Robin paints Genestealer Cults

So I’ve been quiet as of late; hobby life has taken a back seat with real life. Including going to weddings, gigs and sea swimming!

In the last while I’ve been tempted to paint everything in the GSC on the GW store. This included Brood Brothers 🤦🏻‍♂️

I’ve done a real conversion with the Sentinel placing it on rocks so it doesn’t look stagnant or in stop motion like their counterparts the AT&T in Star Wars that to me have always looked abit too stop motion like they couldn’t move properly.

I’ve also got a Biophagus and Clamavus in this time; the end is in sight. Also would a side by side of the GW webstore images and my army be a nice end to this painting project??

In the last two hobby nights I’ve finished my Clamavus and showed Dan the ropes in his first game; it was called turn two with a draw at 340pts!

Anyway enjoy the pictures and captions!

So I’ve been quiet as of late; hobby life has taken a back seat with real life. Including going to weddings, gigs and sea swimming!

In the last while I’ve been tempted to paint everything in the GSC on the GW store. This included Brood Brothers 🤦🏻‍♂️

I’ve done a real conversion with the Sentinel placing it on rocks so it doesn’t look stagnant or in stop motion like their counterparts the AT&T in Star Wars that to me have always looked abit too stop motion like they couldn’t move properly.

I’ve also got a Biophagus and Clamavus in this time; the end is in sight. Also would a side by side of the GW webstore images and my army be a nice end to this painting project??

In the last two hobby nights I’ve finished my Clamavus and showed Dan the ropes in his first game; it was called turn two with a draw at 340pts!

Anyway enjoy the pictures and captions!

So this week with a pause in new hobby things I spent some time fixing at the boxes and retouching the bases after superglue residue.

I wanted the magnetic connection to be even more secure and so decided to glue by double layer together.

HORROR

The superglue and quick application caused a bubble in the first mat and had to be ripped up; I then fixed my technique. This included gluing a small portion at a time and almost rolling the sheet onto the other… great success. Unfortunately you can see the ripped up parts on one of the trays however covered by infantry it isn’t too noticeable.

Due to the foam cases previously moving aquarium plants around there were some chips in the green of the plants. As well as superglue residue especially on the bases. After a quick touch up everything was revarnished and the cult is looking super fresh!

So had a blast at the game at the weekend. Unfortunately the score ended up 44-50 to Shay’s Custodes but I definitely felt like I’m getting hella better and able to hold my own now with the cult. I’ve learned I’ve only been shooting one of my stubbers on each Ridgerunner and that I’ve been setting up too much underground woops sorry Shay.

This weekends project included following Duncan Rhodes step by step guy to making magnetic carry cases.

Now bear with me;

1. I hate how the foam didn’t really fit my cult
2. I’ve noticed several rubs on models and my aquarium plants definitely need a refresh of paint
3. It’s a pain trying to fit them all into the foam case after a game so I’m hoping this speeds up the process without rubs.

Duncan Rhodes tutorial is here; and I ordered everything on the list (it cost around £40 for three boxes two four litres and one 9 litre).

I then followed the steps more details in the captions of the images.

I learned that putting another layer over the magnetic sheet made it a lot neater and that the magnets I ordered were not strong enough for the characters/ heavier models.

I’ve ordered some larger N55s instead of what I’m guessing is Amazon’s choice of around N48. Now to try and get some magnets off my Kasrkin sarge, Locus and Nexos😪 and wait for the post on Tuesday with my stronger magnets.

Another model finished and what a result!

After the work with the banner the rest of the Acolyte Iconward came together easily; using my skin recipe of a base of Wazdakka Red, a drybrush of Kislev Flesh and a highlight of Corax White. Then a wash of Reikland flesh. The rest of the model came together easily. The Armour was done with Wraithbone and then highlighted Screaming Skull and then Corax white. The Robes with Wazdakka Red and then a highlight with a glaze of orange.

I’m really happy with the result! Two characters left! I’ve also watched a tutorial with Duncan Rhodes for my next project during this over larger project to paint the cult! Enjoy.

This week I finished my Aberrants and moved onto my Acolyte Iconward.

So I’ve got a tonne of inspiration for this project mostly for the banner. I’ve been inspired by watching those videos of Galaxies and planets done with spray cans.

The process of creating the base of the mini was to use Green Stuff World bricks, gravel and aquarium plants to create steps to highlight the idea of an iconward raising a banner high to inspire the cult raising it from a point above a battle.

The Galaxy banner welcomes the idea of the “Star Children” moving through the Galaxy with their fleet. The planets showing space and the GSC icon emblazoned in the centre highlighted as if a ship was making its way throughout space.

I achieved the effect on the banner by painting it black, then painting the planets freehand with various colours, a circle of colour then details added and then a ring around some of the planets. The galaxy effect was achieved with a sponge firstly with purple then pink, then dark reaper highlighted with an electric blue. Then with a stiff toothbrush loaded with white and flicked onto the banner. Finally the same electric blue was applied as a glaze roughly on the icon and then many coats of white were applied to the GSC icon appearing as the brightest part of the banner.

Fine details were added such as the staff and metal with leadbelcher and silver along with bronze and gold.

I varnished the banner and arm ready to paint the rest of the model before gluing.

Honestly I’m so pleased with the results and it’s some of the best free hand work I’ve done on this project! I can’t wait to see how it looks once it’s all done! Enjoy the photos.

So my painting this weekend was taken up my applying resin to my bases to make sure those plants are stuck done!

Basically during my game with Shay I noticed a few plants flaking off from just being superglued. The resin creates a strong bond with the base and still fits with my theme of the Bladed Bog.

The process is pretty simple; apply UV resin and stick under my partners UV lamp for nails for a minute or so to let it cure.

While I resin’ed I watched this weeks chat show Ontabletop 👀 I am so buzzing about the Knight winning a golden button and as Shay said I haven’t won yettttt but get ready 😂

Hopefully those that look through the blog see the process of this project is to get better at painting and ultimately playing 40K. Again as mentioned on the show this project is about the getting down and dirty aspect with the hobby from cutting sprues to varnish and play. I hope those that read it enjoy the process as my cult grows and grows!

So today me and say had a battle for 2k points of the Cult vs the Sisters.

Justin very kindly set up this beautiful terrain board- so shout out to him and thank you it was so fun to play!!

Shay took Assassinate, Shrine and Bring it Down as his secondaries

I took Assassinate, Sabotage Critical Locations and Ambush as mine.

The game started off well for me with the Penitent Engine being taken out with Crossfire. Sustaining some but not many loses turn one started with Shay 7 me 1.

Turn 2 was a bloodbath. My Neophyte blob sustained heavy loses and lost a morale check; leading to losing the squad. Some further loses with the Aberrants and Shay focusing fire on the Ridgerunners and two going down. I keep them too close to combat and fire from the enemy. I also lost Acolytes and a character. Several poor rolls with hits and charges led to more losses on my side with the sisters doing extremely well with hits and focusing fire on strategically important units; my Ridgerunners and Goliath. After rushing into combat with my Goliath St Catherine and St Celestine destroyed her in shooting and combat. I scored 9 points for Sabotage Critical Location with my Reductus Saboteur and brought my score up to 10. Shay at 28.

Turn 3 wasn’t much better with Shay mopping up most of anything else and destroyed me in combat with his Demonhost and Ephrael Stern and Kyganil wiped my Primus and the remainder of my Acoyltes. The game ended with Shay 54 me 20.

This game was abit of a bloodbath; I feel like I panicked and made some poor choices but on the other side of the coin some really bad rolls especially with the morale checks! It happens but luck was not on my side today.

How to move on;

• move past that wall; I know its hard! but I am getting better with the cults.
• Take those ridgerunners away from shots and keep them safe; they can punch the most out of my army.
• Not leave my cult out in the open! I use the return to shadows strat effectively and I am understanding how the cult works more and more but its always a learning curve.
• Try and bring some luck to the next game!! If anything it’s not discouraging it just makes me want to try harder for next time; bring it on.

Are models ever truly finished?! I wanted my Jungle theme to appear more jungley so some colour plants have been added to the mix. I asked the sage advice of Justin and Shay to see what plants they thought I should add! I settled on some Citadel Barbed braken and some flock.

I do want them to look busy; the cult has just risen up in a jungle world and haven’t had time to clear a decent path before their incursion from the shadows! Paint mixes shown in the following photos!

I added Reikland fleshade  to the purple

I added Agrax Earthshade to the brown

Space wolves contrast to the dark green

Dark angels constraint to the green before varnishing

I’m very happy with the end result as stated before I want the bases to the busy!

The biggest challenge in this paint job was my my airbrush getting blocked and after a very disappointing evening working away at it I managed to finally get it working! I think it was dried paint blocking nozzle. I definitely think I could take apart my airbrush blindfolded now.

So I’ve completed my Locus! And airbrushed my new Aberrants ready to join my force for my next game!

Ill include some images but I’m super excited to run more Aberrants further from next game. My next game is against Shay’s witch hunters.

The Aberrants and Locus’ skin were sprayed with Wazdakka Red, highlight Kislev Flesh and then further highlight of White Scar followed by a wash of Reikland Fleshshade.

The Locus was painted with colours influenced by the Icelandic flag where I bought the miniature with white shoulder guards and and dark robe influenced by one of my favourite parts of the island- the black beach at Vík.

My last bit of what comes next; Shays told me that Gamer grass is available in store and I’ve always wanted to add more foliage to the Bladed Bog and wish me luck next week against the Sisters of Battle.

Finally started on my Locus souvenir from Iceland. Base was made with polyfiller, stones, aquarium plants, cork and bits from my box.

Primed, highlighted and ready to paint!

My plan as a bit of a homage to the trip is to paint the model in “Icelandic” colours I.e that of the flag! The landscape on the Bladed Bog does not lend itself so much to this however I feel I can tie in elements with this model I.e more black on the rocks and a brownish hue coming through!

This is definitely starting to work towards every model that GW has released for the cult!!

As a side note the new Jet trike for Leagues of Voltan thoroughly interested me as a conversion possibility for the Cult; imagine a jackal Alphus or squad with that stolen technology!!

So recently I’ve noticed my purestrains not cutting the mustard with how I play; they die too easily. So long story short I’ve planned out adding in 5 Aberrants. For this to happen I’ve had to reshuffle my Neophytes and thats included proxy-ing the two sy canons and one grenade launcher to be autogunners instead. With a lot of scalpel work on leftover autoguns and a bit of UV work I’ve placed 3 clean autoguns on the bases of these Neophytes. I don’t see a problem with this competively as it’s marked on the model as having either choice and I just have to let my opponent know which models which.

I also used the opportunity to repaint a part of my Nexos and UV to strengthen the antenna on top of their backpack which has decided to break during transit. I’ve also upgraded his paint scheme; I was never quite sure of it and he’s been my MVP the last few games surviving multiple rounds of melee from deepstriked enemies. My keyboard warrior is now a regal black!

Had a blast yesterday vs the nids; end score 67 to 46 in favour of the Star Children but learned loads as always.

Was very happy I was able to get 15 for physical ritual with my Patriarch and 18 for Sabotage Critical location with my Saboteur and Jackals.

After a few failed charges with my Goliath and Acolytes in the backfield I was swarmed. Those new termagants are a royal pain and totally overcame my Aberrants!

I still want to swap out my Purestrains maybe for some more Aberrants and want to change out from my cults secondaries to find some more point scoring secondaries perhaps Assassinate instead of the Crossfire points. Perhaps would have been a different end score!

Disclaimer the knight wasn’t in the battle but I just wanted to show my work to my opponent Shay and get a family photo 😂

So it’s complete! My Cult of the Bladed Bog* name pending Knight is finished!

I’ve also noticed I’m only a few models off having all the line of Genestealer Cults painted for this army minis a few characters… perhaps the end of this project!

mostly I’m happy with the paint job but there’s definitely room for improvement with the lettering and glow.

Without further ado here is my finished Knight….

So as the secret project is underway the first stage of painting which included using the airbrush and a LOT of weathering.

The first step was to spray orange as a dark undercoat then yellow. The glow was achieved with Waystone Green and then highlighted with Moot Green. As a first venture into glow I felt like I achieved a 6/10 for what I had in my head. I then painted some sections of armour purple along with the colour scheme I had in my head and used tape to provide guidelines for the hazard strips I had in mind.

Weathering included:

A wash with Reikland Fleshshade to darken everything and then use of “rust” pigments. The final stage of the weathering was to use a sponge to dab on black- brown- gun metal- then silver to give the impression of tarnished/ destroyed paint.

I then painted the details including the ones I’ve added on like the wires. I also included my usual exhaust drybrush with copper- blue- purple and black to look like burn out!

Without further ado here’s the top of the knight!

PS I did write House Mortimer on the scroll on the torso but have painted it over to try again as I feel like it made the model look abit less.

So I’ve been planning this secret project for a while after finding a steal on eBay!

An Imperial Knight!

So my reasons for converting a knight are thus:

1. White Dwarf 126 references House Mortimer and a Genestealer Cult infestation. Referenced by their Iconography.
2. It matches with the lore surrounded by my cult of the bladed cog and the connection between Adeptus Mechanicus.
3. The Rule of Cool

As this Knight was bought on eBay it comes along with the baggage associated. Badly glued parts and poorly primed. My first task was to take apart bits and fulfil my concept of a Survey Neophyte from a ridgerunner in the latch.

Then my next task was to genestealer it up. With all their extra details like wires and vents it felt natural to add rivets and some wires to give a more industrial feel to it.

Then I took away the dirty imperial seal and replaced it with some of the genestealer icons from banners in by bits box. This included the shield on the Knight.

Finally I created the base using rocks, aquarium ferns, copper pipe, Ork boys, two neophytes and my favourite polyfiller. Creating a battle scene below the knight.

After priming black and highlighting corax white I noticed some gaps in the weapons… very frustrating. So I repaired  with polyfiller and with plastic glue before respraying.

I used a silver spray this time to make my job easier in the future with painting the panels.

I can’t wait to continue with this project and update you all.

So we’re off on our holidays; and in true Nerd form I hunted down a hobby store…

After a frantic search on Google I found the shop Nexus in the centre of Reykjavik that was actually opened til late.

Upon entering the shop I was blown away by the size of the place, the friendliness of the staff and the universality of 40K. There were some hobbyists gaming  and one of the staff showed me round the store very proud to show me what Iceland had to offer!!

Of course I couldn’t leave empty handed and bought a Locus for my Cult!

Hopefully my Viking Swordsmaster brings me luck in my next games! If you’re ever here definitely check out Nexus!!

WHAT A MILESTONE!

I’ve finally reached 2k of my Cult painted with this beautiful 10 man squad of Aberrants!

I tried some new techniques including my flesh shades with the airbrush.

Notably I used a “stencil” with a GSC painted purple then pressed onto the shoulder pads! This wasn’t a clean technique so I went over again with a fine brush to get the details but I’m tremendously happy with the results!

I think my next move is to swap and change units that Im happy with and move some that Im still unhappy with but that’s how you learn!

Enjoy my Aberrants! I promise there’s a full army photo shoot coming with the proper camera AND wish my luck we’re away to Iceland to take some photos over the Easter Holidays and I’m definitely going to be popping into my local (Ehm) hobby store!

Another milestone; the Goliath is finally finished! Just 10 Aberrants before 2k.

This model turned out beautifully and definitely was due to the airbrush layers! It would have taken so much longer without.

There includes layers of the mud texture and pigments to add rust; I never understand when I see clean GSC vechicles etc when so many strats deal with the cult clambering from the depths below to the centre of battle!

A new game and more things learned! Myself and Shay had a game over the weekend and unfortunately I suffered another loss! However with more things learned I wanted to talk about the fun I had with my cults and what I learnt about my play style with them.

A Hive Fleet has landed on a human world and began their usual preparations to turn the planet to BioMass to feed the hive; but alas a twisted Patriarch was unwilling to sacrifice his brood for the Star Children and turned this usual event into a conflict. Rebelling against their masters. Using the sewers of this planet a titan and several larger bugs hunt down the last remnants of the Revolution to feed on. After a short conflict the weapons of man were no match for the bugs and after massive fatalities only the Primus was left. He escaped to the sewer systems below to live in fear from the hive and doubting his existence and the legends of the Star Children…  

So we decided to have a fun home rule applied to our game. The first images are of a sewer system where an objective was hidden. The idea was that two sewers were led to the sewer system in the bottom right of the board. Only infantry would be allowed to enter the sewer system (size appropriate) and to escape out the single entrance roll a D6. Odds were the sewer closest to Shay’s deployment and Evens were the sewer closest to mine. This dimension was super fun and meant that small skirmishes were able to happen during the game apart from the main game itself.

Unfortunately as I mentioned previously it was a loss; 76 points to my 24. But I learned loads.

• I still don’t feel like my purestrains do the work they’re intended to and I do wish to focus more on Aberrants within my army.
• My Magus isn’t doing the work that I’d like (but I’m going to keep researching how I can make them punch!
• After a 4 turn game only my Primus was left along with the Tyranid Titan.
• My tactic to protect characters worked and my Nexos survived in combat for multiple turns and took out several Termagants with his keyboard! Amazing
• Strategically my Goliath getting destroyed early in the game led to a massive shift in control of my board control; I need to make sure to protect it more next time!!
• The stratagem “Return to Shadows” is my new favourite for the Kelermorph and Sanctus!

Fantastic day and another fun filled battle with my Cult!