Chris Showers Genestealer Cult

Genestealer Hybrids and Acolytes

Genestealer Hybrids, the twisted offspring of Purestrain Genestealers and humans, serve as the foot soldiers in the Acheron cult. Possessed of superhuman toughness and extra, often clawed appendages, Genestealer Hybrids are formidable in close combat and vicious combatants easily capable of overwhelming trained PDF personnel. The Acheron Hybrids typically wear strange, ancient body armor and sometimes utilize limited respiratory gear to combat the effects of Acheron's mildly toxic atmosphere. Their weapons are a motley assortment of captured military gear, ancient firearms and crude close combat equipment.

Every religion needs its apostles — those most faithful and most loyal servants of its high priest. In the Acheron cult, a particular type of mutant Hybrid serve as Acolytes, leading the Hybrid throngs both in righteous prayer and frenzied battle. The Acolytes are marked by their tentacled heads and powerful cutting claws, which the cult members view as blessings bestowed by the Patriarch. While religious figures within the cult, the Acolytes are resilient and deadly fighters capable of cleaving even a mighty Space Marine in two.

Model notes:

The two metal Hybrid poses most familiar to gamers are probably the two classic one-piece models sculpted by Jes Goodwin. I had a lot of both poses in my stockpile. In order to break them up a bit within the units, I did some minor weapon swaps to create some variety.

Interestingly, the plastic Genestealer arms aren’t the proper arms for the metal, armless Hybrids. The metal Hybrids were originally intended to use the old, original IG plastic arms. Since I had a limited supply of those arms, I modified the Genestealer arms by cutting off the shoulder areas to get a smaller mount area and a better fit.

The Acolytes are converted from an Imperial Preacher, a Chaos Sorceror and a Dark Emissary. The robes and tentacles help them stand out from the rest of the Hybrids. To build them, I did simple head swaps using the Genestealer feeder tendril heads, while the claws are from the Daemonette plastic set.

Game notes:

My Genestealer Hybrids counted as Ork boyz. I fielded two large units of Hybrids with firearms — counting as shootas — and one large unit armed with close combat weapons and pistols — counting as choppas and sluggas. The Acolytes count as Nobs with power klaws.