40k Genestealer Cult - Brotherhood of the Argent Spiral Complete!

Managed to sneak by the GW shop after work this afternoon and got a couple army pics taken!

When I think 'horde army' I generally think of the Orks, but Emperor save me if the Genestealer cult doesn't do horde as well! Since the models are generally painted and placed into battlefoam trays and shelved in the Closet of Doom I honestly had no conception of how many there actually were in the end, models just kept coming out of the trays and spreading out across the table!

Overall, I have to say that despite the fact that there was a year-long hiatus between when the army began and ended, it was definitely a blast to both build and paint! I've been doing a lot of monotone and subdued marines of late, so the brightly contrasting colors were quite refreshing! I'm really happy with the skintones in particular, with the purestrains being very purple, and lightening up to near-human tones throughout the generations.

Couple more semi-closeups, which mostly go to highlight that I'm not a particularly steady-handed photographer. While they are a riot of colors I think that they hang together well - hard to go wrong with blue and yellow as strong contrasting colors, and the little splashes of red and the white armor pop as well.

Of course you gotta have a little spreadsheet porn - It's deeply satisfying to turn the last boxes green! The force underwent a lot of changes from the beginning of the project to the end - notably an entire edition change, so there was a shuffle to make it 8th-compatible. In the end it worked out as a fairly full Battalion detachment, and a Vanguard detachment mostly consisting of purestrain 'stealers, and a Leman Russ, because why wouldn't you? On the up side the army has already been earmarked for sale, which means there's some incoming funds for future projects!

Now to ponder what to put in front of the painting servitor next. With Necromunda right around the corner I don't necessarily want to commit to anything major. Just something bite-sized to pass the time until release weekend and getting my mitts on the new plastics! Hmmm...

Tzeentch Renegades - Cultist squads painted

Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend (for us Yanks, at least)! Over the past weekend Dark Vengeance was released and I managed to get a hold of a couple limited edition sets - Ostensibly for the mini rulebook, but lets be honest the models included look amazing as well, and are well worth the purchase.

I thought it was clever on the part of GW to include what appear to be a couple starter armies each capable of acting as an allied force for most of the various armies out there, so even if you don't happen to play Dark Angels or Chaos, there's a little something for everyone (except the bugs)! I will say I feel that the units provided don't lend themselves quite as well to buying multiple copies of the box set as the Assault on Black Reach set did - doubling up really adds far too many HQ and Elites choices in my opinion. Nevertheless, the models are staggeringly beautiful. I'm planning on painting up the Dark Angels to ally with the guard from time to time, but to be frank I was much more interested in the Chaos stuff, which has already got me thinking about starting a new Tzeentch Renegades force. That said, I knocked out the cultists over the long weekend:

First up is the hand-to-hand unit - let me start by saying that these are, hands down, the best cultists GW has made to date, and they were an absolute joy to build and paint. I especially like the fact that various models are obviously fallen members of the assorted strata of Imperial life - there are tech priests, and ministorum, adeptus terra and miners and what have you. Excellent stuff! As they are intended to be Tzeentchian cultists, I went with a semi-randomized pattern of blue, yellow and dirty white. If I paint up the second set I'm thinking I'll be using them for our 40k:RPG games and will paint them up more closely adhering to the colors of the adeptus to which they appear to belong, but for now I'm quite pleased with how these turned out!

The second squad of cultists are armed with ranged weapons such as autoguns and a heavy stubber and again there are some simply beautiful sculpts - I really enjoyed painting them! The leader of this unit is by far my favorite - the liberated Commissar's coat and the grotesque makes him just ooze with character!

Next up on the painting table is the first unit of Skitarii for my Ad Mech army, but the remaining Chaos units from the Dark Vengeance set aren't too far behind!