gander at the HARD DATA  Thread? It has battle reports and tactic overviews for the entire year since the skitarii released I think. 

[Grand Master Laertes]

I should say: "Paint them in yellow with black flames! Join the forge worl of Incaladion, we have xeno-tech and tech-heresies!".

 

However I really like your idea of copper/bronze metallic parts and will say: "go for it!!!". What about black-grey robes? A force of night-clad implacable cyborg-killers would look great, in my opinion.

[thevoodooman]

My skitarii are pink and look awesome!!!

 

Also vanguard are amazing

[JeffTibbetts]

I should say: "Paint them in yellow with black flames! Join the forge worl of Incaladion, we have xeno-tech and tech-heresies!".

 

However I really like your idea of copper/bronze metallic parts and will say: "go for it!!!". What about black-grey robes? A force of night-clad implacable cyborg-killers would look great, in my opinion.

 

It was your yellow Skitarii that made me think of that color in the first place, so you're not too far off. But, on the other hand, I do seem a bit stuck on the idea of bronze, copper or brass. Yellow wouldn't look so hot with that. 

[Grand Master Laertes]

Yeah, I definitely agree, yellow is better with silver metallics than with copper or bronze.

 

Are you bored of painting green in general or just its most common shades? Because maybe a camo green colour scheme (say, Ogryn camo washed with Athonian camoshade and highlighted up to to a kaki tone for the most extreme lightpoints) might be what you are searching for. When I started using it on my Chaos Space Marines i found it different enough from the usual green scheme that I was using on my loyalist Terminators, and I think it contrasts nicely with the copper that I used for the backpacks on some of my Cultists (when I get back home on monday, I can try to take a picture of them, if you want).

[JeffTibbetts]

I've been thinking about a couple options but I'd love a bit of feedback.

This is my first idea. Copper for armor and detailing, brass for most other metal. Only using 'silver' metal on things like tubing but maybe I'll make those black to keep it a little more simple. I kind of like the idea of using no silver metal at all.

I have some misgivings about using both copper and brass, but hear me out. First, looking over a lot of Steampunk stuff lately, they mix a bunch of metal finishes in the brass, copper and bronze families with various textures and antiquing. It sort of blends visually into a warm metallic palette, without looking too chaotic. I FEEL like I want better contrast, but I think I might want to test against my intuition.

I like a dusty, somewhat desaturated deeper blue and a beige or tan for the robes and whatnot. I'm still not sure about whether I should put the tan on the inside or outside of the robes. I'll maybe do a mockup of the reverse and see what it looks like. The beige looks a lot more muted and natural and gives the little pops of blue an interesting backdrop.

I may end up trying out red lenses or something that really jump out, but blue seems nice right now. I think a very generally warm palette of beiges, coppers, brasses, and brown leathers will look great with blue.

As for the metal textures, here's what I'm thinking: Maybe the brass will be darker, like an oil-rubbed, dull brass that's only truly metallic on the edges. I'm thinking something like using Averland Sunset as a base, shading with Agrax or even Nuln, and then drybrushing the edges with a lighter brass color could look pretty cool. I want it to look a bit antique. The copper, though, I want to have a much brighter sheen to offer some contrast.

I don't have a good technique for a brighter copper color. I've been looking into Rub n Buff copper, but it seems too dark. I've heard good things about the Liquid Gold series from Vallejo, and they do make a copper paint. Does anyone have some experience with that? Would it be appropriately shiny and does it take a wash pretty well? I'd be willing to do an oil wash as well. I was toying with the idea of using an overall dark brown oil wash on everything for the sake of harmonizing the entire model and making them fast to paint.

[Vel'Cona]

Did anyone else think Browncoats when they saw this paint scheme?  Seriously man, that's a GREAT scheme.  I really think you should go for it!

[JeffTibbetts]

I had to look that up, but thanks! I tried mocking up a version with the blue on the outside. There were things I liked about it, but overall it just didn't work as well. So I think I'm sticking with this, tentatively.

 

I want to get away from the Dark Angels robe color and go with a warmer, khaki-like color I think. I'm open to suggestions for a paint recipe, but I want to keep it more simple than my Eagle Eyes marines. The armor recipe for them is no less than 6 steps, not counting primer. 

 

I think the blue on the inside of the robes will act as a nice accent color on other things, but the metallics are where I'm really not sure of myself. GW is making a new copper and brass color, so I'll have a look at those. I was thinking of experimenting with either Rub n Buff or the Liquid Copper and Liquid Gold alcohol-based paints if the Citadel ones aren't too great. Based on the strength of their most recent gold, though, it might actually be amazing. 

[Vel'Cona]

Either way, I think it's a strong scheme and I don't remember seeing any others like it. It's a much more earth-tone, "realistic" pattern that I find very appealing. I'd say go for it; I can't wait to see a test model!

[JeffTibbetts]

Alright. After fiddling around with color schemes, I think I'm getting closer to something that works. I like the tan coat look, but it was falling apart when I applied it across different models. The contrast just wasn't there, and the blue wasn't working well on the undercarriage of the Onager, for example. I had tried reversing it before and didn't like it, but I decided to try it again based in so small part on Beardbattered's excellent blue theme (take a look). I also decided there would still be some silver metal here and there, and I'm sticking with both brass and copper. I know it's a risk, but I think in application they'll be different enough to be visually distinct. There's going to be a wider palette on these guys than I usually use, but it will fall into dusty blues, earth-tones, and red and yellow metallics. The blue/brass complement each other very well, whilst the copper and browns lend warmth to contrast.

Have a look and let me know what you think. There are things I prefer about the tan coats, but I just think this is stronger overall.

The recolors are hardly perfect, but you should sort of get the idea. What doesn't come across here is the brass will be pretty dirty/grimy. I plan to use something like Averland Sunset, drybrushed/chipped/weathered with a gold tone, and washed with Agrax and Nuln Oil. I've also been considering an oil wash for these guys, so that may come into play. The copper, on the other hand, will be much shinier and polished, so the brass will actually look far more dull and copper will pop.

Thoughts? I need to come up with a recipe for the tan and the blue. I'm open to suggestions on both.

[Captain Semper]

Would you consider switching blue for black? I don't know why but black with brass seems like a more striking combo to me... It will divert the attention to the metal galore you're thinking.

 

my 2c. ;) I know that whatever you choose it'll be awesome! 

[JeffTibbetts]

I did consider a much darker, navy blue but never black. I think that will be too stark. In my mind the skitarii are not flashy or ostentatious, so I think a more muted, less contrasting palette suits them well. I do think black and brass would look cool, but almost TOO cool, if you catch my meaning. 

[Captain Semper]

Good point! Look forward to it! :)

[JeffTibbetts]

I just realized, when thinking about fluff for these guys, that I can explain both the brass/copper and the blue color at the same time... Just like red is the color of mars because of iron oxide, blue can be theirs because of the way brass alloys patina. I can basically work that into their robes for the exact same reason most AdMech use red: It recalls the blue dunes of their ForgeWorld. For some reason, the idea of blue-gray sands is a really cool image to me. I know (because I just looked it up) that copper and brass both patina more on the green side of the spectrum than blue, there are certainly exceptions and some are exactly the right shade of blue, but brighter. Since this is space fantasy, I can point out the unique alloy they've harnessed and use on most of their equipment and augmetics. Makes perfect sense to me and seems very in-keeping with the fluff. Now I need to do a little research and create a logo/name this Forge World. 

[Hannibaal]

@JeffTibbetts - First, I really like your blue color scheme.  It's unique and I think it will really pop on the table.  Second though, is where did you find the painter app to test out these different color schemes?  I looked in the DIY section of B&C and didn't see it listed with all the other painters.  Thanks and can't wait to see how your scheme turns out.

[JeffTibbetts]

Thanks! And that's just Photoshopped. I have a digital codex so I took a screenshot of the relevant entry. Ps has a blending mode for layers simply called "color" and it leaves the black and white scale intact. It makes it easy to shift the hue and I have a digital pen which makes it even faster. From there you sometimes need to lighten or darken certain spots and that gets trickier. It's pretty fun to mess around with, but not everyone can afford the Adobe stuff. I happen to get it free from my job so it's a no-brainier.

[HackedDuck]

Good idea on the fluff wish I had thought of that before but instead I went with an ocean world (that eventually got polluted and "bubbled away") for my blue skitarii.

[Battybattybats]

Copper is very conductive, might be worth considering running strong with that part of the holy Trinity, the Motive Force.

[Charlo]

One thing that's probably awesome for Skitters is the new Basing pack released today:

 

 

25 and 40mm is exactly what your Rangers/ Vanguard & Ruststalkers/ Infiltraitors need :)

[JeffTibbetts]

Copper is very conductive, might be worth considering running strong with that part of the holy Trinity, the Motive Force.

 

 

Yes! I was considering going heavy with arc weaponry and whatnot for that very reason. No idea how it all shakes out in-game, though.

 

 

One thing that's probably awesome for Skitters is the new Basing pack released today:

 

 

25 and 40mm is exactly what your Rangers/ Vanguard & Ruststalkers/ Infiltraitors need :)

I know, they're great, right? Alas, I'll be matching their bases to my existing army of space marines. They're all on gray ash bases with bits of dead Necrons (the only good kind, natch) on them.

[JeffTibbetts]

Sorry to double post, but I chose some colors and did another couple test recolors in Photoshop.

Here's my blue recipe (I'll be adding a wash after the base, but I'm not sure what color yet.

The caledor is a little too saturated, but the wash will tone it down and frankly I'll be shooting a lot of Hoeth on it with an airbrush, so it will only be in the deepest areas.

And my tan recipe:

This will probably be pretty straight up. I think it's odd that my Flayed One is listed as an edge paint. Did they recently change that to a layer paint?

And here are a couple more Photoshop testers.

Let me know what you think! I bought some of those paints and orders some others online, so who knows when they'll arrive. I can't wait to get started.