What up, Scummers. While we wait for the House of Secrets book to drop so we can review it and while we work on the House of Faith/Cawdor tactics article, we thought we’d stop in and look at Skails’ amazing Blanchitsu Helot Cult gang.
The Painter: Daniel ‘Skails’ Rodenberg
The Gang: Helot Chaos Cults
Collecting Since: June 2019
Instagram: _skails
Why this gang?
This gang got it’s start as a hobby challenge in a discord. The idea was to combine two kits of basic infantry type models to create a blanchitsu style warband. After browsing through lots of John Blanche artwork I found a couple images of techno-barbarians that became the guiding design principle for the gang. The two kits I chose were Kairic Acolytes and Orlocks. These two kits allowed me to build a fairly close recreation of the inspiring artwork. The acolytes have great muscle torsos and masks that fit the imagery, and the orlocks had the boots and weaponry to complete the picture. This group was initially conceived of as lunatic wasteland raiders. When I came across the Helot Chaos Cult list I found it to be a good framework for the models I had built and inspired some further additions to the group.
Cult Demagogue
The demagogue is armed with a servo claw and an autopistol. The base model for this build is an AOS Bloodstoker. I have an article on the conversion process here.
Cult Disciples
The building process for these Disciples involved shaving down the pants from the orlock kit and sculpting the legs back bare. This was partly to give them a more barbaric look, but also to help the torso blend in to the legs better. The orlocks have much thicker, chunkier proportions than the kairic acolytes. I had a couple loincloth bits to add to the butts, but that left the rest with either attempting to sculpt the cloth over them or make them bare. When considering John Blanche’s artwork and these barbarian chaos worshippers covering their butts seemed like a cowardly move. The shoulder pads from the acolyte torso were cut off with a jewelry saw to fit shoulder pads from the orlock kit.
This disciple is armed with two swords. They are based on one of the John Blanche illustrations. Probably not a great load-out gaming wise, but when these disciples were made it was just about what felt cool.
This one was inspired the other illustration. They are armed with a stub pistol and fighting claw.
This disciple is armed with a heavy stubber and a fighting knife.
The final disciple is armed with a shotgun and carries the cult icon.
Cult Witch and Familiar
The witch is armed with a shockstave.
Helot Cultists
The cultist were the final additon to this band. They bring the gang into compliance with the requirement for at least one cultist per disciple. One has a grenade launcher, one has an autopistol and chainsword, and the rest have autoguns. These are from the Cultists of the Abyss kit with face replacements to make them fit the themes of the rest of the warband. This kit was quite a joy to paint, with lots of good musculature, and a variety of metals, leather, and cloth.
Can you tell us about your painting process?
In general my approach was to stick to earth tones- browns, black, ivory and to use the pop of red for the masks as a focal point. Grime was added to the cloaks and hat with stippled seraphim sepia and a thinned burnt umber ink wash. Metals are leadbelcher mixed with a bit of black paint, washed with nuln oil, then some edge highlights of silver. The guns and pants of the cultists started with a base coat of Vallejo Model Color German Grey, then an all over wash of Nuln Oil. Vallejo Model Color Basalt Grey made for the mid-tone layer, then a final highlight of Vallejo Game Color Stonewall Grey mixed with Basalt Grey for the highlights. Their robes were base coated with Zandri Dust, then a layer of Ushabti Bone, and a final highlight with Screaming Skull. Incubi Darkness thinned to a watery consistency was painted into the deepest recesses and creases.
Any future plan for this group?
Future additions to the gang will be a chaos spawn and to kitbash a flamer and long rifle weapon specialists. I’m tempted to get another Cultist of the Abyss kit to do some heavier converting with. Another project will be to convert a Heretek as a hanger-on. It seems like this gang would have one considering the augmentations on these cultists.
How do they play?
I have no idea! This project started without any gaming application in mind, and the Helot Cult rules made for a fun template to expand upon. However, if they ever do see the table I would start out by consulting the Necromunday: Helot Cults article.
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