Genestealer Cults are two armies wearing one uniform. Half of every model is human - overalls, boots, tools, respirators - and half is alien, all purple carapace and chitin claws. The trick to painting them quickly is to accept that and split the work: block the drab half fast with washes and contrast, then spend your time on the skin, which is what people actually look at.
They are a mid-speed army. Not a Necron drybrush job, but nowhere near a clean marine chapter either, because the industrial half is meant to be filthy.
The signature look
Purple-blue hybrid flesh and hard chitin plates set against yellow, ochre or drab work clothing, everything covered in the dust of an underground world. The contrast between an alien claw and a mining helmet is the joke the whole faction is built on, so make sure both halves are readable.
Hybrid skin and chitin
The skin should sit between human and purestrain.
- Base Naggaroth Night over a black undercoat.
- Shade the recesses with Druchii Violet.
- Layer Xereus Purple over the muscle, then Genestealer Purple on the raised areas.
- Highlight Dechala Lilac on knuckles, brow ridges and the tops of the chitin plates.
For the fast version, Leviathan Purple contrast straight over Wraithbone gives you a usable hybrid in one coat, and a single Genestealer Purple drybrush lifts it back up. For hybrids further from the patriarch, mix the transition: paint the human half in a normal flesh ramp - Bugman's Glow, Reikland Fleshshade, Cadian Fleshtone, Kislev Flesh - and let it blend into the purple at the shoulder.
Purestrain Genestealers get the same purple with a bone carapace: Zandri Dust, Agrax Earthshade, Ushabti Bone, Screaming Skull. Claws in Rhinox Hide into Screaming Skull with a Nuln Oil wash at the base.
Overalls, tools and grime
The industrial half is where you save time. Base the overalls Steel Legion Drab or Zandri Dust, wash the lot with Agrax Earthshade and highlight Karak Stone. That is a complete pair of overalls in three steps.
Respirators, mining lamps and rebreather hoses in Mechanicus Standard Grey shaded Nuln Oil and edged Dawnstone. Boots and belts Rhinox Hide into Gorthor Brown. Weapons in Leadbelcher with Nuln Oil and a Ryza Rust stipple - these are stolen and maintained badly.
Finish with a dusting of Terminatus Stone drybrushed up the legs and across the boots, and Stirland Mud on the base blending onto the feet. Cult models should look like they came out of a tunnel.
Cult colour schemes
The purple skin stays; the workwear changes to fit the world.
- Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor - ochre and Zandri Dust overalls, the studio look.
- Bladed Cog - dark red workwear with brass fittings, borrowed from a forge world.
- Rusted Claw - Averland Sunset overalls, everything heavily rusted.
- Twisted Helix - lab whites and pale grey, cleaner and much faster to paint.
- Pauper Princes - deep blue and bone with far more religious ornament.
Tips and common mistakes
- Keep the two halves distinct. If the skin and the overalls are similar in value, the model turns to mush at arm's length.
- Wash the workwear, layer the skin. Spend your effort where it shows.
- Do not clean them up. Dust and grime are part of the identity.
- Batch aggressively. Neophyte squads are large and the overall recipe is three steps - do twenty at once.