Warhammer 40,000 Genestealer Brood HMD-30: Painting Guide and Tactics

Quick answer

Build the whole brood first, then paint it in batches of five: prime, basecoat the skin, block in carapace and claws, wash, and finish the base. That order keeps your brush moving and stops you from repainting areas you have already sealed with varnish. Play them as a fast, fragile melee unit that wants cover on the way in and a target that is already weakened.

Genestealer Brood HMD-30 is a melee unit, so the way you build and paint it should support how it actually plays: cheap enough to run in numbers, sharp enough to threaten anything it reaches, and fragile enough that you will lose some of them before they connect. This guide covers the full sequence from clipping out to finishing the base, then how to use the finished brood on the table.

If you are painting your first brood, the biggest risk is not color choice, it is order. Paint the wrong layer first and you end up repainting skin around finished claws. The steps below are written in the order I would actually work, with the checkpoint that tells you when to move on.

Assemble the brood before you paint anything

Clip, clean, and dry-fit every model in the brood before glue. Genestealer Brood HMD-30 is a multi-part plastic kit, so mold lines on the limbs and carapace are the first thing a wash will reveal. Scrape them now with the back of a hobby knife, then test-fit arms and heads so you know which poses you want before the glue sets. Batch-building ten to twenty models at once is faster than building one and painting it.

Keep the brood consistent in pose. Mixed poses are fine, but if every model leans the same direction the unit reads as a single charging wave on the table, which is exactly what you want from a melee brood. If a joint will not sit flush, do not force it; trim the contact point slightly rather than filling a gap later.

• Common mistake: gluing the model to its base before cleaning the underside of the feet, which traps mold lines you can never reach again.
• Checkpoint: every model stands flat on its base with no visible gaps at the shoulder or hip joints.

Prime and basecoat in batches of five

Prime the whole brood in one pass with a rattle can or airbrush, then work in batches of five. Five is the sweet spot: enough to keep your paint wet and your rhythm going, small enough that you can finish the skin on all five before the first one dries. Batch painting is what makes genestealer brood painting bearable when you are staring down twenty models.

Basecoat the skin first because it covers the largest area and sits underneath everything else. Two thin coats beat one thick coat every time. If you are using contrast or speed paints over a light prime, one controlled coat is usually enough, but check the recesses for pooling before you move on.

• Common mistake: priming in humid or cold conditions and getting a grainy finish that no amount of paint will hide.
• Checkpoint: the skin reads as a solid, even color with no gray plastic showing through.

Block in carapace, claws, and eyes

Once the skin is dry, block in the carapace plates and claws with a single mid-tone. Do not try to blend yet. At this stage you are separating shapes so your wash has something to catch. Paint the claws slightly lighter than the carapace so they read as a different material, then dot the eyes with your brightest color last. Eyes are the last thing you touch on the head because everything else will smudge them.

Keep your brush loaded lightly for claws. Overloading floods the tip and you lose the point, which is the only part of the brush that matters on a claw this small. If you do flood a claw, wick the excess with a dry brush corner rather than wiping it, which just spreads the paint.

• Common mistake: painting the eyes before the carapace, then covering them while blocking in the head plates.
• Checkpoint: carapace, claws, and skin are all clearly distinguishable at arm's length.

Wash, then bring back the highlights

A single all-over wash does most of the work on a brood this size. Apply it deliberately into the recesses rather than flooding the whole model, then let it dry completely before you touch it again. Once dry, go back over the raised skin and the top edges of the carapace with your base color or one step lighter. This is the step that turns a flat model into a finished one, and it is the step most people skip when they are painting their fifteenth genestealer.

If you want a faster finish, drybrush the carapace instead of edge highlighting it. Drybrushing is less precise but on a brood that will spend most of its life in a transport case, it is a perfectly reasonable trade.

• Common mistake: applying a second wash before the first is fully dry, which reactivates the first layer and leaves tide marks.
• Checkpoint: the raised areas are visibly lighter than the recesses, and the model reads clearly from three feet away.

Finish the base and seal the brood

Bases do more for unit recognition than any other step. Pick one base scheme for the whole brood and repeat it exactly, because a consistent base is what makes twenty individual models look like one unit on the table. Texture paint, a drybrush, and a clean rim is enough. Do the rim last and do it neatly; a sloppy rim undoes a good paint job faster than anything else.

Seal the finished brood with a matte varnish. Genestealers get handled a lot, picked up and moved in and out of melee, and varnish is what keeps the paint on the model instead of on your fingers. A matte finish also kills the shine that washes can leave behind.

• Common mistake: sealing before the base rim is dry, which traps a fingerprint in the varnish.
• Checkpoint: every base in the brood matches, and the varnish is fully dry before the models go in the case.

How to use the finished brood on the table

Genestealer Brood tactics come down to one idea: they are fast and lethal, but they die to almost anything that shoots them. Move them through cover and behind terrain, not across open ground. Their job is to arrive at a target that is already damaged or isolated, not to charge the front of a gunline. If you can force your opponent to split fire between the brood and a second threat, the brood earns its points.

Keep the brood within range of whatever is buffing them, and do not spread them so thin that a single blast removes the whole unit. Against a melee army, use them as a speed bump to tie up a key unit for a turn. Against a shooting army, hold them back and commit once the shooting has been spent. Either way, accept that you will lose models, and plan the charge so the survivors are the ones you actually needed.

• Common mistake: charging the brood into a target that will simply fall back and leave them exposed to the rest of the army.
• Checkpoint: before you move, you can name the exact unit you want the brood to fight and the terrain you will use to get there.

Your Genestealer Brood paint order, step by step

1. Step 1: Build and clean the full brood: Clip, scrape mold lines, and dry-fit every model before gluing. Batch-build the whole unit so you only set up your tools once. Checkpoint: no visible gaps and every model sits flat on its base.
2. Step 2: Prime the unit, then basecoat skin in fives: Prime everything in one pass. Work in batches of five and lay down two thin coats of skin color. Checkpoint: even skin coverage with no bare plastic.
3. Step 3: Block in carapace, claws, and eyes: Paint carapace and claws in a mid-tone, keeping claws a step lighter. Dot the eyes last with your brightest color. Checkpoint: all three materials read as distinct shapes.
4. Step 4: Wash the recesses, then re-highlight: Apply one controlled wash into the recesses and let it dry fully. Then bring the raised skin and carapace edges back up with a lighter tone. Checkpoint: the model reads clearly from three feet away.
5. Step 5: Base, rim, and varnish: Use one base scheme for the whole brood, paint the rims cleanly, and seal with matte varnish once everything is dry. Checkpoint: matching bases and a fully dry varnish before storage.
6. Step 6: Field them as a cover-hopping melee threat: Move through terrain, commit against a weakened or isolated target, and keep the brood near whatever buffs it. Checkpoint: you can name the target and the route before you move a single model.

Product facts from the Frontline Gaming catalog

• Warhammer 40,000 Commander HDW-14: Secondhand shop product, sold as-is, priced at USD 22.50 against a catalog comparison price of USD 45.00. Sales are final and items are purchased from clients through the Secondhand Store Program. If you want a second commander to lead a brood-heavy force without paying full retail, this is the tradeoff: a lower price in exchange for a final sale and no returns.
• T'Au Empire: Kroot War Shaper: The War Shaper is a seasoned combatant who leads Carnivores into battle from the forefront, setting an example of courage and determination. Catalog price USD 19.50 against a comparison price of USD 39.00. A useful reference point if you are building a fast, aggressive melee force and want a leader model that matches that playstyle.
• The Battlefield Ready Bundle: Includes a 44 x 60 inch FLG Mat: Scorched Warzone neoprene battle mat, the Pyrewaste Terrain Set with modular walls, buildings, and tank traps built around 11th Edition 40k layouts, and an 11th Edition Tool and Token Set. Bundle price USD 151.48 against a comparison price of USD 302.95. Genestealer tactics depend on terrain to close the distance, so having a table's worth of modular cover ready before your first game matters more than any single model.

Build the whole brood, paint it in fives, and finish the bases as one unit. Then play them the way the paint scheme suggests: fast, together, and pointed at a target that has already been softened up.