Father's Blessings. Genestealer Patriarch on throne

"Man is not an animal. We are not a part of the animal kingdom. We sit far above that crown, perched as spirits, not beasts. I have unlocked and discovered a secret to living in these bodies that we hold. Talk to me of your problems and Father will take away your pain."

Looped radio message broadcast over the public vox net Argellean VXIII [Under Inquisitorial investigation]

This piece was completed for Animosity's upcoming gaming event. It's something that I had always fancied tackling but the high price of the model and its age meant that it isn't easy to come by. We managed to get a deal but the model was caked in flock and glitter and god knows what else. It took three stripping sessions to bring out the pearl of the model beneath. 

The sculpt itself reminds me of anti Jewish propaganda made during the second world war. The Patriarch's features are humanoid, but corrupted to the point of lunacy, dehumanizing the creature.  I can imagine that the image of a Patriarch next to the Imperial slogan 'Beware the lascivious Xenos". The genestealer Cult has held the fascination on older gamers, in no small part to the hypnotizing, creepy figure of the the Patriarch. 

I was torn on whether or not to paint the armour black but nostalgia won out and I went for a purple chitinous exoskeleton with pink skin pulsing out from behind it. For the skin I used a more human hue shaded with red and purple. I wanted to give the impression that this thing was birthed by human mother and would have certain aspects that were human. I know this does not fit the back history as the Patriarch is the first generation of the cult, the cancerous seed from which it grows, but I mis-read this as a child and I always remember the creeping terror of  mothers giving birth to increasingly monstrous creatures until the Patriarch is born. 

The throne was painted obsidian and purple with aspects of its design picked out in gold. I think this contrasts well with the organic lump of the Patriarch and gives a nod to the Gigeresque influence of the Tyranid race. The base was constructed to look like stone - a throwback to the early Rogue Trader mood of a fantasy setting in space. I imagine that the throne is deep under the earth, a construct from an older human colonisation that worshipped chaos (thus the chaos markings on the throne). 

Myles