Genestealer Magos - from a neophyte

The second kitbashed genestealer character is to be my new magos for the cult, or at least one of them. I have explained the kitbashing in a post and the HQs I've put together 

Here he is primed the face didn't catch as much of the white spray as it usually does so he might get a bit more of a brooding look. 

Name of Mallick Varnway the Wanderer. Mallick is a vagrant in the towns of villages around the cult. He speaks softly and has been seen as a non threat by the security personnel. A wandering madman speaking of the Emperor and the saviours he is sending to protect us and bring us all into one with him. He never stays long but after he arrives the security personnel are less bothersome. Keeping more to the barracks with shorter inspections, turning a blind eye to a bit of contraband or misplaced equipment. 

 Now the star children are approaching the wanderer is aboard more often, speaking to the elders and the young making sure they know the cult is there to help them become one with each other. 

 He carries everything he needs on is back. People are often stunned that an old man such as he can carry so much crippled as he is by a deformaty. Childen sometimes say they can see a tail under his cloak but their parents take them to task for such rudeness to a harmless old religious man. 

Clamavus kitbashed - Have you heard the word.

My final kitbashed character for the narrative campaign is this guy. A clamavus. 

Now. I still don't have the Genestealer codex and may pick it up when the updated one drops. So Other than the info on the rules app so I needed a bit more info from the wiki

"A Clamavus is a fourth generation Genestealer hybrid who serves as the primary propagandist of a Genestealer Cult, spreading its religious message to the populace through planetary communication networks in an attempt to gain political support.

The Clamavus is also responsible for carrying out the cult's strategy of information warfare against the planetary authorities, interfering with existing communication networks to create confusion and panic once the cult's uprising begins.

Clamavuses possess psychic powers that allow them to tap into the Tyranid Hive Mind and weaponise their audio broadcasts to the point that they can become another lethal weapon in the arsenal of the cult."

As this guy was going to be made out of my bits box I didn't want him to be the chief clamavus of the cult but the understudy and tech support guy. Thus despendable. He's the guy who goes out to screw with the widgets out in the communication systems of the oppressors. His kit is scratch built but as good as anything purpose built the cult might have got its hands on. He's going to be a weird nerdy guys no one likes but is too useful to drown in the sewer pipe. A menace to the enemy with his tech skills he can manipulate broadcasts and make it sound like the governor is a half wit stealing from the people while he is on the vox. 

 As per the conversion blog entry this guy was made using the spare bodies from the neophyte get bodged onto legs from a spare sprue of cadian guard. The staff was from the Grey Knights with a searchlight plonked on top. 

Names Jeff..... no I mean Jerec Seifer. (from the Kill team manual.) 

From two feet away the paint job doesn't look too bad from the photos it looks like I am going to have to go back and try again

Here is the final group altogether. 

A Primus in the making

As I explained I am saving some money (sort of) by making some interim HQs. This post is for the Primus. The conversion work is explained in the HQ post. Here he is before priming

My other Genestealers have been primed with a black undercoat which is nice for my rubbish painting skills as it hides the mistakes. More recently I have been priming with zenerthal hightlighting on all my new minis. For the Genestealers cults yellows I should have been doing this from the start as it the black tends to show through the yellow making it green unless the paint is layered up many times making it look all think and gloppy. 

I know the picture above looks the same as the un primed picture but the real thing now has lots of shade that will help when the base colour goes on to give it some variation and make it pop so I can keep the paint nice and thin. Maybe I should just prime in grey seer or white? 

Interim base paint. Blurred picture yellow is not going on right. Sigh. 

After shading and a few highlights it's starting to come together. 

Any way Davon Krauss (Kill team manual again) is one of the Patriarch's right hand men (followers, cultists, spawn?). He has been given a small team of cultist to guard the security of the Patriarch's lair. His mission is to eliminate threats to the cause and runs as its chief enforcer to the cults more charismatic leaders. 

Converting Genestealer HQs

I have the basis of a Genestealer army but no characters. As HQs are kind of central to how Genestealer Cults (GSC) play and for their narrative I needed some. 

 Unfortunately the pockets are empty and will be for a while. So I was looking through the only sprue of GSC I own at their spare neophyte bits and spotted they had spare bodies but no legs. I have Guard legs by the ton as I used their bodies for other conversions.

To the bits box!

I needed a Primus and a Magos at least. I figured I could make a Clamavus easier than a Locus or Sanctus and was thinking the cadian vox back pack was a good place to start with him.

 The bodies didn't exactly fit the legs. Green stuff would have filled the gaps easily but I wanted a tighter fit so filed down a notch for the pointed ends of the body to sit in and get a nice snug fit. 

 The first mini I went at was the Primus. Looking at the official model he's got three arms. One with his cult blade, one with needle pistol and one his injector claw thingy. 

I don't have a spare blade in his size that looks like a bonesword so I tried to make one from a Grey Knight falcion.

 I filed down the non blade edge until it was curved and filed off the power pack thing above the hilt. It looks alright but not like a natural bone. Have to see what it does with a bit of paint. 

Next was the magos.

he was going to be harder as the original is more like a priest than one of the neophytes. So I started with a green stuff cloak. It went a bit wrong and I covered up his belt giving him a hump. I decided rather than rip it off and start again I'd embrace to hump as it made him look like an old man especially with the staff. I'd made the staff from the icon. I'd not used because that one neophyte kit I own was going to be a kill team not a "proper unit". I cut down the cult icon and reattached it to the staff top. The bones had gone to the Primus which left the chains just kind of standing there. I don't think it looks too bad so will roll with it. 

 I added lots of things to the back and over where the belt was to give him that old man carrying everything he owns look. 

My fluff is that he masquerades as a pilgrim / missionary wandering the world bringing the word of the Emperors love and how he has sent the star children to aid us all against the oppressors.

Next was the clamavus. Obviously started with the backpack from the Cadian IG kits. 

I wanted to have him with his pole speaker thing to really mark him out and managed to find a search light from an old vehicle kit that if I paint it just right will look like a nice speaker. The pole is from the grey knights kit and is a cut down warding staff. The big thick wires are from the IG heavy weapons sprues. 

 The turn table device on the original I made by cutting up one of the heavy weapons I hadn't used to make a drum like device with a sliced up auspex on top. 

 I'm hoping the paint scheme will tie it in a bit better as it's looking a bit too tacked on. The reason it's on the is because the hand is from the chainsword arm so doesn't look like a hand operating something so I needed to hide it a bit. This can be a problem with a build where you start adding too much and it just doesn't look right. 

 Fluff is that his gear is all salvaged from what ever scraps he can find but he's not the best clamavus they have but he is just nerdy keen to take it to the oppressors with his home made kit. A bit like the oriental kid from the Goonies

Just need to paint them now

Edit: links added to painted version posts. Click the links to see more information on each model. 

Stormfiend Grotesques

I wanted some grotesques but the rumour was that the GW official model isn't great as a fine cast and is monopose so you take three they look like co-ordinated dancers rather than hulking monstrosities. The common alternatives are cyrpt horrors or Stormfiends. I went with storm fiends. First thing I found was that these guys are monopose too you just get three poses to choose from. Next thing I found was that the Talos weapons aren't that good of a fit either being too big or too small. Good news is that the skaven steampunk asthetic is not that far from nasty space elf torturers. I started off with the image below. 

 The warps tone gauntlet could be said to be a flesh gauntlet with a straight face. I tried using the pointy rock implement but decided against it in the end as it was just a bit too wide a d different. There was only two gauntlets in the set though. 

The heads were easy for the most part. Just didn't stick on the rat face and cover with the spare talos head. I liked the look of the one with the breather on it. Very Bane-esk. It needed those pipes to go somewhere so I took my knife to some of the pipes in the kit amd worked them over his back. It all worked out very neatly. His gauntlet was just stuck on the end of the pointy rock arm minus the pointy rock. His Monstrous cleaver was from the talos kit but I didn't want the talos bracer on it so I used one half of the dual liquifier gun from the talos and added it to the original armature then reversed the macro scalpel blade so it was more cleaver. This mean't I had to make my second talos a cronos but I was planning to get one eventually anyway so no big loss. 

For the third flesh gauntlet I used all the little blades that were supposed to go on the outside of one of the Stormfiends bracers and attached them to the front of the warp stone throwers. I got this idea from Pinterest someone had made a talos using them to make a fantastically scary looking weapon. I tried to do the same and it was nowhere near as good

The backs were fun to do. There is supposed to be a "brain rat" on the back there controlling things. This means there are notches and flat surfaces that need covering up. Therefore each Stormfiend go a little back pack after I did the first one. It had a backpack as (well bum bag) as part of its kit and the cables ran to it so it made sense to keep it. It also covered up the stub of the tail. For its back I hadn't glued on the chest piece of my talos for some reason so it was looking at me from the Bits box. A bit of light bending and a lot of surface blending with green stuff and it messed perfectly concealing the flat bit of back while adding a lot of detail in. 

Number two was getting a liquifier gun so I wanted cables again. It had a big hole which a sphere from the Stormfiend kit fit into just nice and then hooked up the cables to it. It looked a bit lost there so I added a spare talos bracer and presto another back pack. I've got the pictures out of order here. The final one (third picture) used the vortex thingy from the cronos upgrade and I just stuck that on. 

The last addition was the weird metal things in the shoulders the original had. I thought it looks fairly iconic and was planning on using ones from the talos kit that were the same but I only had two to do one grotesque. I looked at what I had and the chain flail wheels didn't look that different and there was 8 of them. Enough for all three. A bit of green stuff to lift them off the back and we were all done. 

Then I painted them a bit

Still have to finish the details and clean up the bases but I am liking how they turned out. 

Changing Warrior squads – 30.04.20

 When I built my first Warriors unit I only had the profile guide in the back of the instructions to follow. I hadn’t read up on the tactics or the changes in the codex. I built therefore one blaster and one darklance operator with a tricked out Sybrite without the grenade pack as it looked dorky. I was also using this for Kill teams and you can only have one blaster there.

 When I got my second box with the Archon to do some converson work on the Evil overlord I sliced a Kybalites leg in half so the boss could stand in a more action position. This left me with 9 warriors left and I was going to construct 4 trueborn and fudge a Dracon together later with spare bits and then the other 5 would be warriors. Fortunately I only got 3 models into that plan with a sword and Grenade model a Shredder, model and a Splinter rifle armed Sybarite for the Kill team leader as the blaster pistol version in the first squad was less than ideal charging headlong into the enemy and being shot to bits.

 I’m now a bit more well read on the subject and there are two things I have found.

1.       In squads of 10 you can take 2 special weapons per 5 thanks to the codex with a heavy weapon so a squad of 10 can have 2 blasters and a dark lance.

2.       Minimum squad size is a thing.

 

 With the purchase of the blood raiding party (a great money saving box when purchased for 20% off!) I got two more 10 elf Kabalite squads. But how to configure them? Magnetising was out as the arms are tiny so I’d need options.

 I gamed out my potential loadouts. I wasn’t thinking outside the box too much with numbers either 5 or 10.

 My idea is to arm one squad with anti-infantry poison weapons with dual shredders and a splinter cannon. At full strength this can go in a raider and push up 18” hopefully within 12” if not at least 18” without advancing and unleash 14+6 poison rifle shots, 2D3 S6  from the Shredders. Anything without a decent armour save isn’t going to enjoy that. The second 10 man would be dual blaster and Dark lance. Same thing but more likely to have screaming jets to land like Scourges behind the lines and drop on something important before going pop and dropping Kablites in the rear area.

 At 200ish points and a CP this is an expensive way to employ them as the same job is done by a 111pt blaster scourge squad. But that’s not the point. By maxing both squads with their special weapons I open up the other options. I’m not likely to take all four squads in their max sizes. I’m far more likely to take 5 man squads with special weapons. With this setup I’d have 25 elves with rifles with each squad requiring 3 per 5 I can have 8 squads I only have 5 Sybarites thanks to the mis step with the second squad and only 6 special weapons. By having a “backup” Sybarite in each of the new squads armed with a rifle that can turn into 23 and 7. So 6 squads with specials and 1 stock 30pt unit. The variations aren’t limitless but there more of them this way round.

 Given my current lack in transport vehicles with only one venom and one raider we no where near an optimal army build I can test out different foot slogger versions until I can get my floaty boats.

 My next purchase plan remains was a raider (£25) and a corpse cart (£18) to convert into a Wrack transport that will hold 10 wracks (2x25). I also hope to get the Skaven stormfiends set (£40) and convert into grotesques. That combined with the Haemonculus I made would give me a horrid little coven contingent and push up my points total by 25%. The grotesque could need another talos to be purchased to complete the conversions. That would make a dual battalion with an outrider. Although not quite up to 2000 points without the extra talos still. It’ll be damn close to it though.

Painters log 2020-09-11

Today I didn't want to do anything big as I'd be busy so just grabbed one of the many unfinished Genestealer Neophytes I have.

Here he is. 

As I had the purple out for just his head I also finished up the last three genestealer highlights from the McCragge set. 14 years later they are complete! 

The Coven Master

I have put together a new Haemonculus from my bits box. I wanted a cloak on him. My original plan was to make a raider for the Coven by taking a corpse cart from AoS and using the driver as a Haemonculus. CO-VID got in the way and I was unable to get a cart when I needed it so I was looking in my pile of shame and noticed I had a Tau Ethereal from their Start collecting set. I don't like the look of the fish heads so had no real intention of making the Ethereal (I like the gundam robots so Farsight all the way). I therefore decided to use the model for a second HQ. 

First thing I had to do was chisel the legs off the front of the cloak. The chest plate from the raider crew was an okay fit to the back section. I flattened the adjoining sections and clipped off anything that over hanged. 

I wanted an insectile look to him with lots of arms all bending inwards like a spider. I did want to have the head on a long neck making him more nightmarish but with some test positions using spares from the talos kit. I didn't look how I imagined so I went back to a normal head. Everyone knows the evil mastermind have bald heads so of course I chose appropriately. 

It needed plenty of green stuff to fill the gaps. 

Looking at the final product I should have given him the pistol rather than the rifle as he's going to be moving to keep up the the Coven heavies. But I suppose he can lurk at the back somewhere and let his apprentice take the risks. 

I have named him Bekliel Ghorghast (from the Kill team book) Ghorghast will be the leader of the Coven that is aligned with the Overlord Archon.

I wanted to take my Coven as Dark Creed and make some fear bombs, therefore he should have the warlord trait of "fear incarnate" . Again should have the pistol. If he gets within 3" he can cause a mortal wound. Combined with a leadership hit from himself and other creed units in combat and elite infantry are not as safe as they think. 

Battle Report - Grey knights vs Drukhari patrol

Grey knights vs Drukhari patrol

I wrote up this report as I was doing it back at the start of lockdown (March 2020) and wanted to add narrative to it to introduce my Characters. As such this is using 8th edition rules and I only have access to the core rulebook, index Xenos and the kill team manuals. I didn't want to use command points as I hadn't played since 4th and didn't want to complicate the situation plus I didn't have an easy reference for the stragems. The Grey Knights have got a lot more abilities since this but I didn't have the rules so if your wondering why damage output is low on their side its my fault. 

 For reference I've made narrative sections in italics and factuals in bold. 

 This is a 500 point patrol engagement played on my largish computer desk. The Drukhari are defending a imperial relic in some ruins in their deployment zone and the Knights have to get back by the end of the game. 

 The forces were made using battlescribe, the Grey Knights had a Brother Captain, a terminator squad with halberds and the Justiciar with a hammer, a strike squad with halberd again and a sword on the Justiciar. I wanted my lascannon and missile pod dreadnought but it was too many points and it had been glued by the previous owner. I swapped in my Death Tempter assault cannon Dreadnought to fill the gap. 

 For the Drukhari it was H'ron and a full ten man squad of warriors with a dark lance, shredder and blaster. I took 2x five wytch squads with an impaler/net in one and hydra gauntlets in the other. I took a talos with ichor injector, splinter pods and a macro scalpel and finished it off with a fast moving reaver squad with dual blasters a grav talon and cluster mines. Very much a mixed battalion. 

Deployment was as per narrative. The Drukhari were in the ruins to the left. There was a silo complex to the centre right in front of the Grey Knights they could use as cover as they advanced. The playing area is quite narrow at just over 2 feet wide but is 5 foot long. 

 The Drukhari placed their kabalite on the objective with a squad of wytches out front to try and close the gap as soon as possible. My Archon and the second squad held back blocking one of the rear quarters from deep strike. The Talos was up beside the wytches looking to hold up the Dreadnought. 

 The Knights were anchored around the Captain staying out of LoS.  Plan was to send the strikes on foot through the complex shooting and  smiting while the captain uses his Gate of infinity  power to lift the the heavy hitters into the backfield and take the objective. 

 The Brother Captain exited the dense woodland and entered the silo station. The station was autonomous, only a servitor was required to operate the site. Only there was no servitor. Its head was nailed to the door of its service dock. 

The Captain raised his storm bolter and motioned the dreadnought to take point into the ruins located across the silo Station. The Old Abbey had been abandoned when the missionary based there had died centeries ago. The silo station for the pipeline remained and was maintained. The holy site had been allowed to rot back into the wilderness. 

 Dark figures moved through the ruins. Searching the rubble for something. Their movements were quick and graceful. More than any human could manage.

 Xenos. 

Judging from their armour and weapons they were the dark kin of the doomed Eldar race. The Drukhari. As the Grey Knights moved forward a giant scorpion construct floated out from the shadows. Its bulk was made of a mutated humanoid grown using some diabolical means to make it fit the carapace that protected it from light arms fire. It's mechanical tail raised above its back like an insect. Instead of a poisoned stinger the arm mounted a Xenos weapon the Captain recognised from his training as a splinter pod. 

The dark eldar dropped what they were doing and drew their weapons. Fast bikes flew in from the sky showing how the Knights had been spotted. 

 The Brother Captain bent his mind to the warp and unleashed his hate against the xenos. The dreadnought turned its assault cannon on the charging figures threatening to engage the lighter armed strike marines moving through the industrial buildings. 

The Grey knights smite 2 wytches off the board. The Brother Captain Gates the  terminators to rear of drukhari castle in the ruins The dreadnought open fire with its assault cannon and Storm bolter shooting the remainder of the wytches squad that was foolishly in the open. The Termintators shoot and then charge in killing two kabalites in close combat unfortunately only after an overwatching blaster vapourises one of them on the way in. Justicar attacks but fails at wounding the Talos with a Demonhammer. The return attacks bounce off the tactical dreadnought armour. 

 

H'ron heard the report of movement  at the edge of the clearing from his patrolling Reavers. The wretched Mon Keigh had learned of the device's location shortly before his agent, in the imperial hiveworld Court, had informed him. He had quickly gathered this small party to retrieve the Eldar device before the fools could get to it. The beast chained in the eldar temple far below the surface was a problem but it was just the thing to get the Mon Keigh to turn on the Genestealer cult hidden inside it and drive the Drukhari's true prize to the surface. In the chaos of the uprising his Dark Kin would delight in taking vengence on the foolish apes that had claimed a maiden world as their own and failed to protect it from the ravages of the Tyranid beasts. If the chaos warp beast was unleashed it could be used and destroyed. If not it was no matter of concern to the Drukhari. The reavers had been slow to report the silver clad warriors approacing through the buildings. Such sloath must be punished. He spoke to the leader of the reavers "J'kar, attack the machine waddling towards us, everyone else to your positions. Gladiators to the front."

 As the first squad of wytches sprints across the open the human vehicle stomps around a building and its multi-barelled weapon beginning to rotate. Lighting blasts from the blades of the approaching infantry bathed the Wytches in warp lightning. The few that remained are cut to pieces by heavy bullets from the rotating gun. H'ron sighs in exasperation and looks at the Talos forced on him by the Coven master, to test his latest creation in this retrieval attempt. He motioned it forward to slow the enemy dreadnought while his Kabalite extracted the device from the ruin but a flash of light behind him signals the arrival of the mon-keigh's heavy infantry. Metal monsters stride towards his lines. One of his warriors is quick to act and his blaster burns down one of the foolish knights. The talos turns on itself as one of the knight weighs in on its back with a giant hammer. The pain engine's armour creaks but holds firm. It catches the hammer with its mutated arms and forces the human back for moment. H'ron smiles and steps forward into combat, the red grief wytches scream and charge in alongside him. One of the knights steps up to him and tries to impale him on a blooded halberd but the Archon lightly side steps and drives his huskblade into a clink of the Knights armour. Inside the mortal is turned a withered husk entombed in its own armour.

 The Drukhari push the 6 Reavers into the Grey Knights back field killing one Strike knight with their posioned weapons and fluff blaster strike on the dreadnought. Its going to be a tough day for the reavers T5 or not. Everyone else not engaged charges in to the Terminators but the Reavers pull up too hard after their screaming advance and fail the charge. The re-roll fails too! The Archon takes down a terminator in close combat but everything else bounces off the tactical dreadnought armour.

 In amongst the silo buildings the Brother Captain whirled in place following the xenos jetbikes as they dashed overhead. His wrist mounted storm bolter sprayed them with fire and he focused his hate to bring one of the machines down. The dreadnought followed suit tracing fire across the sky as the bikes tried to evade it. Dark light energy bounced off its hull as the Eldar tried to bring down the ancient war machine in turn. Splinter shards bounced uselessly of the power armour of the strike marines but one found a chink in a battle brothers helm and he dropped to the ground as his nerves were filled with pain from some deadly xenos toxin. 

 To aim their weapons after their furious charge the bikers had become caught between the buildings and the woods. Seeing the enemy trapped the Brother Captain charged, the Strike marines followed him into battle. 

 On his heads up display another life rune winked out as a Terminator fell in the ruins to the xenos Warlord. 

 Grey knights prepare to counter charge the Reavers shooting them first with mind bullets and guns before wiping them out in close combat. The Talos is badly mauled by the Terminators Jusicar but just survives with feel no pain saves. The Archon claims another Knight freeing the Kabalites from combat.

  The Archon pulled his ancient blade from the husk of his latest victim and motioned the kabalite warriors back as the wytches poured into the gap he had left. As he looked up H'ron saw the heavy infantry's leader sweep his heavy double handed hammer up into the head of the Talos. The hammer struck the metal mask of the engine from below and crushed and dented it into the face of the creature behind it sparks flew as the power weapon bled energy into the pain engine. The Talos staggered back waving its arms trying to fend off blows like a punch drunk fighter. The Coven master would not enjoy hearing his latest experiment was no longer in mint condition. Perhaps if its assalient was brought  back alive, or close to it he could be appeased. 

The freed kabalites miss their shot on the dreadnought. Drukhari close combat attacks finally taking down the final Terminator Knight and their Justicar. 

  The ancient warrior commanding the dreadnought stormed towards his brothers fighting for their lives in the ruins. He saw the justiciar being clawed down by the Xenos his magnificent armour being disabled by a thousand cuts. 

 The giant enemy creature was staggering towards him, the emperors justice would prevail and the dreadnought was his instrument. His mind was focused on the enemy and lighting blasted the thing from its hellish existence. Its assault cannon was running hot from constant use but there was no time to let it cool. The ancient sprayed it bullets over the victorous Xenos gloating over their kills. 

 The Knights Dread kills the Talos with his mind and then the Strikes take another of the kabalites to mind bullets. The Captain then gates the Strike team at the Warriors. The Dreadnoughts shooting takes 2 wytches down but the 8 shots from the strikes only cause 2 wounds which the wicked ladies just enjoy the tickle with their feel no pain saves! The Strike Marines declare a charge on the warriors but one is felled to overwatch and then they fail their charge.

  The Xenos flith still lives, The brother Dreadnought is burning ammunition and the lithe creatures just dodge and weave, two fall and the others just laugh on. The brother captain orders his lightest troops to assault the ruins and reclaim the Terminators before the Xenos can finish their excavation of the artifact. He sends them through the warp but a demon afflicts them as they travel. They arrive in an instant but disoriented from defending themselves from the moral threat. One brother staggered as a lucky shot from the ruins catches him in his side and the squads shooting all goes wide. The justiciar bends over his fallen warrior to adminstor the Emperors grace and his moments hesitation costs his squad their lives. A Xenos weapon engulfs them in a cloud of tiny projectiles finding any gap in their power armour. 

 Drukhari shooting does for the strike team mostly wiped by the Shredder and then wytches charge the nought. 2 die in combat but the Dreadnought is locked up by the last wytch twirling her blade.

The Archon began to stride towards the Dreadnought his blade swiping the air as he paced forward his stance full of rage and arrogance at the easy defeat of strike marines. The Wytch danced on top of the dreadnought striking at its optics and distracting the ancient machine from its true target. The enemy Warlord. The power of the emperor's rage filling him the Dreadnought focus's his rage on the Eldar clinging to his Hull. The siren is in his blind spot he cannot reach her with his weapons but his mind can attack her with energy from the warp. The Brother Captain lends his mental energy to the assault and the wytch cannot withstand their combined might and she falls from his hull. 

The dreadnought tries to smite his annoying charge off of him only to find she ignores the pain forcing the captain to do the same and she falls. Dreadnought opens up on the Archon who was too far forward and the flicker field tanks it all. The captains Stormbolter fails to damage.

 The Dreadnought locks onto the surprised Archon with his assault cannon. Just before he fires the Archon splits into a dozen copies of himself. Some charging forward others diving for cover. Bullets punched through smoke as the ancient marine inside tried to find the true image. At last the massive ammunition tank on the gun ran dry and the images returned to one form. The Xenos gave a wave of his hand then with a haughty twirl of his cap headed back towards the ruins in measure strides. 

Behind his shadows the Xenos had deployed their laser lances. Dark light energy crashed into its armour plate ripping panels from the Hull exposing the pilot. The Xenos riflemen pour their fire into the gap and the machine collapsed onto its back the pilot revin with pain. 

 Only the Brother Captain remained. His eyes locked onto the mocking Archon and he steps into imerterium. His Brothers would be avenged! 

 The Kabalites punch the nought out with a dark lance hit causing 6 wounds and then the poison finding the mark. Only the brother captain remains. The Archon returns the ruin to collect his artefact (and hide from shots and smite) not realising the captain has one more trick.

 The Captain came out of the warp behind the Archon and charged straight at him. His storm bolter pumping shots. His battle cry shouting at his enemy "For the Emperor!". The Archon was momentarily surprised. But then its shadow field sprung to life and masked the. Captain's true target. He closed and sliced the head off of one apparition with his halberd then twisted it to put a perfect thrust through the heart of another. The Archon was never where the Captain thought he was supposed to be.

 On the end of his blade.

 The captain felt the impact of a sword thrust against his back and turned to face the threat but there was just another apparition....

 The Captain gates behind the archon and fires missing everything. Charges and does no damage to the evasive shadow in front of him. The Archon bounces off the terminator armour with his husk blade. 

  H'ron leapt back away from the Grey Knight to allow the his kabalites a clean shot. His shadow field needed a moment to recharge. His syberite directed the dark light fire and the warrior through everything at the Terminator. The firepower that had brought their clumsy walker four times its size glanced off the heavy armoured suit in front of them. Bits of parchment and wax seals melted off and burned. His helm was ripped from his head by the energy of blaster. The Captain staggered as if in a storm holding onto his halberd to the ground in front of him to prevent him being knocked to the ground. 

 With the Mon keigh still alive in front of them the syberite knew his master would be displeased and led his warriors into the ruins to try and bring the knight down. Sharp blades and rifle stocks beat against armour that had withstood so much and still did not flinch. The human warrior twirled hid blade and decapitated a kabalite. The pole tripped another and an armoured foot stamped its skull against the stone floor. Smashing it into a puddle of gore. 

 The Archon retreats ready to shoot the knight in the back. The kabalitses take two wounds off the captain then charge. They  do nothing to him and die losing two more as the Captain hits with his big pointy stick.

 This was the final battle. If the Captain could just slay these meanials then their Warlord would have to face him and he would take his head. There was no fear. This was his purpose. To rescue the relic and prevent it from being used against the Imperium. He would not fall. His blade swished this and that. Impaling one warrior before dragging it clear and thrusting into a second. Then the creatures jumped back. For a moment he thought they were fleeing but they turned and grinned at him. 

 The captain smacks back in his own turn killing one with his mind and one with his staff. There’s no point disengaging the Elves will just shoot and charge next turn.

  The Captain turns awaiting the charge of the warlord bringing up his storm bolter but before him just out of range of his spear the Archon levels his blast pistol in a duellers stance. Arm outstretched side on to the Captain. No false images. In mocking high Gothic the xenos touches the firing stud and says "For the Emperor" 

 The final laugh is from the Archon the kabalites retreat as the archon holds his pistol to the Captains head. Dodge this.

 

 Archon was the total MVP claiming three terminators, a strike Knight and the brother captain. A fun game. The Talos was not that impressive in close combat with the termies failing to damage everytime. I was hoping the ichor injector would get a 6 and ignore those steel bodies but he never had a chance. Totally forgot to give the Grey knight troops their secondary power. To be fair I was going to be using smite rather than hammerhand on those termies and the strikes  could have used vortex once they were gated. That gate power was awesome chucking my troops down field to mess with the Lost boys. Captain made himself felt from his aura pushing up the smite range and crunching reavers in close combat. It was fitting that he made it down field to take on the Archon. A shame his Shadowfield proved too strong. Kabalites also did well taking down the Strike team knights, the Dreadnought and filling the Brother Captain with Dark fire. The Reavers were useful in keeping half the Knights engaged in their own half while the termies were overwhelmed. Should have sent the Dreadnought or gated the strikes down field to relieve them sooner. Mistakes were made.

Genestealer Cult

Genestealer cults are my army in waiting. Drukhari brought me back into the hobby. Something spoke to me in their many units. Genestealers have always been one of my favourite baddies (depending on what you class as a baddie). 

 I wanted just a kill team's worth to start with so bought a single neophyte kit to go with the 6 purestrain genestealers from my old 4th Ed battle for McCragge boxset (still not finished painting) and then saw a pile of cult minis on ebay for 60% their worth. Think it was 17 neophytes 5 acolytes and two odd aberrants. Very good for kill team roster making. 

 And thus the slippery slop began. I started liking to look of their vehicles and the idea of stolen and converted imperial guard vehicles, mind controlled or brood brother troops and then I saw a converted swarmlord for the tyranids in white dwarf. I was getting another army. 

After a stern chat with myself in the mirror we agreed that I couldn't have everything at once and I would concentrate on Drukhari for the year. 

 This has meant that as I think about narrative for my armies it's been with Genestealers being the generic villains and Tryanids the "threat" that lies beyond them. Given the size of the Necron force I should be using them but I'm sure they will make their come back. 

Narrative reason for Imperio campaign

 The Genestealer cult has been assembling for many generations under the surface of Imperio secundus the heavily forested and mineral rich planet of the Imperio system. The cult is close to beginning its revolt against the hated oppressors and allow the coming of the star children as the Father hears their voices from the coming Tryanid force. From its home deep in the catecombs of an ancient temple the cult feed the children of the star gods, stock pile their weapons and worship the "Father" and saviour.

Unknown to them the temple holds an ancient enemy bound by the Old Ones and the Eldar. 

Grey Knight Librarian

Making a Librarian for the Grey Knights was more of a challenge. I wanted the big book look like the original. I didn't have any books that size. Looking at the books in hand I had a few medium sized that I could stack together to form the size I wanted on his back. 

Of course he needed a book in his hand like the Chaplain but I wanted it to look like he was reading from the ancient tome to smite the demon. 

Again I wanted him to stand out. Most Grey Knight Librarians are the same Grey as everyone else. Without the cloak and other bits he'd blend too much so he got the traditional coat of blue. I found a washed down blue over the silver primer made the blue slightly metallic, which was perfect. 

Grey Knight Apocathary

I hate paining white. Which is a shame as I needed to do an Apothecary

The helmet was a must have but I wanted a bare head as part of my theme so he had to be holding it. I've seen a few conversions of helmets posted up on reddit that don't have the neck cut back so it looks wrong. First thing I did was trim the helmet back until it had that distinctive cycle helmet silhouette. 

 I then bored out the inside using a pin drill until the terminator hand could fit inside and "hold" it just right. 

Next  I had to paint that white. I had already primed all the models in silver so I tried putting down a light grey/blue to act as a primer for the white. I then built up the white in layers over that. Turned out OK. Much better than the last time I tried a big area of white in a mini. 

Grandmaster Kal Draco

 Next in the line of Grey Knights characters is my Grandmaster. Kal Draco. His name was taken from the Kill team manual and must therefore have a long and distinguished career as an elite small unit fighter before being elevated to Grandmaster.

Technically the 6th Brotherhood of the Fortress is led by Grandmaster Anval Laraon but I figured attrition is a thing with the Grey Knights. They fight only the greatest threats and most don't return. Therefore in my head cannon Draco has either taken over if Laraon fell or he is from another time and is being allowed to continue in service. 

I wanted all my Characters to have bare heads, with the exception of the Chaplain, obviously. The heads supplied with the kits are super dorky with their Monk like skull caps for psyhic hoods. Draco therefore got a head from the Intercessor kit. The other thing I wanted to do was make the heads look good. I"d always avoided faces because I always turned them into lumpy mutants that should be in a death guard army somewhere rather than leading the emperors finest. 

 Thus I turned on YouTube and listened to the sage advice there in. I then went and bought some new flesh paints as the ones from 2004 though technically usable were probably adding to the lumpy effect. 

 I was quite happy with the result and have been going for more non-helmeted builds as a result. 

 Should anyone be interested I watched this one here. I was also watching a lot of Pete the wargammer and Miniac. I've gone off Miniac although his painting is epic and his videos are well crafted he has an airbrush and the better he gets with it the less he shows what he's doing with his brush work where as Pete shows all his juice conversions giving lots of inspiration.

 Shameless linking aside. The Grandmaster has lots of weapon options. Able to take any of the heavy weapons and the usual melee stuff I also wanted to magnitise him. I decided against magnitising his sword because the only way I could was at the shoulder joint which required more of the "captain" pads then I had. The gun was easy. There is a nice thick flat area on the wrist and on the guns, even the storm bolter to put the magnets into. Good news is I can do this to all my terminator armed heavies to let me swap load outs. Yay the power of choice.

 To make the model standout I wanted a big banner on his back like that on my terminator sergeant from my Death Tempters. Such pageantry suits the Knights and I thought it would look cool. Once I glued it on I had a problem. The contact patches were very small so the whole mini was very delicate.

 I solved the problem by adding purity seals to the back. Fortunately there were two large ones that are perfect for the job. I added a little book to the top with the same support using the smaller seals. 

The sword is still unfinished as I want to practise more with the lighting effect on the force blade before I try his as he is supposed to be a centre piece for the army.