A Year in Miniatures 11: Cultists of the Ebon Blade
Whats the best way to polish off a lot of miniatures quickly? Batch painting of course!
I seldom play warhammer. The main game at any rate. Its not that I dislike it, but rather a confluence of three issues. First, I rarely stick with one idea for long enough to amass anything approaching an army. Second, even when I do, such as with the Dark Angles, I'm motivated primarily by aesthetics so have a tendency to develop forces which, while fabulous to look at, are tactically entirely unworkable. Finally, I find painting such an enjoyable activity that I end up putting a lot of time and effort into even simple models, so actually finishing as much as a single squad is a very rare occurance!
All of which is why I’ve been meaning to get into Killteam. Small numbers of models with limited tactical options and a game system that encourages investment in the individual characters they represent works a lot better for my normal habits than trying to build up actual squads of mostly faceless goons.
I mentioned back when I painted Kranon the Relentless that I intended to paint up a full Killteam in the same style. I wasn’t planning on touching that particular project any time soon, but then a surprise invitation to play killteam meant that I needed to at least put together a full squad. Since I also needed to catch up on finished models, it made sense to paint them as well!
I’m always amazed at how fast you can finish models with batch painting. A lot of the overheads in terms of switching between colours and techniques are vastly reduced, and the slow experimentation of figuring out how to get the effects you want has already been taken care of on your test model. I did take the opportunity to experiment with a few darker skintones, and while I’m not 100% happy with the end result they’re a lot better then I’ve done previously! Everything is a learning opportunity after all.
Of course, they weren’t actually finished by the time the game rolled around, but let’s face it, I was never going to hit that particular deadline! To be fair they were only the second most completed team out of the four in play. Although one of the others is also being painted by me…
The 8 Cultists of Fireteam Tartaros have seen battle twice so far, once in each edition of Killteam, and while they suffered a brutal defeat in the second I’m still proud of each and every one of them! Maybe next time the guy with the flamethrower will actually get to shoot!
Finishing these 8 gets me back into the black, so of course my first impulse is to squander that lead with something wildly ambitious with a low model count. But before we do that, (and take a break from GW products), I’ve got the test model for another kill team ready to go!
23/ 05/22
Weeks Elapsed: 20
Miniatures Finished: 22
