Not the limo you are expecting...

Something unexpected today. Or at least I hope so! Do you remember I told you last week I had a spare head from a Hybrid? Well, let's unveil the secret of my crazy idea (for it's totally nuts!)

I should have mentioned. I also have a spare complete Sentinel

But you wouldn't expect me to do yet another walker, specially considering that I built one just some weeks ago. Would you?

I had several different ideas, but not a clear path to tread. Oh, I forgot, my first plan was building a troop transport, just like the one I made for the Mutants. But oh, I had already done that. I wanted a new challenge. Hence the Sentinel stuff. As the Genestealer Cult is based on miners, I thought I could build a drilling beast, somehow combining the Sentinel cockpit with the Hades Breaching Drill from Forgeworld:

What a monster we could get from here

But honestly, the price did convince me to refuse this option. Gasp!

My second take was some kind of truck or industrial caterpillar, a dump truck for the mine. But putting the bits together I really didn't come to any fruitful result. What I got instead was another different idea. If there are some Hybrids with portable mining lasers, why wouldn't they have larger lasers on vehicles? With that new approach in mind I begun to give basic shape to this:

Sentinel cockpit, Humvee rear part and Tiger gun. Oh, and cardboard. Lots of cardboard

A little bit crude, but it will improve

The main problem was that, when I was assembling it all, it reminded me more of a tank than an idustrial vehicle. Well, a hunched, ugly tank, but nonetheless a Warhammer 40,000 tank. I added more bits to try to break that profile, emphasising that it was carrying a mining laser cutter, not a battle cannon.

When in doubt, add wires. Wiring solves anything

It could still be a Mechanicus tank, but let's not go that way

Brick shape and hard edges. It screams Imperial manufacture

I took every bit imaginable from any possible kit

I painted it yellow, so there would be no doubt about its nature (well, unless you try to convince me it's an Imperial Fists or a Lamenters tank):

Now it's beginning to really take shape. At least in my mind

As it is supposed to be a laser drill and to take the heavy part in mining, opening new tunnels and stuff, it of course had to look really torn and dirty, so I did extensive weathering:

I said extensive indeed

The front reads Fodinae Conlegium, i.e., Mining Guild in Gothic

I pity the fool who has to purge and clean those engines

Yeah, I'll laser drill your as*, you mot*******er!

So this is as far as I got with a lot of random pieces and some cardboard. Not exactly the first idea that came to mind, but something not really far from it in fact. It has been enormously fun to build, not really knowing what the result would look like in the end. Now on a retrospective I think I could have gone another way with the laser drill itself, adding a large coil, or maybe something like an articulated arm, more crane-looking. But hey, it is done, so it stays this way.

Gaming wise I simply have no idea of what it is going to count as. Not that I care, it's a ridiculously tiny vehicle with a ridiculously big laser cannon, so it fits perfectly in Warhammer 40,000, that's the only thing that matters :D

Well, after this break I think I can go back to painting more Hybrids. I have them all already glued, so it should be easier than the previous batch. Coming back soon with them!

Cultivating the Cult

The Cult expands. The word spreads!

As I told you the other day, my first Overkill Hybrids to paint would be the 3rd and 4th Generation ones. Essentially because they have a lot of pieces and I needed to paint torsos and certain bits before glueing, so the sooner I had these finished, the lesser risk of losing stuff among the lead & plastic mountain.

First of all, the minis are just superb. Oh, wow. Details, poses, everything. Being plastic monopose as they are, the range is top notch in its category. I think that these bodies combined with Mechanicus bits would offer really interesting results.

Anyway, the minis. I didn't convert them, just as I did with the Genestealers and for the same reasons. I may regret this decision in the future, but for now I'm in peace knowing that I'm making some actual progress. Here you have them. First of all, the Fourth Generation Hybrids, armed with autoguns:

Nothing spreads the word of a cult better than xeno hybrids with guns

Just in case, a brief reminder of fluff. Genestealers reproduce by infecting victims (you know, Alien style), humans in this case. The offspring will resemble the Genestealer, each generation infecting more humans and diluting the bloodline. So first generation Hybrids are pretty close to purestrains, while second, third and fourth generation are gradually closer to humans, so specially the latter can infiltrate Imperial society and rot it from within.

Third generation Hybrids. Bigger heads, suspicious claws

Colour wise you can see that I opted for brown bodysuits and grey armour. Mining labourers looking. My photography skills don't allow you to see it, but there are some different skin tones, while keeping them all in the purple side, as did with the purestrains. I really wanted to add some more racial variety, but I couldn't make purple work fine with darker shades of brown. I will make some experiments, but for the moment these will have to work.

All the minis have small bandages and badges. I've painted them all in classic Genestealer Cult purple, as it was the way to tie them with the old colours. I found it a way to represent their adhesion to the cause, with a colour code identification. It is the way the neophytes recognise each other, the way to say which side would each one stand for.

Third generation with special weaponry

I replaced one head with a closed helmet, which is nothing but a sphere I found in my bits box. Trust me, I have an use for that spare head ;)

I didn't paint the mining lasers in khaki, as they are not really weapons, but mining tools, so I kept them different and painted them grey.

The minis are fabulous, but they have an insane level of details, they took me longer than expected. I think I need to take a breath before repeating the whole process on the first and second generation Hybrids; but don't worry, as I'll be working on the Cult too. I'll find out how far can I reach with that Hybrid head... ;)

The Cult rises

I've begun to paint the Hybrids from the Overkill box. My first idea was doing just like the Space Hulk Genestealers, i.e., painting them all in a row. But woah. No way. I have hundreds of bits spread and scattered all over the workbench. I do need to part them into small groups. So I'll be doing different batches of similar minis. So let's go!

I'm seriously considering modelling this image in 28mm

My first take was on the Magus:

The Governor called. He wants his curtains back

The plan was making the robes pretty distinctive. The Cult is recruited from miners (at least that is what I understand from the minis), but I wanted this bloke to look clean, totally upper class. I'll go dirtier with the rest, but not with this one.

I was tempted to replicate this image, but went for turquoise curtains instead

If this one was the religious head of the Cult, only below the Patriarch itself, now here we have what looks to be the military leader:

I want a cap! Cannot lead without a cap!

Here you can see what's the Cult appearance going to be. I've seen gorgeous minis over the internet, challenging patterns and even unveliebable colours. I was goint to paint them in orange, as other workers in my urban project. But I changed my mind. Brown will serve the idea of the mining guild better. So I will go for chocolate brown for the jumpsuits and grey for the aroured parts, just for contrast.

We also have two familiars in the sprue, but no idea of what are they gaming wise:

My preciousss... we wantses our birthday pressent.... Sssss

So this is how we start! I'm currently assembling and painting the 3rd-4th generation Hybrids, as they have like a million pieces and I want them finished before I lose something. For the moment this is it.

You know, Bob, you told me we were starting a Cult. You call these two a Cult?

And I'm serious, the Governor really wants his curtains back

I hope I'll have some more progress soon!

Four hands work

Despite the title, no, I haven't hired anyone to paint. I'm opening yet another project! (Oh, no!) A project that involves four handed people, hmmmmm...

As usual, this story begins years ago, when I got the new Space Hulk and simply put the box in storage. Right. Shame on me. Deep shame on me. But I'm doing something about it today. Finally!

I'm getting all the Genestealers and putting them in the production chain.

Well, Picasso went through a Blue Period, that's how I felt. Days of all shades of blue

WIP pics won't add much in this case, I guess, so I'm skipping those and going for the results. I used Vallejo Royal Blue as base colour for the chitinous parts. For the skin I didn't want pure purple though, so I tried mixing it with flesh tones. That way I would still get a classical Genestealer looking but with a more natural feeling.

The colour combo works for me

I don't have any Blood Angels (yet), but I painted the Marines' armour red anyway

I always tend to make slight conversions in this kind of projects, repositioning arms, swapping heads and things like that. I do hate having two identical minis. But this time I had to do an exception if I ever wanted to have these finished. The anonymous Genestealers can endure it.

Besides, I don't think I could get much better poses

The mere simple painting work was enough endeavour for me and my sanity

It's really amazing that the basic shape of Genestealers hasn't changed that much in almost 30 years. Well, of course that first illustration in the Rogue Trader book was different, but since the original 1st Ed. of Space Hulk was released, the changes in design have been almost insignificant. That speaks much of the original art on these creatures.

Of course the biggest change can be seen on the Patriarch. Or whatever it is called nowadays.

For me it will always be the Patriarch

Here you have the mandatory family pic:

Space giant blue cockroaches infestation

It's been some weeks work while painting the stuff you've seen lately on the blog. I had some doubts at the beginning about what colours to use. A full black approach would be dull (besides, I -finally- received the Aliens vs Predator KS, so I'll have my chance for that). Cockroach brown looked like a fun idea, but in the end I couldn't resist to the classic blue colour. About the skin, as I said above, I think it looks more natural. But I had yet another reason. This is going to be part of a wider project, as at the moment I write this I also have all the Genestealer Cult from the Overkill game primed and in the assembly stage. The fleshy colour will help to tie in both ranges, or that's what I hope. So you can expect more people with extra arms incoming anytime soon...

Colour explosion (again)

Time to close yet another project (for the moment). I had some World of Twilight minis pending for my pal, and it was about time I did something about that.

First of all, do you remember the big Dompaku? The large sauropod like beast. Don't worry, here you have the link. Well, it came with the riders on foot. So this was easy, just had to repeat the colours:

'So I have to catch the stone with my hand? You say this is called... baseball?'

But now it comes the time for colour bombs, which is the funniest part of this. Lek'Saa with Grishak:

The pack included two Grishak. Additional ones were painted for dramatic purposes

The same goes for the Trebarnii unit:

No, people, you are no good for infiltrating units. Deal with it

I had no particular scheme in mind. Just wanted them to look bright and different from each other, in the same line than my previous works on the World of Twilight ranges.

The only ones I gave a thought before splatting any paint on them were these:

On'Saa runner and Shaman

I love the pose of the runner, absolutely dynamic. Funny thing, first thing that came to mind was Flash from the comic books, so I didn't resist the first impulse and accepted the inspiration. It had to be red!

For the Shaman I tried black, as it was a colour I had never used on this project. I wanted to emphasize how different and mysterious a Shaman had to look from everyone else. The pic is awful (all the pics here are awful!) and it's impossible to see the highlights on the skin tones, but I promise they are here!

So these were the last minis I had from my pal! Another chapter (temporarily) closed, now I'm moving onto another (totally different) one in which I have been working too. I hope I can show some stuff during the weekend or so...

Stay tuned!