Our courageous gamers have been hard at work putting paint to plastic (and metal!), building up their teams and preparing for battle. Let’s check in on their progress and see some of the lovely miniatures they’ve been slaving over…
And if this has your interest in starting a new Kill Team project piqued, you can join in too! Send us pics of your up-and-coming teams, minis you’re painting or your latest hard-fought battle and we’ll add them to our Community Showcase posts for all to see. You can submit your pics via email at hobby@sentrybox.com, or message us on Facebook.com/Sentrybox.
A suitably pointy leader
For my kill team, I decided I wanted to use both Wyches and Kabalite Warriors to start out – this would give me a taste of each of the kits, and allows my team to be more versatile and varied than relying on one kind of model in game. I started by building a list for my kill team:
- Sybarite with Splinter Rifle and Agonizer (Leader)
- Kabalite Gunner with Dark Lance (Sniper)
- Kabalite with Splinter Rifle (Comms)
- Hekatrix with Agonizer and Blast Pistol (Combat)
- Kabalite Gunner with Blaster
- 2x Wych Fighter with Hydra Gauntlets
- Wych Fighter with Shardnet and Impaler
- 2x Wych with base loadout
This let me maximize the special weapons that my team could take, and gave me a strong mix of shooting and melee combat to take advantage of the Combat Drugs passive abilities, Power from Pain bonuses, and the mobility from their stat lines.
Jordan’s very favorite type of weapon, the Big Gun
When I was building the models for my kill team, I wanted to make sure that each model was distinct from each other to allow for easy recognition on the field – the exception being the pairs of Wyches with the same weapons.
I started with the Kabalite Warriors – the special weapons made two of them distinct from each other, and the leader stands out with her Power Sword and trophy backpack-pole-thing. The Comms specialist Kabalite also carries a unique backpack that looked like it could be a way to spread communications – with the Drukhari lore, it’s probably screams or something like that.
Can you hear me now?
The Wyches kit offered one of each special weapon – but not the two sets of Hydra Gauntlets I was looking for. So, one of the two that was meant to have Hydra Gauntlets was given a neat sword and fist weapon, and the same blank-faced helmet that the other Hydra Gauntlet Wych has to make them stand apart. The combat specialist Wych was given the same trophy-pole backpack that the Kabalite Leader has, and the last pair of Wyches have the proper pistol and knife loadout. With only one exception to a proper What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get, and having another way to properly recognize that model, I think the modeling for my kill team went pretty well.
Wych WIP
Just before I started painting my kill team, Citadel’s line of Contrast paints released – and one effect I wanted to experiment with was using these Contrast paints on a metallic base. I was interested in using Volupus Pink and then Shyish Purple on top to give a unique dark magenta color to the metallic armor of the kill team, and I think the result looks pretty cool. The rest of the colors were chosen to complement the unique pink of the armor – black for the undersuits and Wych bodysuits, a pale blue-gray skin as a contrast to the dark armor, and bright blue hair and tassels as highlights, if only because I like blue.
One thing I like about GW models is the ability to customize them. The first thing I did was some modifications:
- Commander Shadowsun: I used green stuff to give her a fuller head piece and moved her ponytail to the middle of her head. I stole a Melusai Blood Sisters/Stalkers ponytail
- The lone Tau female head (from Fire Warriors): I sculpted more hair onto her head and had it join up with her side ponytail
- Pathfinders: A second kneepad on all the models
Commander Shadowsun was the first model I experimented on with Apothecary White. Right out of the bottle I thought it was too dark and I thought it made the model look like a dirty grey. So I ended up painting this model the old fashioned way…Highlighting *everything* white (Grrr).
Stylish and deadly
Before I painted the rest of my Kill Team, I took my Apothecary White and replaced about 20% -25% of it with Contrast Medium. Success! My models looked great with just Corax White primer and Apothecary White over top. I used the Blood Angels Red contrast paint for the red details. For black parts, I used Mechanicus Standard Grey, then drybrushed Administarium Grey over top, followed by a dark black wash. I wanted to create a variety of skin colors because I thought it would look more natural. So I painted the skin Grey Seer, Fenrisian Grey, or Russ Grey, before applying the Space Wolves Grey contrast paint (diluted with Contrast Medium).
Initially the drone tops looked dark and streaky. I thought about just filling in the lines, but then they looked *too* white compared to the other parts.
Before you put troops in danger, test with robots!
Then I got a larger brush (Base, Large) and diluted the Apothecary White with at least 50% Contrast Medium and.. Success! Third time was the charm!
Angry frisbees
Things that worked:
- Diluting the Apothecary White with Contrast Medium and using it over Corax White primer
- Drybrushing the dark parts and then using a wash to tie it all together
- Using the Base Large brush to apply contrast paint to larger surfaces
- Greenstuff stuff
- Red contrast paint
- Diluting Space Wolves Grey with Contrast Medium and using it over the Tau skin
Things I would like to improve upon & proposed solution:
- I think Commander Shadowsun’s ponytail looks a little cartoonsih. I may switch it back to the ponytail that came with the model
- I don’t like the way Commander Shadowsun’s white highlights look compared to the rest of the team. I think that despite my best efforts, the white highlights don’t look as smooth or as crisp as just using the diluted contrast paint over Corax White. I don’t really want to redo Commander Shadowsun, so I’ll probably just live with it
- I got a thumb full of black wash all over the back of one of the Pathfinders white armor when it was almostfinished. I tried several ways to fix it, but have now lost too much detail and it looks sludgy and terrible. I have an extra torso, but the current torso is glued on there but good. I also thought about pulling the kneepad off and getting another pair of legs. But I have decided the path of least resistance is to add a backpack to cover it. That model can be the demolitions expert or just carrying extra supplies or something
Leading the way!
I deliberately painted extra Pathfinders and Drones so I can mix up my Kill Team a little bit. I had initially intended to include XV25 Battlesuits, but then I decided I wanted some drones instead. However, I’m only a few XV25 Battlesuits and a Commander away from a 200 point Kill Team Commanders Team.
I’m generally happy with the way my Kill Team turned out and can’t wait to meet the other teams on the battlefield!
In creating my Kill Team I kept a couple of things in mind: Imperial Guard are squishy and flamers are a good multi-hit weapon.
To mitigate the ‘squishy’ part, my thinking was to put more figs on the table than most Kill Teams. That way I can overrun opponents and possibly take multiple objectives at the same time. This part was easy as the Guard are very inexpensive points wise.
I like flamers. Even though it is a random number of shots each time you fire it the shots automatically hit. What’s not to like? The only problem is that they are short range. Which brings us back to problem number one.. squishiness. My first thought was to put in as many flamers as possible. If I lose one, I have other flamers. To fix this a bit I put the flamers on my Militarum Tempestus Scions. They are more resilient so I can rush them in and they have a bit more of a chance of getting close to let loose the fire. Reduce the quantity for quality.
I also wanted to include a vox-caster in the team. This allows me to re-roll failed nerve tests as long as the figure with the vox is anywhere on the battlefield and not shaken. As I have the chance to lose lots of figs I thought this might help keep others on the table longer. This also means I should keep the figure with the vox-caster out of harms way if I can. If I keep this fig back then they will not be able to help out in fighting the enemy, so I gave them a Grenade Launcher. It has long range and can bloop in supporting rounds where needed and it has two types of shots. Great for all occasions.
Old School!
This ended up being five Praetorian Guardsmen: one Sergeant, three regular guardsmen, and a guardsmen gunner with grenade launcher and vox-caster. This came to 32 points. We are off to the races!
Now I had to deal with adding some firepower and resilience to the group. The Militarum Tempestus Scions are a bit tougher and have access to some pretty cool weapons. I started out with two gunners with flamers… got to have the flamers. I would have gone with more but I wanted to get some of the Hot Shot Volley Guns in. As mentioned before the flamers have short range so the Scions will hopefully get close before getting killed. The hot shot volley guns put out a lot of firepower. They are Heavy 4 so I will have to play them strategically. I am hoping the added toughness will allow them to get set up to lay down cover fire. Adding a Tempestor rounded out this part of the group.
Heavy Metal
This came to five Kasrkin, one Kasrkin Sergeant (Tempestor), two Kasrkin gunners with hot shot volley guns, and two Kasrkin gunners with flamers. The Kasrkin figures did not come with hot shot volley guns so the regular guys will count as it. This came to 62 points. In the home stretch!
Six points left so I went back to the listings. The only thing that fit was a gunner with sniper rifle. Nice long range support that ignores the long range penalty and adds a mortal wound on a wound roll of 6+. Since the Praetorian Guard did not have a figure with a sniper rifle I went with the Scope figure from Col. Schaeffer’s Last
Chancers box set. I can imagine the Praetorian Guard proudly standing in their ranks, out in the open, while the sniper is hidden in the bush adding long range support.
Pew Pew!
The team is done! One hundred points on the nose!!
Now off to paint…..
Ewww…
It begins! With a box of Plague Marines, I got to work following my plan from last time. Once I had the ones I needed assembled, I knew I would have to paint up a single, basic miniature in order to nail down my color scheme.
As planned, I primed my experimental Plague Marine with Vallejo’s Dead Flesh spray for a really sickly-looking base color, with an overall drybrush of Vallejo Ivory to highlight the edges. All the base colors followed – and there’s plenty of them! I’ll spare you a giant boring list. In particular, I mixed up a 50/50 mix of Game Color Brassy Brass and Tinny Tin to create a dark and worn brass color for all the trim.
After finally getting all the base colors done and touched up, it was time to shade. The whole thing got a wash of Army Painter Soft Tone thinned with a little water. Then I tried something new – a little while ago I had picked up a bottle of Vallejo Mecha Color Light Rust wash, just because it looked interesting. Here, I thinned it with Lamian Medium and carefully worked it along the joints and pits in the armour, pulling it down into rusty streaks. It turned out great!
The backpack says Hi
Most of the highlights were fairly straightforward, although I did spend a little extra time on the creepy tentacles (and also added a thin glaze of thinned Purple Tone to make them look even more fleshy and disgusting. Finish off with my favorite style of base, and job’s done! One Plague Marine, ready to spread the rot of Grandfather Nurgle. Now I just need to do that a few more times, right?
An Entire Month Later:
Note the difference in the tone of their armour due to different photo lighting – the real color is somewhere in the middle, but a bit closer to this greenish tone
Whew, I always manage to underestimate just how long a paintjob takes over multiple miniatures. It ended up being a little bit of a slog, but now they’re finished and I’m really happy with the final result. Remembering to write down all the colors I was using when I did the first guy was a big help! Plus, since the Poxwalkers I’ll use to finish off my team have a lot fewer fiddly bits and I’ll be using Contrast paints for their skin, they should go much quicker and I should have my team table-ready in short order.
But more on that next time…
