Conversion Corner: Genestealer Cultist

"Man will always fail."

After creating a tutorial for converting a smaller autogun for the ubiquitous Genestealer Cultist models earlier this month, I wanted to finish the conversion work on the cultist model themselves, in time of the #junestealer community initiative. My goal was to keep the model as close to the original as possible, making sure it was easily recognizable. With the smaller rifle, the model’s heroic scaling became even more obvious, particularly with their gigantic feet. I decided to trim the feet down to minimize this, using green stuff and scribing in details to make them look more natural. I also replaced the model’s holstered pistol with a smaller one, and gave them an additional rucksack. Finally, to make the model really look beaten down and combat hardened, I carved in some scars on his head and sculpted some bandages. While these changes are small, I think they make for a better, more powerful looking model! Let me know what you think!

Painting: Ana Polanšćak Gargoyle

Gargoyle and Hess Poison-breath.

After a few months of little hobby activity, I finally convinced myself to get out some paints. To get back into the swing of painting again, I wanted to find a pretty simple model, one that I could finish in one or two painting sessions. In 2019, I had a great time testing out some GW Contrast paints on two of Ana Polanšćak’s models, a Blood Fiend and Skull Familiar. I realized I still had a diminutive Gargoyle she also designed for the Harwood Hobbies Kickstarter, and decided it would be a great model to get me excited about the painting process again!

Tutorial: Autogun

A Genestealer Cultist neophyte with an autorifle that looks a little like an FN SCAR.

I have slowly been creating tutorials showing how to convert better-scaled 40k weapons. Ever since the release of the Genestealer Cultist models, I have always wanted to modify their autoguns to be smaller and less of a focal point on the models. To celebrate Tyranids and Genestealer Cultist this month, Modern Synthesist started an initiative to convert any model in either of their model ranges, tagging them with #junestealer. This was the push I needed to finally get out the neophyte hybrid kit and convert one of their autoguns! Below are the steps I used to reduce the size of their autoguns; feel free to try it yourself!

Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 85: The evolution of orcs/orks/orruks: from Paul Bonner to Brian Nelson to the Kruleboyz

There are new Orruks in Age of Sigmar!

In this episode, we are joined by our long time friend and ork supporter, Brad Smith. With the recent reveal of the new Age of Sigmar edition (3rd), and the visual redesign of the included orruks, the Kruleboyz, we decided to talk about how Games Workshop’s orcs have changed over the years. We talk about the goofy looking Paul Bonner-style of orcs/orks that filled early editions of Warhammer and 40k, before talking about how Brian Nelson completely redesigned their look for GorkaMorka and 3rd edition 40k. Although Nelson’s designs have defined the orc look for over 20 years, their look has changed slightly, as designers struggle to capture the simple ferocity of his designs. Finally, we talk about how orcs changed for Age of Sigmar, becoming Orruks, and how divergent the Kruleboyz are from the previous Ironjawz models.