The Blood Rain Cultists

– The Wastelanders –

They are what remains of the forgotten army of Typhor Huron the Great. Huron, a beloved champion of the Imperium, lead the charge with his mighty army of Space Marines and Imperial Guard into the deepest darkest systems to destroy Lord Dagahast and his treacherous chaos warriors. Dagahast and Huron fought for many years until both were almost dead and had driven themselves insane with blood lust. All of the Space Marines were killed or lost, including Huron himself, whereas their unlikely comrades, the 409th Cadian guard, survived the years of war. However, they found themselves stranded on an unnamed planet that was almost uninhabitable. Four suns burned in the sky for months at a time with no respite no cool darkness. The heat was so intense it caused the skin to bubble and blister. Finally after the earth was scorched and burnt the suns would set and a dank, thick fog would drift across the plains bringing with it all unsightly manner of beasts and ghouls searching for flesh. Hot tar seeped from the earth as though the very core was melting. Huge tar pit swamps formed and would swallow anything that tread upon it. A horrid place to be sure but one the marooned 409th were forced to call home. Their ship was destroyed and lay rusting in the hot sand. Their communications had all failed and their supplies were running out fast. They soon turned to cannibalism, eating their own dead first before turning on the sick and weaker among them.  Huron’s, once great, army was now nothing but desperate cannibal scavengers hell bent on surviving each day as best they could.

– What of Dagahast? –

Well he too had suffered much loss from the war and had become quite ill with fever. He handed command to his, then young, son Volke. Volke appointed himself General and salvaged what he could of his fathers army and regrouped. Unlike Huron’s army they had made it back to their own lines where they regained their strength. A year later they set off in search of Huron’s lost army.

It would be a very long, long nearly a decade in fact before they finally discovered a small black and burnt planet many millions of clicks away from any inhabited world. General Volke knew in his dark heart he had found his, now dead, fathers adversary and he vowed to destroy him.

Something happened though, something unexpected by Volke and the remaining men on the burnt wasteland planet. As soon as Volke saw the battered, blood drenched, crazed, warriors of Huron’s fallen army he knew he had found allies not enemies.

They slowly trudges through the simmering sand to greet Volke as he stepped off his small land speeder.

– Men… Do not fear me for I am your savior. Do not resist me for I am the way. No longer do you need to remain in this place for now you can join me my brothers and seek vengeance on those who have deserted you – Volke called to them and one by one they knelt before their new commander, their new master. As they did a strange black cloud drifted low over them and for the first time in a millennia rain started to fall on the burning hot planet. The men looked up into the sky and smiled, finally… water. Then their smiles turned to sneers and they started to cry out with joy as they realised it was not water that rained down on them but blood…

There’s the brief background and below is the small army. I still need to paint General Volke and a Basilisk. Maybe a standard bearer too.

 

These were soooooooooooooooooo much fun to paint! I started this project back in 2015 and even though it’s still not quite finished I feel good about getting all the troops done. I’m looking forward to painting General Volke and the Basilisk.

With the Blood Rain Cultists I wanted to really incorporate the fluff into their overall look. I wanted them to look blistered, burnt and as though they really do look like they’ve been stranded in a hot and horrible place for a very long time. Poor Buggers. Likewise with the photos I tried to make it look like they were on the burning planet.

A stand out model for me is the last one. The head just screams MANIAC to me haha, let alone the fact he’s wielding a blood covered meat cleaver!

I also like the fully robed/cloaked/hooded and gas mask wearing chap (Standing in the doorway). He looks very “wastelandy” in my opinion and the dude standing on the old car door.

Love to hear about your favourites, if any?

Cheers

IRO