The Mouth of the Father

So every Genestealer Cult needs a leader and in most cases this is the Patriarch (the first genestealer who 'founded' the cult), however, its monstrous appearance makes it impossible to appear in public without some sort of military intervention, so the 'face' of the Cult is the first human that the Patriarch infected.

This is until the Cult reaches its fourth generation and a special, psychic, hybrid is born, known as the Magus. This Magus replaces the old head of the Cult and acts as the Patriarch's right hand man or 'mouth' to the cult.

I've just finished my Magus, in fact it was one of the first Genestealer Cult figures I bought (about 10 years or so ago). Because the mold is quite old (originally created in 1989 I think) the pose is very static and it was a relatively 'simple' and quick model to paint. However, whilst it may not be the most dynamic figure, it still has a rather sinister look to it.

The robes were painted Regal Blue, followed with a Badab Black wash and highlighted with a 50-50 Regal Blue - Enchanted Blue mix before using Enchanted blue on the extreme ridges (right on the folds of the robes).
The armour was Bleached Bone with a Flesh Wash wash (one of my oldest remaining paints) before highlighting with Bleached Bone then Skull White.
The 'ribbing' (purple areas) were a bit of a pain to paint as they were in awkward places and very close together, requiring a steady hand to paint.  These were painted Hormogaunt Purple with a Leviathan Purple wash before highlighting with a 50-50 Hormogaunt Purple - Space Wolves Grey mix.

The flesh however was one of my favourite areas.

Since the Magus is supposed to look almost human with a purplish tinge to its skin, I started by painting it Elf Flesh before applying a Leviathan Purple wash to it (which looked quite nice for regular hybrids). I then followed this up by highlighting with Elf Flesh, looking OK but still too human just with purple shadows. To finish it all off, I highlighted again with an Elf Flesh - Skull White mix that finished the skin off nicely and gave it a 'not quite human' look without looking too far out of place.

As a side note, these photos were taken using natural light (as opposed to the previous ones that were taken at night with artificial lighting). An eleven day holiday has allowed me lots of time to chew through my (vast) painting backlog.

The Unwashed Masses Part 2

So after a few days converting, greenstuffing and painting, I finished my Brood Brother militia. Whilst the conversions are probably nothing award winning, I'm pretty impressed with the results especially since I was using what bits I had available and had never used greenstuff before.

Standard Militia

This militia was made from removing the pouches from a pair of Catachan legs and covering the tops of the boots in greenstuff (to extend the trousers) - this technique was used for all of the Militia. A standard Empire Milita torso was then added along with a head with a bandanna which I sculpted a face mask for out of greenstuff. I then sculpted some sleeves which I added to standard Catachan arms before adding a Necromunda autogun.

Flamer Militia

This was one of the more complex conversions. The torso was cut from an old plastic sentinel pilot that I had in my bits box along with some arms with all the Imperial insignia removed and repositioned.

The welding mask was created by cutting out part of a drinking straw and sticking it to a filed down head (the front of the face was smoothed to make the mask fit better) with the detail created out of greenstuff.

The flamer canister was cut down from the Cadian flamer pack with extra detail added out of greenstuff. The strap was created out of some green garden wire and more greenstuff for a shoulder pad. The fuel cord was another piece of garden wire.

The flamer itself was a cotton bud, cut down with extra bits added to it and greenstuff detail.

Molotov Cocktail Militia
 

This militia was simply a Catachan torso with Cadian arms attached to it (after having their shoulder pads trimmed off) with a greenstuff satchel. The Molotov was created by extending the grenade from the arm with more greenstuff.

Heavy Stubber Militia
 

A very simple conversion of trimmed down Cadian arms on an Empire militia torso and an old Catachan captain's backpack. The heavy stubber was made out of bits of a Cadian grenade launcher, a cotton bud and bolt pistol.

Shovel Militia
 

This militia was basically a Catachan with added sleeves and balaclava. The balaclava was made by piecing greenstuff over a Catachan head, leaving some space around the eyes. The shovel was added from an Imperial tank sprue and I think the backpack was from Necromunda.

Flag Bearer

This militia was a last minute addition, very simply Empire militia arms and head on Catachan legs and torso with added laspistol and pick (on back). The flag was made by cutting a piece of cheap notebook paper, folding to the correct size and soaking to soften. Once soaked and dried the paper was molded into shape and painted red (to represent a 'socialist' movement).

Unfortunately, I cleaned out most of the parts used for making militia so it may be a while before I manage to create any more. I'll have to pad out the rest of the squad with Necromunda and other non-military looking figures.

The Unwashed Masses

One of the core parts of a Genestealer Cult force are the Brood Brothers - ordinary humans fighting alongside the Genestealers. The easiest, and most common way to represent these are through the use of Imperial Guardsmen, representing military defectors, but the background also includes regular civilians such as miners, office clerks and so on.

Unfortunately Games Workshop do not provide any 'Imperial Citizen' models (or at least that I can find), with the closest 'non-military' models being those from Necromunda (which in turn have their own flaws as each gang has its own unique look so an entire army of these would look a little odd).

So I decided to attempt to create my own 'patchwork militia' from some spare parts I had lying around.

The main components consisted of Catachan legs, trimmed and modified with greenstuff to look less militaristic, Cadian arms, with the shoulder pads trimmed off, and Empire militia or Catachan torsos with assorted heads.

To keep with the non-military aspect, I tried to keep the weaponry the militia were armed with as low-tech as possible, instead of grenades they have Molotov cocktails, autoguns instead of lasguns and very primitive flame throwers.

I've still got a little more work to do on them but they're one of my first major projects (and my first using greenstuff) so I don't think they're too bad from cobbling a few parts together.

Scratch built heavy stubber

More heavy stubber

Primitive flame thrower and welding mask

Rebel with Molotov cocktail

Greenstuff Satchel

Running rebel

Balaclava hooligan

Hybrid Test Paint

I used the same paint scheme on the hybrid with a few changes, basically adding an extra layer of hilighting (or midlighting?) and toning down the other highlights to make the effect more subtle.
Whether its due to the extra detail on the model (though not that much more as the figure is about 20 years old) or the changes to the painting method, I think that the results are better and I'll continue to use that method on all of the hybrids and genestealers from now on.

Testing Paint Schemes

I've decided to go back and re-paint all of my old genestealer models so that the look a lot better than the bright pink and blue creatures I painted about 10 years ago.

My favourite colour scheme has always been the traditional blue, purple and bone as it is distinctive, yet effective

Also, unlike when I was thirteen, I have more income at my disposal, so I can afford to buy the appropriate paints rather than making do with what I had at hand (hence the bright blue and pink combination).

So to begin with, I googled around for paint schemes and the first result was on the Games Workshop site regarding the recent Space Hulk re-release (a set which I own but want to be sure I've got my technique down before making a start on).

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=&categoryId=&section=&pIndex=2&aId=400007a&start=3&multiPageMode=true

I'm not too big a fan of mixing paints however as you need to get the right colour each time which can be quite time consuming (also in some cases I didn't notice that big a difference) so I simplified some steps, mainly the mixing of the purples.

The original genestealers were reasonably quick and easy to paint (I'll upload the result once I get home) and I made a quick and easy Space Hulk base from wire mesh and garden wire that was simple, but effective.

The jury's still out on the end result though. I'm not sure if I need to perfect the highlighting or add a gloss varnish to the model to bring it all together. I've made a start on one of the classic, plastic hybrids, using the same scheme, and will judge my method based on the final results.