Genestealer Cult

Brotherhood of the Life-Giving Father

Once I had finished my Rogue Trader's Retinue my eye was caught by the Genestealers - particularly by an old Tyranid army list in White Dwarf Magazine. Loved the old models of the Patriarch, Zoats and Hunter-slayers so started searching ebay to start the cult. The idea of Brood Brothers also caught my imagination and a few of my faithful Imperial Guard minis found themselves corrupted by the seductive lure of the cult.

Found some great minis from the Necromunda range to complete the squad, along with a few other fallen Imperial minis from the Adeptus Arbites and Space Marine Scouts - no doubt ensnared on a lonely Space Hulk!

To give them a bit of heavy support I converted an old Orc Bolt Thrower frame to an improvised artillery piece -

They also needed some wheels so I spruced up a old Rhino I had - added some spiky bits and more improvised weaponry to make it look like it had been pinched and beefed up a bit for the Cult's sinister purposes.

Always fancied building or converting a Cult Limousine - bizarre idea for the battlefield but a lot of fun as can be seen in this old pic from White Dwarf. However, never found a suitable model to convert and the idea fell by the wayside.

Found a great site called Bell of Lost Souls which had a new list for the Genestealer cult to fit it into the new 40K rules - wasn't so bothered about following any rules but there were some great ideas like the Brood Initiates - ordinary civilians initiated into the cult and whipped into a fanatical religious fervour!

Again had loads of fun tracking down suitable minis - some from Heresy, Empire Flagellants, Old Citadel and Rogue Trader minis and so on -

And onto the Genesteales themselves - always loved the Hybrid minis and assembled a good sized band from plastic and metal minis -

The actual Genestealer minis I wasn't that chuffed with - unfortunately the budget didn't run to a horde of the old metal minis so I had to make do with some cheapo plastics!

However the Patriarch more than makes up for them -

Couldn't resist putting a dead Space Marine sprawled at his feet either!

No Cult would be complete without a Magus and his familiar -

As Genestealer Cults were supposed to soften a Planet up in preparation for a Tyranid invasion and because the old Tyranid army was so cool I had to include a few advance elements of the Hive Fleet.

Zoats are a sad loss to the Warhammer world -

And I much prefer the old Hunter Slayers to those new-fangled Gaunts and such like -

However, they proved somewhat rare on Ebay and I had to top them up with the slightly newer version that came out when the Tyranids were rereleased.

Another great idea from the Bell of Lost Souls were the Hybrid Monstrosities - Native creatures that have become infected by the Genestealer incursion and are now under the control of the Patriarch.

Having flicked through the Creatures pages in Rogue Trader I felt these Heresy Maggots could

be Lash-Worms -

And I had to include a Cthellan Cudbear after I found this Sabre-toothed Bear on Ebay - once I had altered the ears he was ready to go -

Rogue Trader Retinue

Rogue Trader, Hans Valerium, and his Retinue

Painted these up about a year ago - in fact they had been sitting around in a box fairly unloved since I bought them and did a fairly typical 13 year old paint job on them! Think I've improved since then. Started with the plastic boxed set of Imperial Guard -

Fantastic artwork - anyway repainted them and then got hooked on buying up various Rogue Trader era minis on Ebay and ended up with a Rogue Trader and his retinue, including his own chapter of Space Marines - recruited from his Imperial Guard regiment - The Lucky Sevens.

Here are the original plastic guardsmen - great minis and loads of fun to assemble. There are a couple of metal heavy weapons guardsmen lurking among the plastics.

Then I got hooked on the excellent metal Impaerial Army minis that were around in the good old days.

Here are my efforts -

And from there I obviously had to track down an Inquisitor, Assassin, Astropath, Space Marine Scouts and various other hangers on -

Also loitering in my bits box were, among other things, an old Rough Rider, an Imperial Biker -

- and a Land Speeder!

As Rogue Traders were supposed to be off into the outer reaches of Imperium Space exploring, exploiting and exterminating alien threats I felt his retinue should include the Imperium's finest - a legion of his own Space Marines -

Complete with Captain and Medic -

And so on to the Rogue Trader himself, Hans Valerium, mounted on hos trusty Grox steed - always loved the idea of Grox ranches in the original Rogue Trader rule book so went down a Wild West theme.

As Grox are notoriously recalcitrant creatures I took the liberty of wiring a control device directly into its cranium -

Had some fun sticking a load of equipment into saddle holsters, including sharpshooter needle rifle, space marine helmet, bedroll (to continue the Cowboy theme!) - hopefully didn't make the model look too cluttered!

So here's the whole lot with a bit of scenery from Amera -