"At Your Service" - X-101, Blackstone Servitor

Binary solo:

Zero zero zero zero zero zero one

Zero zero zero zero zero zero one one

Zero zero zero zero zero zero one one one

Zero zero zero zero zero one one one one

Oh, oh,

Oh, one

Come on sucker,

Lick my battery...

- Robo Boogie, Flight of the Conchords

It's the most wonderful time...of the week! It's time again for The Art of Caesura!

Now that we've looked at some of the horrific nightmares that lurk in the Blackstone Fortress it's time to look at one of the horrific nightmares that'll be fighting them. That's right, today it's time for one of the good guys: Servitor X-101. 

Servitors in Warhammer 40k give me the heebie-jeebies. Many servitors were once fully human. As criminals, they have been mind-wiped (lobotomized), reprogrammed and cybernetically "enhanced". They then "live" out the rest of their "lives" in mindless servitude. Enter X-101.

I confess that I haven't actually used this guy in game yet. He comes in one of the expansions for Blackstone Fortress (Escalation) which my wife and I have yet to play. But as an old Black Templar player, and ever since seeing Chaplain Grimaldus and his servitor retinue, I had always wanted to paint a servitor. Now was my chance!

I started with his dark undersuit, I painted it with a 1:1 mix of Abaddon Black and Steel Legion Drab. Then, conjuring the image of the mustard yellow used for industrial machinery (as the studio did) I started on his yellow armor. This began as Averland Sunset. I base-coated his pallid flesh with Grey Seer. The metal bits started as Leadbelcher. 

Then on to washes! His undersuit and metal were both washed with Nuln Oil, his armour was washed with a thick coat of Agrax Earthshade and his skin with a 2:1 mix of Drakenhoff Nightshade : Nuln Oil heavily diluted (1:4) with Lahmian Medium. 

For highlights, I returned to the base colours, adding more and more Steel Legion for his undersuit, Ushabti Bone for his armour and Stormhost Silver for the metal. For his skin I used Scale 75's Pale Skin. 

I used the same technique on his tubing that I use for my Kharadron Overlords - 4:1 Contrast Medium : Contrast Talassar Blue over white. I think the cool blue contrasts with the warm yellow nicely and is still different enough from his pallid flesh.

It'll be fun when we get around to playing with him - I think he has a different rule-set and plays as more of a henchman than a hero in his own right (befitting a lowly servitor). 

And there we have him, X-101; ready to clank his way through the Blackstone Fortress!

I hope you enjoyed my first servitor as much as I did! I'll see you next week on The Art of Caesura!

Reading: The Rose Code - Kate Quinn

Drinking: Buried at Sea - Galway Bay Brewery

Next week:

Nevermore...again...