Skitarius Vanguard Alpha, painted

The Kataphron models inspired me to continue my AdMech army further. The high points cost of pretty much all of the Cult Mechanicus models means I won't have to have as many Skitarii models, amking the clone trooper syndrome less of a problem. They'll still remain a secondary army, though.

 The first major decision to make with the Alpha was the armament. After some thought, I chose the Arc Pistol / Arc Mace combination, for vehicle hunting. I wanted to have most of my Vanguard to be either firing their weapons or running forward. The arc pistol arm was posed rather awkwardly so that he'd necessarily have it either in the movie poster style by his head (pointless, since you can see the weapon and the model's head simultaneously anyway) or just hanging around, so having him firing wasn't an option. The mace arm was also posed less than optimally so that it points nearly straight to the side. Works fine, if you have your Alpha standing around and pointing, but since I wanted him to be running, the finished pose would necessarily look a little awkward. At least I managed to fit him with a pair of legs that is currently lifting the right knee, so that having the left arm straight looked at least a little bit more natural.

I paint the electric blue glow on the arc weaponry with thinned-down Temple Guard Blue. I try to paint the crevaces in the weaponry, but am not overtly worried about accuracy, as some slight smudges just reinforce the glow effect.

 I generally try to use the colour of steel or iron for anything that looks like it needs to be durable, and the copper or bronze for the more decorative parts or stuff that look like they need to conduct electricity. The coat's Mars colours are just Evil Sunz Scarlet drybrush over Mephiston Red shaded with Nuln Oil and Carrowburg Crimson.