Choose Your Own Adventurers #17, #18, #19: Infiltrators

Posted on 03/01/2019 by sho3box

L ro R: Testbed Slave, Cyborg (Talisman), Cyborg (Adventurers).

The beginning of 2019, the year when Bladerunner is set, seems like a good time to post some photos of cyborgs.

After a hiatus of about twelve years or so, I’m playing Warhammer 40,000 again.  Not that I stopped playing sci-fi games with Citadel miniatures during that period or anything, but I haven’t played the flagship game since around the start of 5th edition.

What started a few months ago with Kill Team versus The Bazpaz, became small games of its bigger brother, 40k 8th edition.  It has been fun.

+++ GREETINGS HUMAN. WE EVEN LIFT BRO. LAUGHTER. LAUGHTER. SOME HUMOUR TO PUT YOU AT YOUR EASE WITH US TOTALLY NOT KILLER CYBORGS +++

After playing a few Kill Team games with Dark Eldar/Drukhari and painting about half an Ork KT team I decided that I would rather get involved with merciless, faux-human automata.  But enough about my love life, let’s focus on my Necron plans.

My 40k and Kill Team force of skelebots was started back in 2012, just over six years from the time of writing.  It was always intended to allude a bit to the Terminator movie franchise so I decided to continue with that while working on new Necrons.

Which finally brings me to these three figures.

The “Cyborg” and “Test Bed Slave” from above…

 

… and the “Cyborg” from here.

I wanted to have “Infiltrator” units – living tissue over metal endoskeleton, in my take on the Necron army.  In terms of rules mechanics, the existing rules for “Flayed Ones” are easily close enough for getting the concept on the table with minimal fuss, so I just had to find some apt figs.

A bit of a think about what figures I had that would be passable as T-600s or T-800s led me to the neglected Choose Your Own Adventurer group project, so I rattled these three out in a fairly straightforward way to match the Flayed Ones that I had been painting (which can be seen in the image below).

+++ HASTA LA WINDOWS VISTA BABY +++

The much delayed and ever patient Axiom and Curis will run with the next few CYOA entries.  Treat yourself with visits to both of those excellent blogs when you get a moment.

Almost certainly more skelebots of some sort next time.

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26 Responses

  1. axiom, on 03/01/2019 at 20:58 said:

    Fantastic! I can’t wait to see the full set. Mindless machine men is full on 40k, but these have real menace. I particularly like the way you’ve dealt with the scars – that midriff slice seems particularly nasty!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 04/01/2019 at 13:38 said:

      Flayed Ones are fielded in multiples of five, so I think that I will go for a unit of five old Citadel, plus five from other sources that can be pooled if desired.

      I had for a long time planned to paint those figs as Servitors, but I decided to go for a different look to the flesh than in previous, very pale Servitor paint jobs. I wanted these guys to look like damaged T-800s, like a 1980s animatronic. Im glad that you reckon that they look menacing, thats great!

      Thanks for the feedback Axiom!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  2. Suber, on 03/01/2019 at 22:32 said:

    I didn’t know any of the minis, they have quite an own particular way of charm. They’ll infiltrate perfectly within any Mechanicum premises, that’s for sure!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  3. Alex, on 03/01/2019 at 22:34 said:

    Nice job dude, these guys are great. Good thinking to proxy them in as Flayed Ones – looking forward to seeing more! On a sidenote, great to hear from you dude, happy new year and shit 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 04/01/2019 at 13:42 said:

      Thanks Alex, they are a bit of fun and have seen some tabletop action already, which was a laugh.

      The last eighteen months has been a little unsettled, in terms of tracking hobby output, although output is still going on. Posting is less frequent than I would like, but Im damned if I chuck it in this year, it being the 10th birthday of the blog in March (which is both amazing and slightly terrifying).

      Happy New Year to you too Alex, and I hopefully we will catch up again this summer 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
  4. Warburton, on 03/01/2019 at 23:58 said:

    Very nice work and happy new year to you.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  5. NEVERNESS, on 04/01/2019 at 01:26 said:

    Awesome flashback, and I really like those paint jobs, especially the flesh!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 04/01/2019 at 13:45 said:

      I tried three different base colours on the flesh, and decided not to use one of the approaches on further Infiltrators, as it took too long for painting something for an army (which needs to be reasonably fast to execute).

      I do think that the flesh worked out nicely enough, thanks for saying so Neverness!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  7. asslessman, on 04/01/2019 at 13:28 said:

    That’s the best reason to get these guys onto a tabletop really. Great thinking and hence painting Paul.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 04/01/2019 at 13:48 said:

      Thanks A-Man!

      I do enjoy painting and the world building parts of the hobby, but I find that I need the gaming side of things to tie the disparate exercises together.

      In the end, getting them on the table to game with finishes the process even more than the blog posting for me.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  8. Sean Squires, on 04/01/2019 at 14:43 said:

    Gret Kill Team theme. I like those Servitors and the flayed ones are something I have never seen before. Suitably disturbing.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 06/01/2019 at 14:14 said:

      Servitors were the plan for the figs for quite a while, but using them like this is a bit more fun.

      Those are the original Flayed One models from 2002. The background to those guys changed in 2011 and they became creepier and slightly less ridiculous in concept, which drew me to them a bit more. They definitely have a disturbing 80s horror movie vibe that I like.

      Thanks for the feedback Sean!

      Like

      Reply
  9. Lasgunpacker, on 04/01/2019 at 18:11 said:

    These are really good, and certainly seem to fit the flayed one theme of “sneak up on the pink skins by wearing their pink skins”. I thought at first that I would miss the scissor hands of the official figures, but the claws seem to fit the same goal.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 06/01/2019 at 14:37 said:

      I do like the scissor fingers on the Flayed Ones, but as when I picked up the three above second hand they had only four hands between them, I had to work out some sort of solution. A T-1000-esque arm spike seemed apt.

      The nature of the old cyborg models shown is that they have exoskeletal metal elements, rather than exclusively endoskeletal bionic parts, like a classic T-800. The background to the Necrons repeatedly states that the nanite heavy necron bodies can repair or (in the case of Flayer Virus victims) distort/rearrange their structure rapidly, in a “liquid metal” fashion, so if I need lore based justification for the somewhat cheap cosplay look to those figures, then I have it.

      But really, I love a sci-fi cyborg as much as any geek my vintage, and getting them into my regular gaming this was is surprisingly satisfying.

      Thanks for the kind feedback Lasgunpacker!

      Like

      Reply
  10. Mark A. Morin, on 05/01/2019 at 14:21 said:

    Thanks for posting and Happy New Year! Nice work on these, had not seen them previously. Very cool work on the flesh, great shading and color depths there.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 06/01/2019 at 14:44 said:

      Happy New Year to you too Mark!

      The Adventurer figures and the Talisman Timescape figures date from Spring 1988 and were not included in the 1991 catalogues, which meant that although I was aware of some of the Adventurers and Talisman ranges, I was oblivious of the existence of a lot of them for years.

      Some red, purple and cold brown here and there heped to give the flesh some depth, but funnily enough, a “fake” looking flat flesh tone would be just as apt on figures like these really 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  11. Curis, on 05/01/2019 at 15:59 said:

    I love these. Cos the skin is on top of the metal of the Flayed Ones , but the metal is on top of the skin of the Rogue Trader figures of I like to think that as a unit they’re party parcels – endless layers of skin on metal on skin on metal on skin on metal…

    Great paintjobs! I really like how the black trousers keep the figures away from the fantasy world sculpting vocabulary that a lot of the early Rogue Trader figures display. Doing those with boots with their big turned over bits in a brown would make these look really un-scifi.

    I like your idea of firing out multiple adventurers as a single post, to make a meatier blog. I’m going to roll in my next Adventurer with several other figures.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 06/01/2019 at 15:09 said:

      There is a Russian doll element to these guys in a Necron context, now that you mention it Curis 😀

      The “I’ll be back!” vibe with the original Dave Andrews models suggested an oddly primitive self repair science to the Necrons. I imagined a lot of footage of wires and other components being pulled apart, played in reverse, a la Superman 3. There was mention of liquid metal way back at the start of Necron lore too I think, but I didnt really buy into it until after the 2002 range came out really.

      Paradoxically, the liquid metal notion gives me a little leeway when using models that feature some retro exoskeletal and well as endoskeletal metal elements, the exo parts obviously forming around areas previously disguised by flesh. For… reasons.

      Space western sub-genre excluded, nobody wears brown in space as far as I am concerned. Maybe the occasional bomber jacket or something, but even that is something that I would usually try to subvert with a paint job.

      Im glad that you like the retro figs Curis!

      Like

      Reply
  12. mrsaturdays, on 07/01/2019 at 09:41 said:

    As clanky ‘DIE HUMANZ’ cyborgs these guys are already in the win box, but the addition to the Necron force as infiltrators is a great idea.

    Great work on these. I like the more healthy skin tone, it suits the T800 vibe much better than a pallid servitor flesh tone.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • sho3box, on 07/01/2019 at 19:29 said:

      Thanks Mr Saturdays!

      I was tempted to slosh a fair bit of blood on those, to get the missing-half-a-face Terminator look, but I held back a little.

      Like the healthy skin tones, I think that was a good decision, even though it is less true to the classic damaged Terminator visual.

      Like

      Reply
  13. Necrons 2.0 | sho3box, on 18/01/2019 at 13:22 said:

    […] Choose Your Own Adventurers #17, #18, #19: Infiltrators […]

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