I can think of few greater xenos threats to the Imperium than that of the Genestealer. An apex predator possessed of intelligence and cunning that rival our own, they exist for the sole purpose of reproducing in vast numbers and sowing utter chaos in their wake.

— Inquisitor Kalistradi from The Nature of the Beast

Miniature Review

I think Lost Patrol is one of the oldest Games Workshop games that I haven't painted, having come out in 2016. I do still have Deathwatch: Overkill that was released the same year, as well as Space Hulk third edition from 2009 that I REALLLLLY need to get to. But let's start with this box as it's a lot smaller!

I didn't have any painted Tyranids, so I decided to paint them as Hive Fleet Leviathan. I feel like Genestealers have to be purple, but I really like the contrast of the pale skin with the purple carapace compared to the traditional Hive Fleet Hydra with their dark blue carapace and purple skin.

None of the miniatures in the box were new at the time of release and look quite aged now. Despite there being a lot of shared components, having a range of different arms and heads does work well to differentiate them enough to not look like a boring uniform unit. The poses are quite wide and open for their time too, so they don't look terrible compared to other units of the era.

Painting Techniques

Skin

Carapace

Genestealer Purple & Screaming Skull was mixed 1:1 for the final highlight.

Claws

Evil Sunz Scarlet & Screaming Skull 1:1 was mixed 1:1 for the final highlight.

Eyes

Tongue

Base

After applying the basecoat I used Base Ready Scrublands and then added a few Verdia Veldt Tufts.

Roundup

As the miniatures aren't my favorite by today's standards I didn't want to spend a long time painting them. Especially with 12 genestealers I wanted to try batch painting them as quickly as possible with a limited colour palette.

This is the first time I've ever tried using an airbrush, and man I really need to practice with it a lot more! The initial black primer went well, but then the white ink zenithal highlight really splattered out and wasn't smooth at all. This must be down to either not cleaning the airbrush nozzle enough after the base coat, or just not mixing the ink correctly.

I then mixed up the colour scheme I was going for, thinking the skin was purple, so ended starting again and re-priming them all white. I then had a go trying to pick out the carapaces with it using a 0.4mm nozzle. It didn't go too badly, I wasn't the most accurate, but it was probably quicker to get the colour down that way and tidy up than paint them neatly with a brush. Going down to a 0,2mm nozzle in the future might also help to give me more control, but for now I think a bigger nozzle is easier for learning.

I then did the rest with a brush. Overall for how badly it started I'm fairly happy with how they came out. For only a handful of colours they look good and were nice and quick to paint.