Abobo

I'm still alive, just been quite busy with work lately. But as the year draws to a close I found some time during the last couple days to paint this guy.

I can't be the only one who is reminded of Abobo from the Double Dragon Nintendo games? 

As with many who paint this ugly brute I took inspiration from the cover of the 1st edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, as he does bare a striking resemblance.

I based him in a neutral way which will allow him to be appropriate in a variety of settings, from the astro-granite of the Blood Bowl pitch, to dank mossy stone dungeons, or chaos wastes. Another A+ Jes Goodwin sculpt, I'm looking forward to painting more of this range.

Icon Bearer and More Hybrids

 

Cult Icon Bearer

Well after quite some consideration I finished this Icon Bearer. I really wanted this guy to be cool, and it took me some time and a couple aborted attempts until I settled on some imagery and a paint job I was happy with. It seemed almost sacrilegious to snip off this fellow's weapon in order to convert it to a banner pole, being one of the classic Jes Goodwin Realm of Chaos Champions but in the end I think it was worth it. I suffer from great pangs of guilt cutting up old models. These days I don't generally do much converting (although I have massacred my fair share of precious figures that would be worth a mint on ebay these days), apart from the value and rarity of certain models, I have come to see them as small works of art and I enjoy letting the sculptor's vision speak for itself.

I wasn't sure at first if this guy was going to represent a mutant or a Genestealer Hybrid, and I suppose it doesn't really matter he could be either, but I think he fits in well with the hybrids with his bulbous, ugly, hairless head, hunched over posture, and clawed toes poking out from beneath his robes. Though four legs is an unusual mutation for a hybrid. I only realised when painting him that after removing his halberd I had left him with only a sex-toy in his left hand for defence! All the chaos champions from this release are very deserving of their well loved status, and this Slaanesh Champion is no exception, practically painting itself and amusingly covered in bizarre, surreal details such as the ornate armour, S&M accessories, mutations, and little bell on his halberd. I reckon he'd also make a suitable standard bearer for a Warhammer Fantasy chaos warband, and may use him as such.

The image from the banner (with a few embellishments) came from this picture by French comic-book artist Phillipe Druillet:

If you are unfamiliar with Druillet and are an "Oldhammer" fan you owe it to yourself to check out some of his art. It really is astounding and obviously (as well as the other Heavy Metal artists of the 1970s) a significant influence on the design aesthetic of Rogue Trader and Warhammer. Below are a couple other images that didn't quite make the cut for the icon, but are very evocative of a rogue trader-alien-genestealer-chaos cult vibe, and I will try to use them on something else.

Hybrids

I also painted up a few more hybrids since my last post. The ribbed Hybrid armour is the element that really makes these figures for me, reminding me of the Harkonnen costumes from David Lynch's Dune.

Plastic Hybrids

These guys are a lot chunkier than the metal hybrids making them good 'heavies', so this lot are equipped with a conversion beamer, missile launcher, and autocannon. While the plastic hybrids from the Space Hulk Genestealer expansion are crude and get a bit of flack, I quite like them and they are fun to paint. Amusingly they really look like 28mm models of cheesy 'men in suit' movie monster costumes. However the plastic weapons they came with are fantastic! Some of my favourite weapon designs. Known as the 'Chaos Weapons Sprue', these creatively styled heavy weapons are covered in gothic details. The few I have I jealously horde.

Group Shot

Scavvy Crusties

Been having fun over the last week painting up an assortment of odd figures for the Cult.

Scavvies: Degenerate, underprivileged mutants who deserve our help to rehabilitate into Imperial society? Or antisocial, voluntary homeless who choose to adopt chaos worship as a lifestyle and have to be purged?

The Hive Gangers, Titan Crew, and Imperial Guard of this era are such great sculpts, they are a delight to paint, I can't get enough of them. But I am so sick of these bloody plastic arms!

This guy will eventually be part of a mutant band.


Orcs

This is a little taste of the Orc army I've been putting together for some time now. I've been drawn to work on them a bit more again I think due to the arrival of a package of Crooked Claw goblin wolf-riders (which are fantastic by the way). It's made up for the most part of Citadel Hobgoblins, Urak Hai, and hordes of Asgard goblins. Lots more Orcs to come, as well as hopefully some photography quality improvements.

Genestealer Cult Reinforcements

One Ugly Father

The Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor's venerable Patriarch sure is one ugly bastard, grown corpulent and warty from its many years of over-indulgence and privilege. It spends most of its time lounging on it's opulent silk lined throne, its every need attended to by doting Brood Brother servants who tenderly massage its calloused hide and feed it Ambull caviar while the upper echelon of the Cult plot their coming insurrection and the downfall of Imperial rule.

This is a great miniature sculpted by Bob Olley. It is a subject that fully benefits from his characteristic style, the variety of sharply defined textures and surfaces is remarkable, but does make it a bugger to paint.


Brood Brother Fanatics

Human cultists have diverse motives to affiliate with the cult. They range from the vulnerable and emotionally unstable, to those with political motives, and violent criminals. A ripe recruiting ground that the coven exploits. Many initiates believe the cult to be a benevolent religious organisation or fraternity. Only the most trustworthy are indoctrinated into its true nature. After proving their loyalty the most fanatical members of the cult undergo a grotesque ritual- the "Kiss of the Patriarch". This involves shaving their body hair in reverence to their Genestealer masters, tattooing their foreheads, and finally submitting to the Patriarch who clutches their head in it's claws and implants a genestealer egg with it's ovipositor. The tattoos and three scars on either side of the head are a mark of pride and honour.

These are Confrontation Tech Gang models. Despite having dodgy plastic arms I love their demeanor and profusion of details, perfect for Genestealer Cultists.

Brand New Cadillac

For the Cult's second limo I wanted something a bit different to the other armoured hover limousine. This started out as a cheap and crappy 1:43 1955 Crown Vic toy (as suggested in the Warhammer 40, 000 Compendium), and as with the other one I just kept adding stuff until it looked right. Inspired by the header image on this blog I went for a more 50s hot rod/ Mad Max/ bio-mechanical theme. I imagine the Patriarch and Magus's ride to be the more classy armoured hover limousine, while this road-wheeler is the Hybrid's vehicle to hoon around in.

Genestealer Cult Pt. 1

 Soundtrack for this post:



Been quite busy lately and haven't had the opportunity to post, but hopefully I will have a bit more time from now. So for this post I thought I'd show off some of my Genestealer Cult.

Most of the models for my cult were painted quite a while ago, but I haven't painted up all the units I have collected. I've been enthusiastically working on this recently, I'll post more as I progress.

The Genestealer Cult is one of the most interesting armies for 40k, it's so gonzo and bizarre it is hard not find it compelling. I love Space Hulk, it is a masterpiece of game design, and the introduction of the cult rules for Rogue Trader in White Dwarf allowed a better look into the background of the Genestealers, hybrids, and the mutants, brood brothers, and assorted freak show who love them.

There were essentially three army lists, each with a slightly different character- the Invasion Force, the Cult, and the Tyranid Army (while technically not a Genestealer Cult, it was similar and had access to Chaos Marine Mind Slaves, Zoats, Squigs, as well as Tyranids, Termagants, and Carnifex). The way I envision my cult is as an amalgam of all three lists.

Alot of the appeal of the Cult to me is the variety of different models you can field, along with the Magus, Hybrids, Patriarch (preferably daemon possessed!), and Genestealers, you can press into service all manner of mutated freaks, sci-fi humans as Brood Brothers, Beastmen, aliens, summoned demons, Mutant Bombs, Chaos Spawn etc, lots of fun.

Magus, Hybrids, and Limo

The concept of the Genestealer biology, life cycle, and the over all appearance of the hybrids really reminds me of the kind of villains you would see in Dr. Who. I can really picture Tom Baker encountering them. Cheesy and comical, while at the same time creepy enough to make your skin crawl. I have a few more not pictured here to paint up, and I think I might convert one of these into an Icon Bearer.

Limo

The limo is such an iconic GC item, mine was converted from a Minairons Hispano Suiza MC-36. The art deco styling, ribbed, hunched appearance, and origin as a vehicle used in the Spanish Revolution seemed like an appropriate limo base. I still need to make a couple more, I have my eyes constantly peeled for good cars to start from, they are harder to find than you'd think. If any one has some Marx Cars of the Future they'd be willing to part with, please get in touch!


Magus

Genestealers

I have a lot of these from Space Hulk, this is just a handful.


Brood Brothers

An assortment of brood brothers that I've put together so far. This lot are mostly made up of Imperial Guard deserters and dissidents who make easy targets for the Cult to influence.


Rogue Psyker

A Rogue Psyker, no doubt fallen in with the cult trying to flee from being round up and sacrificed to the Emperor, who can blame him?

This is one of my favourite Imperial Army models, his non regulation hair cut and graffiti on his flak armour mark him out as a radical.

A devoted mother of a four-armed abomination. The idea of the adoring parents lovingly caring for their alien spawn is delightfully creepy.

Liberated Tanks

I'll leave it at that for now, but there's a lot more on my workbench to come!