Centering in on the Centerpiece: Genestealer Cult Hullburster

All good things must come to an end.  I had fun working on the Genestealer Cult army, and this is the last piece I did for it.  I've mentioned before, my visual theory for an army is that every army or team needs a centerpiece.  It's why for Blood Bowl teams that can have a Big Guy, I make a Big Guy for the team, even if I might not want to use it- then I tend to go ahead and use it, because it looks better to have a centerpiece.

If you consider an army as an artistic composition, then just as a sculpture or painting needs to take into account where the eye will travel, and so take steps to contain the eye's wanderings, not to leave the piece and to go where you want it to go, so too an army needs this. Of course, an army is going to be set up differently, have pieces removed, etc, which is why it's even more important to have a centerpiece: one item that is bigger, bolder, more eye-candy than the rest.  It should still compliment and support the army, but it's job is to draw attention, allow enough rein to wander across the army, but pull the viewer back to it when done.  I am hoping I got that with this piece.

click for larger:

The aircraft is much the same as the other ones, though it does not have an incorporated zoanthrope piloting it. Perhaps cultists are flying it, as they probably are driving a lot of the tanks.  The zoanthrope seed never took in this one.  Why? Likely, it was eaten by something else.  Something bigger, that needed fuel to grow.

The giant Tyranid monster has reached the point where it is growing at a hyper-accelerated rate.  And it isn't content to stay within the confines of this artificial environment: it wants out.  It's tail has burst out the back and the bulk of him has burst out the top, continuing to grow rapidly as it does so.  This species has the ability to puff up it's torso, to appear larger and more threatening.

This is a combo of three kits: Valkyrie, Vendetta upgrade and the Mawloc.

Here it is before painting.

The Mawloc model is designed to rest on his tail, 'standing' on it like a cobra.  Honestly I was never a fan of the 'snake' type Tyranids, and wasn't thrilled when I saw the Mawloc kit when it was released: I'd have preferred one of the large legged Tyranids.  I also think the Mawloc kit looks very static, standing on it's tail:not very dynamic. But with this conversion, I like it. Reason being, it doesn't have to stand on it's tail!
I filled in and sculpted a bottom to the tail, so that it wouldn't look like a bisected straw, which let me wrap the tail out & around the back of the plane. This gives the creature a twisted S shape, making him a lot more dynamic.

I had to go with a red carapace for the aircraft creatures, so they wouldn't blend in with the hull of the aircraft: the vehicles were already chosen for the purple, so that was the only way to go.

So, will the aircraft survive birthing this giant monster? Or will it fall from the sky?  Either way, things are not looking good for the opposition.

This concludes the Genestealer Cult.  At least for now, it's possible the owner may come back for additions to the army.

Weather and traffic kept me from getting to gaming tonight, so that's three weeks in a row I've been unable to get there, which explains the lack of battle reports.  And next week is Thanksgiving- though looks like I'll get some Blood Bowl in for that!

Enjoy the weekend everyone,

and enjoy the clip, but maybe not over breakfast:

Flight of the Alien Infested Valkyries

... well, Vendettas actually, but 'Flight of the Vendettas' doesn't have the same ring to it.

Here are two of the three aircraft for the Genestealer Cult.
They are 'Vendettas' which are upgraded Valkyries: they have lots of lascannons.
It's a Forgeworld upgrade kit. I had no issues or problems with it- well, the side lascannon doesn't fit right into the armor cup, but it's easy enough to trim it to fit.
Hard not to want a laser cannon.

I did these on the same theory as the Sentinels: the infesting Alien DNA has grown into the host vehicle and is incorporated into it, making it an extension of itself.  I used Zoanthropes for this, since I liked their heads: the long narrow head matched the long narrow cockpit of the aircraft perfectly.

click for larger:

Plenty of infestation growing over the craft.  I used the back-vent breathers from the Zoanthrope and placed them at the joint of the wings.  I imagine this creature has it's internal parts stretching through the vehicle.
Kind of inspired from the new Battlestar Galactica, how Cylon raiders are organic creatures with an inorganic outer shell.  Flying hermit crabs with lasers.  Good fun.

Top view. 

Second of this style:

Same basic style, but with details different enough to tell them apart.  

The client didn't want any battle damage or weathering, and it was fun to paint these 'clean' using these colors

Because of shipping I didn't attach the clear flight stand to the base, but I wanted the bases to match the style of the army. Not completely covered in infestation however: I figure the infantry -some of which stand on only alien organism and some on rock with organic details, I'd go for rocks & ashen ground, with similar alien infestation, for the big bases.  

If you ever see such things on the ground and rocks, maybe while camping or hiking, don't investigate, just run! 

Only one more update for this army: next will be the centerpiece! 

Classic.. enjoy!

Genestealer Cult Motorpool: Every Evil Army Should Offer Company Cars

The Genstealer Cult Army is finished, packed up and ready to be shipped to the other side of the world.
The vehicle options are pretty extensive: 2 walkers, 13 tracked vehicles and 3 aircraft.

The latest additions to the tracked vehicles:

click for larger:

Hydra Flak Tanks.

As you can probably tell, these are anti-aircraft tanks.  Now that 40k has lots of flyers, people need something to shoot them down with. The Hydra is a forgeworld upgrade kit.  I had a terrible time with it. 

They were very badly curved when I got them. Forgeworld does some beautiful sculpting, but their quality control isn't always the best.  Still..better than Finecast <<quickly ducks the Finecast rage>>

The weapon deck is not glued in place, so it and the AAguns can swivel around. 

Lots of infestation. The colors of the army are very dark, so it was nice to have the infesting alien growth to break it up, without having to create an illogical excuse to bring in a bright color. 

Manticore Missile Batteries

What a nice kit from GW. The missile platform is not glued in place, so it can be raised and lowered. 

I saw a bunch of the real-world version of these vehicles in Minsk during the end of WWII celebration parade (the anniversary of the end of WWII, not the actual end of WWII, I'm not that old ;) 

Pretty formidable looking vehicles.  Seeing a thick twelve foot long missile really makes you glad they aren't being launched! 

Command Psyker Chimeras

These are the transport vehicles for the Psyker command infantry.  They've got more gadgets than the other chimeras: search lights, comm array and an upgraded front sensor panel. I also gave them more tentacles.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to take a big single army picture before I had to pack it for shipping. 

It wouldn't have worked too well anyway, since the flyers won't have their bases assembled- the client can glue them together himself, to reduce risk of breaking in transit. 

There's no limo. I know that will disappoint a lot of the Rogue Trader to 2nd edition fans. But I think a limo might be better suited to skirmish level games anyway.  All these purple and red vehicles reminded me of one of my favorite cartoons when I was a kid...

I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Dastardly & Muttley were Pro-Genestealer Cult!  

More to come: the flyers!

Enjoy!

"Art is War and You are All My Prisoners" - Charles Schultz

O.K., Charles Schultz never said that- or then again, maybe he did but he was never quoted as saying it- authentically anyway.  But a great friend of mine often used that quote, when speaking about art, attributing it to Charles Schultz which has never failed to crack me up.  Fun stuff.

Creating fake quotes, or using quotes inappropriately is a lot of fun.  Back in the early neolithic when my group of friends used to have parties all the time, I used to sneak quotes in on the party fliers, one of my favorite being "Sleek, sexy entertainment!" - Newsweek, David Ansen.  Again: fun stuff.

What am I yammering on about?

The voting for the 'Dynamic Duo' painting contest on The Warhammer Forum ended, and my Halfling & Ogre didn't win. I did get a very respectable second place however, so "I'll get you Red Baron!" might be appropriate. But what actually stirred the memory of this misquote was a clever fellow on the forum took the winning picture, of two Imperial Guardsmen, and made a speaking & thought bubble for them, so people could have fun and a bit of competition to put words in their mouth.  Yet again: Fun Stuff.

Go here to see What were they thinking?

If you feel like putting words in their mouth, you can download the blank picture below, use a program to type in words and post it up the forum!

Click for larger: 

and my idea of what they are thinking:

So go on, have some fun with it :) 

In other news, just been several days of long work hours. 

The Genestealer Cult army is finished, other than the flyer bases and gloss on optics. 

So hopefully will have some of that to show soon. 

I skipped out on last Friday's game night to put more work in, and haven't had any time for any of my painting projects, but maybe I'll be able to squeeze a bit in in the near future. 

SPAM: 

And today, three spam comments got through the spam filter. Only 2 have ever made it through before, but today 3 slipped through?  Not sure how or why.  I don't want to switch to captcha, because I hate it.  I hate filling them out to leave a comment, so don't want to do it to anyone else.  I may make it so people can't post anonymously, as I've only seen 1 real, non-spam anon comment.  If you do leave comments using the anonymous, not 'signed in' format, and maybe you create a name when you do, let me know, since I don't want to make it impossible for people to leave a comment, and never know it because they can't leave a comment to let me know they can't leave a comment.  But if no one uses the anon comment function, that might be a solution if spam keeps seeping through.   Because I don't want spammers to succeed.  If canceling anonymous comments would leave people without a way to comment who do, then I'd go with moderation: since I work from home, I can check it fairly often to click 'approve', but I won't use captcha.  

So if turning off anonymous comments is an issue, let me know. 

I Said, Please Remain Seated for the Duration of the Flight! and Halloween Wishes

There's always one.

You're on a flight, and you won't be landing for a good long time, but some joker has to get out of his seat, and make ready to leave, as if he can walk faster than the aircraft is going.  Of course this upsets the flight crew, and spreads tension, and just makes the flight worse for everyone.  They say it's dangerous, I don't know about that... it's not going to break the plane is it?  Then again....

This is the centerpiece for the genestealer cult army. I feel every army should have a centerpiece:
One item that is bigger, more dynamic, more impressive than the rest of the army. One item which will serve to draw the eye to the center of the army, and as the eye wanders around to the rest of it, will pull it back to the centerpiece.

All of the vehicles have infestation, and some are even piloted by alien creatures, like the walkers with the tentacle & brain creatures. 2 of the aircraft have creatures piloting them like the walkers..

which are hopefully pretty cool in their own right.  But the theory of a centerpiece is let one item take the spotlight like nothing else, and it will be better over-all for the army than if everything was at that level.

Like a crescendo in music,  the composition needs somewhere to go: if every moment as loud and thunderous the listener would get worn out and lose interest. Tchaikovsky understood this, a lot of death metal bands don't.

 So this is the moment the piece kicks in. Yes, it's an army, out to destroy the enemy, but at it's heart is the unthinking growth & aggression that is Tyranid DNA.  Something too big to be contained any longer by its host of human body and technology is coming to its own.  Will he bring the plane down?  Perhaps.  But i suspect he'll be fine, while his targets will not.

The back panel is busting outward, showing that he has growth-expanded from the inside.
The upper hole is smaller than the bulk of his chest, for 2 reasons:
1. practical: unless breaking the engines,there isn't a spot on the plane that is wider than his chest.
2. dynamic biology: he's in the process of growing- rapidly- right now, plus I imagine he can expand his chest, like a cobra's hood, to threaten other creatures, and so, like a rat, can squeeze through openings that are seemingly much smaller than his size.

I'm very pleased with the result: the creature ends up with a lot more serpentine motion than the original model since it doesn't have to stand supported on his tail.

Painting is already in progress,but I wanted to save the picture for a Halloween scare- I'm sure that in the year 40,000 there are many kids dressing up as Tyranids for Halloween!

Speaking of, Happy Halloween everyone!

I hope you get to gather with those you care about and enjoy the night!

But if you're flying, I hope all the passengers remain seated...

Your D.N.A.: Just Clay to be Molded: More Genestealer Cult Mutants

Another batch of Genestealer advanced hybrids, this time with Plasma Guns...

As if Genestealers aren't bad enough, these have guns!

And another character for the army, quite possibly a Commissar, since she'd scare just about anyone...

Originally Absylonia from Legion of Everblight for Hordes...

Interesting that the two concepts are really quite similar: both Legion and Genestealer Cult involve taking a normal population and infecting it with *other* (Dragon or Alien) and mutating the population as it overwrites their DNA with the invading organism.  

Not a new idea of course, that goes back at least as far as 'Invasion of the Bodysnatchers' -though really that's more a case of Doppelgangers than Overwriting, since the sampled person is killed and a replacement is grown, but the root fear is the same.  While Bodysnatchers was actually a metaphor for the U.S.'s paranoid fear of Communism, I think the root fear goes much deeper and further back in time, such as the fear of 'Demonic Possession', which was likely just an interpretation of Insanity, which is likely a primordial fear: the potential to lose one's identity and will, to become something other, someone else who then takes over your body.. to lose one's mind- might be no greater fear.

No wonder these army themes will come up again and again.  If looking for a 'scary army', it doesn't get any scarier than that. 

Here she is with a loyal subject, ready to shoot you. Or worse, wound you and give you a nice dose of new DNA. 

And here's how the Bathalian sizes up with the 'stealer hybrids.  

All for now, but more to come! 

He Will Bug You & Hug You: Genestealer Cult Character

Work continues on the Genestealer Cult.. here's a tidbit to share... a character: could be a commander, psyker, atsropath.. just about anything the army might need, he could fill those shoes.. with his slimy tentacles.

A Bathalian Drone from Reaper.

I love this sculpt- very alien & creepy.  Done up in the army's colors, he's a good fit I think with the rest. 

I couldn't get him on one of the sculpted microart bases, not the way he's sculpted, so I texturized a standard base and sculpted some nodules and little tentacles to match the style. 

He's also a bit top heavy, so the underneath of the base is filled with left-over white metal: makes good ballast : all those clippings from removing metal sprue, slotta tabs, and integrated bases comes in handy!

More to come...

The Return of the Cult: Wave II of Genestealer Cult Conversions Commences

Converting began this week for the second wave of the Genestealer Cult.

My client who commissioned the army decided on what he'd like to do to expand this already large formidable force, and I'm looking forward to it.  In the final decision a lot of the proposed infantry didn't get drafted after all, but vehicles saw a slight increase.  You can find the rest of the army under the tag 'Genestealer Cult'... there is quite a lot.

I'll be making two heavily mutated characters, they could stand in for platoon leaders, psykers, astropaths, commissars... a nice thing abut an army like this: that nearly pure-strain alien you see could be anything.

There will also be another unit of near-pure genestealer command troops, this time with plasma guns instead of meltas.

And vehicles: many planned: couple more chimeras, couple manticore missile-battery tanks, a couple hydra flak-tanks and three fliers.  The planes I am really looking forward to: have some fairly intensive conversions planned... not as far gone as the center piece I proposed, which would have been absolutely crazy- but can't blame him for deciding no on that one, just the parts for that item would have been over $500, and that is before any work, even opening a box would take place... still would have been glorious... but I'll be trying to make the lesser version pretty damn cool too.

Starting with the infantry, here's the force, just converted & primed at this stage:

Bathalian Drone from Reaper.  I love this mini.. so malicious!

Not converted, but I added to his base, to create some elements the resin bases have, since with the way he's molded he'd have looked terrible on one of those bases. 

Absylonia from Privateer Press for another Genesetealer Cult character.

Plenty of hot plasma to go around! 

I'm really happy with these conversions.  

Notice a bit of mold line still?  Me too.  

*Here's a trick for you: when cleaning & filing a mini, especially plastic, prime white, or -if you like black primer- give it a 'dusting' of white: any missed mold lines are very easy to spot after primer- much more so than on bare plastic.  Trim & file such spots and touch up with a bit of brush-on primer.  You can also add a bit of green stuff at this stage to hit any small gaps missed or use a blade to trim green stuff that overlapped an area which can sometimes look fine until primer brings it out. 

This saves on time & tedium. 

More to come in the near future, so i hope you'll enjoy The Cult

(Couldn't resist this great song) Enjoy!

Genestealer Cult Army: Arrayed For Battle

The Genestealer Cult has been finished for a couple months, and I'd promised to take a complete group picture, but I was waiting as the client was discussing adding to the project- which would have been great, some very fun conversion ideas- but it seems the changes to the new edition has put that on hold, so likely this is a complete project, at least for now.

So here is the army when all together.  Click for larger views.

Front View in Full

Right Flank

Center

Left Flank

Oblique 

There is something very satisfying about doing a very large scale army project! 

Genestealer Cult: Fleet of Company Cars & 1st Hordes Night

Last of the vehicles for the Genestealer Cult: army transports.

I'll try to get an army shot, but might be awhile- going out of town for the holiday weekend.

I still haven't heard back from the client, but he's thinking about more vehicles.. several more of these, a couple manticore missile launcher battery tanks, a big colossus bombard tank and a few fliers that have some very fun conversion ideas... but we'll see.

Here are the chimera transports:

(Click for larger)

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In other game news, I did manage to get to the first night of the Warmachine/Hordes journeyman league.

Looks like there will be a dozen or more players.  I had a test game to run through the basics of the rules.
I used Skorne for this and played against Khador. Khador is as tough as I remember from long ago.  I did manage to turn the Juggernaut into a pile of scrap metal, but I should have popped my feat that turn.Since I didn't it allowed Sorcha to sneak in and take Morghul down.

Seems that 2 people were going to play Circle, and 2 were going to play Skorne, not making my choice any easier ;) The group is not sticking to the 'official rules' of the event, which means I'd be fine to use non-PP minis for counts-as for the selections I'd want when it goes to 15pt armies. But since I did have fun with the Skorne, and reasoned that after getting the hang of the game, if I want to try something different, then I'd like to play my Baldar force I made, which has almost no PP minis actually, and all the Wold rock creatures are self sculpted, and this force would let me play a different faction, where if I started with circle now, and wanted a different faction after this league, I'd have missed out on the rocks, so I committed to Skorne.

I got 3 official games in. No pictures, since they were fast, i was busy learning, and my minis don't have a lick of paint yet.

Game 1: vrs. Circle. 
Highlights: There was a forest in the center. he ran everyone up and into the forest. I moved up and to the right, to circle around it a bit and prepare for a charge the next turn. he then charged out with the warpwolf and killed a cylopse with ease! Yikes! they move fast! But I thought 'that is ok, he's going down next turn'.. but not so fast, Kaya just casts a spell and 'poof' back to her side he goes: boomerang wolf.  I had admonition (move when someone moves within 6" of you) on the titan, but that didn't help the cyclopse! I immediately started doubting my choice- that was seriously impressive! So in my turn I had the titan put rush on the other cyclopse (+2" move & go through difficult terrain), then Morhul abused him (that sounds bad) which gives him +2 strength and speed. He then charged Kaya! 10 inch move, 3 for the charge, 2 inch reach with the big sword, and that's one very fast cyclopse! caught her by surprise, and then cut her down. A Win.


Game 2: vrs Skorne.
Mirror match of course.  I let him go first, the two forces danced for position, I charged both his cylopses with mine, and got some serious bad dice. for damage, a 3 on 2 dice and a 5 on 3 dice. haha, oh well. Next turn my clopses were dead.  I did get one of his, and Morghul almost killed the other-but it was left with 1 box of health left. I tried to get the false Morghul with his damage spell, but it didn't do much and that was that. A Loss.

Game 3: vrs Retribution.
I painted a Retribution force recently, but since they're pretty new I don't know a lot about them.
I tried the abused rushed cyclopse again on the light jack with a shield, oh so close! Half inch out of range, dang! The look on his face was fun, like 'Oh crap, they can be that fast?" Unfortunately, they needtobe just a touch faster. He attacked it with the light jack, scratched it a bit, then charged in with the heavy, a double handed attack, of strength 23 (that is a big crazy ton of hurt) and drove the cyclopse the ground like a tent peg. The caster stole fury from the other cyclopse and shot him- some damage, pretty impressive ability.

So I charged the heavy with the titan, but wouldn't you know it, the light jack bases blocked him by just a bit, enough he couldn't get through and in range of the heavy - I forgot to check if the attack can then go on one of the other models that he was touching. I don't know if it could or not, but I didn't roll an attack.  Since it whiffed, I popped the feat, so my guys would survive.  With the feat up (enemy can't use focus or fury basically) he tried to guess the range and put his caster with a gun in the sweet spot where he could still get range on my caster but just out so he could use focus, but didn't - so no boost, the one shot didn't do much. Next turn my titan had room to get to the heavy and destroyed it. I moved to protect Morghul, next turn I cast rush on the titan, abused him, so he could get over the wrecked machine and charge the elf- I was afraid if I slammed her they'd leave M's range, so I just charged, and failed to hit. I only landed one hit on her, and unboosted only did 4 damage to her.  Not good.  In his turn he wanted to shoot Morghul, so he left combat, I needed an 8 on 2 dice to hit her, got a 10, needed a 14 or 15 on 3 dice to kill her and rolled a 17!
Funny that the big charge did nothing, but the annoyed slap when she leaves killed her. A win.

Not a bad first night.
This might not be a common reaction, but the game reminds me a lot of Euro board games.  Not in the aspect of it being a wargame of course, where Euro games tend to be free of violence (though loaded with Machiavellian manipulation and economic oppression) but the way it uses different abilities, effects, and activation orders has a lot of similarities to Euro Games.

For 15 pts I'll be adding a unit of beasthandlers and a void spirit solo comprised of desert sand..
mostly because I like the look of it ;)

.....................................

If you read this far,  with no pictures for reward, thank you! ;) And as a reward I'll give you a hint.. I have something very very fun to show you! Hopefully I'll get pictures of these few unrelated to anything in this post something-funs and post it up tomorrow!

Stay Tuned

Genestealer Cult Vehicles: Battle Tanks

Another quick update on the Genestealer Cult project

Here are the two Battle Tanks.  Only have the fleet of transports left to show then I'll try to get an army shot.

(click image for larger pictures)

You probably wouldn't want to get into either of these tanks, but one would be a lot more painful to get into than the other.

Genestealer Cult Sentinels

More Genestealer Cult vehicles, this time, close ups of the sentinels from the LPL8.

I took the infestation to a more significant level with these.  In the post about making these I talked about how I thought of them as similar to hermit crabs.  A brain with tentacles that finds discarded tyranid creature carapaces to protect itself, but in this case, they found some much better protection.. and it moves!
and it fires giant laser cannons!  Oh happy tentacled brains!

I tried to give as much movement as possible in the posing.  It's a pretty static kit, I wanted to get them moving a bit faster than a slow-plod.

Just 2 more vehicle types remaining, then I'll see about getting a big army shot.

There will likely be more vehicles in the future, since the project is going to be extended.

More to come!

Genestealer Cult Vehicles: Hellhounds

Starting out the vehicles for the Genestealer Cult, here are two Hellhound tanks.
I quite like this kit- it's far better than the old Hellhound in my opinion.

Here's a hint though, when you assemble it, prime the fuel tanks black *before* you finish assembling it.
If you just build it all and then try to prime it you'd be very unhappy, I don't think it'd be easy at all to prime down into the recesses of this vehicle.

All the vehicles have these spots of Tyranid infestation.
I went with the darker purple color seen on the infantry cloth so there would be greater contrast with the infestations.

(click for larger)

I decided to leave Imperial markings on the vehicles, but downplay them by not painting them differently than the hull.  The reason for this is that I imagine that a lot of people are just not completely aware that they are undergoing a change, since part of what is changing is their mind.  So, unlike a chaos rebellion, a Genestealer Cult might change so gradually that they don't notice they are changing, so they aren't stripping away old insignia and icons, though in the process of new paint jobs, icons get painted over and not really noticed that they are doing it. A metaphor for what is happening to their society and genetic code. 

Yeah I know, I'm a bit of an anthropology geek... when I plan an army or paint minis I start thinking about their culture, beliefs, mythology, all that stuff of background of why they are the way they are.

I've always liked the idea of Hellhounds- if I ever do make myself a 40k army again (which I still find tempting though I haven't played the game in.. umm.. 7 years?) I'd like to make an Ork Looted Hellhound- 

I think Orks would appreciate this vehicle! 

More vehicles to come... stay tuned.

More Genestealer Cult: Veteran Mutants

More from the Genestealer Cult project.

This squad is a veteran infantry squad: more mutated than the basic infantry, but not so far gone as the command squad that are nearly total genestealers.  To give them more mutation, they are sporting an extra set of limbs: scythe arms from genestealer DNA.

Vets are supposed to be a bit more threatening than basic grunts of an infantry platoon, and I think if I saw these guys that yeah, I'd feel a bit more intimidated.

(click for bigger)

Sometimes these resin bases work out great, like for the guy in the front left, that slanting rock worked nicely for looking back over his shoulder, but some of these sculpted bases are so detailed and sculpted there are no flat surfaces at all and placing a model on them can be a real challenge.

Still to come soon: Vehicles!