It Came From the Forums: Major Tom's Four Generations of Awesome!

Old School here with another edition of It Came From the Forums and this one is a killer! MajorTom11 at Dakka has left us with an amazing army that tugs at my heartstrings. I have seen Genestealer cults before and many have been impressive, but this the best I have ever seen. It reminds me of Prometheus, but the good Major left us these before the movie. One of great things about this post, is that I get to show you some concept sketches, sculpts and then the real, painted model. Strap in, pics incoming!

From some of the earliest 40k memories I can recall, the genestealer was a villain that corrupted worlds and brought systems to their knees - not with rending claws, but with breeding and mind control. This is an artist who gets that horror and made it a part of his art!

What we have in this pic is the evolutionary chart of the cultist. The far right represents the pure genestealer, then the 1st gen purebred, followed by the 2nd gen, then the 3rd and finally, the fourth gen abhumans!

Here is that chart sideways!

As I said before, there is no shortage of concept art in Tom's gallery and it is pretty cool to see something go from paper ...

To epically converted models ....

... to painted end product. The subtle green stuff work to make the knuckles and other parts slightly more human really comes out in the finished product and is creepy to say the least!

And then we come to the second generation hybrids.

The creepy facework continues as the bodies start to take on a different shape, while still holding onto much of their original heretage!

At a couple stages, you may notice the use of the classic Genestealer cult models. This just makes this army even classier in my opinion and really ties the history to the army!

As we move into generation three, we see a lot more of the human lineage coming through.

Though the heads and strange clothing continue to be a theme across them. They are almost human looking, but just alien enough.

This one seems to bear an extra arm; a symbol of the alien gene-fathers.

The colors and the techniques used on the cloth are just flawless. This really is the perfect marraige of conversion work and paint style.

Here are the third gens all together.

No cult would be complete without Magos!

This magos is incredible. The freehand robe, the symbols on the staff and the strange clothing and skin color are all just perfect. He almost looks serene, which is great because he is the kind of being that the beaten down lower class of a hive world might see as a leader ... never knowing the true nature until they have been implanted!

The sculpts really give an appreciation for the effort that went into making this model happen.

I don't know what happened to this guy, but I wish I would have found a pic of him painted!

A classic Magos and his little baby Broodlord pet!

Now we enter the fourth generation, which, if this guy above is any indication, are a bunch of badasses!

This is just awesome and too good to be a Guard model! There are extra touches here for the up and coming Guard player to look at and possibly use to spruce up his guys ... the boots are great!

I love that some of them still wear odd looking armor ...

... and some are just odd!

The bionics are great and I assume they are there to hide any remaining flaws that might betray their true nature.

The posing on these fourth gens is perfect and they just look great!

I love that some are some blatant mutants in this crowd to show that there is still something odd going on here!

and some have more subtle mutations. The head used here is still enough to throw out an alien vibe!

Here are the fourth gens all together!

That isn't the end of the road though for this incredible artist. Look at the Dante Terminator Armor below! The artist's Gallery is full of amazing work. Check it out here! If you really like it, drop him a line and tell him what you think ... or leave a comment here and hopefully he will see it!

That is it for this edition! There is always great work coming out of the forums and I will continue to push it out to the blogosphere to help get these incredible artists the recognition they deserve! Enjoy the eye candy!