Hive Noon First Wave banner reads "just a bunch of regular guys hanging around with their human pals"
Posted on by Dreadquill Rob

Hive Noon first wave – Cowboy genestealer cultists

Ten fighters of Hive Noon, cowboy genestealer cultists for Necromunda, dressed in cowboy hats and using old timey weapons
Finished product first!

Last time we looked at the WIP of Hive Noon, my cowboy Genestealer Cultist Necromunda gang, and the tribulations involved in hand-crafting tiny cowboy hats. Wowee, I sure hope I won’t be painstakingly assembling any more tiny hats in the immediate future, thought I. Welp, let’s wait and see what’s on next week’s MOTB agenda eh?

For now, let’s enjoy the original gang in all their glory, ready to get stuck in to their first game.

Baron Clint Von Beastwood

With the colour scheme strongly in mind, the Baron was one of the easier models to pick colours for. The tricky part was tying it in with the rest of the gang, many of whom did not have large amounts of cloth.

I needn’t have worried – the skin tones, washes and base tied him in very nicely with the rest of the crew. A heavy application of gloss varnish on his tentacles moustache finished the look off nicely.

Cowboy genestealer cultist Adept in a dark black cloak, top hat, and tentacles that look like a moustache, accompanied by a familiar, as seen from the front
Cowboy genestealer cultist Adept in a dark black cloak, top hat, and tentacles that look like a moustache, accompanied by a familiar, as seen from the front left
Cowboy genestealer cultist Adept in a dark black cloak, top hat, and tentacles that look like a moustache, accompanied by a familiar, as seen from the back
Cowboy genestealer cultist Adept in a dark black cloak, top hat, and tentacles that look like a moustache, accompanied by a familiar, as seen from the back left
Cowboy genestealer cultist Adept in a dark black cloak, top hat, and tentacles that look like a moustache, accompanied by a familiar, as seen from the right
Cowboy genestealer cultist Adept in a dark black cloak, top hat, and tentacles that look like a moustache, accompanied by a familiar, as seen from the front again

Billy the Nid

Inspired by the cowboy himself, I had decided to freehand all the designs onto the Acolyte’s ponchos. What I originally thought was going to be the world’s biggest ball-ache turned out to be actually rather pleasant. The South American flavour of design meant lots of straight lines and square spirals – something that lends itself quite nicely to freehanding onto complicated fabric shapes.

Cowboy genestealer cultist acolyte champion in a green poncho carrying a laspistol and power pick, as seen from the right
Cowboy genestealer cultist acolyte champion in a green poncho carrying a laspistol and power pick, as seen from the front right
Cowboy genestealer cultist acolyte champion in a green poncho carrying a laspistol and power pick, as seen from the front left
Cowboy genestealer cultist acolyte champion in a green poncho carrying a laspistol and power pick, as seen from the back
Cowboy genestealer cultist acolyte champion in a green poncho carrying a laspistol and power pick, as seen from the right

Deathspitter dan

The Neophyte flesh tones were a very pale flesh tone washed with Druchii Violet ink, then highlighted again with the same pale flesh colour. Some areas needed a little wet blending to avoid them looking too high contrast, but overall I’m pleased with the effect.

Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with long las and exceptional moustache, as seen from the front right
Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with long las and exceptional moustache, as seen from the front
Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with long las and exceptional moustache, as seen from the back

Biovore Bill

They were undercoated in Army Painter leather brown, which aside from going on extremely thicccc is a very pleasant shade of brown to work from, easily taking washes or highlights and allowing you to cover a lot of the model very quickly. The dusters were done by applying two washes – black and brown – one after the other and giving it a light drybrush to give it a beaten leather effect. Other sections of the model were given lighter touch with a sepia wash and generally left at that!

I was pushing hard for my ‘finished, not perfect’ mantra for these guys – I knew I would be adding more to the gang as the campaign rolled out and I didn’t want to be stuck painfully wetblending my 14th cowboy jacket…

Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with lasgun and hand flamer, as seen from the front
Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with lasgun and hand flamer, as seen from the right
Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with lasgun and hand flamer, as seen from the left
Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with lasgun and hand flamer, as seen from the back

Jesse Genes

The same ‘Finished Not Perfect’ principle was applied to the metal. I’m really, really bad at resisting the urge to edge highlight but I’m glad I did – it would have been nightmarish on this many little fiddly bits. The metals were done with a medium metal colour and washed with Agrax Earthshade to mucky it up a bit, then Athenian Camoshade to give it an uncomfortable green hue.

Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with shotgun, as seen from the right
Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with shotgun, as seen from the front right
Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with shotgun, as seen from the front
Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with shotgun, as seen from the back

Lashy Luke

Darn. You only notice that tiny bit of cotton wool fluff days after taking the photos and packing away all your minis.

The lash was a pale flesh colour, washed with Reikland Fleshshade. Once that was dry, a deeper crimson wash was added to the tip, and ‘artfully’ blended with my big sausage fingers rather than bother with any of that glazing nonsense.

Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with laspistol and shock whip, as seen from the front right
Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with laspistol and shock whip, as seen from the front
Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with laspistol and shock whip, as seen from the back

Brood Cassidy

Probably one of my favourite conversions, it’s simple but dynamic, and the combination of goggles, rebreather/scarf and cowboy hat gives him a wonderful post apocalyptic vibe. He could easily stand in as an informant or crook NPC. The goggles were done with a dollop of yellow paint and a light orange wash.

Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with twin laspistols, as seen from the right
Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with twin laspistols, as seen from the front
Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with twin laspistols, as seen from the left
Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with twin laspistols, as seen from the back

Old One-Eyed Charley

Another simple conversion, but I never quite got the kink out of his gun. I wanted all of them to look like they were wearing jeans (gold star cowboy attire) so these were painted in Ultramarines Blue with a light Agrax wash and highlighted with bone colours blended into the blue to make it stand out from the genestealer flesh.

Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with lasgun, as seen from the right
Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with lasgun, as seen from the left
Cowboy genestealer cultist ganger with lasgun, as seen from the back

Quick Draw McClaw

Another poncho, this time a nice earthy orange but still with the same straight lines and square spirals to tie it in with the overall aesthetic. I gave both ponchos a light wash of sepia over the top to bring all the hues together.

Cowboy genestealer cultist acolyte champion in an orange poncho wielding a laspistol, needle pistol, and power sword, as seen from the right
Cowboy genestealer cultist acolyte champion in an orange poncho wielding a laspistol, needle pistol, and power sword, as seen from the front
Cowboy genestealer cultist acolyte champion in an orange poncho wielding a laspistol, needle pistol, and power sword, as seen from the left
Cowboy genestealer cultist acolyte champion in an orange poncho wielding a laspistol, needle pistol, and power sword, as seen from the back

Final thoughts

I was very, very happy with how the whole crew came out. Inspired by a single model (that hadn’t even had a release date announced at this point) and a niggling idea to give him some friends to play with, I’d built this bunch of weirdos from the ground up. I could already tell I was going to have a lot of fun roleplaying this lot and I already had a dozen new ideas for minis! Roll on Wave 2…

Ten fighters of Hive Noon, cowboy genestealer cultists for Necromunda, dressed in cowboy hats and using old timey weapons

8 Replies to “Hive Noon first wave – Cowboy genestealer cultists”

  2. Great work. A really interesting take on the cult gunslingers. Those name are genius. For my money the poncho-wearing acolytes are the pick of the bunch, they’re brilliantly dynamic. I do have a soft spot for Lashy Luke though.

    1. Thanks! After playing with them for a few weeks, GSC are definitely a style-over-substance type gang. Lashy Luke wen through the wars, getting hobbled, spinal injuries and had an eye put out. Didn’t stop him though!

    1. Thank you! I’m pretty sure coming up with all the names took up 90% of the time :'(

  4. These are excellent convertions and very thematic. I love the ponchos and the sense of movement they help create.

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