Saturday 31 January 2015

"Speed Painted" Death Company

I have been spoiled this month with the amount of gaming and hobby time, and my enthusiasm for the new edition and new codex has grown while planning for a tournament, re-basing using the new 32mm bases, and generally organising my hobby "to-do" pile into manageable goals. What I had failed to plan for was my local FLGS campaign which runs every year Jan-March. Having missed the first week due to family commitments I had an extra week up my sleeve to cook up a new unit for the Kill Team missions. What better Blood Angel unit to game at small points level than Death Company? Relentless Boltguns, Feel No Pain, Rage, Jump Packs... the list goes on. You may recall my previously very susccesful Kill Team list included all Tactical Marines in a Rhino, and while they were quite resilient they lacked extra mobility once the Rhino was taken out. With only one week to get some new models done I knew speed and efficiency was the key.



If you can excuse the awkward photo angle, this rotary air powered dremel is my favourite hobby tool for hacking into large pieces of plastic. While my previous bases were relatively well planned out with rocks and pinning models, this time I needed large areas of plastic to glue the plastic legs to as I had only one evening of preparation before undercoating. 


Hand filing is for those with time up their sleeve! Here you can see quick rounded edges created in seconds using the grinder at work. Not only do you sound busy in the tool room, but by going in early to do this you get bonus points from the boss! My workplace facilities have been a key part in reducing my hobby footprint at home, as with no shed for tools it's prep at work and paint at home.


With a few minutes on the bases at work, and an evening or two of bits box raiding I had a squad of five ready for paint. I ran out of green stuff so the bases are less polished than the last batch, but with speed the essence I felt the black edges would hide any imperfections for gaming with.


With a quick blast of grey from the airbrush and a couple of colours applied in haste I was ready to call them "finished" at three colour minimum ready for the campaign, but with a couple of hours left on my planned hobby evening I decided to go all the way and see what a thick black wash and selective highlights could do to them. After a couple of years trying careful glazing and blending it felt liberating to really slap the paint around.


I have since added a coat of clear enamel to prevent the paint rubbing off (quite common with airbrushed colour) and they are all ready and eager to take to the battlefield. I had particular trouble with Eldar jetbikes last time I played Kill Team, so here's hoping they can keep up! (I also had trouble photographing the dark colours so please excuse the corrected image above. You can click for a larger version too). 

With one month of the year already gone I am happy to have finished my first unit of 2015!

3 comments:

  1. That's a fantastic job for speed painted. If you can get that quality with slapping paint on...I'm a bit jealous :).

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  2. Thanks everyone, after a multiple-month diorama full of glazing last year I guess it just felt much faster to have a unit finished in less than a week!

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