Killteam: Genestealers (part 1)

With the release of the new Kill Team rules the local gaming group is buzzing with the excitement of playing Kill Team. Actually, it was going through a revival prior to this, but now it seems even more gamers are keen to get in on it. I am excited about it as it will allow me to model and paint a variety of different miniatures in lieu of what I have been focusing on in recent years (chaos marines, orks, and Bolt Action Brits).

Models and paintjobs that are older than 3/4 of my readers!

I whipped up a few 200pt lists of armies that I haven't done anything with in a while and started to access where I wanted to begin. There are a lot of possibilities here. These lists were Chaos, Space Wolves, Celestial Lions/Ultra Marines (i.e. Codex: Space Marines), Harlequin, Dark Eldar and I decided I wanted to definitely do something with Genestealers. The Genestealers quickly became the lead contender in the Kill Team race. It took me a few days to locate the miniatures, but after much frustration and seeking, I figured out where they were at. And now the plotting truly begins.

For 200 points on the dot, I can take 9 models. That is 8 Genestealer Purestrains and a Broodlord. I upgraded them with Toxin Sacs because poison rocks. Pretty simple on paper, and they look like they can close wicked quick on their prey, I just need to watch out for the Overwatch and open fields...

Looking back on my few Previous genestealer posts I somehow avoided discussing the paint jobs on these models, an oversight I'll fix now.

The first Genestealer I ever painted.

My Genestealer Purestrains were mostly painted in England, so somewhere in '91-'92. They were purchased as part of a boxed set called Terminators & Tyranids. It was a great set for it's time. And at that time my paint palette was limited to the Space Marine paint set, a few choice bottles of loose Citadel and Humbrol paints and the Citadel Inks boxed set.

I did not undercoat the models back then, and the blue color of the plastic may have worked to my favor. The light blue areas are based with a dark blue, then a middle layer of Shadow Grey and highlighted with Space Wolves Grey. The purple areas were based with terracotta, then Worm Purple before being washed with purple ink. Worm Purple would then be added back as a highlight. Their tongues were painted using a Humbrol Red.

It will be fun to revisit this scheme. Being a lot more experienced with painting then I was back then hopefully I can improve upon it. The first model I will paint will be this guy:

Unlike the old days I will likely prime the model with Chaos Black.

My two specialists will probably be these next two models. I say "probably" because these models are different enough in design that I might use some of the (even older) metal ones that I have. Still deciding on this idea... anyway:

The team leader will likely be this chap below:

I say "likely" because, again, design-wise the older ones look OK with these Space Hulk 3rd ed models but clash when scrutinized. I am tempted to locate my old running Patriarch model who fits in very well with the older 'stealers and use him instead.

That's all for now, hopefully I'll have something newly painted to show you soon!