Following the trend of giving my Joes a world of hurt to go up against, I offer up yet another mixed horror: The Scorpion.
Parts Used:
Head: Darklon
Torso: CORPS! Star Force
Arms: VvV Sand Scorpion
Waist: Ace
Body: Rubber scorpion from Michael's
Bandoleer: DTC Grand Slam
Pouches/pistol: BBI
AK-74: Marauder, Inc.
Distant “cousins” to the Strider, Scorpions are hearty front-line fighters most at home in desert or arid conditions but are adaptable enough to be found in nearly any environment, from desert to arctic. They are also masters of the hidden ambush, being it by hiding themselves or through the use of hidden mines, explosives or simple traps.
More intelligent and martial than Striders, Scorpions tend to fight as organized teams using military tactics to herd and guide enemies into concentrations of fire while minimizing risk to themselves—not that there is much they need fear. Covered in head-to-toe chitin and artificial composite armor (chest/back and face mask) they are all but immune to most small-arms fire; armor-piercing rounds are recommended if you must face these. Intense heat, deep cold, even radiation and poisons have next to no effect on them. Directed flame has limited effect, and only if you can keep it trained on them, and provided they don’t shoot you before you get in range, given their preference for modern armaments. Scorpions can handle almost anything, from handguns up to anti-tank and anti-air weapons and are nightmarishly fast learners.
On top of all that their tail can inflict a paralyzing sting similar to that of the Strider—however, while Striders tend to use this to make prisoners (to become food later) of victims, Scorpions prefer to slowly tear the paralyzed victim apart instead with their forward pincers.
Quick and maneuverable, Scorpions can leap as high as six feet into the air and change direction one hundred eighty degrees while doing so. Like their natural counterpart they can’t cling to walls or build webs but are masters at camouflage and excel at night fighting; unlike their natural counterparts, they cannot extend their tails all the way forward to strike an opponent and most often try to flank and attack that way. Given their love of firearms, however, you’re more likely to find yourself dodging rounds from an AK-74 than that tail…
Design Notes:
I had a LOT of fun building this guy, because in doing so I was able to focus myself back on the fun of building him rather than focusing on getting him done. The first trick was figuring out the humanoid parts; I wanted a bare chest originally, but the only one I had that was suitable had a bad screw whole inside. I ended up using this CORPS chest I had in my scrap pile, which was a good (but not perfect) fit for the Sand Scorpion arms and an ideal fit for the Darklon head (which was ideal due to the mask and the reddish eyes). The Ace waist was a broken one, easily modified for use with the scorpion body. From there it was a matter of grinding, drilling, glueing and using Green Stuff to mold the waist to the body, then adding a "belt" around the top. I added the pouches to break up the sameness of the lower torso and to reflect how much these things love modern weapons.
Painting was the fun part. The original scorpion colors were OK, but a bit too bright on the yellow. I ended up dry-brushing the body with varying mixes of yellow and brown to dull it out, then used that same brown mix (actually brown/tangerine/cranberry) to blend the lower torso to the body, then did the same with the humanoid parts. Though you can't see it as well I brushed the tips of the fingers with black to match the pincers and stinger as well.
When it came to the torso, I opted to go with an "artificial armor" look (everything in black, such as the helmet, is mental to reflect artificial materials) and dry-brushed it, then painted the grenades on the bandoleer and added that to break up the torso a bit. Finally came the AK-74--I wanted a weapon they could lay buried in the sand with and still rely on--which I primed and painted to match a picture of an actual AK-74. The end result is what you see here.
BTW, the desert base he's sitting on I made months ago for displaying my Desert Humvee; it's one of two I made, though this one uses stone fleck paint (the other uses actual sand), with reindeer moss and small stones to break it up. Not much as dios go but it makes a decent "desert" shelf.
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Always trying to up the nasty factor of these dudes. As it I've got two more tarantula bodies and lots of broken crotches so he and the Strider may yet gain playmates. 
Damn DR that bad boy has that cobra La thing going for him I love it!
