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This comes up because I've seen a piece of artwork in a recent post by GW with a Red and blue skinned Genestealer Cultist. For the most part I've seen Genestealers with the standard purple and blue.

I know many people who paint theirs with their Hive Fleet's color scheme in mind.

Additionally do Genestealer Cults act as beacons for a specific hive fleet or can any hive fleet be attracted to them?

As far as I know, the genestealers mirror the hive fleet. Cultists can dress any way they want but most people paint them to compliment the gribblies.

There is fluff in the 7th edition genestealer cult codex that says when genestealers are separated from their hive fleet for a long period, they revert to being purple and blue.

I think this fluff is somewhat unpopular, as people like to match GSC allies to their tyranid armies colours. So GW could be backtracking on it.

Personally, I have my genestealer cultists painted to match my behemoth tyranids.

Mine will be purple and blue, because that's the correct colours for genestealers.

Ceri on Warhammer TV has been painting hers to match her Hive Fleet Kraken army, and doing the armour on the cultists in the same red as the chitinous armour on the Tyranids, as an act of hamge to their promised sky gods.

As for that line in the 7th edition book, I don't see the problem - it doesn't specify the "long period", after all; say it's over 300 years - plenty of time for genestealers from Hive fleet Behemoth to spawn cults which have reached their fifth generation and risen up to still be in the red and blue of that fleet, while the genestealers from Ymgarl have been there for a millennium or more and so have reverted to prurple and blue, resulting in cults such as that on Ghosar.

Arson Fire wrote:
There is fluff in the 7th edition genestealer cult codex that says when genestealers are separated from their hive fleet for a long period, they revert to being purple and blue.

I think this fluff is somewhat unpopular, as people like to match GSC allies to their tyranid armies colours. So GW could be backtracking on it.

This is one of those abstract lines from a codex that could go either way. Typically I like this because it leaves it up to the player. That way players don't have to worry about painting them either color. Because both would be correct.

Arson Fire wrote:
There is fluff in the 7th edition genestealer cult codex that says when genestealers are separated from their hive fleet for a long period, they revert to being purple and blue.

I think this fluff is somewhat unpopular, as people like to match GSC allies to their tyranid armies colours. So GW could be backtracking on it.

Personally, I have my genestealer cultists painted to match my behemoth tyranids.

I've always thought the Genestealers were a really interesting part of the tyranids' lore for so many reasons. They're essentially a domesticated slave race of predators stripped down and used by the tyranids because of their desperate drive for survival, and most of the time when they're spawned it's just for use in a suicide attack by the hive fleet anyway. Maybe in some far off long ago consumed galaxy, the tyranids were a dominant species, maybe they'd evolved well past needing to be simple predators and domesticated animal species to act as host organisms for their reproduction. Maybe they fought a desperate war against the tyranid invaders, and by pure unlucky chance their reproductive system enabled them to be genetically compatible with the Hive Mind's genetic weapons engineering, so instead of being wholly consumed they're stripped down to their primal roots and used for their supreme adaptiveness and survival instincts.

Their story is almost matrix-like. The broods that do make it out into foreign galaxies probably think that they've escaped against impossible odds, they live and breed for centuries and create pocket empires for themselves not knowing that's exactly what the hive mind wants them to do.

the_scotsman wrote:

Arson Fire wrote:
There is fluff in the 7th edition genestealer cult codex that says when genestealers are separated from their hive fleet for a long period, they revert to being purple and blue.

I think this fluff is somewhat unpopular, as people like to match GSC allies to their tyranid armies colours. So GW could be backtracking on it.

Personally, I have my genestealer cultists painted to match my behemoth tyranids.

I've always thought the Genestealers were a really interesting part of the tyranids' lore for so many reasons. They're essentially a domesticated slave race of predators stripped down and used by the tyranids because of their desperate drive for survival, and most of the time when they're spawned it's just for use in a suicide attack by the hive fleet anyway. Maybe in some far off long ago consumed galaxy, the tyranids were a dominant species, maybe they'd evolved well past needing to be simple predators and domesticated animal species to act as host organisms for their reproduction. Maybe they fought a desperate war against the tyranid invaders, and by pure unlucky chance their reproductive system enabled them to be genetically compatible with the Hive Mind's genetic weapons engineering, so instead of being wholly consumed they're stripped down to their primal roots and used for their supreme adaptiveness and survival instincts.

Their story is almost matrix-like. The broods that do make it out into foreign galaxies probably think that they've escaped against impossible odds, they live and breed for centuries and create pocket empires for themselves not knowing that's exactly what the hive mind wants them to do.

That was something I found fascinating when I read Cult of the Spiral Dawn. In that it appears that the GSC is blissfully unaware they're essentially just helping the Tyranids to an easier meal, of which they are dessert.

I really, really like the fluff behind GSC. Granted, I remember them from 2nd edition. But the blend of Lovecraftian monster cult with Marxist class struggle is genius. As 40k lore goes, it's surprisingly complex and involved. I can imagine the horror as these poor mooks rapturously welcome their 'Star Father' come to set them free, only to realise they're dessert.

The models are also fantastic. They're my project for the next year. I'm going Kraken because the red contrasts against the industrial outfits of the cultists and you can make the banners pseudo-communist.