Hive Fleet Behemoth Space Hulk Genestealers - Ready For War!

Old School here to officially show off my new take on tyranids. No matter what the internet or anyone else says, at the end of the day, I love these guys. To kick off my return to the Hive Fleets, I grabbed my Adepticon SP: Kill Zone (I think I registered for it this year) army from last year and gave it a new look during our painting night last week at Evolution Games. Let's take a look around my Space Hulk Hive Fleet Behemoth genestealers!

Since the first time I cracked open Rogue Trader back in the day to the first time I read the Space Hulk background, genestealers have been the iconic Xenos menace to me when I think of Warhammer 40k. They were fast, deadly and capable of taking over whole planetary systems. As time went on, the Black Library and codex fluff gave us the Battle for Maccrage, where Hive Fleet Behemoth nearly destroyed the chapter we all love to hate, the Ultramarines. In honor of that awesome background material, I decided to bring Hive Fleet Behemoth to the table.

The first ten genestealers came together nicely and minus one Lictor, form my Kill Zone Genestealer Invasion list. I grabbed these models from Ebay when they were still available everywhere and held onto them during my momentary loss of faith with the Tyranids. I am glad I did, as they were a dream to paint and will make up the bulk of my Tyranids for standard 40k play.

I painted the skin with the air brush, balancing a striking paint job with time management (very important when painting the hordes of nids one can field). First I sprayed the whole model black, then built up to layers of Gore Red, the first pas being for general coverage and the second from a 45 degree angle to brighten up the highlights. Finally the models were hit from directly above with short bursts of Blood Red.

The basing is straight from the Space Hulk minis, which works for my theme, which is the Battle for Maccrage, so snow, ruined structures and dead Ultramarines (with some PDF and Mortificators here and there, lol). The snow is Gale Force Nice mixed with Vallejo Still Water (thanks CVinton!). I also am looking for some icicles (or ways to make them) to hang from some of the ruins on the bases.

The carapace was then painted using watered down coats blending from 50;50 Chaos Black/ Hawk Turquois, 25:75 Black to turquoise, then watered down Hawk turquois (every coat was actually heavily diluted using a mix of Distilled water and flow aid). Finally, each carapace got a light feathering of Hawk Turquois and a lighter feathering of Ice Blue. The effect is an army that you can see from across the room and while it may border on comic book style, I really like it, which is all that really matters to me (some folks like bright nids, some do not).

One of my favorite GW models ever is the Brood Lord from the latest edition of Space Hulk. He is a huge brute perched on his small mountain of skulls and Ultramarine Veteran Terminator helmets. He is a big improvement over the standard Broodlord in his "KHAAAAAAAANNNN!!!" pose!

The size of the model and the pose shows off how effective the airbrush zenithal highlighting can be as the skin fades from bright to dark red. I was going to give him a set of Scything Talons, but honestly, I don't wat to mest with perfection (whoever sculpted the original deserves an award) and if anybody were to call me on it, I would just roll my eyes at them anyway.

Well that's it for today, I have already repainted the Dryder Tervigon from last year and am just making a new base for her and have already prepped a couple units of Hive Guard for paint. Once the Lictors get here, it will be game on for table top play! I plan to stay on track with these and paint a good 1850 for pick up games at Adepticon (any takers??).

As always feedback is always welcome!