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.