Lonkelo dives into Kill Team

If you read my previous posts, you may remember me being a bit nervous about how the Axejack’s gloves would turn out. Well, I’m actually quite happy with the result!

The pose for this one feels very dramatic. The backpack really shows how nicely the Speedpaints pick out details.

These are the chaps with the big guns. I’m not sure what the guns represent, but for now the big one is a plasma gun and the smaller a melta gun. Note how bad I am with lighting effects: I really need to get into that at some point in the future.

They may not carry any special weaponry or gear, but they are just plain cool and in-game you are allowed to activate two at a time!

So, what’s up next? Well, a game for starters, which is planned for tomorrow (27 September 2023). I will try to take as many pictures as possible and hopefully turn them into a battle report of sorts!

<self-congratulatory-rant>
YAAAAAS! I’ve done it! I set the deadline and I got it done!
Last year has been a happy but difficult one in the private life with very little time for the hobby. To be honest, finding time was still difficult. So I did a half an hour here and there. I even tried painting in bed (not recommended: pain in the neck and lighting is horrible). I know the end result is not at the level of what many of you hobby wizards conjure up, but it looks decent, has character and is actually done. Hah!
</self-congratulatory-rant>

So, without further ado, here is the magnificent band of the 1054st Void Shrike regiment of the Vostroyan Firstborn:

The sergeant is simple and maybe the least interesting model to me. I had to look up the markings of a sergeant in the Grande Armée (different Emperor, same oomph), I hope I found the right one!

I think the cat and the surveyor turned out nicely. I feel the bot still needs a name, but I haven’t thought of one yet.

I love how this guy turned out with his mighty shield. For the ‘1054’ text I used the old Cadian transfer sheet (I don’t know whether it is still packed in newer sets). Note that ‘1054’ is not on there, so what you see is actually a loose 1, 05 and 4 carefully positioned together.

(I’ve reached the limit for the number of sections in this entry, see part 2!)

So, I returned to the bases, had a look at them and agreed with past self who said that they might be too simple. But since the game they are for was only two days away, I again went for quick and experimental. So, after trying some different washes, I went with a Sepia wash. This made the bases not as crisp and clear, which would clash too much with the grimdark look of the Killteam I was painting. To finish it off, I added some scatter to three of the bases, made from odd bits and bobs. There is a toothpaste cap in there for example. I painted these bits simple leadbelcher with some Nuln oil on top. To finish it off I used the Speedpainter blood red to spatter on some blood.

To be honest, I’m happily surprised by the result!

So, since speed is of essence, I thought I’d try my hand at some Slapchop™, the simplest kind: black primer, white dry brush and then some Army Painter Speed Paints.

The colours I’m using are:

• Army Painter (AP) Speed Paints blood red for the coat
• AP Speed Paints gravelord grey for the fur hats
• AP Speed Paints hardened leather for…. well, the leather
• AP true copper
• GW leadbelcher
• GW nuln oil

So, I’m halfway through the batch. I’ve got a first Void Shrike done though, more or less, which I used to test out the scheme.

Quite happy with the look. I might add some colour to the eye glasses if I have time left, and I think the back should be copper as well in hindsight.

So… how grim do you like your grimdark? Grim and dark please.

So, I mentioned earlier that I was looking for a simple way to tackle the bases for the deadline that is coming up rather quickly (27 September!).

I went with the first thing that came to mind and went with it. I sprayed them black, added some strips of masking tape and then sprayed them grey.

I like the look of them more or less, but they are still too simple for me, I think. I’m pondering adding a layer of some ink to dirty it up. Maybe some blood spatter. I’ll keep you posted!

The Axeman – not to be confused with an X-man (hurhurhur) – needed an update. I like the idea of a guy wielding a large axe during boarding actions, but felt that my conversion was missing something.

The Navis Axeman immediately reminded me of the following photo:

This picture led me to try to add gloves to my existing conversion. I don’t use greenstuff often and up close it looks…. well, let’s see how it turns out when painted!

Note that I didn’t add an apron. Firstly, I do not think I could pull it off, secondly, I’m not sure it would work with the greatcoat he is already wearing.

That’s it for now! I might spray on some primer on the freshly assembled team as well as think up some easy-peasy basing during lunch break today!

So, my friend called and said: “How about we meet Wednesday next week for a few games of Killteam?” Me: “Awesome!” Me after the call: “So much work to do!!!!”

So, I could just go with my finished Imperial Guard Kill Team and relax for now. I was really looking forward to fielding the Void Shrikes, however. This means that I really need to shift gears and do this thing. So for today, I quickly built enough Vostroyans/Grognards to have a full Killteam. So I’m going for the following list:

1 x Navis Sergeant-at-Arms
4 x Navis Armsman
1 x Navis Axejack
1 x Navis Endurant
1 x Navis Grenadier
1 x Navis Surveyor
1 x Navis C.A.T. Unit
2 x Navis Gunner
= 12 Imperial Navy Breachers!

It is the life of an Imperial Navy Breacher to become very accustomed to explosions. Even more so for the Grenadiers. These Armsmen carry demolition charges designed to crack through bulkheads and sealed doors, enabling their squadmates to keep moving and reach their objectives.

I figured that any self-respecting Killteam would need a guy that can make things go BOOM when they need to. In comes the Grenadier!

Building the Grenadier was a lot of fun. They carry every kind of grenade, as well as demolition charges. So I put as many grenades and other packets (which are actually energy packs for lasguns, but here represent the 40k equivalent of C4, I guess) on him as a could! To distinguish him more from the other Armsmen, I wanted him to throw a grenade, rather than holding the gun with both hands.

This lead me to a problem in the Grognard set: there are hands holding grenades, but there are no loose rifles, or rifles with just one hand attached. In the third picture you can see (can you?) that I chopped off the back bit of the rifle and the hand and glued on bits from a lasrifle from my bitsbox. Not looking too bad, if I may say so myself!

The largest troops in the squad who don’t fulfil the role of Endurants carry their squad’s heaviest ranged weapons. A las-volley unleashes devastating salvoes, the searing heat of a meltagun shot burns through a reinforced bulkhead, and even heavily-armoured enemies cannot withstand a plasma gun.

So, I figured I’d get two Gunners to take care of anything chunky my friend might field. I have to admit that I wasn’t too sure what each special weapon on the Grognard sprue could represent in the 40k universe. The one on the left seems to carry a big plasma rifle, whereas the one on the right has a melta gun (at least, I think so).

Well-trained, well-drilled and well-equipped, the Armsmen of Imperial Navy Breacher kill teams are formidable troops in the close confines of ship-to-ship combat. Any foe they cannot blast aside with their powerful shotguns they hack down with vicious blows from their hatchets.

So, for ‘hatchets’ read nasty bayonets. I went with four of these guys since they can activate two at a time. I can imagine that this will allow me to press on with some numbers at critical moments. Like with the gunners, no conversions here. Just some beautiful Grognard mini’s <3

Cyber-Altered Task Units are tracked reconnaissance vehicles that have served the Imperium for millennia. Fitted with pict-recording equipment and frequency scanning augurs, they can be remotely operated to provide vital tactical information for their kill team.

I love kitbashing and it’s simple things like building an autonomous recon vehicle (i.e. little robo) that make happy. I found the wheels in my bits box and they look like they were scavenged from the ground somewhere. It’s definitely one of those things I found, where I thought: this may come in handy some day! And guess what: it did! The body is from an old Imperial Guard Chimera set, I think, and the head is a pair of binocular from a (now old) Cadian command set.

I can imagine this guy zooming around, dodging shots left and right, all the while scouting ahead for his handler. His hard job reflected in his sad WALL-E like eyes…

Knowing what is around a corner can mean life or death for Imperial Navy Breachers. By using a C.A.T. unit, which is capable of navigating narrow tunnels and holes, a Surveyor can investigate and prepare their squad for what might be ahead.

So, the CAT herder. I just used a basic Grognard build for this guy. Originally I was thinking about handing him the remote controller from the Grognard set, but that might be more apt for the Void-Jammer’s gheistskill detonator (once I build him). Instead I slapped a piece of machinery to his back and put an antenna on top. The machine bit looks GW, but the set…? The antenna is from some other model kit I can’t remember.

In the last post I said that I wanted to cut down the Grognards’ rifles to convert them to shotguns. Well, I couldn’t bring myself to cutting down that fine rifle with bayonet, so for now I’m leaving it as is. I might just decide that my Void Shrikes use long rifled shotguns with bayonets affixed.

So, with my first Kill Team out of the way for now, I decided to start building a completely new one based around the 1045th ahem 1054th Vostroyan Firstborn Regiment: the Void Shrikes. So, these are basically a regiment of Vostroyans that were sent to do what they do best: seiges. What they hadn’t been told, was that the fortress to be taken was in the void of space… The 1054th had to figure this out the hard way, but managed to come out on top. By now, they are specialists in void combat, who kick ass and take names, all the while wearing their fancy fur hats!
I therefore thought that they’d make a very cool alternative to the Imperial Navy Breacher models. Also, a much more affordable one, since I went for the Grognards from Wargames Atlantic, who come with awesome rebreather masks!

Sometimes, the only solution to a problem faced by Imperial Navy Breachers is a heavy, two-handed axe. The Axejacks who carry these weapons can not only smash through blocked doorways obstacles, they are also formidable fighters who hack apart any enemy in their way.

First up is the Navis Axejack! This guy has a big axe and knows how to use it! I basically found a set of arms in my bits box for an old GW Empire Great Cannon crew. I chopped the unimportant stuff off and added an axe head. Done? Well, this means that sleeves are a bit more flamboyant than the others’ will be. I don’t mind really, because they are supposedly (space) sailors, but I did try to add some shoulder pad with green stuff. Not my strongest point, but I think it will do the job.

Only the biggest Armsmen in a squad become known as Endurants. To them falls the task of carrying an Endurant shield and heavy shotgun while either taking point or guarding the rear of the squad. Their sheer bulk makes them highly intimidating to their enemies.

Next up is the Endurant. For this guy I slapped together a large shield using space parts. The shield itself is from a very old fighter jet kit. I added some bits from an old WH Fantasy Dwarf standerd to add a design that felt Void Shrikey: basically a mean bird and below it a skull on a pike. For those who didn’t know: shrikes are also called butcher birds, since they tend to impale their prey on a thorn or anything else spiky they might find (like barbed wire).

To make the shotguns that the Navy Breacher normally carry, my plan is to just chop off the front bit of the guns they Grognards carry. I read later that the Endurant apparently carry a heavy shotgun, so I chopped off some more and added the barrel of an old WHFB Empire gunner and drilled it out.

For the Navis Sergeant-at-arms I went down the easy route and only used bits from the Wargames Atlantic Grognard sprue. I might add some more stuff later to make him stand out more as the sergeant, but I’ll need to think about this and/or do some more research. Ideas are welcome! 🙂

So, to be sure that I had a Kill Team for a first game I quickly looked through my existing minis and found that I had almost enough painted for a basic Imperial Guard Kill Team. The problem was, that Kill Team often only allows only one choice per operative type. This meant I couldn’t use two flamethrowers (pah!).

Also, my choice of special weapons was quite limited since I raided my bits box to construct my fleet for Billion Suns… I did manage to find one grenade launcher, however! I did have some difficulty to find the exact colours of the minis I had painted years ago, but I think I managed to get the colours right enough.

I also decided that I wanted a sniper rifle, but didn’t have any rifles in my bits box left. So instead, I just snipped of the muzzle of a lasgun and put a piece of paperclip in between to elongate it.  I realise I should have taken a before and after picture.