Chris Showers Genestealer Cult

Genestealer Cult — Insurrection on Acheron VI

By Chris Showers

This army is something I wanted to do for years, and I’m glad for the opportunity to share it with everyone.

Genestealer Cults were one of the most iconic and characterful armies of the Rogue Trader era. They survived in second edition 40K as a sub-list in that edition’s Codex: Tyranids, which also firmly established them as part of Tyranid background instead of a separate entity. It’s now been more then 10 years since they were a fully legal army. I think it’s time they were re-introduced to modern players, and that’s what prompted me to build the army.

The army represents a Genestealer Cult uprising on the backwater, dusty world of Acheron VI.
The infestation began a few decades ago when a chunk of space hulk impacted the planet’s surface and infected representatives of a local nomadic tribe. The infestation slowly spread to other tribes until they were unified as a single family filled with horrific Genestealer-human hybrids. Because of the tribes' isolation, the few Imperial officials on the planet were unaware of the cult's existence and growth until it was large and well-established — and posed a significant threat to the planetary government.

The most exciting thing for me is that this really only represents the beginning of this army's development, and not the end. Now that I have a good base of models, I'll start adding additional units and adding even more character and theme to those already painted.

Thanks to Pedro for the generous offer to host my pics on his fantastic site. Also, thanks to John Shaffer of Games Workshop for taking the pics of my army. And finally, thanks to Jes Goodwin and Bob Olley for the Genestealer Cult sculpts. Considering those models date back to 1989 or 1990, they hold up surprisingly well today.