It’s been over five years since an Admech model release wave of more than one unit, and Games Workshop has truly delivered in their expansion of the faction at the end of 10th Edition! Thulia Ghuld & the Hastarii—divided into the anti-Infantry Exterminators & anti-Vehicle Fusileers—do a ton to widen the faction’s access to dedicated heavy weaponry, on top of some model sizes we haven’t yet seen. Thulia herself stands tall, even moreso than her contemporary Belisarius Cawl, on a whopping 80mm base, while each of the Hastarii are hunched, bulky Skitarii on 32mm bases; the latter are less nimble than the Sicarians or Pteraxii, and you get the feeling their armaments truly weigh their wielders down. As soon as these kits were spoiled, however, I had something entirely different in mind: How was I to theme these to be in-line with the rest of my army? I have a heavily-converted Admech force, based largely on the insect-riding Ash Waste Nomads, and neither Thulia nor her Hastarii were obvious 1:1 parallels to this aesthetic. That being said, as someone who plays a good bit in Games Workshop-sanctioned events, it was imperative for me to ensure these models were legible, and ideally contained solely Warhammer plastic. Suffice to say, this was a process.
Thulia’s box was far smaller than I expected, being half-size compared to the Hastarii, who were in the standard infantry box. The core of her build was simple, being divided into ~5 segments that came together radially at the hip, almost like a starfish. Given she was a peer to Cawl, as the only other Monster in the faction, I wanted Thulia to have a similar feel, in terms of her conversion. My Cawl wasn’t himself the mechadendrite-riddled Dominus that’s so often referred-to as ‘centipede-like’, but instead a cyborg insect with a fairly normal shaman riding atop; this was achieved by way of the Wy’tari Stormcaller kit, which required some finagling with resin. I aimed to avoid working with resin at all costs this time, though, so I was in search of a different kit: The Path of Cirith Ungol: Shelob & Gollum. The LotR kits are at a smaller scale than Warhammer, but that actually works to our benefit here, as Shelob is also on an 80mm base, and with some measurements online, I was confident she’d work well here. I intended to retain Thulia’s silhouette, but upon further inspection, reveal she’s composed of a grotesque spider matron, and a hunchbacked Baba Yaga-esque witch.
The dominant change in this conversion is, fairly obviously, her prodigious posterior. There were jokes made of the standard Thulia having a similar body shape, so accentuating it was, to me, both funny and unsettling. Next came the chopping off of her mechanical feet (beyond the bracing ones, near the front), and replacing them with Shelobs’, and using the space between her Manipulus-style abdomen to seat the spider’s head, giving it continuity to the rear. The next happy accident came from my realization that Shelob’s kit also came with Gollum, and his spindly frame could do wonderfully as parts of Thulia. Originally, I intended to use spare parts from the Serberys kit, but the gangly look of Gollum’s legs and hands worked marvelously here. Finally, to make it seem the spidery bits were meant to be there, I added some extra cloak bits, to tie them in to the rest of her robes.
The whole model was primed with Wraithbone, and we were ready to go!
The scheme I use is borrowed from Ryza, as well as a few different Ash Waste recipes I’ve seen online. Given there’s no subassemblies, I started by painting inside-out, with the innermost components basecoated first; the good news is that we’ll be doing two thin coats of everything but the metallics, at least, to build up that strong color.
The bone cloth starts with Ushabti Bone, and the orange with Skrag Brown. I use Leadbelcher for the silvers, and Pro Acryl Bronze for the trim, and Pro Acryl Mahogany for the ‘Admech Maroon’. Crucially, that last color starts super thin, and requires buildup while you slowly mix in Khorne Red, but results in my absolute favorite traditional Admech hue I’ve seen. Flesh & buggy bits gets basecoated with Rakarth Flesh, and Game Color Dead White for anything glowing or painted solely with contrast.
The bug carapace is a color I get asked about quite a lot, for folks looking to do their own shells, or even just pallid, dead flesh. It’s a rather specific mix that was developed while working on the army, and manages to go on thin enough to leave the warmth from Rakarth Flesh, but with enough blue to pool and saturate where it needs to. Here, I first did a light drybrush of Wraithbone to bring out the details, and then applied the ‘bug juice’. The recipe itself is as follows: 2:2:7:3 Nighthaunt Gloom to P3 Turquoise Ink to Lahmian Medium to Contrast Medium.
From there, everything that wasn’t white or buggy got washed with a 2:1 Lahmian Medium to Agrax Earthshade wash, then colored back up with their basecoat. I built up highlights with Deathclaw Brown on the Orange, Wraithbone on the bone, and for the red continued to bring the Mahogany in with 2:1 Khorne Red. The metallics had wear done via Typhus Corrosion, Nihilakh Oxide, and a drybrush of Fire Dragon Bright, and from there we were close to finished! A final tint of the glowy bits with Frostheart Contrast, followed by a Pallid Wych Flesh drybrush, finished us off aside from a few minor details & basing.
I’ve used Duncan Rhodes’ Ash Waste Base tutorial to a T here, as it’s by far the best recipe I’ve ever seen for the terrain. That’s a simple process of slapping down AK Dry Ground, a 1:1:1 of Eshin Grey to Vallejo Matt Varnish to water, and a final drybrush of Dead White. With a final varnish, Thulia’s done, and I had an absolute blast working on this centerpiece! I think the spider abdomen does a ton to help her feel appropriate on the 80mm base, as without it I worry she’d seem a bit spindly; with this conversion, we’re using all of the base space without any overhang, and she feels appropriately chunky.
Onto the Hastarii, and I wanted to make sure they felt different between both builds. Given they come in 5s, this was a perfect chance to use one Ash Waste Nomad kit I’ve never gotten a chance to work with, the Sha’dar Hunters, and given they’re likely to see more play I used them as the basis for my Fusileers. I see the Fusils as monster hunters of sorts, tracking down big bugs to take as trophies. The Exterminators were an easy buildout, with just a head & backpack swap to suit the Nomad aesthetic, leaving them appropriately bulky with the original Hastarii body. The Fusileers meanwhile needed a place to perch their Phosphor Blasters, and hide the ball joint that made up their gun arm. With the use of their backpack, and a trimmed shoulderpad from Kurnoth Hunters, the illusion was complete. Similarly to how I denoted Skitarii Rangers versus Vanguard, I alternated their orange & bone cloth, with the Fusileers mirroring the Rangers’ orange hood, and the Exterminators taking more after the Vanguard. This made sense to me, given the vibrance inherent to the latters’ Eradication Casters, while the long, thin guns of the Fusileers resembled Galvanic Rifles.
The paint scheme was the same, although with the stone on the Fusileer, I used Dawnstone to basecoat. The red & blue cables, more pronounced here, were just a simple case of Khorne Red & Altaioc Blue washed like the rest of the model. Thulia has highlights on hers, but I haven’t done so here, as not to be too bright. These are just test models, for the Hastarii, and I have enough boxes to build out the full 15 of each, just in case they receive support in 11th! I’ve already gotten to showcase Thulia in-game, and in my favorite Detachment no less: Data-Psalm Conclave. There, she ran up and destroyed a Repulsor Executioner before trading a bit more…and inevitably dying. It’s everything you could want from a flashy centerpiece, to get in your opponent’s face, and stick in their memory. These are awesome kits, Thulia especially, and well worth figuring out conversions for! You get enough in the Hastarii box to, with the requisite bodies, build both versions—this works like the Electro-Priests, or Sicarians, and it’s not too hard to squeeze extra models out of the kit!
How have you enjoyed the new kits for Admech? Would you have converted your models differently? What bodies would you have used, to build out your spare Hastarii? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
