The Beard Bunker

For the most part, the Genestealer Cult is existentially horrifying. The loss of identity, the glad subordination of free will. But lurking at its heart is something much, much more straightforwardly horrific. Entities that are utterly, inimically alien, yet nonetheless born to human mothers. Yes folks, we've proceeded through the generations and have finally emerged, hissing and coiled, at the Purestrain Genestealers. I really wanted my Purestrains to have a good sense of motion and energy. The kit on it's own in quantity can be a little bit samey. Thankfully there exist some other sculpts of Genestealers out there, the Space Hulk set. Even more thankfully Maisey was looking to divest himself of his copy so I didn't have make the agonising choice of modelling my own Space Hulk set for the battlefield. Thanks Maisey! Mixing in the Space Hulk set and the slightly different two from the Deathwatch Overkill box gave me both 30 Purestrains (second half coming soon) but m...

... you're in for a big surprise. Maisey has actually painted something gaming related. I'm not sure if that's how the song goes, but that's the relevant version. I have been off the radar a bit lately. Partly I've been distracted by the scale modelling thing, which I've mostly kept it off the blog unless it's something special or relevant. I've also been distracted by Life (TM), turns out buying a house is not conducive to a steady hobby output. Anyway, Em and I are safely in to our new home and I've finally unpacked enough of the hobby stuff to be able to sit down and paint something. Back in December I painted a Blood Ravens kill team. I've now finished painting the rest of the box of Intercessor Marines, as well as a slightly converted Lieutenant model. I've not sat down and thought about naming these guys yet, although I've been referring to the LT as Lieutenant Dan during the painting process. Not very grimdark that name. I...

With the core of the cult now laid down we can start to work on the weirder elements of the cult. There's purestrains on my workbench at the moment but first we have what happens when that pure strain goes very right and very wrong... Here we're starting to see where the colour scheme starts to fragment. The abominations are clearly of the Ortag facility, as is the Primus although he has some flourishes that mark him out. But it is the Magus that deviates the most so we'll start with him. This is the first of a pair of Magi? Maguses? Maguseees? Meh, this is the first of two that I'm going to have in the army. His sister will be along shortly. I wanted the nice purple robes, first for tradition's sake, and second for emulating the skin tone of the Broodlord. It is his ritual connection to the father of the cult. In order to tie him to the rest of the Starborn Souls, I used the same neutral grey for the adapted pressure suit and there's a little orange pee...

I’m about to embark upon a detachment of Ultrasmurfs, or at least Ultrasmurf successors, and the first logistical question was this: should I do the Macragge Blue basecoat with a brush, an airbrush, or a spray can? There are arguments for all three options, and as with all hobby quandaries, everyone must answer the question for themselves. Here’s my breakdown of the options, but let me know in the comments if you think I’m talking right out of my proverbial: With a brush A very large brush loaded with watered down paint will cover a model inside of about 30 seconds, but will need three or more coats for an even finish, depending on the colour. Your palette technique and brush loading also has to be on point (since it would be easy to overload the mini with paint) so this technique isn’t great for beginners. Faffyness: 4/5 Quality: 4/5 With an airbrush In my ignorance I thought this might save me time over a brush, but after talking to several airbrushing friends and after ...