- The Skadiir -
Hailing from the infamous ironwoods of the Garmian cluster the skadiir are a race of fierce and proud hunter-witches. Trackers beyond compare, with the ability to psychically home in on their quarry´s warpshadow, they are sometimes found in the employ of less than orthodox imperial agents.
The ironwoods are giant spherelike aggregates of thorns the size of small moons, orbiting the upper atmosphere of gas giants common in the cluster. These floating forests can all be considered as deathworlds, each teeming with various ferocious ecoystems of their own.
Only female skadii are ever encountered by outsiders - the males are hulking semi-sentient beasts who roam the cores of the ironwood orbs. When reaching maturity a skadii must earn the right to become a full member of the ruling matriarchy. She goes on a quest to hunt down and kill a particular prey. The more powerful the quarry the greater the honor, but she cannot rejoin her coven-pride until the quest is complete. Most choose among the various feral beasts roamning the forests of the thornworlds, but some particularly adventurous skadii choose exotic targets such as zoats, ork warlords or chaos champions (or in some cases even senior space marines ). It is these hunters that normally come into contact with the imperium. Should their goals coincide a skadii might be persuaded to join an Inquisitors warband.
If their hunt is successful they return to their home and are given the right to mate - otherwise they will stalk the stars until they die. The female goes into the deepwoods in search of one of the feral males, capture him and bring him back to the pride. There they mate and when the mating process is over the coven-pride kills and consumes the male. After bearing a huge litter the young hunter-witch is taken up as a full member of the matriarchy and her full psychic powers develop.
=I=
Love the concept and the model.
ReplyDeleteI honestly didn't like the skin tone when you first put up your WiP pics, not that there was anything wrong with it but it just wasn't to my tastes. Seeing her fully done up though is another story. Like everything you seem to do, it all just fell beautifully together.
Thanks! Glad you approve in the end!
DeleteNot only is the conversion brilliant but your paintjob really does enhance this hunter to another degree of awesomesness. While your more mechanical creations are awesome too, this piece of xenos flesh is just perfect. Just as alien and dangerous as one could dream.
ReplyDeleteCheers! Painting this kind of more naturalistic skin is just so much fun. I seem to have a knack for it - I was always more comfortable with organic stuff than machines when I'm drawing so that carries on to miniatures I guess...
Delete4 thumbs up !
ReplyDelete:-)
DeleteAwesome! I particularly like the weapon and the black/green to green mottled effect on the upper legs and back.
ReplyDeleteAny plans to make him some friends?
She's a she actually. :-)
DeleteI've got plans for more xenos. No more skadiir at the moment though - they hunt away from the pride.
Woah, fantastic! Love your painting style!
ReplyDeleteMy god that is hot!
ReplyDeleteThorn Moons, Hunter Witches, Iron Woods...hell yes! Brilliant stuff Vader!
ReplyDeleteThe skin tones take this to a whole new level. Well done. One of your best.
ReplyDeleteThat is some outstanding painting there. Very smooth transitions and looks very natural. I wish I had 10% of your talent with the brush!
ReplyDeleteGreat fluff, and amazing paint job.
ReplyDeleteGetting a serious Star Wars vibe off this guy for some reason. Amazing model and great background!
ReplyDeleteor lass, I should say.
DeleteThat is absolutely spectacular, man! Gorgeous work.
ReplyDeleteOne of your best jobs to date! Really refreshing seeing you use a different palette and spot color.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words people! Glad you like her!
ReplyDeleteF*** me! I looooove that one!
ReplyDeleteThe nuances on the skin are absolutely smashing!
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morbäck
This here is why I love this hobby and 40k. Backstory and a beautiful conversion.
ReplyDeleteLS
Cheers guys! More xenos to come!
ReplyDeleteDaaaaamn Jeff, you knocked this one out of orbit! And the fluff too! Love it. It just works, it's so accurate to real animal life but amalgamated with the suitable dark and utterly grizzly 40k universe.
ReplyDeleteAwesome stuff dude!
Great stuff. Fantastic bit of background to boot. Not much I can say that hasn't already been said above but that's a truly superb bit of true old school wargames character building.
ReplyDeleteAmazing work Jeff, and I love the background, very rich in story and depth.
ReplyDeleteFantastic looking model! I am glad you went back and finished him. I remember being upset when you put him aside during the Iron Sleet Invitational. The wait was well worth it. You have merged all of the components expertly. The paint scheme works really well too, the blue-greens contrasting the piercing yellow eyes.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading the background about the Skadiir. Any thoughts on the background of the weapon your hunter is carrying? Is it a traditional hunting weapon of the race? Or maybe just some esoteric item she has acquired on her travels?
Keep up the great work!
Thanks Adam! Yeah - it really feels good to have finally finished off this badgirl.
DeleteThe spear is some kind of energy weapon that can be used both in close combat and fired at range - like Cogos power spear in Starzinger if that reference makes any sense. It's of skadiir manufacture - they're pretty sophisticated though fierce (much like the Predators).
The skin on this figure is awe inspiring. So beautiful in the intricacy of color. Spectacular.
ReplyDelete:-)
ReplyDeleteBravo!
ReplyDeleteAwesome figure, wonderful paint job. I've got to ask - what was the base figure?
ReplyDeleteI believe that he used a Bloodletter to form the body and for the head is slightly modified one from the Wood Eld Dryad box.
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