Second Brood Brothers Infantry Squad

I just finished painting up my second infantry squad for my Brood Brothers detachment. The nice thing about the infantry squad is I can use it either directly in my Genestealer Cult main force, or in a Brood Brothers Astra Militarum detachment. If I want to be particularly cheeky, I could just run it as straight Astra Militarum - call them something along the lines of Savlar Chem Dogs. In short, these squads are fairly versatile, though fragile. I try to maximize firepower, and have a variety of it so my opponent can't simply ignore them. In a recent battle against Tau, my first infantry squad's autocannon actually ended up being quite effective.

Second Command Squad for the Brood Brothers

A while back I'd gotten a standard bearer together and painted like I wanted it (taking heavy cues from the flag of the Soviet Union crossed with the Genestealer Cult), but I hadn't gotten around to finishing the rest of that squad, including the platoon commander. I've now finally been able to get this crew together and they're ready to take on the world - as long as it's not too tough...

Another Russ for the Brood - with Backstory!

The local gaming board/club, Ordo Fanaticus, posted a challenge this week to "find the oldest unpainted or unfinished single model project you have. That model that has been languishing in the bottom of a bin, and get them table ready." While I'd hoped to have another Brood Brothers infantry squad, command squad, and platoon commander done this week, I decided to take up this challenge as I had... an idea!

Way back in 2000 during Warhammer 40K's 3rd edition days, Games Workshop released Codex Armageddon. This was one of the early attempts to create a special battlefield and event that players could fight - similar to what they've done with Psychic Awakening over the past year. Set on the hive world of Armageddon, the Codex covered the Third Armageddon War between Imperial planetary defenders and the great Ork Warlord Ghazghkull (Mag Uruk) Thraka - who is incidentally due to make an appearance in Psychic Awakening soon. Okay, technically he's out, but if you didn't jump on the boxed set before GW had to shut down because of ongoing COVID-19 issues, you're out of luck until they reopen. I'd always wanted to do a guard army, and the Steel Legion troopers looked truly military to me - so I picked up some miniatures and vehicles and started the painting process.

Photo from the original Codex Armageddon - Steel Legion mechanized moving out!

Brood Brothers - Ogryns!

The Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard for us grognards) has long had a history of "overlooking" certain mutations from the human norm and recruit "abhumans" into their ranks. In the current, and recent, editions you can still take Ogryns (large, brutish humans adapted to live on high gravity worlds) and Ratlings (AKA halflings or hobbits). In previous editions, Beastmen were also allowed, but they have since been dropped as an option. For my full Astra Militarum detachment, I wanted to include a unit of Ogryns as they make great battering rams, and it gave me an opportunity to try some slightly different conversions.

For my Cult Ogryns, I started with the basic kit, but decided rather than simply going with some forehead ridges as you'd see on the normal Brood Brothers infantry, the Ogryns would develop full cranial protection remnant of tyranids or hybrid metamorphs. I also decided to go with one Ogryn wearing a gas mask as that is fairly right for the overall army's theme.