Genestealer Cult - Forgeworld Rapier!

Because Warhammer 40K has been around a long time, at least in the world of miniatures wargaming systems, there are a lot of "oldie but goodie" units out there that you don't see a lot on the tabletop but may hold a nostalgic place in many long-time gamers' hearts. One of these for me has been the Rapier, currently known as the Rapier Laser Destroyer. Until recently you could pick one of these up on the Forgeworld site for your Astra Militarum army, but it seems to have disappeared recently, though you can still get a Space Marine version for Horus Heresy forces.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Red Gobbo!

As we come to the end of the year, I haven't had time to start putting together all of my thoughts to do a full "year in review" yet. I've sort of been running from one painting competition to another for the past several months, and this week is no different. The local Warhammer Store is running a Red Gobbo painting competition tomorrow and I finally got my little critter painted - honestly this is one of the few times I almost, kinda, sort of, painted it according to the instructions. Of course, I had to go a little crazy on the snow on the basing and all that, but hey, this is me we're talking about.

So to you and yours, have a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Joyous New Year!!!

Genestealer Cult - Neophyte Hybrid Necromunda Conversions

For my Genestealer Cult force, I wanted to have a bit of variety in the units. This can help with backstory, and from a more practical standpoint, it can help me keep track of units on the table. I always have to mark my historical wargaming figures with distinguishing marks - especially infantry - to keep individual squads / platoons apart. Fortunately, in Warhammer 40K you can make up your own force and distinguish squads however you prefer. As at its heart, the Genestealer Cult army is, well, a Cult, I wanted to have a few figures that looked the part. Fortunately Games Workshop makes a full range of figures for the game Necromunda that has several figures that fit the bill quite nicely.

Genestealer Cult - Brood Brothers Reinforcements

Over the last few weeks in the background I've been working on a few new models for my Brood Brothers detachment for the Genestealer Cult. I started with the Forgeworld resin Cadian Command HQ Squad and for the most part performed a head swap on them. I went a bit further with the officer as I wanted to retain the field telephone - so carving out that resin took a fair amount of work.

Genestealer Cult - Converted Sanctus

One of the new units available in the current edition of Warhammer 40K to the Genestealer Cult army is the Sanctus. Unlike the Locus, which serves more as an elite bodyguard for high ranking cultists, the Sanctus is an assassin. Capable of being armed with either a bio-dagger or sniper rifle, the unit can fill two very different niches in any force. I have a copy of the standard Sanctus available from Games Workshop, and like most of their new releases it is a great miniature. However, its pose seems to lend itself more to being armed with the bio-dagger rather than the sniper rifle. An individual online posted a great conversion of a Kroot miniature to serve as a sniper Sanctus and thus inspired I decided to make my own.

Cult Reinforcements - Nexos and Standard Bearer

Now that Armies on Parade is over, I've been able to get back to painting up some more miniatures for the cult. I started by finishing up a couple that I'd hoped to get done for my Armies on Parade force, the Nexos and the Standard Bearer for one of my Brood Brothers command squads, but now I'll just have to use them for next year's entry - more on that in what will likely be several blogs worth of material.

Armies on Parade - The Uprising!

I found out that Games Workshop holds an annual Armies on Parade event a couple of months ago. As I've been working a lot on my Genestealer cult, I figured that this would be a fun opportunity to get the army out on the table and see how it fared against the competition. I had several ideas for a scenic base, but ultimately realized that I just didn't have the time to completely build something new from scratch. I'd already been building several of the ruined plastic buildings available from GW, and I ended up picking up a Forgeworld Realm of Battle 2' x 2' base (the Cityscape Generatorium Sector) figuring with a little work I could make it look pretty good.