Monday, February 25, 2019

Genestealer Cult - The Watcher


In the heart of the principal Kabeirian forge temple on Thelema stands the watcher. Raised as a symbol of vigilance and eternal patience, this huge statue gazes up to the heavens awaiting signs of the coming of the Star Children. For generations the faithful have made pilgrimage here in order to pay homage and lay devotions and trophies at it's feet. The histories of the martyrs and heroes of the Kabeiri are attached to the stone with wax seals bearing the wyrm form. The skulls of notable enemies are also laid here to bear witness the the resolve of the cult and show all the fate of those who stand in it's way. Inquisitor Johann Krasek, Warlord Gornak Worldburna, The Ethereal Aun'La Auta and many others pass the ages under the watcher's gaze.

As the centuries have passed, the restlessness of the cult has found a focus in the watcher. So much psychic energy has been soaked into the stones that now the watcher is rumoured to shift it's gaze almost imperceptibly from time to time, as if searching. Deep in empty space the frozen, lifeless hulks of hive fleet Hephaestus drift silently through the void. It is the destiny of the watcher to hold vigil eternally for Gods that will never arrive.


The watcher began life as a pile of broken statuette parts. I set them aside with thoughts of making them into terrain at some point. Then, some time later the idea of a large cult statue struck me. When I saw the giant statue of a patriarch in the new codex it fired me up and I set to work.



The hybrid parts came from a spares bin at my local game shop. I'm not 100% sure what tyranid kits they come from. I cut them up, attached them, worked away with some green stuff and added a cult icon. I wanted to create a sense of scale, so I added the scripts, seals and trophies. I added orc and Tau skulls as well, as the cult has spread far and wide, and I intend to add hybrids of other races in time.


With the painting, I wanted a pale stone so the weathering and grime I added would show easily. The cracks from the original breaks in the statue showed up nicely once it was painted too, which was a groovy bonus. I stippled on the pigments to the lower third of the statue, as this would have been the most touched by devotees. I also used my trusted Typhus Corrosion to add some more grime and dirt to the rocks and such on the base.


With that, I have a rather fetching cult terrain piece/objective marker. You can see here how big he is compared to the two hybrids. 

Now, back to that neglected icon bearer.

18 comments:

  1. I agree. Cool idea, very nice paint job.

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  2. This thing turned out absolutely amazing. I have been trying to figure out how to do something similar for a scenario I wanted to run as a kind of Dungeon crawl, Mordheim, Advanced Heroquest type of scenario. The base statuette has been hard to locate.

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    1. Thanks Sean. I imagine a lot of pound/home/tat shops and such have these kinds of statues, you never know what you might find.

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  3. Great idol for the cult! Well done 😄

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  4. Very impressive! An excellent focal point for the Cult!

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    1. Thanks WestRider. In time I want to make a set of cult-centric objective markers, he'll do for the first one.

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  5. Awesome! I need to steal that idea so much!

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  6. Brilliant idea, fantastic story, well done.

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    1. Thanks Tane, there's more on the Genestealer Cult link at the top of the page if you're interested.

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  7. This is marvellous! I really like your subversion of religious imagery, reinventing the holy as something twisted and sinister. Really nice repurposing of realworld pieces for a unique hobby project.

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    1. Thanks Curis! The inclined head seems to have worked better than I hoped to accentuate the divine nature of the statue. The more real-world style of the base statue adds an extra level of revulsion and gives you an inkling of the actual horror a cult would represent. I'm pretty happy with the nasty fellow!

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