Legio Infractor is an Imperial Titan Legion and is currently engaged in the war against the forces of Chaos on several of the moons of Profundis. The Skitarii of Legio Infractor trace some of their heritage to the barbaric Skitarii of Legio Invicta, and are organised and employed in a similar way, usually protecting titans against boarding actions, or as shock troops.
Legio Infractor has been involved in conflicts with the various factions of Chaos since its inception, and as such has adapted its way of fighting to suit its preferred enemy. In order to be effective shock troops the Skitarii of Legio Infractor are genetically modified giants, capable of standing eye-to-eye with Astartes. They are equipped with exo-suits that usually take the form of various animals, such as lions, panthers, bulls or grox and carry rugged close-combat weapons. In battle the Skitarii are programmed to behave like wild beasts, often charging on all fours, using mechanical limbs to reach incredible speeds while their vox amplifiers emit bestial roars. Even hardened Chaos forces have been known to break and flee before this unexpected and terrifying stampede.
The Skitarii are usually controlled remotely by Adeptus Mechanicus operators, but they are also led from the front by giant Skitarii officers known as Alpha Primes. The Skitarii Alpha Prime designated Goth XI is one of the most experienced field commanders in Legio Infractor, although due to an incredibly high rate of attrition the field commanders do not usually serve for long. In addition, the fact that the Skitarii vat-grown, chemically enhanced bodies have an accelerated life cycle and a maximum life expectancy of 20 years before they burn themselves out means that although Goth XI is a veteran, he is only twelve Terran years old.
He is quite the animal, extremely impressive work and quite far from the tame out of the box skitarii.
I like the out of the box ones too, but I’ve always preferred the idea of feral Skitarii.
Banging !! Ex profundis Goes from strength tho strength,, with each successive post.. truly chaotic and powerful.. Love the use of the chaos dwarven banner pole .. i has similar plans for an ecclesiastical literal papal bull a few days ago.. nice numerals too .. ;-)
Cheers, I managed to get that bull head from a friend, it was going to be used on a mordheim pitfighter ogre, but I decided to use it here instead after the Skitarii release. I think my 40k stuff will be more OTT while mordheim will tend to be more understated.
Jake I’m just blown off my feet with this model! It reminds me of descriptions of the admech and skitarii from that HH mechanicus book. This is what I want to accomplish myself with my skitarii/admech force alas it will only be a pale copy of what you guys are doing here :)
I was inspired by the Skitarii from Titanicus, I had intended to go more Aztec and have animal pelts etc, but it just sort of went this way instead.
This guy looks wonderfully eclectic and feral — and still very AdMech, in spite of everything! A brilliant conversion (just guessing all the bitz that have gone into this is such a lot of fun) with an equally stunning paintjob!
That line about him just being 12 standard years old really made me shiver, for some reason…
Cheers Kraut, someone on Dakka commented he looks like a Khorne lord so I thought he might be up your street. The difference is that the Admech plan their brutal image, probably with algorithms and peer group testing, until they get a relatively scary shock trooper. But for a Khorne warrior it would all just come naturally.
Oh, there’s definitely something rather Khornate about him alright — which begs the question: How feral and brutal can such a Skitarius be until He Who Hunts at the head of the pack starts taking an interest…? ;)
Maybe the fact that his higher brain functions have been eradicated render him somewhat immune to any chaotic influence, however.
A magnificent reminder of the many different types of Skitarii that exist. So much fluff seems to have been ”lost along the way”
I think the Skitarii/Admech range is a great starting point, but I’d rather find an unusual or forgotten angle to explore when making models. The feral Skitarii concept is explored in Dan Abnett’s Titanicus, it’s not entirely lost along the way.