Mechanicus Servitors

Once again, I was able to complete a small unit that's been sitting in my paint queue for months. If you consider the fact that many of these minis I've had since I played 40K on a regular basis, some have technically been sitting in my lead pile for about a decade. Honestly, I always had a soft spot in my heart for the humble GW servitor miniature. Nothing truly aspires to the grimdark aesthetic like a giant slab of lobotomized, cybernetic muscle brimming with massive servo-claws and heavy weaponry. Until now though, I'd never had much use for them as I never ran IG, though I did toy with the idea of starting a Horus Heresy army for awhile and considered putting them there. So, in an effort to "do something different", I pulled these out of cold storage in the vaults of Mars and got to work...

In the interest of being different, I wanted some Frankenstein-like flesh and decided on a blue hue. I did this by basecoating in Vallejo Grey Blue, adding increasing highlights of Army Painter Wolf Grey, doing an overall wash of Secret Weapon Cool Grey Wash (hint: it's really blueish), adding more highlights of AP Wolf Grey and finally mixing that with some Vallejo Basic Skintone for the most extreme highlights. Where cybernetic grafts met skin, I mixed AP Wolf Grey with Vallejo Salmon Rose for a distressed look. I also wanted to do some bright red uniforms. Normally, I do much deeper reds (actually starting in purple tones) but, again..."doing something different" I wanted uniforms that would reflect the holiness of the Omnissiah. I started with Vallejo Flat Red as a base, washed with some (very old) GW Red Wash. I did a few alternating coats of this to sort of build depth, then started gradually highlighting by mixing in Rach Red, and then the most extreme highlights being a 50/50 mix of Rach Red and Salmon Rose.

The "bronze" cybernetics are actually basecoated in cheap craft paint - FolkArt Chocolate Bronze - that, while lacking a good amount of pigment, is actually a very nice color after a few coats. This was gradually highlighted by mixing in Vallejo Brass and then given a wash of GW Earthshade. Utilitarian pieces of kit were all Vallejo Luftwaffe Uniform (trying to continue the blue-grey color tone) and washed with P3 Armor Wash. There's also a LOT of wiring, buttons, and dials that were painted various colors but no need to go into them here.

These are all based on resin bases I custom-made years and years ago and I found a good recipe for "sidewalk" cement. Basecoat in a 50/50 of beige and a midtone grey, then drybrush with light tan, and finally off-white. Then, without using glaze medium, apply a "wash" of diluted mid or dark tone grey in 1-3 coats. Done! 

Demolition servitors (the aquila icon was basecaoted in Pewter Grey, stippled in gradual highlights of midtone to light greys, edge highlighted in off-white, given a diluted wash of Tamiya Light Grey, then given some spot washes with Tamiya European Dirt)

Heavy Weapons Servitors

Utility Servitors

Data Scribes (I had actually painted these ages ago but they were so badly done, I had them stripped and repainted for this unit. The parchment is basecoated in Vallejo Dark Sand, given gradual highlights by mixing in Ivory, then pure Ivory for the top highlight. I only washed the most extreme shadows with GW Earthshade.)