Spotlight On... The Genestealer Neo-Patriarch

The idea of a Genestealer Cult has always fascinated me: infiltrating alien creatures slowly consuming aculture from the inside out; slowly turning its own strengths against it; taking over; and all the while, broadcasting a stregthening beacon to the Tyranid Hive Fleets, drawing them ever closer...

Then Inquisitor came out... and I realised that I had to have an Inquisitor-scale Genestealer of my own.

Now there wasn't, at the time, a model for a Genestealer at Inquisitor level (and the one they brought out later was pretty grim). I decided to convert one from the Tyranid Hive tyrant at the time.

Now this beauty was converted to match the old style Genestealer style. hence what might now seem an odd style.

The hardest part was doing the head as I had to saw through the metal frill of the Hive Tyrant. Man that was difficult!

I built up the detail on the Patriarch with milliput, posing him in a fairly passive pose. I did this because I wanted him to be totally different from the normal charging pose; more furtive and contemplative.

The claws were actually made from Ork knives. I'm particularly proud of spotting that possibility.

And I'm also pleased with the paint job. Considering I did him a good many years ago now, this remains one of my best ever paint jobs, especially on the head.

I am a huge Space Hulk fan and I use this chap as a 40k scale Genestealer Patriarch in that and Space Crusade. It's a little known fact that I have a site dedicated to making Space Hulk better called Space Hulk Smooth.

In 40k I either use the rules for a Broodlord (a bit whimpy for his scale) or a Hive Tyrant. It's possible to choose upgrades that match him quite nicely.

My biggest quandry has been about the colour. Since I painted him I redid all my Tyranids in yellow. But I just couldn't bring myself to repaint this guy. He's too nice. As a result he stands out a bit. But hey, why not! He deserves to stand out! 

Building a Diorama: Forge World Death Korps of Krieg - Before the Push

I've already written an article about my intentions when building my Before the Push Diorama, but I thought it might be interesting to look at the process I went through... with pictures.  

My original concept of the commissar giving last instructions to his men had been intended to be delivered from a low stage but my mind quickly jumped to doing something in a trench. But how to do that without forcing the viewer to look down on the tops of the heads of the miniatures???

I decided to go with a cross-section of a trench and hope to God that viewers knew what it was supposed to be.

I needed a base, which caused me a lot of trouble as I couldn't find one of the fancy display bases you see in Golden Demon anywhere! In the end I found a handy cake stand which fit the bill perfectly.

I made the wall of the trench using a block of cheese insulation foam which I cut to match the edge of the cake stand. At this point I laid out the men to see how it would look (very important).

Now it looked far too rigid obviously so I cut away at the foam to blend it down into a more natural trench-top. I wanted to have a look-out post so he needed a shelf to stand on high enough to give him a view.

To give an impression of depth I thought it would be nice to have a bunker entrance. I built the entrance from balsa wood then hollowed out deep enough so that, painted black, it would look like it went somewhere.

 To give the earthy texture, I add %£&"^ loads of multi-purpose filler mixed with gravel and PVA glue. I stuck razor wire in so that it went under the surface of the mud.

 Then dried it under a table lamp with Wilma keeping watch.

At this stage I worked towards making it a bit more "trenchy." The walls were made from fabric that I planned to paint with metallic colours. I cut them into small enough sections to make them look like sheets of metal. I had the "mud" overlap the tops of the barriers.

Now how to suggest the opposite wall of the trench without it actually being there...?

I went with piling up some barrels. It isn't perfect. But seeing the models clearly was a higher priority than perfectly representing a trench.

 And after adding a little rat amongst the barrels that was about it. It was time for painting!

 The mud was done in greys and browns and I also added some water effect for puddles. I did the metals in boltgun metal with the now unavailable Flesh Wash for rust.

Finally came the trickiness. I'd painted the Death Korps of Krieg separately with Adeptus Battle Grey, black wash, then up through the greys with bestial brown webbing, inked dark then highlighted up.

My friend Joao gave me some tough love, telling me my previous Death Korps weren't as well painted as I thought they were (bastard). But he was right and I went the extra mile on these guys.

The trickiness was positioning all the men so they were realistically listening to the commissar or getting on with making preparations. This took a while and I had to flatten a couple of spots on the ground to give some of them a good support where before there had been potholes. I used sand and glue for this.

Last of all I added a stub gun to the look-out position to look like it is off its stand, ready to be clipped into position.



It seemed rather criminal to me to "waste" expensive Forge World Death Korps models on a diorama and for a while I toyed with placing them on it on bases.. or maybe dismantling it after the competition.

Now I'm glad that never happened. this is probably the best piece I've ever done. My Tyrannosaurus Rex and Alpha Level Psykers, Goliath and Golgotha come close but I think they probably lose.

Comments and feedback will be gratefully received.

Please.

On the Painting Table: Honoured Imperium

Last year I lost my job and in a difficult financial and troubling time my good friend Joao stepped up to bat to prove he was a good buddy. And he bought me the Honoured Imperium boxed set to cheer me up.

Well I guess things happen and you don't always get round to things one way or another; but one day you do and this particular blog is a big thank you to my good friend.

These two scenery pieces are pretty cool. I remember seeing the Aquilla (below) before it came out in a White Dwarf or somewhere and thinking it was just plain amazing!

It's nice to add an extra bit of coolness to the gaming table and hopefully these will do that.

The statue was actually painted the same colour-scheme as my Imperial Guard Chalice Tridents: Graveyard Earth, Kommando Khaki and then Bleached Bone. It's a more benign way of doing cream-coloured stone than my old method: Bestial Brown followed by Bleached Brown: the goal with anything like that being a slow progression of similar colours rather than a big jump from one to another.

The Aquilla is the usual range of greys from Astronomicon to Fortress via Codex.

Notice the yellow tinge though. That's the wonderful Bubonic Brown - perfect for that touch of weathering.

They were a long time coming but I'm glad they're here.

Thanks buddy.

On the Painting Table: Grey Knights Dreadnought

Well I did a lot of talk the other day about being inspired to get back into 40k big time but you may be wondering what became of that as there hasn't been that much movement here so far to prove that I'm doing anything.

It's that damn decking I've been building! But things are about to change.



Meet my new Grey Knights Dreadnought. This guy has been waiting to be finished for at least a year and finally I've done it. Although to be honest, I did rip off a load of crappy extra bits I'd added to make him look more impressive. Stripped down and simple he looks a lot better and I'm very happy with him.

He's based on the Dreadnought that came in the latest boxed set and I had him kicking around but I want to have a push on my Inquisitorial forces so he got drafted across to the Grey Knights.

I used Boltgun metal, Black ink and then Boltgun Metal and Chainmail to paint him. The gold bits were Dwarf Bronze and then Shining Gold.

I'm in the process of rebasing and "normalising" my other Inquisitorial forces: Sisters of Battle and Grey Knights, so tune in soon and you'll get to see pictures of them too.

On the Painting Table: Sisters of Battle Canoness

Man! How long has it taken me to paint this little lady?

Chuffing ages, I tell you! But here she is!

This model represnts The Saint, a spcial character of mine whose backjground as existed for over a year but has never before seen the tabletop.

Here it is:

Pilgrimage of The Saint

On the sun parched front steps of the Abbey of the Immolated Martyr, a young pregnant girl was found on the verge of death. The Abbey was built into the precipitous cliffs of the Lady Mount at the scorchmost tip of the Chalice with only scorched desert for a hundred miles in every direction leaving no indication of how the girl could have reached it.

Dying without a word of explanation giving birth to a girl child, the woman took her mystery with her to the grave and the sisters of the abbey took the baby on to raise her.

The girl was named Argent Rose and entered training to be a member of the Adepta Sororitas,  excelling at every required skill. On the morning of her final graduation however she announced that the Emperor had visited her in a dream and told her to walk the land until she came to a full understanding of his mission for her. She left the abbey on foot and set out with no provisions into the burning wastelands of the Hellgrove. Over the following years, Argent Rose walked the land, administering to the poor and needy, speaking with the people and learning all that she could about the ways of mankind.

She made her way up through the Chalice and into Lapitar, visiting Qualitat by sea before going on into Paelar and finally Kaltirey, making her way through the streets of the capital before heading out across the frozen plains further and further chillward until she reached the Abbey of the Cold Heart of the Emperor at the freeze. Here she paused only long enough to strap on her power armour and take up her holy bolter for leaving once more.

This time though, as she walked south, she no longer helped the meek, she hunted the wrongdoer, the mutant, the heretic... and she exterminated them. Years of extermination passed as she made her way back down toward the Lady Mount until when she finally arrived, her fame and notoriety had spread. Thousands of pilgrims and Adepta Sororitas were waiting for her and proclaimed her The Saint.

She spurned this title but proclaimed that the Emperor had chosen her for a new task now that she had proven her worth. Taking hundreds of battle sisters with her to the stars, she began a Crusade of Immolation that continues to this day, taking her holy fury into the night.

The Path of The Saint became a huge lure for pilgrims from across the sector and the already strong Ecclesiarchal presence became even stronger, Sisters of Battle guarding the many shrines erected along the route of the Path.