Space Hulk: Genestealers production & painting

Having worked on Space Hulk board sections over the last couple of years... it's about time I actually got the models themselves organised... Genestealers up. 

Half the point of building the custom board sections was to have 40mm squares to use with regular terminator bases, so remounting the genestealers on 40k style bases was something I've had in mind for a while. 

Step one with the genestealers was to go around and grind off the original small Space Hulk panels and nubbins to get to something that can be flush with a base. These have then been drilled and (along with bases) fitted with paperclip pins for later assembly. 

To help keep track, I took a photo of the bases & holes on each so they could be matched up with the right pairing after being painted separately. 

The imperialis plastic bases are actually pretty good. Not an exact match for the hirst arts plaster tiles, but with some similar elements. The bases themselves then get a prime and layer of Dawnstone. 

Meanwhile, the genestealers themselves get a black prime, followed by a zenithal spray of vallejo grey. For the genestealers, I've been aiming for a very quick/minimal paint scheme, while the terminators will be part of my 'main' army and will get a bit more love. 

The next couple of steps were *really* quick. Literally a couple of minutes per model tops to throw some druchii violet on head and hands... then drakenhoff nightshade on the body & legs. 

With the main colours dried - they look surprisingly 'finished' given the light & shadows added using black & white primer with ink over the top. Following with a light drybrush of screaming skull - this took a little longer to work through the full set of 23 minis, but gets a lot of effective highlighting done with minimal effort. Definitely still the quickest I have put tabletop level models out in a long time. 

With the critters themselves essentially done, the bases start to get some work. Also quite a quick but effective approach - few parts and tubing have had retributor gold or mephiston red added, then a black wash over everything. Quick flick with some necron compound to bring up the silver and they are fairly servicable. 

In hindsight, some of the bases that are largely covered by the model afterwards could have had less effort put into painting pipes & tubing, but net time spent wasn't that big anyway. 

The whole lot then gets some random stippling of typus corrosion & ryza rust, while the areas of gold/brass have had some small amounts of nihilakh oxide green to colour the copper parts. 

Given how quickly the washes were added, the last details of the genestealers probably took about as long as the rest of the model. Claws & teeth in the brightest silver available, and screamer pink for tongues. 

The blood angels parts haven't been done to a super high standard, but they are mainly decoration - khorne red, leadbelcher, agrax wash. Evil sunz scarlet then a line of moot green for the eyes. 

Skulls (of which there are many), are quick zandri dust, agrax wash then a drybrush of screaming skull. If I'd been more mindful, these probably could have been done at the same time as the initial washes & drybrush to save overspill. 

Some of the models have tubing in the bases - these have been coloured red & blue to match the pipes that run alongside the walls of the spacehulk. I know they don't add a lot of colour variety to the red marines and blue genestealers... but the aim was to give the ship a slightly veins & arteries look. 

That's all the bits essentially done and waiting to be superglued together. Once the boards and marines are ready to go, these will get some close up photos for showcase. The painting standard is pretty basic, so the rough details will be clearer when blown up...  

On the plus side - this has easily been the quickest I've gotten 20+ models from primer to done in a very long time and very happy with the result for time taken. 

Marines are up next but will take a good bit longer. The terminators I'm using are from regular kits, which will include magnetised options for bolters and close combat, plus pinning at a few joints for strength. These are intended to form 3x 5 man squads also fit for 40k.

Quite looking forward to working on the marines, and having these kick along quickly has helped give a feeling of momentum after taking months on the plaster casting of tiles.