Genestealer Cult - Aberrant 2nd Generation Hybrid

My hobby has been intermittent lately, due to this, that and the other thing. I did get a few hours in recently though, and I managed to finish putting together this guy, the melta-gunner for the squad of hybrids.

He's not your standard bald bloke with an extra arm for starters, even though he is actually bald. And has an extra arm. Anyway. There will be enough of those in the force, and I wanted the specialists to be a bit more standout. In my iteration of the cult, not every hybrid turns out as expected. I wanted some weirdness in the proportions as the human genes assert themselves over the generations, this fellow being somewhere between 1st and 2nd generation. To reassert a bit of realism I had to add a bit of heft. This became pretty apparent after some discussion about his gun with Cheetor. His arm needed some re-posing to look like he was bearing the weight of the gun instead of waving it about like it was made of foam. I added some straps to make it look still heavier. The tabard was added to make him fit in a little better with the adeptus mechanicus theme, as were the stim injectors on his back. The masked head I plan on using across the force, probably more so on the skitarii, but also on the occasional hybrid.

Fimir - Floating Stone Plinth

Right at the moment I'm modelling up some bits and pieces to round off the two thousand point fimir army. Some, like three move trays are killing me, but one is done now, thank the powers. Some more hounds, another marlwyrm, a large base for Crom and so on.

I took a break from painting moss on move trays to do something a little more interesting. I've been meaning to build a 50x50 base for the meargh for a while now, both to increase her stature when she masquerades as a daemon prince and to give me an option to mount a hero on a disk. I've gone for a stone slab, pulled up from the swamp and powered by a wyrd stone. It's almost modelled here, I need to add more trailing mossy stuff to the underside and work the tilting marker stone into the base. I'll be putting a 25x25 piece of adhesive steel sheet on the top so I can attach either the meargh or another character as need and whim dictate.

Fimir - Marlwyrm Riders, Update 8

The pre-NWG painting frenzy continues. Two more marlwyrms are now complete and awaiting riders. I did rather enjoy painting the tiny version of Crom on the base of the guy on the right. I love adding those little details. They've just been given a coat of gloss before the matt is applied. It's usually when I'm putting the coat of gloss on I spot any little mistakes, and these lads were no exception, so there's a little touching up to do before the matt goes on. (Then more gloss on the pustules, then moss and grass on the base, then water effects, then drool...) I now have eleven days to paint the two riders and five war hounds and I find I'm looking up dog marking patterns for Celtic mastiffs.

I really must love punishing myself.

Fimir - Work in Progress and New Heads

Good morning my little mumblites. Mumbleites? Anyhow, there's been some break in service of late, partly due to the usual pre-Christmas work madness and partially due to my being struck down with a Winter fever the likes of which I've never experienced before. Parts of me hurt I wasn't aware I had. My hair hurts. I know people say that to emphasise how much pain they are in, but no joke, my hair actually hurts.

Anyhow, ye don't care about my hair. There's been little progress with the half-dead, but there has been some. Here's a wip of the next two models, one of which is the unit champion, Sreng. They still need a whole pile of work, but there they are. There's also one of the shields. I'm pretty happy with the colours, as the turquoise appears throughout the army, and also gives the half-dead a much-needed boost of colour. The shield will have some moss or weed growing about it when it's finished. Each shield will have the same colour scheme, but the designs will vary.

In other news, look what arrived at chez mumble recently! Yehaa! This gives me enough heads to finish the army. (There are more than shown here, to give you an idea of how big this army will get.) I'm super extra happy with them. Things will probably slow down a bit as we run up to Christmas, but hopefully I'll get a few more models out the door before the end of the year.

Fimir - Meargh Update 3

I'm about half way through painting the meargh, and enjoying it immensely, though the slight pressure of having to have her done this day next week is lighting a fire under my rear to say the least. I won't get the water effects done in time, but apart from that she should be ready to rock.

I essentially want her to look like a mean old fimir granny.

No part of her you see here is entirely done, though the hair, staff and skin are almost there. The robe is difficult, I want it to look pretty worn and a bit grimy without just looking just plain old rubbish. The cowl will be as much of a pain too, I'll warrant. The pool in front of her will have three skulls half submerged in bog water, I'm really looking forward to this bit. I love doing the swampy bases. Also, after  a bit of mulling, I think I'll add a little ivy to the staff, not much, just a few strands of Army Painter's poison ivy.

Once she's done, I'll be doing a 50mm base with a floating rock platform for her to float about on, trailing weed and gunk as if she just willed it up out of the swamp. The altar of Fimul (war-shrine) model might go the same way, either that or a fen-beast style conversion thingamy.

Fimir - Axes and Bloodmoons

I've started another batch of fimm warriors. In this batch are the first of the few Bloodmoon Miniatures 'bog raiders' that I'm sprinkling into the unit for a little variety. They area little different from the savage orc conversions that make up the bulk of the unit, but I like them, and the army can weather a little difference from fimir to fimir, I think. Far from being a purist about it, I in fact like that some fimir are larger (the fianna fimm) some bulkier, others leaner, that there's a variety in digits, tails and so on. Nothing crazy now, no two-headed fimir, that would be too chaotic, and the fimir in question would most likely end up killed and burned by his clan, but just a little leeway in physical appearance is fine and dandy. When you're desperately scraping about for enough miniatures to make up an army, I find a little give and take helps!

The second fimm here is more heavily armoured than those I've done before. He's the first fimir I've used the helmeted head variant on, and I've given him a converted (dwarf) axe for a more Celtic look, as well as various straps and other bits of armour. Hopefully once painted the helmet will look the part.