Terminator Apotheosis - Faherty, Good Dog

At BOYL this year the mighty Cheetor is running a game on the Sunday, Terminator: Apotheosis, where a band of survivors attempt to take on the minions of Skynet.

Each player is required to bring a survivor, and if they want, a dog to help spot infiltrators. Having only recently had a very fine doggie arrive from Shieldwall, I felt the hand of fate at work. So Faherty was born.

Faherty is a mastiff, so I painted him as such. He looks like he's just seen a T800 and is about to launch into an impressive barking session. He's pretty big too, that's a 25mm base, which is fine by me. Mastiffs are large fellas.

Faherty has had some runs ins in the past it seems, what with the eyepatch. Perhaps a vengeful terminator.

+++LET'S SEE YOU SPOT ME THIS TIME WITH AN EYE MISSING. HAHAHA. SNITCHES GET STICHES.+++

I reckon he's as perceptive as ever though. It's all in the nose. Faherty will be accompanying my survivor, Ulysses Jones.

He's a big doggie. Isn't he? Who's a big fluffy doggie? Who is?

Woof, said Faherty.

Genestealer Cult - Brother Medlock

Not every cult member gets fancy power hammers and swanky mining lasers. Some of the brethren just have to make do. Vyrion Medlock here has to put up with a simple, ah, halberd? Machete stick? Knife-pole?

Anyway, whatever it is, it pales in comparison to the magnificence of that cape. Stylish, high collared, shoulder length AND it has a beautiful gold clasp. So impressive is brother Medlock's cape that he has chosen to leave his top off so as not to distract from it's glory. Buck Rogers would be green with envy. Check it out:

With a cape like that the 3rd generation are in the bag.

I've been meaning to paint this fella for ages. Sculpted by Bob Olley, he's based on the original unreleased hybrid that, let's be honest, I have no chance of acquiring. Unless you have one. If you have one gimme it.

In any case, this guy is pretty hard to come by as well, so I was delighted to snag one. I've been pushing him higher and higher up the painting list, and finally, with BoYL coming up he made it. I fancy having him run down the corridors of a space hulk splitting terminators open with his sword-broom.

Medlock is part of a little subset of the cult I want to paint up, a wee family with juvenile hybrids and their parents and ah, pets. The gorgeous Asslessman has already painted up some of them, which you can see here.

For now though, Medlock joins the cult as another aberrant, ready to show those power-hammer wusses how it's done.

Why is he smiling like that? I think you know.

Krakon Games - Multi Part Fomorians (Fimir)

Recently Krakon Games were kind enough to send me some sample of their new multi-part fomorians from their successful kickstarter.

Krakon has made fomorians before, warriors, spellcasters and so on, but this particular set has me pretty excited. Why? Well, as you can see, the fomorians bear a startling resemblance to my favourite cyclopenans bog-dwellers, the fimir. There are very few large (ogre sized) fimir available unless you go hunting for the original range, or pick up the Forge World offerings. Even then though, there aren't too many variants. These fellas change that.

Krakon had quite a few nice stretch goals in this kickstarter. Shields, trident hands, new tails, new bodies, new heads, command hands, tathlum hands (a concrete ball on a chain for throwing) severed head hands, whips hands, sickle hands and loads more.

So what this has done is given fimir fans and players options. Command models for starters. Ranged units. Heavy infantry, nobles, spears and so on. I had a little play with the parts I got. Bear in mind this is only a small selection of the full range.

Tathlum and Hand Weapon: I really like this option, it allows for a sensible ranged unit for the fimir. This guy has a sword as well, to employ once the ball has been thrown. As these are resin you can easily bend the chain to change the pose and make it more dynamic.

Tathlum and Shield: This is the option I'd probably go for. I like the idea of a unit of six fianna fimm launching these in at close range, arrows skidding off the massive shields. All of these examples are on 40x40mm resin bases (not included).

Spear: Perhap a light unit of fianna, scouts of skirmishers.

Pick and Shield: Using the same body, we have a noble with hand weapon and shield. There are several armoured and unarmoured heads.

Tathlum, Sword and Shield: Another tathlum throwing fianna fimm with his shield across his back.

This is five minutes of playing with only a small selection of the new multi-part fomorians. The kickstarter is now funded, but I'm sure if you contact Krakon they might add you as a late pledge or some-such. They're great to deal with. They had a load of add-ons as well, such as oozes, mimics and grudges (undead fomorians).

So, rejoice fimirian lovers, for large scale variety is yours!

Genestealer Cult - Cult Mindslaves

Leading on from my musing on cult mindslaves, I fired two of these revolting meats-sacs under the brush. In case you missed my thrilling justifications for adding these to my cult force, here it is again. Previously (read in 80s American TV voice) on Mr Saturday's Mumblings:

The holy ones of the Wyrm-Forged spread the blessings of the Star Gods under the direction of the grandsire himself. There is one blessed one however, who is only unleashed under the most dire need. One whom even the faithful are wary of, for they sense its wrongness innately.

Known as the Chimera, this scion of the cult is unique. It is an anomaly, its asymmetric form at odds with the perfection of those of the 5th generation. Its body shifts and alters over time as the genetic legacy of the hivemind boils within. New claws grow even as old limbs wither and are re-absorbed. Eyes disappear under chitinous armour which sloughs away to reveal new flesh. In this way the Chimera is a constantly evolving microcosm of the hivemind itself. This is as naught, however, compared to the fate of those the Chimera bestows it's blessing upon.

The unfortunates so infected are reduced to roiling, pulsating sacks of flesh within days. It is as if the patient procession of the normal cycle is overtaken by a berserk haste to evolve. Flesh splits and organs burst as the hyper-active alien DNA rushes to proliferate. Those few whose bodies manage to endure are reduced to less than animals, oblivious to all except the erratic sparks of the broodmind's imperatives. They form a particular bond to the Chimera who can better compel them to serve the cult, albeit in the most rudimentary fashion. They are herded into battle ahead of the main force, their unnatural resilience and senseless fury making them brutally effective shock troops.

They were a hilarious amount of fun to paint. The are naked, bar the disgusting mutations, so once the skin was done they were almost finished. My skin recipe for the cult is very simple. It's all washes diluted to varying degrees with Lahmian Medium. Once I am happy with that, it gets once layer of highlights from the base colour and done.

Did one of you guys fart?

They are pretty tall, so 32mm bases seemed best. I considered using them as aberrants, but in the end the mindless frenzy they would attack with seemed better suited to purestrains, so that's what they will represent. Their 'leader' will be a particularly mutated genestealer, to give my opponents a cue as to what they are in-game. I think 'The Unworthy' is a nice name for them within the cult.

These painted up so quick I think I'll crack on and do some more soon. I'd like ten eventually, a nice wee unit.

Brother Faust uses two of the unworthy as convenient meat shields.

Genestealer Cult - Mindslaves

Lately I've been mulling over the old tyranid list from White Dwarf 145. There are several entries in there I'd love to paint. Zoats, mindslaves, squigs and the old plastic tyranids. Seeing as I'm already doing a genestealer cult this list has caught me by the hobby. You know how it is.

I can run many of these units in modern 40k or Killteam. The first unit that piqued my interest was the mindslaves:

In its larval stage the parasitic Mind-Slaver feeds upon the Tyranid's captives. It burrows into the victim's skull and searches for the brain stem. Here it clasps in place with its legs and attaches itself to the base of the brain.
At first the immature creature is not powerful enough to influence its host but, as it feeds from the blood stream, it becomes stronger, allowing it to take over and direct all of the creature's higher brain functions. These victims are known as mind slaves. Although they are captives, their actions and thoughts are completely controlled by the Tyranids.
If the ship is attacked, the mind slaves will be amongst the first to move to its defense, especially if they belong to an armed warrior race whose fighting skills may be usefully employed by the Tyranids. Invaders will find themselves being attacked by sentient beings controlled by the Hive Mind including Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Orks and Eldar.

I guess this was originally a way to pad out the proto nid forces, but I love the idea of tyranid infested creatures. I wanted something a little more gribbly though. Happily, I had these boys:

From the Assimilation Alien Host Kickstarter from Trollforged Games, these fellas have been kicking their heels for a few years now in storage. Like a bolt of lightning the idea struck me as I flipped through the old list that they would make superlative mindslaves. The already look like something horrible is writhing inside them, and the missing heads are perfect for late-stage mind-slaver parasites. That said, I may go a different route with their origins.

The holy ones of the Wyrm-Forged spread the blessings of the Star Gods under the direction of the grandsire himself. There is one blessed one however, who is only unleashed under the most dire need. One whom even the faithful are wary of, for they sense its wrongness innately.

Known as the Chimera, this scion of the cult is unique. It is an anomaly, its asymmetric form at odds with the perfection of those of the 5th generation. Its body shifts and alters over time as the genetic legacy of the hivemind boils within. New claws grow even as old limbs wither and are re-absorbed. Eyes disappear under chitinous armour which sloughs away to reveal new flesh. In this way the Chimera is a constantly evolving microcosm of the hivemind itself. This is as naught, however, compared to the fate of those the Chimera bestows it's blessing upon.

The unfortunates so infected are reduced to roiling, pulsating sacks of flesh within days. It is as if the patient procession of the normal cycle is overtaken by a berserk haste to evolve. Flesh splits and organs burst as the hyper-active alien DNA rushes to proliferate. Those few whose bodies manage to endure are reduced to less than animals, oblivious to all except the erratic sparks of the broodmind's imperatives. They form a particular bond to the Chimera who can better compel them to serve the cult, albeit in the most rudimentary fashion. They are herded into battle ahead of the main force, their unnatural resilience and senseless fury making them brutally effective shock troops.

So, that's my take. Here's a mockup of the Chimera.

I might add some more bits, flesh-hooks or spines perhaps. Ultimately I plan on a unit of ten, nine slaves led by the Chimera. They'll count as purestrains in most games.

After that, well, adding some zoats, tyranid warriors or squigs would be the next choice. I still have a good few cult minis to paint, so I'll add a unit here and there, leading up to tackling the big lad, the screamer-killer.