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To start with, introductions! I wanted to do a Genestealer Cult to tie in with my Tyranid force, Hive Fleet Amaroq. Queue my attached Genestealer force, the Choir of the Qalupalik!

Off the bat, the names are inspired by Inuit mythological/religious culture, in line with canonical Hive Fleets being named of a similar fashion. My Tyranids hive fleet was first encountered on a snowplanet (they snow Nids), so I wanted a name that suits! Amaroq is a giant Wolf in Inuit mythology, known for hunting in the dead of night and devouring victims, which I thought was quite suiting for my Hive Fleet. As for the the Qalupalik, well I'm just going to quote Wikipedia on this one:

Qalupalik is a myth/legend told by Inuit parents and elders to prevent children from wandering to the shore. Qalupalik are human-like creatures with long hair, green skin, and long finger nails that live in the sea. They wear amautiit (an article of human clothing), in which they carry away babies and children who disobey their parents or wander off alone.[...]The story was used to prevent children from wandering off alone, lest the qalupalik take the children in her amautik underwater and keep them forever.

I really loved this name, and the obvious parallels to Genestealer Cults just topped it off, so the title was something I decided on before I began work on the army.






I have a few goals and guidelines with this project, I'm just going to lay them out:

Color scheme wise, I wanted to incorporate an aspect of my Tyranids colors (they are white/grey, with turqoise highlights) but to still be a separate entity of it's own. Most Genestealer cults of course are not technically a part of Tyranid Hive Fleet, but rather work a step or two ahead, disrupting the populace, softening up planetary defenses, and heralding the coming of a hive fleet, before getting eaten alongside the rest of the civilization come the day of ascension. With the GSC I also wanted to make sure I had a little bit of contrast with the colors, Tyranids are famous for flamboyant bright schemes in fitting with their insectoid inspirations, and the GS cults seem to adopt this too, unlike like say Chaos cultists whom have classically darker tones. In the end I decided to lift the turqoise highlights from my nids, while contrasting this with the GS Cult classic color of a nice saturated orange, and leaving the rest of the model to be a bit more gritty.

I really love the grimdark concept of a radicalized cult that believes in ascension through mutation and eventually consumption, and not quite being aware of the true horror of which they worship. Especially with the heavy emphasis on mining themes, and a cult that spreads through space, and the corruption of military assets, this all to me shares a LOT in common with one of my favorite video game franchises, Dead Space, which I decided would serve me as a good inspiration for the flavor of my army. Nothing TOO overt, but hopefully just going to capture the same vibe, and maybe a nod here or there to the franchise - we'll see how far I decide to push this inspiration as we go forward. Incorporating aspects of the iconic Necromorph on maybe Acolyte Hybrids, the Marker for maybe some sort of a basing project, or the famed Plasma Cutter as a counts-as mining saw/laser is not out of the question. For now, I'm deciding to use a metallic spaceship interior theme for my bases, Chaos cultists converted with GSC bits for my Brood Brothers (which I feel are models much more fitting for the theme), and the Space Hulk Stealers as my Purestrains, who are perfectly thematic with the army concept, and with a bit of scenic trimming, they just make it onto a 32mm base without overhang! God bless Deathwatch: Overkill for making this a legal base for them. Converted Cultists also seem like a good choice economically as they double nicely as Neophytes in Kill Team as well.

Not really sure if it will be relevant to anything gameplay or modelling wise, but just to I didn't want to be one of those special cookies who have a Hive Fleet that "flees before the Tyranids get there". Nope, my cult stays on and gets devoured, and loves every second of it. Each time the GSC hit the table it's just to represent a different expansion of the cult, or whatever the need be. One of the things I hate about most personal GSC army lore is that they try to be special snowflakes in this regard, and it completely defeats the most awesome part of the army imo! Maybe this will come up in modelling in some small manner in the future, but for now it's just something I want to mention in regards to the lore.

I'm making this blog to document my progress, but also because I want feedback, as well as help with ideas from the community. I will be posting updates and army shots in the comments, but also updating it into the main post.

I basically love all the models in the faction, but I don't plan on building all the way into a GSC solo force. These are primarily allies to my Nids, and my chance to practice new painting techniques on non-bug bodies. I know which models I like to play with that I think are strong. which ones I want for a Kill Team, as well as which ones I already owned when I started this project, so I have a clear gameplan laid out ahead of me here and a definite finish line. My GSC units of choice (finished units will be updated with red marker):

1x Patriarch
1x Magus
1x Acolyte Iconward

20x Brood Brothers

22x Purestrains
1x Sanctus


10x Neophytes, 2x Mining Laser, 1x Cult Icon (Kill Team)

To start with, I wanted to knock some of the hardest yards out of the park. Whenever people start a new force, I always recommend doing the troops first, so I took my own advice, and at the time of writing this blog, I have already completed the 20x Brood Brothers/Neophyte conversions, and the 10x Neophyte models from the Kill Team box. I'll upload squad size photos soon, but here's a couple of shots in the meantime just to get this blog kicked off:



BROOD BROTHERS:

<Icon Bearer
><From behind with finished base

NEOPHYTE HYBRIDS





More shots to come! Also, currently working on the Purestrains and Patriarch! Ascend with me brothers!

Wow those cultists are looking great! That's a really nice standard your setting, especially on the basic grunts, wow! Great work!

Can't wait to see some more neophytes from chaos cultists.

BTW that Inuit lore is great. I like the idea of a frozen sea hag/merfolk dragging off stragglers. Really great inspiration. I really want to hear more ideas on some of the worlds they have infected.

Can't wait to see more!

Excellent background to tie these guys in with your Tyranids and the orange/torquoise scheme fits well together with good contrast and a unique style.

-Rids

These are beatiful! Looking forward to seeing more of this.

Absoluetly love the Background! Not only is it something new (for me at least, I have no experience with inuit culture) but it fits the GSC-Theme so amazingly well!

Having said that, I thought that the 3 neophytes look a bit too "standard" for me. Don't get me wrong, they look good, are well painted etc. But for such a great and unique background idea they look too smilar to the standard GSC troop. Maybe go a bit harder on the turquoise?

This is complainging at the highest level, I hope you don't get this wrong

brilliant work, love the style of painting you've used there too, particularly the chipped autoguns.

Thanks for all the responses guys! Really glad you guys love it, I'll be sure to deliver more!

Waaaghbert wrote:
Absoluetly love the Background! Not only is it something new (for me at least, I have no experience with inuit culture) but it fits the GSC-Theme so amazingly well!

Having said that, I thought that the 3 neophytes look a bit too "standard" for me. Don't get me wrong, they look good, are well painted etc. But for such a great and unique background idea they look too smilar to the standard GSC troop. Maybe go a bit harder on the turquoise?



This is complainging at the highest level, I hope you don't get this wrong

Not all mate! I appreciate the feedback.

My Brood Brothers were kinda flashy and vibrant with the army colors everywhere, I sorted wanted to dull it back for the Neophytes a little. In the end I finished with this gritty look, and I was worried that I might take something away from it if I added too much color to them. I didn't want it to look too cartoony, or like a mix of too many different styles in one. I painted a visor or two with the turqoise and I already feel like I maybe overdid it.

However, after reading your response, maybe you're right. I think I might go back and add a turqoise stripe to the shoulder pads then (regular Neophytes have a red one), just to properly establish that scheme.

 Nitro Zeus wrote:
Thanks for all the responses guys! Really glad you guys love it, I'll be sure to deliver more!

Waaaghbert wrote:
Absoluetly love the Background! Not only is it something new (for me at least, I have no experience with inuit culture) but it fits the GSC-Theme so amazingly well!

Having said that, I thought that the 3 neophytes look a bit too "standard" for me. Don't get me wrong, they look good, are well painted etc. But for such a great and unique background idea they look too smilar to the standard GSC troop. Maybe go a bit harder on the turquoise?



This is complainging at the highest level, I hope you don't get this wrong

Not all mate! I appreciate the feedback.

My Brood Brothers were kinda flashy and vibrant with the army colors everywhere, I sorted wanted to dull it back for the Neophytes a little. In the end I finished with this gritty look, and I was worried that I might take something away from it if I added too much color to them. I didn't want it to look too cartoony, or like a mix of too many different styles in one. I painted a visor or two with the turqoise and I already feel like I maybe overdid it.

However, after reading your response, maybe you're right. I think I might go back and add a turqoise stripe to the shoulder pads then (regular Neophytes have a red one), just to properly establish that scheme.

You could try a soft turquoise shade over the organic parts or incoorparate the grey/turquoise elements in the organic parts of you GSC instead of adding it to the armour. This would tie them in closer to your tyranids. I can understand that you don't wnat to do this as I suppose this is how almost everyone does it

Not a bad idea on the shading, but it's a bit late as I've already done 30 or so models with druchii violet on the skin. Plus, I think I prefer it this way, I want them looking truly Stealer-esque. I've been using a bluer-black for the GSC carapace though.

However, I went back and added a little bit more color on the shoulder pads. I was already considering doing it and I think the models just needed a touch more to tie the color scheme together. Here's some GSC I haven't shared yet.




And here's a better look at the shoulders:




Automatically Appended Next Post:
they look smoother in real life for some reason :(

Ok, strange question, because this is honestly the mission of a lifetime. Do you remember ever reading a book, an illustrated children's book of monsters from various parts of the world, including the Qalupalik? I've been trying to find this book for a few years now, but it appears to not exist...

Secondly, great move with the shoulder plates, it makes the blue elsewhere on them more obviously stand out as part of the scheme.

Nice! The small, subtle accent on the pads really does it! They look really good! Can't wait to see more

I love the name and lore for you army. The turquoise really works well in combination with the orange. Are you going to add any cold weather conversions or hints in the modelling? I think the name, real life background to the name, and colors have me thinking that way.

Thanks guys!

facelyss wrote:
I love the name and lore for you army. The turquoise really works well in combination with the orange. Are you going to add any cold weather conversions or hints in the modelling? I think the name, real life background to the name, and colors have me thinking that way.

I was mostly planning on keeping a mostly unifying theme for the bases of my GSC, which is already locked in as that spaceship interior look that I've gone for. As I mentioned, I want to keep them a somewhat separate entity to the Hive Fleet, true to GSC lore. However, my Tyranids themselves have the snow theme very heavily. Here's a look at Old One Eye that I modelled and painted up this week, for an example of this theme in action.








I plan on fielding the Choir as an allied detachment to my nids, so hopefully, the turqoise will tie both armies together on the battlefield, and the cold aesthetic of the Bugs will sync up with the space hulk interior of the GSC. That's the idea anyway.

However, when I'm done with all the things on my current to-do list, I might just reward myself one of the awesome GSC vehicles to paint up just for fun, and of course those things are made for the outdoors, so I might go all in on some snow-world weathering on that, maybe with some hangar interior below it. I particularly like the Ridgerunner. I just do quick and easy on my nids, but I think once I find a higher quality way of doing snow, I may add it to my Neophyte bases, as the mining crew is exactly the sort of people that would also share that outdoor look.

I absolutely love that white/grey scheme. Lovely work.

Your One-Eye's pose is great. It's most unusual to see a carnifex that isn't hunched over.

Hey guys. So, with uni and the family, I've been way busier than I'd like to be, and I know it's been a little while, at least, longer than I was hoping it would take between updates. So, I really wanted to make this update a treat for you guys - ARMY SHOTS! and, something extra special at the end!

After completing a few assignments (and honestly, while listening to some lectures) I was able to round out some of my squads and get the working core of a battalion up and running. So here's some shots of that - excuse the harsh lighting at points, this is my first time doing a photoshoot and I'm still working on getting it right (still just using the wife's iPhone for my camera too lol)


Off the bat, here's my 20x Brood Brothers (2x squads of 10), all armed with Autoguns / Las, who will be a mainstay of every single list.



And because I want to run these guys as Neophytes in Kill Team as they are a bit more flavorful and unique than the Neophyte model (plus there are no Brood Brothers in Kill Team), and while Autoguns are good for most of them, KT is a different beast and I need some Heavy Weapon specialisation and an Icon for all my guys to rally on. So, for those who care, here's the 3 extra auxiliary guys I did up for that purpose, two Heavy strip mining bois, and one Cult Icon bearer!







Now, to round out the troop portent of my battalion (for now) I painted up 10x Neophyte Hybrids to get a feel for painting the actual proper GSC mining aesthetic. It was a great learning experience, and I now feel comfortable to start painting almost any model in the GSC range. In my list, these guys will eventually be getting the boot for Acolytes in time, but I currently plan to leave them for last, and anyway, I could hardly play GSC without painting up at least one squad of these guys right?







Buuuut... this is all stuff you guys have already had a bit of a peek at, and I'm sure you guys would like to have a look at something fresh.

Now, I said I had something special for you guys, so here goes - my first character for GSC! Now, I'm a really big fan of the Sanctus, and in my borrow-Hammer playtest matches he's been absolutely outstanding inclusion even in a pretty psyker-uncommon meta. Not because he's always the best unit, but for 50 points with character protection and a sniper he usually does something, and on a good day he has just about outright won some games on his own against the wrong opponent! So, I wanted to do something special for his model, and because of my love for this unit in particular, I wanted him to be a centerpiece of sorts. This is in my opinion, definitely the best paintjob I've ever done to date, which is funny cause I actually just winged it on a lot of stuff, no guide or anything for most of the new stuff I tried here. Struggled to get a picture that I felt did him justice, so I took a few shots here.

Anyway, here it is: Cult Sanctus performing a Perfect Ambush !










I couldn't have a model like this indoors, so I took facelyss's advice and tied him in to the cold scheme of my nids, which I think ended up working well. Can any of you guys help think of a good nickname for him??



Anyways, that is about all for today! I'll edit these shots into the OP, but I wanted to get some army shots done and share them with you guys. Let me know what you think

Finished the first of my Purestrains today. Test run model, had to re-do a lot, next run will be a lot better and neater. I might make his carapace more turqoise in shading, then again, I sort of like how this turned out.

I love how those Neophytes and Brood Brothers turned out! The color scheme really is great.

Your Sanctus turned out great as well. He's a cult Rambo for sure. I think having him on an outdoor base did turn out well. He'd certainly be in the vanguard ahead of the main force. I do like your idea to have some transitional bases, a la hanger bays on the planet Hoth. It'll be really cool to have a small internal narrative like that with the bases alone and I am excited to see what you do with it.

Your photography on the white background turned out much better with the purestrain! The Sanctus looked a lot better on the same background you used for the Neophytes and Brood Brothers. I think with the purestrain, a slight bump in contrast on the carapace would go a long way to make that model pop. The rest looks really good and I love the black eyes; super creepy.

 Nitro Zeus wrote:
Hey guys. So, with uni and the family, I've been way busier than I'd like to be, and I know it's been a little while, at least, longer than I was hoping it would take between updates. So, I really wanted to make this update a treat for you guys - ARMY SHOTS! and, something extra special at the end!

After completing a few assignments (and honestly, while listening to some lectures) I was able to round out some of my squads and get the working core of a battalion up and running. So here's some shots of that - excuse the harsh lighting at points, this is my first time doing a photoshoot and I'm still working on getting it right (still just using the wife's iPhone for my camera too lol)


Off the bat, here's my 20x Brood Brothers (2x squads of 10), all armed with Autoguns / Las, who will be a mainstay of every single list.



And because I want to run these guys as Neophytes in Kill Team as they are a bit more flavorful and unique than the Neophyte model (plus there are no Brood Brothers in Kill Team), and while Autoguns are good for most of them, KT is a different beast and I need some Heavy Weapon specialisation and an Icon for all my guys to rally on. So, for those who care, here's the 3 extra auxiliary guys I did up for that purpose, two Heavy strip mining bois, and one Cult Icon bearer!

Spoiler:

Ha, good old FW renegades.
job well done imo.

Fantastic progress! Brood Brothers and GSC are looking good. Cold blue/grey and warm orange are contrasting nicely.

The amount of flavor on the Cult Sanctus ambush model is great. That one definitely tells a little story. Good stuff.

-Rids

 The Riddle of Steel wrote:
Fantastic progress! Brood Brothers and GSC are looking good. Cold blue/grey and warm orange are contrasting nicely.

The amount of flavor on the Cult Sanctus ambush model is great. That one definitely tells a little story. Good stuff.

-Rids

Really glad you guys liked it! I'm very happy with him and really eager to get him out on the field being an annoying little rambo boi all game. People casted some doubt my way for the inclusion of the unit in my list (from a competitive standpoint), so I really want that unit to leave an impression and I hope the model helps do it. I think he's really underrated and I'm trying to make at least some people have some nasty memories of the Sanctus rambo'ing about all game.

facelyss wrote:
I love how those Neophytes and Brood Brothers turned out! The color scheme really is great.

Your Sanctus turned out great as well. He's a cult Rambo for sure. I think having him on an outdoor base did turn out well. He'd certainly be in the vanguard ahead of the main force. I do like your idea to have some transitional bases, a la hanger bays on the planet Hoth. It'll be really cool to have a small internal narrative like that with the bases alone and I am excited to see what you do with it.

Your photography on the white background turned out much better with the purestrain! The Sanctus looked a lot better on the same background you used for the Neophytes and Brood Brothers. I think with the purestrain, a slight bump in contrast on the carapace would go a long way to make that model pop. The rest looks really good and I love the black eyes; super creepy.

Wow, you're on the same page as me here - Hoth Hangar is exactly the inspiration I've had in my head. There is also a heavy precedent in Dead Space 3, while not the best game in the series I still loved it, and much of it is set on an ice world with a bunch of indoor areas and transitions, so I think it was a great suggestion to add some snow to some of these GSC bases. I've found the right stuff to make good quality snow now, and it's on it's way in the mail, so I look forward to cooling down some of the bases on the Neophytes, which admittedly do look a little flat at the moment (intentionally so, but it has definitely left room to build on them as per your suggestion). I'm going to keep the purestrains with that rusted indoors look, in my mind they would be properly dug in and infesting the deepest parts of a ship, but I think the variance will do it well.

I also felt the exact same way concerning the Purestrain needing a little contrast - but I wanted to leave the carapace as is, I was really happy with that as is. Instead, I added a touch of my army's turquoise's wetblended along the tip of the tongue and then gloss varnished, which really contrasts well with the rest of the pallet imo, and as the brightest part of the model also helps to draw the eyes right to the face of the model. And now with the orange tones on the basing as well as the hands + feet, and turqoise immediately visible as well, it really ties in with the army color scheme and looks right at home with the rest of the models so far. Was a small change, but I think it made all the difference personally - though I'll show more photos when I'm finished the squad and you can give me your opinion there. I really do consider all the feedback you guys give, and I think my final result is going to look better for it.

However, the Purestrain unit is back on pause for a week or two - I'm currently working on a very special project for my Tyranids, something with a lot of personal significance, which is something that I've never done before. This project will stay on the downlow for now, but I'm going to share it in here when I finish, since this is basically a dual army P&M blog at this point. I'm about halfway through it now, and I got the stuff I'm unfamiliar with out of the way first, so hopefully the rest will be smooth sailing (yet still a big chunk of work!). Thanks everyone so much for the replies it really motivates me to keep going.

Hey guys - haven't forgotten about you. Been a busy a time of year for me - I get my exam results back tomorrow - wish me luck!

Anyway, that big project I spoke about, is a few days, maybe a week away from being finished. I had to add multiple paints and tools to my arsenal when working on this one, because I wanted to do the best job I can.

Here's something of what I've been doing on the side inbetween exams, and working on the big boi as my main project.







just a refresher on the look I'm trying to go for:

Qalupalik is a myth/legend told by Inuit parents and elders to prevent children from wandering to the shore. Qalupalik are human-like creatures with long hair, green skin, and long finger nails that live in the sea. They wear amautiit (an article of human clothing), in which they carry away babies and children who disobey their parents or wander off alone.[...]The story was used to prevent children from wandering off alone, lest the qalupalik take the children in her amautik underwater and keep them forever.

As a Genestealer Cult, I feel Purestrains should set the tone for the entire army, and be the concept that the rest of them draw from, so I'm thinking (and hoping) that I've properly nailed the core of that with this guy.



BTW I think I'll color in the Blood Angel helmet lenses with some turqoise - just to tie it back to my scheme and add that extra layer of interest. Thoughts?

But for now, its back to the finishing touches on the big project. I don't want to hype it up too much, but I will say that in my personal opinion - it absolutely fething blows anything I've done so far out of the water! I'll check back in as soon as I can guys.

That Purestrain looks absolutely evil, like something that would snatch kids out the water. It sounds like a good idea to add colour to the Blood Angel helmet. Maybe - though I'm not sure about this - you could make the transitions from turquoise to skin somewhat smoother? Like making the back of the head slightly turquoise toned? The Neophytes higher up look great by the way.

That is a great start. I think the cultists make much better brood brothers han the outdated Cadian models, and they are really well painted. The neophytes are fantastic too.

Thanks for the compliments guys. It's what makes this all worth it. Pomander, I'm using a different technique for the skin tone on my Purestrains than I am for my Neophytes, I'm conciously trying to use a similar color pallet, but make the skin just look that little bit more unsettling in tone, but without being directly "alien" skin, like making the purple or turqoise too overt or like some other Genestealers I've seen (which look great, just not the look I'm going for). Instead I've been working on trying to leave that purple shading just sitting there below the surface of the skin tone, as a nod to the classic Hydra color scheme, but maybe a more updated, realistic sort of vibe on it.





Anyway guys - I finished the big boi! here he is here:


"Control specimen: 1N"







Some of you may remember back in 6th edition, when Geoff "InControl" Robinson was one of the only people putting up any sort of numbers on the boards with Tyranids at tournaments. What's more, he was the only person running a Hierodule, and his powers of persuasion convinced me to try something similar. I found that mine was not actually all that great for me back then (and it's definitely even worse now) which is probably testament to InControl's skill as a player, but this year's tragedy made me feel like I had to do something special with this model, so this became a project with a lot of personal significance. I tried my hand at a few new techniques on this one and really tried to step my game up and cut zero corners.

A couple of nods to Geoff in the piece - he said in the past that his favorite piece of 40k lore was the Genestealer cultists being eaten by the Tyranids. You guys know I agree very much on that, so I wanted to make something telling that story, as it's so 40k to it's core but yet I've never actually seen anyone really do much with it on a model.
I'd write out what's going on in the piece but I'd much rather you guys have a look at what's going on and see for yourselves - I'm very happy with how it turned out and I think it really conveys what I wanted it to.

I wanted to include the Evil Genius symbol somewhere, but without making it too overt. I know it's not owned by Geoff, but he was the face of that team and it was such a large part of his timeline as a public figure and I'm sure he'd agree that it's such a crucial part of his story, so I wanted to find a way to include it somewhere kind of naturally. So I incorporated it into the mottling on his head.

And of course, the name is a reference to InControl. Also just on the side, I love the Zergling vibe the entire sculpt has, which ties in neatly with the motivations of the project.


I really hope you guys like this. It's by far the centerpiece of my Nid collection and is basically a farewell to my work on the army, which is basically "complete" at this point, other than a smattering of GSC (which is what this thread is for), but above all it has a lot of personal significance and get's its own spot in the display cabinet (the rest of my Nids sleep outside in the cold of my overhead cupboard ). Hoping to bash him against a Knight sometime soon.

That looks really awesome!

Wow. That turned out amazing! I love all the little narrative pieces in it as well as the hidden nods to your inspirations. I think the Evil Genius logo on the head came out particularly well and it is done in a way that without you pointing it out, I never would have noticed beyond the cool pattern and excellent paint job.

Did you ever paint the terminator's eyes on the pure strain? If not, my two cents is that they should be painted something relatively bright and probably not turquoise as there is so much of that in the army already. Maybe orange or even red would look fantastic. Something to provide some contrast without breaking the scheme, you know?

Really like the colour scheme; subdued and subtle. Really brings out the models and makes the weird alien goo-ness seem far more realistic. Love the converted Brood Brothers too.

facelyss wrote:
Did you ever paint the terminator's eyes on the pure strain? If not, my two cents is that they should be painted something relatively bright and probably not turquoise as there is so much of that in the army already. Maybe orange or even red would look fantastic. Something to provide some contrast without breaking the scheme, you know?

I wanted to make a call back to my Hive Fleet/Cult's turqoise identity, but I wanted to end with a bit of a more greenish hint than usual in the finish, in honor of the classic scheme for space hulk Blood Angel terminators (green lenses).

I tried a few different colors in the end, but eventually settled a beautiful greenish blue color that I really love as the strongest layer.




It didn't leave it looking like a powerfully green or anything, but I felt it looked visually more in line with a more gritty take on the classic BA scheme than it did with just my regular raw turqoises, and yet it's not too far out from the turqoise, so I still feel just that little touch of color definitely ties these models together with a unified look on the table.



I also decided upon leaving one eye dulled out, to show where it had been busted against the floor or whatever this genestealer scraped it against. I also tried to make the green one that I did give color to, seem like the backlight was also dying out but I don't really think I achieved it. However I learned a lot about painting lenses for the next time. (sorry blurry photo):





I'm really enjoying bringing out the Orange for my color scheme not so much on the model itself, but by using the rust, weathering, and gore to still capture that aspect of my GSC scheme, with a detail highlight or two to mention the Turqoise! While the cult colors aren't really a direct part of their color scheme, the purestrains are such a monochromatic blend of greys that the color contrast from the rest of the model really ties them into the scheme anyway if I'm careful with my tones here in my opinion, and when lined up next to the cultists they really look like part of the same army scheme wise, but just in a less garish, less showy, more subdued sort of way. The rest of the army will be done the way I'm doing the cultists of course, but it just seems so fitting to me to do this with the Purestrains, and makes them feel more alien than the cultists to me.

Here's a look at the finish of the first guy too, I touched up his tongue in a similar way.




I've done a few more of them now and I'm going to keep working on them, and I'll share some more shots of my favorite ones when I'm finished. I'm really excited to paint the Patriach, I REALLY had fun converting him up to really sell the vibe I am going for with my personal cult, and as such I want him to look his best on the tabletop.

Looking great! I think the blood effect came across particularly well. It looks straight out of Alien or some sort of dark sci-fi horror movie.

I'm excited to see the Patriarch and whatever else you've got cooking.