Cultists

The whole merry throng

This collection of cultists/Redemptionists really got going last summer. At BOYL they were selling a variety of odds and sods at £1 each. I snapped up everything with a robe on and went home with 9 miscellaneous ‘jolly’ monks and priests. I also had a solitary GW Redemptionist from some bring and buy, and a couple of scratch built cultists who seemed appropriate.

Cultist command

The first is a jolly monk with a crucifix, now wielding a Foundry grenade launcher. I gave him a putty half-mask, skulls on his belt ends, and turned the crucifix into a sort of standard. On the top of his standard is a Mr Punch effigy. This was mostly inspired by the novel Riddley Walker where the protagonist is a boy living in a post-apocalyptic Iron Age Kent. In this incredibly atmospheric book, written in a Clockwork Orange style patois, representatives from the primitive government (the Mincery) tour the villages with a Punch style show crossed with a medieval mystery play. The classic Punch has a pointy hat, red clothes and kills everyone he meets in a flurry of unreasonable violence – not difficult to see the Redemptionist parallels, and I imagined them with a similar travelling show, educating the illiterate under-hive.

In the centre we have the leader of the gang (formerly Foundry jolly monk with book). He was given a flamer, bookmark, skull buckle, hanging down cloth (no idea what the proper name for that is) and a pointy hood all scratch-built in green putty.

On the right is the Foundry jolly monk with his hands behind his back. I cut these away at the shoulder and hid the cut marks with some pouches on his back. The chainsword is built from three layers of plastic card with the inner cut as a saw tooth. A few bits of wire and green putty were used for the handle. I then sculpted a green putty hood and new arms.

Cultist flamers

On the left is a converted monk with a blunderbuss. The blunderbuss has been converted to a primitive looking flamer connected to a big tank on his back. Another hood and grotesque mask, a bit of elbow armour (not sure why he’d choose to protect that – Achilles’ elbow perhaps), but I was just trying to ‘fancy’ him up a bit.

The middle model is my first scratch build in a long time. I started him over ten years ago – did about 80% and then put him on one side, till I was inspired to finish him at the end of last year. He became one of the first batch to be cast up by Lancer, although this particular one I drop cast myself in a silicone mould.

On the right is a Games Workshop redemptionist (unconverted). He has a one-shot flamer cartridge fixed under his autogun.

Cultist close combat

On the left is some kind of Foundry Jesuit. He was waving a crucifix (now an axe hand), and the other hand was making some kind of benediction. I stuck on a Foundry machine pistol, an axe head from the bits box on a wire handle and gave him an executioner style putty hood. I wasn’t sure about the neck tie, but in the end I left it as I couldn’t think what else to use, and it was going to be difficult to cut away neatly. I really like the row of buttons – gives him a certain style missing from more generic baggy robes.

The middle model had the rapier already. I added a decorative sash at the front, swapped his antique flintlock for a Mk6 bolt pistol and added the hood and grotesque mask with putty. He is barefooted, which must be uncomfortable among all that rubble, but that’s the flagellant mentality for you.

The model on the right is another cultist from my Warfactory range. With just a big knife and some throwing daggers, he is perhaps a little under-gunned, but he values stealth and timing over raw firepower.

More cultist close combat

The left hand model is a cast variant of the centre cultist – with just a pistol he is another of the more lightly armed.

The centre is the leader from my cultist range. I also started him about ten years ago, and he spent that time as a barely fleshed out armature in a box. This one is another home cast, but the same sculpt is now available from Lancer.

On the right we have some kind of Foundry Renaissance priest, originally with sword and flintlock. The flintlock got some green putty to bulk it up into a more modern firearm, I added a Foundry chainsaw and a green putty hood – in a vigilante super-hero/inquisitor sort of style. A couple of green putty grenades and he was ready to go.

Cultists

Another two Foundry monks. The first monk already had the blunderbuss, which worked well as it was. I just added a grenade to modernise him a bit, and then a green putty hood and mask. I was thinking Hieronymous Bosch, grotesque carnival style. The one in the middle had a Napoleonic rifle, which has been replaced with a plastic Warzone gun, and he sports a green putty mask. I wasn’t sure about the skull cap, but in the end I kept it and painted a pattern on it to liven it up a bit.

The final one is from my cultist range. He was created as a variant of the flamer cultist further up.

Cultists

The model on the left is from my cultist range. He’s toting a 3D printed weapon, and has a skull like metal mask.

The final model is another home cast cultist. The original flamer didn’t cast properly and was missing its end, so I cut it away altogether and replaced with a Foundry weapon. The gas mask was altered by giving it a pipe made from green putty wrapped round thin wire and then rolled on the teeth of a long pair of pliers to give the ribbed texture (quite fiddly, I had to do it several times before I got a neat one).