Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team gives you an excellent excuse to dip your toes into that new project you’ve been planning for far too long. The small-scale battles mean it’s easy to assemble and paint a playable force, and with each member of the team being an individual, you can go to town by converting your special operatives. Painting teacher Pete Harrison has done just that with his Space Marines kill team.
Pete: When the Pariah Nexus boxed set was released, it felt like the right time to make a start on the Primaris Space Marines kill team I’d been considering for a while. It’s based on the Raven Guard successor Chapter, the Raptors. These pragmatic, tactical geniuses lend themselves perfectly to the small, independent units that make up kill teams.
I chose an Eliminator to represent my leader, Saerys Korvaedyn. I intend to keep him out of the thickest fighting while lending his support from afar.
To create an air of authority to the model, I added a head from the Custodians Wardens kit. The stoic and determined expression was perfect for this calculating leader. His arm and backpack were both taken from the Primaris Infiltrators set and the rest of the model was sprinkled with a few different pouches and grenades.
The team’s Sniper specialist is Tylus Dariyan. Like Saerys, he’s an Eliminator but is equipped with a modified las talon. The bundle of extra scopes were taken from the Primaris Infiltrators marksman bolt carbine, and I used them to emphasise Tylus’s Sniper specialism.
Other details I added included a string of trigger fingers taken as trophies from the sniper duels that Tylus has won. But he hasn’t won every duel, and a bionic head from the Iron Hands Primaris Upgrades shows the results of that loss.
The Combat specialist of the team is Reiver Navaer Moradus. His specialism, combined with his rank of sergeant, means he brings a hefty number of attacks to the table. To emphasise this, I equipped him with both a Reiver combat blade and one from the Incursors kit, alongside a few smaller knives from Cadian Shock Troops. His head is from the Eliminators set.
Like the rest of the team, I swapped out his usual power pack for one from the Infiltrators. This helps to make the squad look more specialised than their regular counterparts.
Kaphorn Osmosor is an Intercessor Sergeant equipped with a chainsword to help out against those more heavily armoured opponents. I used an Assault Intercessor as the basis for this model and removed the chest Aquila to make room for extra pouches and equipment.
His bolt pistol was modified with a suppressor to give him a special operations look, while Phobos shoulder pads help tie him into the other Phobos-armoured operatives in the squad. I finished him off with an Eliminator head rather than a regular Intercessor helmet and added an Infiltrator backpack once again.
The final team member is Reszan Septyn, the Comms specialist. I started with a regular Intercessor, once again removing the chest Aquila.
To denote his position in the squad, I made a few modifications. I took the open-handed Intercessor left arm and replaced the hand with binoculars from the Eliminators. His right arm features his vox, and I turned his head, again from the Eliminators kit, to appear that he is passing on enemy positions to his team members.
Finally, I added the usual Infiltrator backpack but opted to use the more impressive aerial array to hammer home his Comms specialism.
That concludes the five initial members of my Primaris kill team. I’m planning to build out my roster with other models in the future to cover different unit types and specialisms.
Overall, a Kill Team force is an excellent way to try out some kitbashing. It’s much easier to go a little heavier on the conversions than is normally feasible across a whole army. You can craft something unique to create a cast of characters rather than nameless foot soldiers, and it allows you to dip your toe into a new army easily.
Thanks, Pete! If that’s inspired you to start your own team of special operatives, pick up a box of Eliminators so you have all the snipers you need to pick off enemy fighters.
