From Cult to Killteam

When I jumped into Warhammer 40K: Killteam I immediately knew who I wanted to play. Sure, I could pull from my very first 40K army of Eldar, or my early 2000's space marine army could send a squad; but no this had to be the genestealer cult. They never really saw battle before as stated in the previous post. Their time had finally arrived! Plus in 2018 not only was the cult back in the 40K universe, they were front and center. Heck, they even came as one of the two forces in the original Killteam starter box!

Pouring over the list, as well as my miniatures, I came up with the following:

• For a leader I'll save the points for beasts, and just have a Neophyte.
• Specialists: with their bad BS I'll go with two flamers, and a Heavy Stubber for range.
• I'd really like an Aberrant. A big beast to soak wounds and draw attention.
• I'll take two Pure-strains because why not?
• The rest will fill out with a mix of Acolytes and Neophytes. 
• They will all have code names - was never into the whole cult brother this/that. 

First up is a bunch of Neophytes: 

Disclaimer:, back when I started these guys there weren't as defined lines as to what was what. I could pull a bunch of guard I have painted in their colors as neophytes... but I'd rather field these guys.

Squad members Viper and Leach

One of my gaming group had a Crimson Fist Army back then

Viper is a plastic hybrid from Space hulk, and Leach is one of the Rogue Trader metal hybids. Both have plastic arms and metal Necromunda weapons. Viper has the addition of some imperial guard parts added to his belt and both sport a Space Marine Shoulder pad. Viper's was cut down to make it less recognizable, and had a the squad symbol carved into it. Leach's was looted from a marine (You'll see the other later). 

Squad members Buckshot and Talon

Poor Buckshot, I got way better at urban camo later

You'll notice another plastic and metal hybrid here, again with Necromunda weapons. I also started running low on hybrid arms, so Talon received a much larger claw arms donated from a genestealer I cut apart. Hybrids! Last post I mentioned that these were painted over a decade ago, and years apart. Buckshot was among the first batch which you can tell by the normal flesh colored face and the emerald green base. This was also my first go at urban camo, something I got much better at with practice. 

Next a pair of Acolytes:

Squad members Croc and Shiv

Butts!

Croc and Shiv are two of my acolytes. Both are metal hybrids, shiv getting some plastic arms and a Necromunda auto pistol. I also made a claw from green stuff. I think I had a little left over from something else, and threw it on as a whim. I like how it turned out. 

My two Genestealer Purestrains:

Genestealer Purestrains Alpha and Omega

Emerald Green bases!

My two Genestealer purestrains were dark blue plastic models, so I think they are also from an early version of Space Hulk. They were also some of the first models painted for the cult. I'm a much better painter now, so they'll likely get replaced with updated models sometime soon. I'll keep these guys around for nostalgia though. I don't really like to re-do my work once I have a finished model. That's a rabbit hole I don't need to fall into.

My first Specialist:

Scout Specialist Fuego

He has the other Marine shoulder pad

The final member of the squad is another metal hybrid. He has plastic arms, a marine shoulder pad, and some guard bits added to his belt. He also has a flamer, created from a space marine plastic bolter, and a bunch of other bits I tacked on to make it look like a flamer. I don't remember what I cut up, but even to this day I really like how it turned out. With his mobile nature he'll be a scout specialist. I want him to be able to shoot on the move without penalty. 

So that's it for what's together so far. I have the rest of the squad in the works, and used some guard to fill in for a bunch of games. So far these guys are undefeated in about 6 games! I really like how the squad complement of ranged fire to control the field, while the close combat guys move in for the objectives. I'll probably re-paint all the bases to match. Back in the 90's we always played on a green field, thus the base colors. Looking back, doesn't make a whole lot of sense for guys in urban camo. To make the killteam jive, I'll make them match.