Tell me if this sounds familiar. You get an idea for an army, go out and buy a box of miniatures, and build them up in a night. The next day you look over some painted examples on the internet and get inspired – not by the models you were looking for, but by some other models from a completely different army. You try to tell yourself not to start another project before you finish painting the other models you have bought, but low and behold, within a week you have another box of mini’s on the go and none of your projects have a lick of paint on them.
This is a pain most of us gamers know all too well, as resisting the impulse to buy more miniatures is something 40K players have never been too good at doing. Recently I have found myself in the same predicament. After writing my article Picking a New 40K Army, I began the process of choosing a new project to work on (although I’m still adding to my Ghosts of Mortain as we speak). Despite my best efforts, I ended up buying some new models thinking I could try out some paint schemes and that that would help me zero in on an army.
Well, that was a few weeks ago, and now I’m staring at the start of three different armies and none of them are near complete. However, rather than being defeated, I decided to take my lemons and make some lemonade. Or rather more accurately, make some Kill Teams.
You see, while looking at the different paint schemes for the models I’d collected, I decided to give the new Contrast paints a go, and I was quite blown away by how easy they were to use. What’s more, the time it took me to paint these models was cut in half compared to how long it would usually take me. So, I decided to set myself a little challenge. With the help of the Contrast paints, could I paint the models I had accumulated (Imperial Guard, Death Guard, and Eldar) and form them into three playable 100-point Kill Teams in a month? Well, there is only one way to find out.
The 48th Canaries
For my Imperial Guard force, I decided to work on a project I had wanted to for years now; a Penal Legion. Not just a Penal Legion though, a Penal Legion based on my favourite childhood TV show, Red Dwarf. That’s right, the Canaries will soon be ready to go to the most deadly war zones and die for the glory of the Emperor.
As you can see from this first painted example, I’m going for yellow fatigues (canary yellow if you will) and black armour that contrast very well with each other. Since this is a Penal Legion, I don’t really want to give them too much equipment, since they are there to take a bullet and not much else. As a result, all the guardsmen will be bare bones and none of them will be a specialist.
I was thinking it might be good to add some Ogryns to work as prison guards and team specialists as well as some muscle. Maybe Bullgryn’s with shields and batons? Hopefully the whole team will come together and look sweet when finished.
The Blighted Kindred
When it comes to the four Chaos gods, each of us has their favourite. For me, my devotion is placed solely at the putrid feet of Nurgle. The lord of plagues not only has a more interesting design and lore, but his miniatures are just outstanding. I mean, you only have to look at the easy build Death Guard range to see how awesome the miniature range is for this deity.
Unlike the pretty plain-looking, death-dealing, skull-reaping followers of Khrone, the slender crab-clawed devotees of Slaanesh, or the twisted and bizarre creatures of Tzeentch, Nurgle’s many worshipers have a more unique aesthetic that just speaks to the body horror fan in me.
The Blighted Kindred will be designed as an offshoot of the main Death Guard legion, mainly so I can try my own version of the pre-heresy colour scheme. With their access to Poxwalkers, regular power armoured marines, and terminators, there should be more than enough model variety to make sure my Kill Team looks suitably unique.
Craftworld Ashtok
One of the great things about the 40K hobby is the ability to create your own forces with their own lore and colour schemes. Most of the time, players express themselves by creating their own chapter of Space Marines or Imperial Guard regiments. However, it’s not just the human players that can be inspired to create their own force with its own lore.
I’ve always had a soft spot for the Eldar model range, but I was never really impressed with the given Craftworlds Games Workshop have created. So, I decided that it would be fun to create my own minor craftworld, and Kill Team would be the best place to test it out.
Craftworld Ashtok (as I’ve decided to call them) is a small settlement on the outer edges of Segmentum Tempestus. Isolated from their fellow Craftworlds, they have become reliant on their ability to defend themselves and have become an almost militaristic society. Indeed, their guardians are more of a standing army, and the Ashtok are known to be highly aggressive to outsiders.
Well there are my three Kill Teams I’m going to be painting over the next couple of weeks. It will be fun to try out three very different projects, and who knows, maybe I’ll decide to expand on one or more of them to form a new army. But I’m curious. What new armies or projects have you started recently? Why not let us know about them in the comments below. While you’re there you could like and subscribe to keep up to date with all we do here at Master of Magics.
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