Warhammer 40,000: Let's Paint Brood Brothers

Some time ago, I was lucky enough to snag a 2016 Deathwatch: Overkill box at half price at our friendly local games store. I already painted the Deathwatch marines in it, and since I was thinking about trying Kill Team at the time, I made a Kill Team.

The models are four old Genestealers, on the old small bases, and the two purestrains from the Overkill box on the large base were to be the specialists; an Acolyte Iconward from the Neophyte Hybrids box I bought to get my Chaos Cultists a heavy stubber; and the Aberrant and Neophyte Leader are from Overkill, the latter enhanced with a Statuesque bionic head.

Looking at the galaxy map, one of the hive fleets making their way into the galaxy in Segmentum Obscurus is Hive Fleet Moloch, which obviously appeals to me as a theologian, and also has a brilliant paint scheme. I've gone for Scarlet and Black Grey as the main colors, with Ivory washed with Smoky Ink for the claws. I gave the Genestealers and the Aberrant coats of Satin Varnish, and it worked brilliantly. The Neophytes are wearing Flat Yellow, Blue Violet and Black; I've tried to make them look like they really are rebel miners or whatever, so their clothes aren't very military or indeed low-visibility at all.

Of course, with the pandemic, I still haven't had a chance to actually do anything with any of these models, and a whole new Kill Team edition has since come out anyway. But it got me started!

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I was entertained to find the good old webber in the Genestealer Cult arsenal; anything that harks back to 2nd edition makes me feel warm and fuzzy. The trouble with the webber is that I've got the models to make two Neophyte squads, but there aren't any webbers in Deathwatch: Overkill, and there was only one in the Neophyte Hybrid box. So I made an impromptu conversion by chopping a flamer and web pistol into bits and calling it a webber:

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The model is completed by a Statuesque female beret head.

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I played around with different army list ideas for 40k, and one thing that quickly became obvious was that we could use some help in the anti-tank department, but we were going to need it on the cheap. So a Brood Brothers detachment from the Imperial Guard could fill that gap pretty nicely. I got started with a Company Commander:

The model is from Anvil's Hazmat Operatives set, and based on a character of mine in one of the Saints Row games, who spent almost the entire game in a hazmat suit, leading to some absolutely hilarious cutscenes. I'm very happy to immortalize that memory in this model.

Since it's anti-tank I want, I made a Leman Russ Annihilator turret by following this example; i.e. I sawed off two lascannons from the Imperial Guard heavy weapons team sprue, and glued them onto the Exterminator twin autocannon mount. Here's the result:

And the finished object, which, incidentally, is the first Leman Russ I've ever built in 28mm!

It is just the cutest little tank. I feel like the turret worked out pretty decently!

Here's the finished article.

I also made an Ambot in Genestealer Cult colors! I don't know what to do with it, but I was converting three Ambots to Mutilators and had one left over, so I thought why not.

I mean it fits the theme and aesthetic of the army perfectly and is a brilliant model, so I really think there should be rules for Genestealer Cult Ambots.

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Finally, rounding out this very random collection of Genestealer Cultists and whatnot is a Jackal Alphus. I had a Lawmaster left over from Warlord's Judge Anderson, so I put a Necromunda Palanite Enforcer on it and gave her a Statuesque veteran head.

I'm simply delighted with how the model worked out!

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So here's a totally random collection of Genestealer Cult models I've painted, some of which I quite like. I'll make an army of them one of these days. Maybe 12th edition...

Let's Read Tolkien 87: Vae Victis 12-14

The fire was almost out by then, but the fight went on in the dark.

With the elven officer dead, Tzerlag makes short work of the remaining Easterling mercenaries. Baron Tangorn, however, is badly wounded and can't walk. This is a problem, because some of the Easterlings got away, and they'll be back with reinforcements. Tangorn's solution is simple: he asks the two Mordorians to kill him rather than leave him to the mercy of the elves. Tzerlag informs him that the field regulations prohibit him from doing so until the last possible moment.

A search of the campsite reveals all kinds of useful things, like some wine and an elven medical kit. At Tangorn's insistence, the Mordorians re-examine the dead elf, and find a mithril-coat hidden beneath his leather armor. This not only explains the trick he pulled on Tangorn, but also makes doubly sure that a sizable search party will be coming. In despair, Haladdin flips out at Tzerlag and wishes the earth would swallow up the "Elvish bastard" and all his kind. This gives Tzerlag an idea.

The Orocuen sergeant's brainwave is to make it look like the elf wasn't killed, but escaped into the desert: this way, the searchers will go looking for him rather than try to track whoever killed the Easterlings. He quickly buries the elf-officer and arranges things so that it looks like one of the Easterlings was killed right on top of where the body is buried. Having kept the elf's shoes, Tzerlag then lays a false trail heading south.

Meanwhile, Haladdin and Tangorn on crutches have been making way toward a nearby ruins, where the enemy is likely to have their base. Because the field regulations tell them to do the opposite of what the enemy would expect, they're going to hide right under the enemy's nose. Tangorn is already doped up on elven painkillers, and now they all take cola nuts (also apparently a staple of elven medicine) for a desperate last dash to the ruins. They barely make it and hide in a ruined building literally inside the enemy camp.

The plan works: despite the enemy soldiers using a nearby wall as their latrine and illicitly brewing moonshine in literally the next room, the fugitives aren't discovered. They do run out of water, however, but are saved by a sandstorm; under the cover of the storm, Tzerlag can sneak out to the well for some water, and since there's no way the supposedly lost elf would have survived the storm, the search is called off and the troops leave.

We're told this in retrospect, as our protagonists are making their way west, toward the Morgai, where Tzerlag figures they should be able to find some Orocuen nomads. They've camped close to a small stream, and Haladdin volunteers to take first watch. He heads down to the stream to wash their cooking implements, when he suddenly realizes there's someone sitting by their fire.

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The "field regulations" that keep getting quoted are a very modern anachronism: no army in the technological periods depicted here, at least so far, had any that were anything like the very 20th-century collection of regulations Tzerlag keeps quoting from. Soldiering didn't start being regulated like this until well after the advent of firearms. Tolkien did anachronisms too, and I'm not sure I always understand the point of them either, but in this case, half-expecting Tzerlag to actually at some point whip out Mordor FM 3-24 isn't helping my immersion in the story. The exhortation to always do the opposite of what the enemy expects is quite silly.

In general, quite a bit of the prose and especially the dialogue remains stilted and a little bit weird. But this is an adventure story again, and I'm enjoying it.

Next time: a wraith-talk.