All Praise the Three-Armed Goddess!!!

 Today is my second entry for a fun little challenge that Dave over at Wargamesculptors Blog has run during Summers called "Season of Scenery" - an effort to help motivate hobby bloggers to get some of their backlog of terrain pieces done during these hot and sweaty (At least it's hot and nasty where I live in the world) Summer months. 

My last post featured my first entry as vehicles are allowed and this one will be completely different from that!

Nice Statue of Saint Celestine, patron saint of white chocolate and skulls.

Earlier this year, Games Workshop released a new range of plastic miniatures for their Adeptus Sororitas range (Battle Sisters/Nuns to the older Warhammer 40K gamers reading this). Lovely sculpts that like much of what they design these days command a high msrp. A terrain model was part of the release which included this statue as part of their "Battle Sanctum" kit. I didn't want to shell out for the whole model as I have plenty of 40K buildings in my unpainted mountain waiting to be assembled and painted, but I saw that statue and thought.... "That would make for a cool terrain centerpiece for my Genestealer Cult project (That has sat long neglected *cough cough*)...." So I hopped on Ebay and found a seller selling just that part of the kit and for an affordable price. 

Now, although the stock sculpt is a very nicely designed piece, my image in my mouldy ol' head of the statue for my army was a different image. So once the kit arrived, I pulled out my Greenstuff and got to sculpting!

And.... enough waffling on! Here's the pics:

Pre-primer. I wanted her to pretty much look as if the Cult members took a treasured statue

 of the Imperium and corrupted and changed it to represent their own hero/idol. I changed the sword with some spare Genestealer claws instead of the standard winged crossguard, snipped off and replaced the Sisters of Battle Fleurs de Lis here and there with little skulls and added a spare Genestealer skull on the base of the statue where you're supposed to glue the little candles. I thought it would make for a nice little altar to a fallen family member.

The head and arm were sculpted from scratch. Now, I'm not going to say I'm ever going to be producing miniatures professionally as from this pic is all looks like turd. But I wanted them both to be a bit rough looking, rough hewn sculpting- my Cult are not known for their artistic talent! 

For the scheme I went with something similar to the Studio scheme, but wanted the "added" parts to look as though they DEFINITELY do not look like they belong there.  

This is a rather large model and I am sure I could've painted it to a higher standard, but oof.... that's a lot of alabaster/bone and I got bored quick! So tabletop standard is good enough for me.

Have to say, those wings are lovely.

Her 3rd arm was based off of a Genestealer fan art I found online. Didn't want it to be all splayed out to show the claws as I didn't feel that it looked natural. Gave me a small task to try to make a 3-finger-fist which I think I did well enough.

Close up of the face all painted and pretty.

The sword is the standard sculpt with a couple changes. I like it. 

Close up of the base. Red candles for some spot colour and the nice white skull of ol' Aunty Bess the 1st 'Stealer to land on the planet and start the Cult "all those years ago"...

I have another piece to post up on probably later this week and maybe some more. Has been a nice excuse to get some long unloved terrain off the unpainted pile.

Forgive also if I haven't commented on your blogs of late. For some reason my Reading List isn't populating with ANYTHING and I don't know why. Waiting to see if it fixes itself, but if not in the next few days, then I'll reach out to Blogger to see what can be done.

Stay safe out there through Covid Delta folks!

- Dai

80's Chaos Beastman

A swift post for another palette cleanser mini - one more long ignored old Citadel Miniatures Chaos Beastman.

I like this fellow cos he's all out of whack. Quite unlike my previously posted one, he's fuzzy all over and Bovine, rather than the typical Goat. One eye'd and only one hoof'd he strikes quite the "chaos-y" vibe. I wanted to give him some sort of pilfered-from-a-corpse look so painted his trousers up in the old colours of the olde Empire province of Ostermark. Seemed fitting that the same province that Mordheim was in should provide his attempt at a uniform of sorts.

Attempted a Chaos face on the shield that all the old minis seemed to have in White Dwarf. It's not awful, but it's certainly not great. 

Fuzzy like me.

I've also been putting together some more Objective markers, this time for Warhammer 40K and added a little more paint onto the remaining two objectives for my 28mm WW2 projects. But more on those in the next post.

Hope all are well and staying that way - Dai

The Chaos Genestealer Cult Was Always a Thing (Part 4 - A New Year & more WIP's)

There’s a lot that’s been happening my end that explains my lack of posting these past months.

My lady and I got married, we also moved to a larger apartment and then add in all the traditional Holiday fun that comes with attending my wife’s family gatherings. No complaints from me on this though, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being welcomed into her family and returning those sentiments as best as I can.

On the hobby side of things, a New Year is here once more and I’ve at least not been completely idle, O no.

I’ve been slowly assembling some of the model kits I have sat on my hobby shelves in preparation for the projects I intend to get done this year.

 A Kellmorph for my Chaos Genestealer Cult from my Kill Team box. "Chaos" cos he has horns alright? Actually, I really liked the stock sculpt as is, but realised he would look like anyone else's and he also needed something "Chaos" about him, so yeah - horns. I like them, though there'll be some cursing as he tries to get through the lower doorjams.

Next, a Games Workshop Leman Russ tank that was a birthday gift last October from a very good friend. The kit doesn’t seem to have changed that much since the Leman Russ was first released (I got one on release day even) and went together pretty well. In lieu of the wholly uninspiring commander mini that is supplied on the sprue, I instead stuck in an old re-casted Forge World Imperial Guard tank commander that I’d had in my bits box for around the last 10 years. I’ve also added Genestealer Cult badges on it’s hulls and a Chaos back-banner cut down to show it’s leanings toward the Chaos god Khorne.

After that, I got inspired by the preview picture of a future supplement for Bolt Action, D-Day (Brit/Canadians) and began putting together a Warlord Games Churchill tank that I built as a Mark VI. The kit was not at all simple to assemble like the Leman Russ as the instructions were bloody vague. After a few evenings of cursing and fingers glued together, I finally ended up with this beast. Not a bad finished result and like the Leman Russ above, I used an alternate metal tank commander (Produced by CompanyB) as the one on the sprue was awful.

Somehow the rear didn't sit flush against the lower chassis, so I had to get creative and cut down sprue pieces to fill the gap. It'll do for me.

Lastly and assembly completed just last night, is this full section of Commonwealth infantry by Warlord Games for my Dieppe Landing project. These lot were a flippin pig to assemble and I had no fun at all during the process. Why on earth the designers thought that making all of the water canteens, pouches and so forth separate was a good idea, or that separate arms and weapons was “fun”, I have no idea… I’m not even sure I’ll make the remaining 15 in the box the process was so painful. Any future additions to my commonwealth will be metals for sure, though once done this ten-man squad at least looks half decent.

And that's it for the now. New place doesn't have a spot to spray paint at and I'm not sure I could get away with trying to do so on my balcony, but I'm going to see if I can't sneak in a late night effort. In the meantime, I'll be assembling more things to empty my shelves a little more and try to get posts up at least once a month as that's not really asking too much now, is it???

The Chaos Genestealer Cult Was Always a Thing (Part 3 - more WIPs)

Just a quickie. Managed to get two squads of Brood Brothers assembled. These are the  Imperial Army types who have fallen under the Genestealer Patriarch's influence and so are now ready to rise up and take up arms against their former Imperium masters.

First squad is made of a mix of figs that I've had in my collection for years. I wanted to show these off as though they are the mix of random regular citizens and others that might fall under the Genestealer influence. From Imperium factory workers, to underhive gangers to Actual Imperial army deserters and a Bounty Hunter to lead them!

Second squad some might recognise as some old 80's plastic Imperial Gaurd with some modern GW Genestealer Cult additions (heads, pouches, etc) and also the odd pair of 3rd party resin arms here and there. I have a 2nd squad of these to assemble still.

And that's all for the Chaos Genestealer Cult for the now. Next I plan to finish getting the Brood Brothers assembled and ready for priming, then on to the Kelemorph, a regular Hero to these crazy gene-scum!

Bullocks (Part 2 - Done!)

Couple posts ago I showed of an old minotaur mini kindly donated to me by Iain over at caveadsum1471 blog. Well, here's his pal. Bit more of a shaven look, which is fine for me and I think they look like a great pair. Speaking of pairs, he also got some balls added to match his friend. Both are impressive and were they not so ugly and smelly, I'm sure they'd be a hit down the local bovine bar.

The contrast is pretty crazy in these pics but he was another quick'n'dirty paint job and I like the mini very much. THANKS IAIN!

Think these two will feature in lots of future roleplay sessions where I GM and also in an old school Chaos warband I am putting together.

Next up, more Chaos Genestealer Cult!

The Chaos Genestealer Cult Was Always a Thing (Part 2 - WIP)

A quick post to log some work in progress on my Chaos Genestealer Cult. Started cleaning up and assembling a couple Brood Brother Infantry squads and my army's commander, a fearsome Genestealer Patriarch and it's cute familiars.

Brood Brothers are supposed to represent military units that have been subverted to the Cult's cause, adding their military training to the armed might of the Cult. The Army list allows one to take basic infantry, Heavy Weapons teams and a few of the vehicle choices that the Astra Militarum Imperial Guard army book allows for regular Guard forces (Leman Russ tank, Sentinal walkers, Chimera APC's, etc.). Seeing as my Cult represents a more militaristic style organisation, I have 3 infantry squads, 3 weapons teams and 3 Chimera APC's in my initial army list.

The first Brood Brothers Infantry Squad in my army is made up of a ragtag mix of Planetary Defense Force, Guardsmen who've deserted from their respective regiments and civilian underhive dwellers. These minis range from 1980's through to early 2000's.

Just a quick pic so quality and composition is a bit rubbish. I like to paint arms separately as I can't stand trying to get behind them (And typically feck up a paint job) if they are pre-attached.

The second Brood Brothers Infantry Squad is made up from the original GW Imperial Guard plastic kit that I somehow still had in my unpainted mountain. (The 3rd will be as well.) I've added Genestealer Cult heads and accessories to add a little extra character to them. (They'll get a similar addition of Khorne markings though these will be painted on like the 1980's original Chaos Cult.) I've also used some 3rd party resin arms for these to add a little more variety and also because I'm not sure I have enough of the original kit's plastic arms!

Still some more arms to sort out on this lot. No Heavy Weapons in these squads either, just a flamer each. I plan to drive them up in the Chimera APC transports (Those will be a post for the near future.) and unload them to hose down their enemies t close range. They'll probably get chewed up pretty badly in return, but I like the idea of these lads being very disposable in any case. 

Lastly for this post is the Patriarch himself. (Herself? Itself? Who knows...?) This is the one of two original sculpts that were made for this character back in the late 80's (I think sculpted by Bob Olley?). The other was a seated version which made for a lovely vignette, but not great for gaming. This fellow is quite a bit smaller than the current plastic version, but I like him enough. To make him look a little more imposing and even a tad daemonic, I added some shoulderpads from the Purestrain Genestealer kit which I think add enough.

I think he originally came with 3 little familiars (Like psychic manifestations of it's intelligence or something) but one was lost along the decades since.  

As with the minis shown in my last post, I plan to base all of these en masse once I've assembled everything and then I'll prime those that require it so I can get to painting. After seeing how they work, I've been interested in trying out those new GW Contrast paints to see if I can get the rank and file troops done quicker. But more on that at a later date.

Cheers

The Chaos Genestealer Cult Was Always a Thing (Part 1 - the beginning)

Picture this: it’s 1990. Wee Dai, the 14-year-old lad has been collecting Games Workshop’s monthly publication White Dwarf magazine for a bit now and casts his eyes across a brand new army that he never conceived could exist – The Genestealer Cult. Mesmerised is a small way to put it, though I’d already committed to both my first 40K love (My sorely missed and now completely currently unloved by GW) Squat army and my Nurgle obsession, so always planned to make a Cult army in the future, yet never did. The army lists (There were two, regular Cult and Chaos Cult) ended up in the 2^nd Rogue Trader expansion, Compilation.

Fast forward 20-something years and GW has really gone and fleshed out the whole idea of what the Genestealer Cult is and their model range is phenomenal. Of course I was suckered in by firstly picking up Warhammer 40K: Kill Team core set which included some of the tasty new Genestealer Cult sculpts. This in turn got my creative juices flowing and so my mind when back to that 14-year-old dream of starting my own Chaos Cult, just like in the White Dwarf. Now, the current Codex doesn’t allow for Chaos versions of a Genestealer Cult, but rules and revamped fluff be damned, I’m doing it anyhow cos they’re MY models.

The original Chaos Cult as featured in White Dwarf that got this all started. I'm planning to stay true to the same colour scheme as best as I can where it's practical. No Limo's though as I'm trying to do this project on the cheap, but there WILL be some transport options for a more modern take.

Close ups of some of the Aulde Cult. There are direct translations to the new entries int he current codex. Sadly though, those cool Beastmen and the Rogue Psyker aren't going to be featured.

So here’s the start of my take on the Chaos Genestealer Cult. It’ll loosely be based off this list from the Compendium:

As you can see there's not a tonne of entries to have to work toward and some of it will need to be switched out for figures I own in my existing collection cos like I said, I'm not in the position to spend out on stuff right now (Unless I can do so on some cheeky Ebay auction or other). The one thing I DO plan to buy are a box of those new plastic Flesh Hounds, but they'll just be added to a unit of Purestrain Genestealers using the same stats for sake of ease. I'm not about to play in tournaments with this army, it's just a "for fun" project that will be used in a campaign a friend and I are planning for next year.

The overall look of the force is also inspired by the art in the old Warhammer 40K Compendium, this image especially grabbed my attention as a lad, just as it does now. Evocative of what horror the Cult and especially a Chaos Cult can bring to any battlefield!

Looks like utter bloody pandemonium eh? That's how like my Chaos. :)

You have seen in my last post, the first two entries of my list, my Magos and the army's Standard Bearer, the Acolyte Iconward - these two are the inspirational figureheads of the Cult. The Magos is a powerful Psyker and the Iconward buffs nearby units greatly.

Next up I assembled a small 5-man unit of Acolyte Hybrids, 4 armed with hand flamers and the last with a Heavy Rock Saw. Coming in from ambush, this small squad will pack a punch and should be able to deal with most light to medium targets with ease. These will represent the 1st and 2nd Generation Hybrids in my force.

Next up is another venerable leader, my Primus. Where the Magos is a mistress of intrigue and manipulation, the Primus is the martial mastermind behind the Cult. Whilst the official sculpt for the Primus is by no means a bad sculpt, I already had a plan for making my own once GW released their special Imperial Guard character, Severina Raine. I wanted my army to have a martial background (More appropriate for worshipers of Khorne I think.) so felt a Primus who was a former Imperial Guard Commissar sounded way cooler!

The finished model is basically just Raine with Khorne trophy poles, a Bloodletter (Lesser Daemon) sword in place of her regular saber and a Hybrid's arm carved up a bit and glued to the underside of her left arm. The rules show a Primus as wielding a Needle Pistol, but I really like the sculpt-standard bolt pistol she comes with so I'm leaving that alone. I think she makes for quite a cool and dynamic looking character and am excited to get paint on her over all the models I've previewed for this project thus far.

Still lots to go though as I have units of Brood Brother Infantry (Traitor Imperial Guard) and Weapon Teams, their transport vehicles, some Neophyte Hybrids (3rd and 4th Generation) and one more character to add.

Watch this space!

Bullocks (Part 1)

Some time back, a very lovely surprise parcel arrived at my home from a kind fellow blogger by the name of Iain. (His blog is very spiffy with some lovely armies and terrain to drool over HERE) Inside I found two old Marauder Miniatures Minotaur sculpts circa 1990 that I had owned when I was but a young teen and they were first released, but sadly since lost in the annals of time and girls and booze. Iain heard my sob story after he posted his own painted versions and sent me a spare pair of these lovely bovine warriors. Below, you'll see only one of the two painted up, the 2nd to be previewed at a later date.

Now I love these old cartoony style sculpts. Per usual, they have lots of character and this fellow looks like one heck of a thick-headed brute to me. My only complaint is that as part bull, wouldn't he be sporting a lovely pair of knackers betwixt his legs like real bulls do? Of course he should! So yeah, I green-stuffed some testicles on the bloke and made sure they were appropriately visible. (Added the same to his soon to be shown pal as well.)

Yet to name him, but if you can come up with something appropriate, fire away int he comments!

A simple paintjob to just get him off my desk. It'll do for Tabletop and Roleplay games!

Guess they don't make comfortable undies large enough to contain his manliness?

Also, I found myself entertaining a little insanity and decided that starting a new Warhammer 40K army would be a great idea! So, I assembled these two and now have the start of a burgeoning Genestealer Cult army! 

Wait, are these Xenos freaks sporting Icons dedicating them to the Chaos god, Khorne!? (More on this in a future post)

A big lad

The need to paint something wholly different from WW2 continued in my head, so I plucked an old fig from a neglected project and got to work. It's a metal Reaper Miniatures "Plague Harbinger", a really nice sculpt from 2004 by Werner Klocke that I'd bought originally upon release and had left on the shelf of unloved minis with the intention to paint up as the last member of my Inquisimunda/INQ28 Nurgle Coven! (I need to have a serious word with the "Hoarder" in me.)

Hadn't realised, but I had not worked on this project since 2012, the previous entry being a bits-mash-up deamonhost! O_o This feller is representing a "Big Mutie" in the rules, as well as being unnaturally large, he also has a "Claw" (Originally represented by an old metal Great Unclean One hand, but since replaced with a more manageable and better looking plastic hand from the GW giant kit.) and some sort of rotten flesh-type "toughness" mutation. Overall in-game he'll be awful when shooting with his ancient pistol, but nasty in hand-to-hand combat.

Dark pits for eyes made him seem more creepy in my mind. Check out the dirt under those fingernails - ew...

This brute claims to have taken those Templar pauldron shields from Space Marines he had slain in one-on-one combat. Whilst the rest of the team doesn't believe this story, they aren't about to risk a good  kicking saying so. 

Bone-handled knife is a cool bit that adds I think to the scummy wastelander feel of this mini.

Rust on most all of the exposed metal areas. (Looks good enough for me.)
Between his feet are a pile of bloodied bones - a previous meal/victim/captive/pet?

The scheme was an attempt to blend in well enough with the rest of the Coven, but be individual enough that he’ll still stand out in a group shot. The stripy cloth on his hood was an attempt to make the image more interesting, yet not distract for the overall look. As well as the plastic giant’s hand that replaced his Sickle armed left hand, I added some sort of Warhammer Fantasy holstered pistol, Warhammer 40K Kroot knife and a grenade that I think comes from the Kroot sprues as well. Overall it really is a sweet mini and I think the additions “Grimdark” it up enough to fit in the Warhammer 40K universe.

No idea on a name for this mutant as yet, though I’ll happily take suggestions.

With him finished, that sees my Chaos Coven complete. Still lots to do on other teams though for the future and after really enjoying painting this mini, I’m rather hankering to finish up some of the members of the (also) neglected Inquisitorial investigation squads. We’ll see what takes my fancy.

(I’ll get a group pic up in a future post when it’s not so rainy and nasty outside.)

Woof

Whilst painting has slowly been continuing on my Winter Soviets, I need to take a quick break from batch painting uniforms (Especially after the recent bunch of 15mm Confederates) and decided to jump on the Oldhammer bandwagon a bit.

These are some old minis I've had since my earliest days of gaming, some Citadel Miniatures Chaos Hounds and a Dark Elf Beast Handler. They were done pretty fast and dirty and being Chaos I wanted to make each very different from the other which made them a lot of fun to work on as well.

A small pack for sure, but loads of character!

 

This is Layla. She was a desperate human soul who plead for someone, anyone to come to her aid to help fight whichever horrible situation she was suffering and little did she realise, "someone" was listening. And transformed the pathetic wretch into a beast so that she might rend the flesh of her persecutors. 

Layla is supposed to look like a human who has been tainted by Chaos and forcefully transformed into a beast - her skin still carries the tattoo's she had during her human years.

This is Flameguts the Hellhound. I tried to make him look like he gathers unnatural demon fire from within and belches it out.

Hope the effect carries off okay. 

Lastly is Slather. Slather constantly leaks horrid smelling black-brown ichor from all of his orifices all the time and barely walks in straight lines. 

I have pictured his rear end to show the leakage there but the focus was off after review. :)

This is Dougal the Dark Elf. Bit of a git really and far too happy to lay about himself with that bloody great whip. 

Of course, everyone wants to see a Dark Elf bum. (I realised I forgot to paint the edges of his chainmail, so will sort that out later.)

The battle report for my previously mentioned Regimental Fire and Fury game will go up sometime this week. I think.

Ciao.