‘nids part 275 – Genestealer cult – Aberrants – Ork Boyz conversion

Afternoon #warmongers I so want to tick off my Aberrants as built, OK technically I already did but deep down these 2 Ork Boyz to Aberrant conversions still needed to be finished off. I did them before the Rippers but as the second conversion stalled I thought to delay posting in the hopes I might eventually complete the second one. Unfortunately I didn’t take any intermediate WiP pics on the first, which I had envisaged being a second Hypermorph but that’s definitely not an improvised weapon and he has no tail.

I trimmed away most of the Ork body and the Aberrant shoulders went on like American Football padding. It got glued in place and then I filled it with greenstuff. I bizarrely wanted a 4th vestigial arm which I cut from a spare broken Termagant torso. It’s kind of rubbish but I had to give it a go. I also added a tiny GSC glyph as a belt buckle, replacing the Orky one.

I also added a chitin plate to his shoulder, while using some Drop Pod bits for the base and part of some Sanctum Imperialis girders which will blend with the other resin bases and my actual Sanctum Imperialis model. Although Red Planet BASE! is my philosophy I try to adapt them a bit so there are some that are more ‘rural’, with all the slate and those that are urban – Genestealer Cult. Ferron Proxima is red all over but that doesn’t prevent weird and wonderful debris from adding further interest to the bases.

The plan with the greenstuff was just to pad out the torso but I did some pretty ham-fisted sculpting and I think it’ll do. I added a little spine crest on the lower back, hopefully the painting will blend it all together. I also added some chains, that had previously kept him locked up. A dot of super-glue gel to hold it in place and then liquid superglue to bond all the links together.

The GSC knife and belt pouch completed the look, it had been the one I cut the glyph off for the buckle and just hides the waist a bit – makes it less orky. It was the only one without grenades on too, as I don’t think they carry them.

As kitbashes go I think it does the job, certainly won’t stand out too badly once it’s painted.

The second one had a leg removed above the boot and a spare Genestealer leg was added [again no pics] then I decided to sculpt a cult skirt… or hakama. This is the early stage just to give a base to build the folds on. The front isn’t too bad.

But the back has still a long way to go. I need to prepare a base that he’s stretching up onto with his right foot.

I had the headless body mounted on a base for months, but couldn’t find the motivation to sculpt the remaining folds on his skirt. It started to annoy me so I decided to set aside some time in my lunch break at work to do it. I quick splodge of terracotta Milliput and I think I did a half decent job.

The folds aren’t perfect but once painted I’m pretty sure it’ll all blend in. I think the tattered nature helps sell this, in particular the little holes at the end of the fabric work really well – it helped to have a similarly dressed Abberrant as a reference to get the same look.

When I got home I stuck a genestealer icon from the upgrade sprue on the central hexagon thing on his back. But it looked odd, so I cracked open my Empire Flagellants box set bought solely to make some fanatical shotgun and flamer toting neophytes, that have never been used. I knew there was a banner [or 4] in there and this one was ideal.

All it needed was a slight twist with pliers on the bracket and it fit perfectly on his shoulder webbing straps. Not sure I could argue he was a Hypermorph – still no tail or improvised weapon but he does stand out so might be able to proxy him in friendly games with my crew. Not that we ever play, but you know – options…

Anyway, Big Build TO DONE! Big Galactic Stamp of Approval, because why not! He’s since been undercoated and if I can get the base and a couple of basecoats done he’ll be back up to speed with the others.

‘nids part 271 – Genestealer cult – Acolyte Iconward – Big Build TO DONE!

Full disclosure – this is technically a 2018/19 season Big Build TO DONE! However, aside from the Sanctum Imperialis showcase I really wanted to move onto the Season. The Big Teal Stamp of approval has challenging connotations that I’d rather move on from. Anyway the Acolyte Iconward has been built a long time but I only just added it to the base and used cork for the first time to represent shattered rockcrete [like all the big kids do!]. It also adds another few millimetres of height which is never a bad thing [except when you’re packing the model away].

I’m hoping he’ll be a Character choice in one of my Battle of the Brush challenges. September is the next one, which is too soon but it might be a nice way to close out December. I’ve actually got a couple of Genestealer Familiars built and based too that could go with him [although technically he doesn’t get them]. Regardless my first Big Build Galactic Stamp of Approval. 

‘nids part 268 – Genestealer cult – Aberrants – Big Build TO DONE!

I finally ordered some bases for the Aberrants. I didn’t get the same ones as the rest of my GSC, something similar but some other urban rubble bases off ebay that were slightly more ‘urbany’ and slightly more ‘rubbly’. I’m thinking they’ll fit well with my Sanctum Imperialis ruins. The Hypermorph in particular looks very impressive on this raised bit of debris.

The Abominant’s base is the same one I have Deathleaper on, I’d had a spare for a long time. I’ll be doing the banner as a Free Radical Collective ‘sacred colours’. He fit so perfectly on it I couldn’t not use it.

I actually made the effort of pinning all these and super-gluing them, whereas all my other GSC models were just glued.

I still have the two Ork Boy/Aberrant conversions to finish, they’re partially built, just need green-stuffing to complete them.

I’ve since undercoated these 8 so they’ll be ready to paint their bases. I’ll probably do that as a block, with the 5 Termagants, Warrior, Hive Guard and Redemptor Dreadnought. However, I don’t want to to that just yet as I know as soon as I do they’ll be tempting me further away from the Dark Shroud…

 Big Build – TO DONE!

I builds it, I gets the badge!

‘nids part 264 – Genestealer cult – Aberrants – Avoidance tasking

Having concluded that my Sanctum Imperialis should be verdi-gris I promptly ttried to avoid the task. Sadly I didn’t even avoid it with any of my other priority projects. I spent one night making the torso of my Redemptor Dreadnought [more later] and the Aberrant Hypermorph. The next, night fully intending to paint I only went and made up all 8 of my remaining Aberrants. It says something when building until 1am is a more appealing task than painting that building green! These two are from the new Aberrant kit, but I think the power hammer dude has a Deathwatch Overkill head – they’re more gormless looking

I went with 3 power picks, because with 13 Aberrants in total I planned to kitbash another 2 and the spare hammers seemed an easier proposition to convert, although I may just be completely wrong on that viewpoint.

Having 4 Deathwatch Overkill models already I needed to do a couple of things to differentiate these. The first had its raised claw cut and tilted downwards. Then the second claw holding a skull was removed and a spare claw, possibly from a Space Hulk Genesteal was attached – it’s slightly bigger than normal. He also got the ‘elephant man’ head from the new kit but it might have been a mistake as you can’t radly see the side of the face covered in skin. The other figure got a new kit headswap.

The robed guys, first one had it’s raised arm removed and thn effectively put back in the same position because I couldn’t remember what it was like. I did put a little ‘dewclaw’ in the elbow joint though. I also swapped out the skull holding claw for the smaller Stealer clawed hand. Lastly the power pick was separated from the chest and pointed outwards. The power hammer dude got a new kit headswap, allowing it to look in a different direction.

I might need to add some chitinous armour plates and possibly some adrenal glands/toxin sacs to make them look different to their duo-pose bretheren below. I also need to decide on bases, do I get another set from bases4war.com or just  do my own? Obviously there’s a financial implication and although the bases are effectively complete the washing, sanding to fit the feet, gluing and washing again to get rid of the dust is as much effort as PVA, grit and little bits of debris…

Here’s my early attempt to kitbash 2 more Aberrants, although one could be another Hypermorph so would need an ‘improvised weapon’ of some sort meaning I’d actually need to kitbash a third. Anyway, I had some oAssault on Black Reach Orks lying around doing nothing so they’re bulky enough to form a base. I cut the arms off and trimmed down the neck to fit the steel collar of the eventual head. I also have a spare Genestealer leg to replace a foot so it’s more ‘Tyraniddy’.

I realised this hammer came with an upper-torso, so I’m going to really trim back the top of the Ork so it replace it. I’ll greenstuff some robes as well to try and cover the orky fashion up too.

Here’s where I’m at with my Redemptor, I couldn’t even leave this stock. I had a big Dark Angel chapter badge I was going to split but then I found this one that I’d already removed the sword from and it fit perfectly. I might also put the Dark Angel Relics on a rope on the exhaust manifolds on its back, as that also fits perfectly. I’m going to bling the shizzit out of this, loads of purity seals as I’m guessing he earned them already to be in this thing! 😉

And his hips.

Hopefully this procrastination was sufficient to get me back to the Sanctum, we shall see.

Genestealer Cult Graffiti

Back in January, before the Genestealer Cult release/’Day of Ascension’  you may recall the Warhammer Community Facebook post about the Genestealer Cult Graffiti.

Well it transpired that it was in Manchester [where I work] and I immediately recognised the area and visited it as my own pilgrimage to meet this 3-armed Emperor.

I took some pictures but promplty forgot to share them on the blog, though probably did on twitter. It was amazing to see Chris Howker’s work first hand [even if it had been defaced and repaired the day before].

It was quite the experience, even if the weather was a bit grim.

But an amazing piece and still in-situ and pristine in Manchester’s Northern Quarter on Thomas  Street.

Alongside the Kellermorph are some equally filthy furry Xenos, which I believe are Flerken.

And these skelebob creatures that might have been done by Jay Sharples Art.

Teh full mural.

And this heresy – burn it! 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Moar Armies on Parade 2018

Armies on Parade 2018 has been and gone and as mentioned I couldn’t actually get in store on the day due to family commitments. On Monday I nipped in to collect my figures and there was still this board on display so I had to get some pictures as it was absolutely stunning.

I think this might have come second overall and it’s one of those armies that when you see it you think, yes I would love to play/have and army like that – even when you don’t even play that game!

Such attention to detials and all the little touches, like the static grass, clumps of flowers and mushrooms.

From my social media browsing I felt AoP 2018 was a much more pleasant affair. Plenty of small scale Parades being celebrated alongside amazing dioramas. In fact I only really saw one negative comment because someone felt they’d been misled about the date being this weekend and so hadn’t been able to Parade with a board they’d been making for more than a year or two. Not entirely sure why they couldn’t now Parade it in 2019 but it seemed the hobby community was overwhelmingly enjoying the spirit of the event.

And that was confirmed by the staff at GW Manchester who couldn’t have been happier to have had my army in-store. We had a nice long chat as I packed up where I promised to make the effort to be there next year.

I’m not sure what I’ll be doing but hopefully it’ll feature mostly things that have previously been unseen and although the board will be made of my gaming terrain I’ll see what I can do to come up with a new a dynamic board that still tells a story.

I had thought at one point to take the Tyranids in their entirity as it’s a new audience and whatnot but I think something new would be more appropriate this time and I can’t imagine how I would transport all the nids. Regardless I may well have an Age of  Sigmar board with whatever Shadespire Warbands I complete…

Armies on Parade 2018

Everybody knows I’m a huge fan of Armies on parade so you’d be forgiven for assuming I wasn’t entering this year as I’ve been unusually quiet. There’s a number of reasons for this, firstly I’d written an article about AoP for the Warhammer Community team covering many of my previously expressed views on the essence of the event. Sadly it wasn’t published but I’ll keep on trying.

Secondly I haven’t actually entered anything new. You may recall my local GW Southport closed down and last year the Free Radical Collective were my entry. This year they’ve ambushed the GW Manchester Arndale and this makes me feel rather odd. I’m genuinely disappointed I haven’t anything ‘new’ to enter. I’ve been through this before when my third time with the ‘nids was disparaged because it was their third time and it was deemed ‘lazy’. Yep, we sensitive souls cut deep.

The fact is though this Army is Parading in front of a new audience and it is all about showcasing your army. I’ll say it until I’m blue in the face [even at the risk of summary Inquisitorial execution as Xenos scum] AoP is about taking part and if I don’t enter something that has been created new I don;t get to join in – simple as.

That said I really wanted to understand if this sort of multi-entry approach was somehow contravening accepted painting competition etiquette. So I contact this years Golden Demon Slayer Sword winner Paweł Makuch at Monstroys for his opinion on the subject:

Indeed I do take my works to as many comps that I can. I don’t see why would that be wrong. You have spent a lot of time on a piece/army and would like to enter in two or more separate places and hopefully be rewarded. It’s not that You are cheating, it’s still the same work, that have costed X many hours to finish. For example I spend around 300-400 hours on one competition piece (sometimes even more), and I couldn’t bring them to different places I probably wouldn’t go at all, or would make 1 in a year, and not 3-4. I think it’s both interesting for me (us painters) for the audience, and for the competition itself, that there are hundreds of quality works. Couple years back I probably wouldn’t be so sure, but now, when I know how much effort and time is put in creating such stuff – I dont have any objections, in seeing same piece in more than one competition.

Indeed classic car competitions feature the same cars all the time. Someone doesn’t lovingly restore an old Bentley, enter it in a Concourse, and then start again with a new Roller next time [some might but many stick to what they’ve got]. And it would appear Paweł is not the only world class painter with this view – multiple Golden Demon award winner Richard Gray entered his Cerastus Knight Lancer in both Golden Demon Classic 2017 [winning Forge World Best of Show] and Salute’s Best of Show [both fully deserved],.

Bottom line I should stop feeling guilty about this – it’s sharing the hobby and that’s all that counts. 🙂

Anyway, unfortunately I can’t actually be in-store today to join in the celebrations – I am however taking my son to Chester to look at their university so that should be fun and I’ll catch up with all the gorgeous hobby on my return, check out the 40kaddict facebook group for some choice Parades I’ve already seen.

Deatwatch Overkillin’

When I went round to Liam’s we had a game of Kill Team, with his son taking Skitarii and I used his Genestealer Cult. It was an interesting revision of the game I was particularly interested in the oversized tokens which could be streamlined a little bit to keep track of you actions.

However, we also had a game of Deathwatch Overkill. We started off the first mission, which I still believe you have to be some kind of special unlucky to lose as the Marines. Unfortunately I seem to have misplaced Jetek Suberei and Garran Branatar so he was reduced to taking these guys:

• Ortan Cassius – Ultramarine Chaplain
• Rodricus Grytt – Imperial Fist, Frag Cannon
• Drenn Redblade – Space Wolf, chainsword
• Jensus Natorian – Blood Raven Librarian

Cassius is pretty tough though so I don’t think there were any disadvantages to this choice. I think at this stage he’s already killed a Neophyte on the left and two Acolytes on the right.

It became clear Liam had grasped the importance of controlling my ambush points with Redblade and Cassius securing most of the right one and Natorian the other, although there was room just for my an Aberrant and Acolyte to arrive. Another Aberrant and Acolyte came in from their deployment having. Mining Lasers and Neophytes rushed the Ultramarine and Space Wolf.

Who blasted them to pieces with area effect weapons.

The Librarian was only able to take out one cultist, luckily for him it was the Aberrant

I think I managed to wound Rodricus Grytt but he healed himself while Cassius came forward to offer support, killing the Acolyte and Abberant.

More Cultists arrived but Cassius had joined Redblade to prevent more ambushes from that entrance. In response the section was booby-trapped while my Cultists lurked offboard.

Having spotted the charges Cassius and Redblade were forced out of the ambush point but still managed to kill the two Acolytes nearby. Grytt and Natorian also killed two Acolytes on the other side of the board.

But the Blood Raven had overstretched himself and the two remaining Genestealers managed to find chinks in his armour and bring him low.

With righteous fury at the loss of his brethren Cassius crossed the board taking on 5 Neophytes that had just burst from the depths.

Thanks to a Gambit bringing on more Ambushes there were Cultists coming from everywhere.

But Cassius blasted the five Neophytes apart while Redblade took out two Acolytes.

A further Acolyte bit the dust which gave Liam the win.

As usual we still played out the turn, even though the game was decided and the mangy Space Pup bit the dust for my own satisfaction.

Once again a really fun game, of course it gets better when you have access to the extra models, both deathwatch and Cultists, use the bigger board set ups and have a bigger deck of cards to play with. I really like the game, it feels a lot easier and quicker to play than the likes of Space Hulk and the Broodmind deck offers just the right amount of tactics without being too complex and gamey. I’d love to play out all the missions one day.

Genestealer Cult – Abominants

Back when I was first building my Genestealer Cult models I realised that I might need an Iconward. Although the model was greta and all I had a plan to kitbash one. I had a spare Rat Ogre from the Island of Blood [?] set. I’d used the other one for my Skaven Blood Bowl team but I figured this one with two Genestealer heads might look like some über Abberant [Übberant?] that could double as an Iconward. Well they only went and made an Übberant, sorry, Abominant. Now you can see though that might still be value in my kitbash [once I attempt it] as that Rat Ogre is almost ‘Primaris’ scale to the Abominant.

Although I’m not about to mix my Astartes scales I’m quite happy to have a crack at doing this at some point, there’ll be a scything talon arm underneath his bladed arm. Now I know things seem a bit random and hectic with all these things at the moment but what I need to do is prep a lot of stuff, get it based and primed ahead of the colder weather. Then I can focus on the Knights in a few weeks and when things get tough I’ve little projects like this to fall back on.

1750pts battle report – Genestealer Cult & Iron Hands v Death Guard & Ad Mech – game 1

Double Trouble 3 and Alex From the Fang’s doubles tournament replacing Blog Wars. 875pts with random pairings but all match-ups are Battle Brothers. Once again my recollection is pretty hazy so for the most part enjoy the pictures, the commentary will be secondary 😉

I’m running my Genestealer Cult for the first time ever. I’ve got a Patriarch and 12 Genestealers, a Primus, 4 Abberants [2 picks & 2 hammers], 10 Acolytes, 11 Neophytes [with Grenade Launcher], 10 Neophytes [with Grenade Launcher] and my 2 Scout Sentinels [with Heavy Flamers and Chainswords].

I’m paired with John Purves and his Iron Hands – 2 Redemptor Dreads, 2 Venerable Dreads and 2 Techmarines to keep them healthy. The opposite side was Dave Irving [who I played at DT2] with Ad-Mech and Matty Longmore [who I played with at DT2] running Death Guard. Here was our table setup with some pretty decent terrain thanks to Element Games North West Gaming Centre.

I set up the Patriarch and Purestrains in ambush, the Primus and Aberrants also hiding together and the Acolytes too. This left me with the two squads of Neophytes to screen objectives and board control while John had his Venerable Dreadnoughts sit on our objectives and Redemptors prepare to push forward. Lastly my Sentinels prepared to Scout forwards to capture the objective behind the rock outcrop.

Unfortunately Dave and Matty got to do their Scout move first and the Dragoons captured the first objective before the game had even begun. They were going first but we stole the initiative though! The Sentinels went in for the kill, but their Heavy Flamers were ineffective.

Their Sentinel Chainswords even more so. Seriously they are not worth the 2 points, why do the Sentinels only have 1 attack? Surely 2 or 3 for something that size? Anyway, they did nothing and one of them was struck down but he blew up causing a Mortal Wound on the Dragoon and the remaining Sentinel. By the close of turn 1 we’d only managed to capture 2 objectives, and our other shooting had been pretty ineffective. 

In return Dave and Matty managed to blast one Redemptor to pieces with massed fire from the Kastellans and Kataphrons, plus the Blight Hauler.

The Dragoons continued to attack the last Sentinel and killed it, again it exploded in a ball of flames. I was beginning to think the Cult had jury-rigged it to blow up [that would be a cool stratagem, apparently Nurgle has something similar]. DG & AdMec turn one score 3 VPs.

My ambushes turn 2, the Aberrants and Primus arrive 9″+D6″, getting a 4 so only 5″ away from the Poxwalkers holding an objective 

I was struggling to fit the Genestealers in, with them coming in alongside the Dragoons but still 9″ away.

Acolytes also appeared behind enemy lines, pincer manoeuvre for the Poxwalkers but out of range of Skitarii who get to overwatch things from reserve within 12″! I charged both my units in. As you can see the Poxwalkers had two lines double stacked but the Aberrants in particular were in luck as I got to employ Nick Nanavanti’s consolidate tactics because you can see that they were quite spaced apart, with room for their bases to slip through, get past that first line and attack the back line, getting closer to the objective.

Five Poxwalkers remained at the end, which was when I found out the Primus buffed those Cult units within 6″, something I would not forget afterwards but would have possibly made a difference in wiping out this unit. However, we scored 4 VPs this turn, with the Redemptor holding the other objective.

Unfortunately he was left exposed to the Blighthauler and was destroyed, together with support fir from half of one of the Kastellans, their robotic gaze swinging round to add 1.5 robot’s worth of shooting at my Genestealers.

The Stealers were wiped out, serves them right for not making their charges on the Dragoons. The melee in the top was interrupted with the Poxwalkers killing a few Acolytes and replenishing their numbers. I would subsequently wipe them out and send the remaining Acolytes after the Skitarii Snipers in the hills and the Aberrants toward the last Kastellan, I think his twin destroyed by the Venerable Dreadnought. The Primus had to stay behind to hold the objective, meaning he couldn’t give his buff. I think John used the last CP to reroll and kill the Kastellan which meant when my Aberrants go 4 for a 5″ charge they had no options but to remain stranded and suffer destruction from the shooting of the Kastellan.

I’d retreated my Neophytes back to hold one objective while the others held the one the last Venerable Dreadnought had been shot off. Unfortunately Typhus made a 10″ charge, he killed a lot of them but they held on for 2 turns I think, thanks to some lucky morale rolls. The Blighthauler, having wiped out the remaining Techmarines then went for the other Neopyhtes.

With the Aberrants gone, the Acolytes exposed after killing the Skitarii and the Primus on his own it did not take much for the Kastellan to eradicate the threat in their own deployment zone.

Typhus’s Terminator bodyguards finally caught up to him and their foul infections spread through the Neophytes wiping them out too and finally capturing the objective.

This left us tabled and Dave and Matty in control of the centre of the board. Typhus had been a little overzealous, I think Dave forgot the game ends immediately meaning they lost the chance to hold the objectives for longer and score more points, unless he did know in which case he was playing fluffy instead of trying to rack up points for the overall win. 

But the game ended and somehow we’d actually won on VPs 13 to 12. Obviously we lost on Blood Points, I’m not even sure how many we killed, I forgot to take a picture of my scoresheet. Either way it was a good game, John had to take a lot of shooting while I sat off the board and sadly did not weather the firepower as well as Iron Hands are renowned for.

John, Matty, 40kaddict, David

Still, good game, great people, everything Double Trouble stands for.

If you’re interested in any more of my Battle Reports, point your cogitators here: www.40kaddict.uk/p/battle-reports.html