Old School Leman Russ Demolisher - Pressed into Cult Service!

Games Workshop first produced their plastic Leman Russ kit way back in 1994. At the time it was a major breakthrough for Guard players, and given the capricious scatter mechanics of the day, the Russ was an absolute beast on the table as battle cannon shells could bend and curve like the Matrix and blast vehicles from the side and rear with near impunity. They also started producing alternate variants of the Russ either through Imperial Armour (later Forgeworld) or through the addition of white metal parts to the standard kit. I had one of these vintage beauties lying around that had never been fully painted, so I decided to "requisition" it for the cult.

This one I'd built in ages past with a rather unusual mixed armament of the Demolisher Cannon, one Heavy Bolter, and two Plasma Cannon. As the Demolisher variant isn't in the normal Genestealer Cult codex, this will purely be a Brood Brother Astra Militarum detachment addition to the force, which is perfectly fine with me. It will give the Baneblade company!

Scout Sentinels for the Brood!

The base Genestealer Cult codex includes a few Astra Militarum units which can be taken as part of the core army. This is nice option because the units include the faction keywords Tyranids and Genestealer Cults automatically. A GSC army can field both Armoured and Scout Sentinels as a part of the core list. Of course, these can also be fielded as a part of an Allied Astra Militarum detachment as well, making them fairly versatile. I finally finished up a full squad of three Scout Sentinels for my growing force. One of these days I'm going to have to take a group picture of the whole army, but that will likely wait a couple of weeks or so.

As you can see, I've continued with my "50 Shades of Soviet Green" theme here using two different shades of Russian green for the sentinels. The one on the far left is done with a Second World War vintage 4BO Russian Green (A.MIG-019). I went with a simple red cult insignia on this one. The middle and right-hand sentinels are in a more modern Soviet/Russian green called Dark Green (BS 241) (A.MIG-915). I went back to my tried and true graffiti over the aquila on those.

Genestealer Cult - Hybrid Metamorphs!

One of the newer units to make it into the Genestealer Cult pantheon is the Hybrid Metamorph. They appear late in a cult cycle and bear many of the telltale physical attributes of the Tyranid progenitors. I've been working on a unit of Metamorphs for a while, and it has been a bit of a fight to get them to where I'm truly happy with the paint job - but they're there now, so I can unleash them upon the world!

I went ahead and assembled a full squad of 10 of these guys, which takes two of the metamorph boxes. The Metamorph Leader is the guy in the middle with four arms holding a skull and spinal column. I've been trying to get him to put it down for a while, but he keeps carting it around like a security blanket.

Genestealer Cult Ratling Brood Brother

With the world sort of going crazy all around us, I've managed to take the enforced "home time" to start making forward progress on my various Genestealer Cult activities. I haven't been idle over the past month and a half, just some of the projects have been taking a bit longer than I'd hoped they would to get finished. However, that being said, over this past weekend I finally managed to make real forward progress on several projects. I expect until the current quarantines ease, posts to the blog will be a bit more regular - at least that's the goal!

As part of my Brood Brothers Guard force, I wanted to start including something beyond simple infantry squads (be they command, line infantry, special weapon, or heavy weapon squads) and tanks. I started looking at the possibility of converting some of the abhuman forces like Ratlings and Ogryns. The Sanctus I converted from a Blackstone Fortress Kroot last year got me thinking that there may be other good miniatures out there that I could use as the basis for some conversion, and as BSF had two ratlings, I decided to take the plunge!