The Cult Rises: Update 1: Aberrants. Bro, do you even lift?

Greetings reader,


I bet you were skeptical you'd ever see another post from me where I stick with anything or even update this blog. Don't feel bad, I was pretty skeptical I'd get anything updated either. I suck at staying focused on just about anything. And yet, here we are!

I am a slow painter but I managed to finish four acolytes from the Overkill box that i had sitting around, did some detail work on my Abominant, and fully finished four aberrants and almost finished another 6. I'm calling that a win to get this machine started.

So let's talk about the Aberrants a little bit before I drown you in pictures. At the time of writing this, Aberrants got a pretty hefty buff in the Tooth and Claw box; the Bestial Vigor special rule not only reduces incoming damage by 1 but also gives them a 5+ to ignore each wound. Combined with the changes to the pick wielding Aberrants to get one rending claw attack for every power pick attack, they have become both really effective at clearing chaff and also able to really put a hurt on heavier infantry and vehicles thanks to their base Strength of five. Throw in a couple Hypermorphs and you have a pretty nasty unit. A unit of 10 can throw out 46 attacks, 12 of them at strength ten with stop signs on the Hypermorphs. If you want a little more punch for hard targets, putting hammers on the Hypermorphs is a great way too.

I assembled my Aberrants with picks and Hypermorphs with stop signs. With them coming out in August, I'm hoping there won't be too much of a change to them with the Genestealer Cult Codex whenever it releases.

So let's talk about the painting. Firstly, I definitely consider myself a fledgling painter, making mistakes and learning as I go. I didn't have my first fully painted army until I went to the Dark Star GT back in May 2014. I am no expert and value feedback on my work. I am pretty much exclusively a brush painter. I have an airbrush but I haven't really put the time in to learn it yet, plus there is something almost therapeutic for me to brush paint my models.

Here is my first fully painted army for Dark Star 2014.

Secondly, I am pretty terrible at basing my miniatures, that's why I choose to buy the Games Workshop Sanctum Imperialis bases and try to put all my models on them. The bases look great and mesh well with my display board, which is a Realm of Battle tile to start. Of course any of the pre-molded bases work for this too, I especially like the GW ones because they are plastic and I'm a sucker for "official" products. I AM the target market!

The Games Workshop bases are great for those like me who struggle with basing. 

So let's talk about the paint scheme on these models. I pretty much copied the Games Workshop "How to paint Genestealer Acolytes" video from back when the GSC army came out with a few adjustments.

Anytime you can use a street sign as a weapon, it's a good thing.

The official scheme uses a base coat of Demonette Hide, followed by a wash of Druchii Violet, and then a highlight of Slaanesh Grey. However, I really struggled to put the Slaanesh Grey on evenly to provide the layers to the skin to provide the depth of the muscle structure. Often times the Slaanesh Grey seemed tacked on and it didn't blend well, and because it is such a thin color, when thinned it became really watery and was tough to work with. In those instances I painted the entire skin with a coat of Slaanesh Grey and went back with Druchii Violet in the recesses to try to get some of the depth back.

Here is the first coat of Slaanesh Grey on the skin.

After about three thin coats of Slaanesh Grey I felt that I had a good skin tone. I feel like I got really lucky with the eyes on this one, the other ones did not turn out as well but I am extremely pleased with this Aberrant.

I feel like I got really lucky with the eyes. Painting eyes sucks!

Here is the before mentioned pic dump, both of some WIP shots and the completed models.

Here is the first three in their spot of honor on my desk lamp base, near the Thomas the train cup of brushes.

Here is an aberrant from the Overkill set.

After knocking out this unit, I do have some tips for those looking to replicate this particular scheme-

1. It will take multiple coats of Slaanesh Grey to get the skin where you want it. Don't be upset if it looks like crap right away. I even jumped around from model to model in between coats just to not stress about how bad they looked after the initial coat.
2. If you follow the video tutorial, Duncan highlights the carapace parts before moving on to the skin. I would recommend waiting and doing all those final edge highlights last, just in case you get sloppy base coating the skin.

I have six more that are almost finished but didn't quite get them done in time for the weekly blog update posting time. I am trying to release a weekly #thecultrises post at least every Thursday. It may not always be painting, it might also be army lists/battle reports, thoughts on the codex or other random stuff that drops in my head. For next week my plan is to finish off this unit of aberrants and at least get an iconward finished as well.

Here is the family picture as of this update, expect this board to get alot more crowded as the year progresses.

Thanks for tuning in, as always C&C is welcome either on my painting or this series of blog posts.