From SeanM - Genestealers (115 points)

Happy Tuesday! (the day before Humpday, a.k.a. only four more days to the weekend)

This week was a bit of a scramble. It was both the last day of my 5-week Holiday season stay-cation, and also a family visit from my parents! Therefore it was a mad weekend scramble to get something (anything) painted. I've been trying to think of a game that I can break my boys into, and there has been mixed success. WarMachine is too much for them past the battle box stage, and X-Wing is too oriented towards dials and guages. A few years ago, a well meaning relative gave me some GW gift certificates, so I went out and bought a Space Hulk. This might be the right merger between board game and wargame to break them in.

Inspiration/desperation requires a muse, and this little bloke from the Clicky series provided it. I've got about ten more of these, so they might become genestealer auxilia sometime in the future. The classic black colour scheme is a good base to work from, and loads better than the crimson/purple schemes I've seen about.

So, how does that translate into the Challenge entry. There are 22 genestealers and a "Broodlord" in the basic game, and they look something like this:

Sunny ways, my friends!

You've got some standard running poses, you've got bursting through the floor poses, you've got hanging out on the architecture poses, even hanging out on a pile of skullz poses (GW, never change!). The basic scheme is a base coat of Krylon Camo Black, with a dry brush of Deco Art Colonial Blue (previous seen on some Arbites). Contrasting details are done with reds, purples, ivory, yellow and buckskin. Metals are done with Privateer's Pig Iron and Brass Balls. Here are some selections of various poses, up close.

You can start to see that the minis aren't monochromatic. The gaps in the exoskeletons are painted red, and the ovipositors (tongues) are lurid purple. Details on the minis are fairly good for wargame figures, really good for board game figures. Most joins are hidden in natural crevices, and the detail is only really soft in the areas you can't see from above.

Here are some guys just hanging around. Lots of defiance of gravity, plus moar skullz. The terrain bits really take a dry-brushing really well, and picking out some details in brass helps to Goth it up.

I like this one. You might notice that the genestealer models get a defining feature, usually they get one or two of the following: a big tongue, skullz or helmets. I counted 16 Terminator helmets on 23 minis; no wonder the Blood Angels have a hard on to stomp bugs. I think the future scenarios will be framed as the Deathwing going in to clean up the Blood Angels' mess.

Here's the boss. How do you know that he's the boss? He's got a pile of skullz, seven Terminator helmets and a tongue that puts Miley Cyrus and Gene Simmons to shame! I thought the ideas was to oviposit, not decapitate. Oh GW, why start looking for internal consistency now? At least each skull has an entrance and exit hole punched through the centre of the forehead. Or maybe they are Commissar Yarrick's clean-up detail.

Anyways, the pro's on this batch was the way the sculpts lent themselves to an easy, table top paint job. There is still room to go back and tighten up some detail, but it will be much better for the lads than blue plastic.

Tech notes: this post took over two hours to compose, thanks to the burden of reaching the data cap on satellite internet. School holidays puts a huge crimp in the bandwidth.

TTFN.

Alan and Paul: What's not to love about this entry? You have a hideous bug thing described as your muse, skullz, a sunny backdrop to genestealer hell, and all in an effort to get your boys into gaming. Well played, that man! I know almost nothing about the 40k universe, but I remember a game of Space Hulk way in the distant past that was lots of fun - I'm sure your boys will love it. Your genestealers look suitably terrifying, and your work on the bases really brings them to life (perish the thought!) I think you painted your alien 'muse' for this entry as well? If so, that's 23 figures and a respectable total of 115 points.