40k Genestealer Cult - Demolition Claw Rockgrinders painting begins!

Tonka tough! I knew from the outset that I wanted to paint up the rockgrinders in the ubiquitous construction vehicle yellow suitable to their industrial/miner background. So that meant busting out the tank brushes and going to town with the yellow! I kept these models in a fair few pieces to facilitate painting, I'm going to focus on the vehicles themselves for now, then attack the crew separately.

My current yellow recipe starts off with a basecoat of Vallejo Scrofulous Brown which is a similar shade to Tausept Ochre - a nice yellow-brown that lays over black reasonably well. Still takes a couple coats but I left it a little patchy here and there to give them some depth as the further colors get laid in.

They were next given a heavy drybrush of Vallejo Golden Yellow, and then a light drybrush of GW Flash Gitz yellow - the bright overhead lights tend to wash that out a little in the pictures, however.

The last step of the evening was to give 'em all a nice wash with Seraphim Sepia which blends the highlights in a bit and gives the color a bit more depth in the nooks and crannies. These will be left to dry overnight (they're still a bit wet in the picture), then I'll give them some spot pin-washes to accentuate a few areas, and perhaps another light drybrush with the Flash Gitz yellow to help the edges pop a bit more. Once that's done the next step is the tedious re-blacking of all the areas I slopped yellow on to in the drybrushing stages! In the end they're going to get some nice sponge weathering/chipping, and I have a feeling it's going to really look neat against the brighter yellow. So far so good!

40k Genestealer Cult - Demolition Claw Acolytes and Aberrants continue...

Quick hit today, got some decent brush time in over the last couple days and laid in the base colors on the cloth and armour on the first batch of Acolytes and the Aberrants - they're starting to come into focus!

I knew I wanted to do a slightly different scheme from the last go-around and settled on a yellow cloth and white armour. Went with some red spot colors on them as well to tie in with the reds on the Purestrains.

Pressed on with the Aberrants as well, this pic shows the oily metallic rather well. Got a few more colors to go on the models themselves, then it's just a matter of finishing off the bases. So far so good!

40k Genestealer Cult - Demolition Claw Acolyte Hybrids painting begins!

Pressing onward with the cult, and moving down through the generations! Now that the purestrains and patriarch are complete I figured I've jump on the 1st and 2nd generation hybrids. While I initially thought I'd just try and bang out all of them at once, I realized that would have been 38 which is way too many to batch paint even for my trusty painting servitor. Instead I decided to stick with the "One detachment at a time" method and pulled out just the 15 hybrids that comprise the infantry portion of the Demolition Claw. I absolutely adore the bomb-chuckers, and added a couple hand-flamers to each unit to dissuade any chargers. I really look forward to them rampaging around the battlefield wreathed in flames and explosions!

Much like the last go-around the skin tones will get lighter and more human as they work their way through the generations. The Acolytes are still fairly purple-y but far lighter than the skin on the purestrains - the miner-style Neophytes will be a step lighter than this, while the pdf brood brothers will be getting an almost human normal skin tone, with just a hint of the purple cast to them (at least that's the plan)!

While I was about it I figured I may as well knock out the four Aberrants as they're broadly of the same generation and get the same skin tones. I really dig these sculpts, they're just chock full of personality. Not sure how effective they'll prove to be on the tabletop with just the four of 'em, but at the very least they'll be a little speedbump!

In other news the Burning of Prospero boxes that I've ordered are scheduled for delivery today, so I'll be hard-pressed to not go haring off back into heresy mode soon...

40k Genestealer Cult - The First Curse complete!

Been a rather busy week but I have managed to sneak in a little brush time here and there and the First Curse rears its chitinous head!

There's actually a few more than 20 'stealers in the bunch, but figured I may as well paint 'em all up at once, for those times when I may want to run a couple smaller packs. Went with some yellow accents on the eyes and bases to help tie them in with the yellow to come on the hybrids, and went with the Space Hulk standard Blood Angels terminators, as the red gives a nice contrasting pop to the models. One detachment done!

In other news I sold off the Deathwatch almost immediately after the previous weekend's Armies on Parade event (must get those pics uploaded) and with the British Pound exchange being so favorable I couldn't help but place a good sized Forge World order to take advantage of both the exchange rate and the free shipping. For the most part the box of joy contained several (albeit non-photoworthy) special- and heavy weapon squad upgrade kits, a couple sheets of the lovely new Thousand Sons transfers, and or course I had to pad out the order with something big, right? A Knight Lancer it is! It'll be part of the Forge World Zhao-Arkkad force that will be accompanying the Thousand Sons once the Inferno book is released, but for now the bits got a good scrub & soak and are now drying on the counter. Looking forward to building it!

40k Genestealer Cult - The First Curse painting begins, and a Cult Leman Russ built!

Trundled out the painting servitor, filled the pigmentation application dispensers with the appropriate colors and set it to work on the Cult - built up quite the tidal wave of grey plastic, it's time to get cracking! I plan to work my way through the army painting process one detachment at a time, starting with the primogenitor of the Cult and the First Curse detachment.

Going with a muted version of the 'classic' genestealer blue and purple paint scheme, and so far the purple is more or less complete and the very first of the blues have been blocked in. I'm planning on adding some tattooed/painted spirals to them in white so wanted to keep their basic colors dark for a good contrast.

Added a bit more highlighting on the blue on the Patriarch to see how it looks, brightens it up a little bit but not overpoweringly so - pretty happy with the recipe so far!

 

In other news, a little package arrived on my doorstep yesterday containing some excellent conversion bits I'd ordered up from the always-awesome Blood and Skulls Industries. The package included the alternate turret, armor plating and plow to convert up a Leman Russ variant for the Cult. Still immediately identifiable as a Leman Russ but different enough to mark it out as a local PDF variant. I've always wanted to do a "more dakka" Exterminator, with three heavy bolters in the hull, a pair of autocannons in the turret and a heavy stubber just for that little extra overkill against horde armies.

 

Of course, when facing off against more heavily armored targets the cult needs a more robust weapon, so the turret weapon is magnetized to swap in a Vanquisher cannon instead! Rather dig the V-plow dozer blade as well, I think it ties in nicely with the similarly-angled plows on the Rockgrinders.

40k Genestealer Cult - All about that base...

Sorry, sorry. Couldn't help it! Now that the majority of the army is assembled I started thinking about basing. I knew I wanted to do a mineworks sort of theme due to the aesthetic of the cult models, but wasn't able to find anything in resin that I really liked. So making my own it is - I wanted to go a little further than just the usual stones and rubble, and broke out the box of plasticard and tubing to see what I had on hand.

Found some small I-beams that I thought would make for suitable minecart track, and some thin rod that will likely be painted up as some sort of power conduit. Gives the bases a little more personality but doesn't overwhelm the models. So far so good!

 

Moved on to the Patriarch next, and am hoping to get the Purestrains based and get this whole batch primed later today when it warms up a bit - Itching to start painting 'em!

40k Genestealer Cult - Brotherhood of the Argent Coil build begins!

After the marathon painting session I felt it was only proper to get some build time in! I've been kicking around ideas for the Genestealer Cult, and have picked up a number of the new kits as well as pillaged the Closet of Doom for old un-built models which of course means the "small boutique army" has already bloomed up to 2500 points. We'll see if I can maintain at that point level!

Naturally when the army is completed it's going up on the auction block, so I wanted to try to balance a reasonably scary list that's also got a lot of fun units for me to paint. Decided on doing an Insurrection Detachment, picked out some fun-looking formations (and a couple scary-looking ones) and then started building!

I definitely wanted to do a Demolition Claw for the fun aspect of it - a trio of Rockgrinders careening around with dynamite-chucking hybrids holding on for dear life, and knowing my dice luck, blowing themselves to smithereens just as often as the enemy? Yes, please! While I quite like the new Goliath kit, holy throne were they fiddly to assemble! Tons of tiny delicate railings and a couple number mismatches between instruction book and sprues made them pretty challenging - they are rather neat once they're assembled though!

On the scary side of the formations is The First Curse, which is the Patriarch (not yet assembled) and 20 Purestrain Genestealers which, when accompanied by the Patriarch, gain one of several nasty upgrades as well as furious charge, fearless and a couple other special rules to boot. I had a spare copy of Space Hulk in the Closet of Doom, and thought the 'Stealers from that set should do the trick nicely!

Still have to sort out what I'm going to do for the army bases as a whole - Thinking it'll be a mix of mineshaft and rubble, need to rummage through the plasticard and tubing box and see what I can come up with!

40k Deathwatch - Army 99.9% Parade Ready!

It's amazing what working under a deadline will do for my productivity! I had a blissfully event-free Friday evening and the whole day Saturday, and buckled in for a marathon painting session to finish off the army before next weekend's event. Barring any minor issues that may reveal themselves in the photography stage the force is ready to rock!

First of course is a quick look at the force on the board as I mess around with various unit layouts. I really need to invest in a monopod - this was as in focus as I could manage. Hope to get some better final pics from the actual event next weekend!

 

So let's go through what all got finished over the two-day marathon - First up is the Watch Master, which is a superb sculpt, and I rather like the peek into the upcoming Custodes rules with his Guardian Spear!

 

I was quite taken by the Blood Angel librarian in terminator plate that was shown in the book and knew I wanted to take a crack at it. Continued on with the ghostly green for the force weapon, definitely going to be using that recipe for future psykic gear and spell effects...

I'd taken a group photo of Kill Team Cassius a little while back, so it was only fair that Watch Force Artemis got the same treatment. The two 5-man veteran squads have been shown before, so it was really just two models that needed to be completed for this unit to make it to the finish line.

  

The man himself, Brother Artemis is my favorite sculpt of the DW range, having owned the Inquisitor 54mm scale version back in the day. I might just have to trawl eBay and see if I can find another one, as I'd sold it on yoinks ago.

  

Sliding into place for my Dreadtober vow is Brother Nihilus. His background is rather interesting in the Death Masque booklet, he's essentially an interred Blackshield, so it's anyone's guess as to what lurks in his murky past! That said, after doing nothing but Contemptors for so long, working on an old 'brick dread' was kind of fun.

  

Not a whole lot changed on the Corvus front other than a little more weathering and some edge highlighting of the red wing stripes (though they are blown out in the pictures somewhat). Really dig this model, but it would be 100% cooler if it was 20% larger. There's just a bit of dissonance to me between its stats and its appearance. Still, best flyer GW was released in plastic for quite some time!

Finally, the bodyguard unit for the Watch Master and terminator librarian, Squad Graul - While I appreciate the hyper-individualistic nature of Kill Team Cassius, I wanted these folks to have a very singular battlefield role - close combat and protection of the HQ units. At least that's the theory, we'll see how they perform once I get them on the tabletop!

Next up, back to the whole reason I picked up Overkill in the first place and ended up with this whole Deathwatch army - a swarming brood of Genestealer Cult gribblies!

40k Deathwatch - Dreadtober part 2 and more Corvus work

Frantically pressing onwards with the Deathwatch as the Armies on Parade deadline looms ever closer! Got a bit more work done on Brother Nihilus (doing triple duty for Dreadtober, Zombtober and the AoP project), started laying in the color blocks and some of the gold trim in preparation for further detailing:

 

So far, so good! Plenty of further highlighting and colorization to go of course, I think the usual blue power cables and plasma coils should really help him pop once they get laid in!

 

I will admit that I was having more fun painting the Corvus and ended up lavishing a bit more attention on it than poor Nihilus over the last couple days. Got the reds highlighted up, the canopy painted in and laid in a little weathering here and there to help break things up a bit. I'm thinking I might do a bit of extreme edge highlighting in a hot orange on the red just to give it a bit more oomph. Wasn't necessary on the infantry, but on the larges areas on the vehicles it may look good.

A bit more detailing on the front and undersides to go, but I really dig the profile of the model - the bog ol' inquisition symbols on the top and front are great! I do wish they'd designed the model such that the front doors were openable (they're just facade pieces that glue on to the blank plastic walls of the front of the model), but since 99.9% of the time I end up (usually accidentally) gluing the assault ramps on my land raiders shut I suppose it's not a huge deal. Hah!

Nearing the finish line! Got the basic black/line highlighting done on the remaining 6 infantry for the force over lunch yesterday, should be all done with the force by the end of the weekend!

40k Deathwatch - Corvus Blackstar painting begins

Another quick hit today, back when I started the Land Raider I'd also done the linework on the Corvus, and while I was working on the Dreadnought over the last couple days I'd also taken the time to lay in the initial colors on the flyer as well.

 

My favorite part of the model is the big ol' inquisition symbol on the roof, rather happy I went with the underslung hurricane bolters so as not to cover it up. Still a ways to go of course, but I quite like how it's coming along thus far!

40k Deathwatch - Land Raider complete and Dreadtober begins!

Got some more work done on the Land Raider over the last few days, and finished it off - took advantage of the nice weather to get it spray sealed. Phew!

 

Got the blues on the power cables and lenses and the various parchment painted which really helped bring the tank into focus. Next up was some sponge weathering to rough in some paint scrapes here and there, then went with some feathered mud spatter along the lower section of the hull. The tracks got some mud wash and dusting as well, and I'm finally happy with the look!

I especially like the tank commander model, though it isn't technically a deathwatch model it fits the aesthetic rather well!

 

Next up was some work on the Venerable Dreadnought Brother Nihilus, seemed appropriate to get cracking on now that Dreadtober is upon us! Worked up the marble effect on his shoulder pad to match the Land Raider, and got the edge highlighting started - quite a bit of cleanup to do of course but I'm quite enjoying how he's coming along so far!

In other news, as what should come as no surprise to anyone I'm diving in to the Genestealer Cult again now that the codex was released. I've picked up the book and a pair of each of the new Neophyte and Acolyte boxes, and spent some time penciling together a list to work towards.

I have the unbuilt models from the Overkill set lurking in the Closet of Doom, which I'm going to part out and came up with a 1900 point list - the intent is to build something to include the previously-painted Ghosar Cult and end up being a well-rounded 2500 point force. I have to say I was well pleased with this codex after the somewhat lacklustre Deathwatch book, and though I've said on many occasions that I dislike the formation style army building, I will admit that the Brood Cycle and Neophyte Cavalcade are quite fluffy and I am really happy to see the book allows for more integration of Guard/PDF forces. Quite looking forward to getting stuck in with the force, just as soon as I finish off the last of the Deathwatch for the upcoming Armies on Parade deadline!