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So, having been painting up a skitarii force for a week or so, I've noticed a bit of an odd thing with these guys. A good half of their weapons/gear are made with wood and leather. You know, things of the flesh. This led me to think on this a bit; where exactly do the forgeworld get all of their timber/leather from? Do they really trade with agri-worlds to get these things?? What the heck 'worshipers of the machine god', why not use some carbon synthetic for the stocks on your rad guns, and some synthetic polymer for your pouches. Dang hypocrites...

Maybe it's an efficiency thing? Wood is renewable and conventionally 'useless' in technology; however it is, situationally, a better alternative to plastics/metals that could be used in more useful elements of a weapon.

By which I mean; using a wood stock spares materials that can be used in gun barrels and whatnot...

Just my bullshitty speculation

Maybe those pouches are actually vinyl and those stocks are actually sandcast aluminium?

Or, maybe they are using wood and leather because that's what they've always been made of?

It's up to you how thoroughly your minis reject the flesh or embrace tradition.

"Modelled after the hunting flintlocks of Mars’ past, the Mk IV Arkhan galvanic rifle is a precision tool in the hands of a Skitarii Ranger. Its bodywork is that of an antique, with a polished wooden stock and curlicues that echo the sandy seas of Mars’ desert. Yet the galvanic servitor-bullets inside are incredibly advanced. When such a bullet strikes home, it causes all the potential energy of the target to burn out in a killing blast of electric force"

What's wrong with wood and leather? I don't see it as hypocrisy at all.

Or did you forget that servo-skulls are a thing? It's probably human leather tanned lovingly from the discarded hides of Grand Secutors, the better to carry the weapon's war-spirit.

Calling something wooden in the 41st millenium might not exactly equate to what we think of as wooden now. There are 3D printers that can produce objects from material like wood. I dont think each of those was carved from a large piece of timber or anything. I would be that the "Wooden" stocks are grown using genetic manipulation and just form into the perfect stock ready to be lucked from maturation chamber and fitted with a barrel. I've nevery seen any indication of a lot of trees still remainig on terra and I doubt they brought them to mars with its poor atmosphere. I would bet wood is simple an organic material that is produced at that time rather than objects produced from dead trees.

I believe they terraformed Mars during Mankind's spread to the stars... and then turned it into another industrial hellhole, like they'd done to Earth.

So, for a time there, back in the Golden Age, Mars had blue skies, water, trees (and, for some reason, flintlock muskets? What?) and a wide range of biodiversity.... and then the proto-Mechanicus fethed it all up.

Perhaps it's just normal wood. Nothing like fancy 3D-printed or genetically-manipulated wood, just normal timber that they use for decoration on their rifles since they want their rifles to look nice as well as being functional. Purely aesthetics, nothing to do with actual engineering.

Wood and leather are hardly things of the flesh. The flesh refers to the frailty of the human body itself. Wood and leather are just materials to be used.

Consider how barren Mars is, materials like wood and leathers are exotic on a barren wasteland of a planet.

Next just because its wood and leather doesn't mean they aren't some "space-wood" or "space leather." On Earth there are certain exotic and expensive woods that are as strong as aluminum; so on an alien planet maybe there are woods as strong as steel or titanium.

Really wood is just a naturally constructed carbon structure. Some plants could be engineered to have, or naturally have, carbon nanotubes or other similarly strong materials in them.

It's the admech, the schematic said wood, who are we to argue with the grand designs of eons past?

Forge Worlds receive raw material from Knight Worlds, including mega fauna food stock (leather), and timber. Wood is a great building matetial, extremely tough and functionally a carbon nano structure that can be turned into structures, cloth and fuel.

SJ