Genestealer Cult - The Heavy Hitters

Games of Warhammer 40K - despite its futuristic overtones - often come down to hand to hand combat. Most armies have dedicated specialists who excel in this sort of close quarters fighting, and the Genestealer cults have a few fun choices. I've got a couple of these painted up so far. One is a standard troops choice, which the other is an elite choice, in this case supplemented by an HQ choice.

Aberrants are sort of the "super mutants" of the Genestealer Cult list. They excel at hand to hand combat, but have no ranged attacks. Using items like power picks or hammers - and the occasional road sign - with the right upgrades they can bring many units low in short order. This particular group is led by an Abominant, which is an Aberrant turned up to "eleven." These guys were painted with Ammo of Mig flesh tones and a variety of Vallejo and Ammo of Mig paints. I tried to go for a true mutant look on them rather than having them more closely resemble Tyranids.

The group above is a unit of Acolyte Hybrids. These are 1st and 2nd generation hybrids that still retain most of their original Genestealer characteristics.  Armed with sidearms, knives, and the occasional power drill and rock saw, these guys are also brutal when the fighting gets up close and personal. In painting this unit, I went a slightly different direction and used some of the new Games Workshop contrast paints, which ended up working pretty well. These new paints allow you to paint to a table standard in one coat, and a more advance standard in less time that it would have previously taken.

For the miniatures above, I used Skeleton Horde contrast for the "bone" colored portions of the miniatures, though many of them received at least a light drybrush of Vallejo bone to help blend them a bit.  The body harness, knee pads, etc. are straight up Basilicanum Grey contrast which worked very well.  The purple highlights are another contrast paint, I believe it was Shyish Purple - though I did have to dilute it a bit to get the shade just right.  I also experimented with Snakebite leather for the leather wraps, some of the pouches.  The eyes and tongues are a mix of Blood Angels Red and Flesh Tearers Red.  I also used some contrast on the whip and the saw as well.

So the force is really starting to come together. I have a few more secret projects in the works, and I'm still trying to finish painting my Metamorph Hybrids using techniques similar to the Acolyte Hybrids above.