How I paint genestealers; with group cult shot

Here's how I paint my genestealers. I've refined this over a few years to give reproducible, reasonably quick, good-looking models in the classic indigo-lilac scheme. Of course, character models can have more care and attention applied.

Eight I finished this week

Preparation

Assemble, undercoat black, complete the basing. (I do the basing before the figure because it is easier to tidy up the base afterwards than to get bits of basing off the figure.) Here, I've used 32mm bases which are more stable.

Carapace

• Heavy drybrush Vallejo 70.899 Dark Prussian Blue
• Drybrush Army Painter Wolf Grey
• Selected edge highlights AP Ice Storm

Just highlight the bits that catch the light- speed and roughness are OK here because the lighter skin tones later will deflect attention from any mistakes made during this step.

Skin

• AP Toxic Boils
• VJ 73.204 Flesh Wash

Highlights:

• AP Toxic Boils
• AP Toxic Boils/ AP Elven Flesh
• AP Toxic Boils/ AP Elven Flesh/ VJ 70.820 Off White

I paint the skin lilac and wash it with VJ Flesh Wash, which is magic. Then highlights mostly on the face and eyes.

Claws

• AP Matt Black
• AP Ash Grey
• VJ 70.820 Off White to the absolute tips

Eyes

• AP Phoenix Flames. Less is more

Temple veins

• AP Blue Tone

Tongue

• AP Barbarian Flesh
• VJ 73.206 Red Shade

Teeth

• AP Corpse Pale

Final touches

• Base rim
• Matt varnish

These are the colours that do the heavy lifting

I haven't posted my cult on here for a while- Millsy and Paul OG made me promise to do a group shot of my cult, so I've been putting off this sobering moment.

The Guiding Hands

Are you happy now?

40K Galvanic Servohaulers

These accompany my supply dump. I struggle painting vehicles, but these were somewhat fast to get the basics done with a yellow rattle-can spray (AP Daemonic Yellow) and a homemade wash of craft paint and detergent. I then sponged on some brown rust, and I'm pretty happy with the results. There's a lot of grimdark details that took me a bit of time to get done- it is very easy to fall into a rabbithole of decreasing returns with painting all the details.

The crane is removable from the trailer

The claw!

I added a bit more brown and a small amount of water before applying this liberally

Skull-o-meter™: 11

Soviet NBC troops

Is there anything more terrifying than Soviet gasmasks?

I painted ten of these Eureka figures over ten years ago and really liked them, so I got another five riflemen to round them out. I finally got around to painting these five last week- shame on me! I took the opportunity to finish off some details on my originals, and to rebase them. My paints and painting style have changed, but these were refreshingly quick compared to a lot of the GW stuff I've found myself slogging through lately.

GP-5 gasmasks

Leader has a GP-5m with 'voicemitter'

PKM machine gun

SVD marksman rifle

DP-12 Contamination Survey Meter. This figure is a ringer for art in Osprey Elite #12

Osprey Elite #12 Inside the Soviet Army today

AT-3 Sagger operator. Minimum range 500m!

So now I've gone and ordered a copy of Zona Alfa... I can see some sort of subterranean Stranger Things/ Delta Green thing coming on... The bear came over the mountains of madness?

PS: If you haven't seen HBO's Chernobyl, it is superb.

PPS: Oh no, I just saw Eureka has more figures in this range... may need to get them...

PPPS: I would love these in 15mm.

PPPPS: I really need a BRDM or a BTR...