40 Years of Warhammer: Miniature Retrospective – Genestealer Cult Patriarch
The Genestealer Cult Patriarch helped to usher in a new look for some classic miniatures and updated the range to the new modern standards.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Warhammer and Games Workshop is taking some time to look back at miniatures that had a big impact on their work. Today we’re taking a look at the Genestealer Patriarch and how that model helped to redefine the range for both Tyranids and the updated Genestealer Cults.
“This Patriarch is perched on an industrial pipe signalling the Cults’ tendency to embed themselves on heavily populated manufactorum planets. Posed touching its mind and impressing its malign will, when viewed from the side its crescent form even matches the icon of the Genestealer Cults, often seen stencilled on banners and vehicles.”
Genestealer Patriarch
Genestealers have a long, long history in Warhammer 40,000. They have shown up in all manner of forms from some of the earliest days of the game. The first iteration of the Genestealer Cults in particular had a rather iconic looking Genestealer Patriarch:
That image really helped to guide the old range of metal miniatures into what it was at the time:
However, over time, GW refined the Genestealers themselves. They are one of the few kits that had early plastics — ones that were featured in the OG Space Hulk game. Those got updated into a kit that’s been in service for years. It’s only recently been announced that the current kit will finally get retired for a new breed of genestealers.
The new latest style of Genestealer is certainly leaning harder into the new Patriarch model. Which makes a ton of sense. However, I think that the Patriarch shouldn’t get all the credit. The redesign really started when Space Hulk got relaunched the the Broodlord got an updated model, too:
From there, you had the updated Broodlord and the Patriarch which both share some design cues from this model in particular.
That said, the Patriarch does have the exposed brain/psychic parts and commands a wider array of forces than the Broodlord. But hey, different Tyranid creatures are there to do different things, right? In any case the Genestealer Patriarch new model did help to solidify the look the updated Genestealer Cult army and that’s a win in my book!
To the Genestealer Patriarch, we raise our four-arms in salute!
