Plan to Customize Your Kill Team Minis 

As a pen-and-papper rpg player kill team feels like the perfect approach for me to get into 40k.

Kill Team's whole thing reminds me a lot of Halo 3 ODST, even down to the customising: even though every member of ODST's main cast wears the same armour, there's enough little bits and pieces added to each of them that you can tell from a glance who is who even when they're wearing a full helmet.

One thing, if you're buying a small group of minis just for kill team, put some effort into painting. It's not like you're painting up an army, like you usually do. Spend a little extra time on details and whatnot.

A weathered coat of purity seals on a necron is just awesome

I admit, I clicked on this video because it had a Necron for the preview image and I had no idea what to do to differentiate my Immortals. This helped a good bit.

Brilliant move on GW's part. Kill Team lends itself to customization. We get to create our own "A-Team" (AH PITY THE FOOL!!) Is it wrong that I tend to personalize my entire army?

I'm just getting into the hobby (as of about 3 weeks ago) and your videos have been invaluable. I've chosen to go with a Harlequin kill team first [ducks haters] and I love the concept of customizing them with some "head cannon" ideas. Wish you had more Harlequin videos, by the way, but regardless, I've really appreciated your content.

The storytelling/narrative aspect of Kill Team is one the great things about the game. It's also where the custom painting and customization comes into play. Nicely done sir ... thanks for the inspiration and keep up the good work!

When I woke up this morning, I needed ideas for how to decorate my Necron Kill team but still keep them in line with the rest of my Necron army. Now, I have ideas. Great video as always. I'm already a huge fan of Kill Team and find myself wanting to make one for almost every faction.

Just wanted to say that I've just recently gotten into the hobby, and that's thanks to your amazing videos. Thanks for all your hard work, trying to get people into the hobby. I hope to meet you one day and throw down some minis with you. Keep up the good work.

I loved everything about this video. From wardrobe to Space Marine choice!

I wasn't really interested in Killteam but the way you've talked about yours has suddenly got me interested. I quite like the idea of creating my own customised Wolf pack, something I can spend a lot of time on making unique and giving a back story.

I used Triarch Praetorian/Lychguard-bitz to convert Immortals into specialists. The Immortal Leader got the torso of a Destroyer and the legs of the plastic Lord out of the CCB-kit. Building Flayed Ones out of Warriors gives a lot of room for ideas...^^

I often customize my figures. I can’t seem to leave them alone. Often a Sargent or character is my primary focus. The small count of models in KT allows for greater customization. As a 40k Cadian player, I wanted to run guard in KT, but wanted something different. So I’ve built a squad of Ventrillian Nobles to run along side a small group of Scions. Lots of fun and sourcing bits is less costly for a squad vs 2000pts of guard! I’m building a Raven Guard group next (mixed group of Primaris Intercessors, a regular scout, and a couple standard space marines) green stuff’d small raven skulls to go on to armor, weapons, etc. last night. Should be fun.

A while ago I commented on how hard it was to differentiate Necrons in Kill Team and I had a while to think about it. What I ended up doing was using most of a box of Sicarian Rust Stalkers to mix and match with other bits, inspired by another person's conversion of them into Flayed Ones. If I work up the courage after they're done drying I can post pictures, but your videos gave me a lot of ammunition to motivate myself to actually go through with it, thank you.

I played my first game of Kill Team last night and a single one of my regular guardsmen took out a Rubric Marine with a lasgun from 20 inches away. I can't figure out what I want to do to distinguish her from the other troopers

I also use 3D printed emblems for Space Marines shoulder pads (Crimson Fists), and they look spectacular! Way better than flattening the decal on a double curved surface, smoothing out the creases.

Oh Atom, you are just great. Your approach to the hobby just gives me that warm fuzzy feeling inside :) Nice conversions and fluff for your miniatures, thanks for sharing with us!

Another great Kill Team video! I can’t get enough of these as I’m currently converting a ton of 40k units into KT specialists.

Some great ideas, kill team really does open up the customisation side of the hobby which can only be a good thing 😁

I gave my sniper a spare drone part for a head, and my leader a spare drone top for a head and stuck his knife in the ground like a battlefield sword. I also made the leaders armor all one color, gold, which was the highlight on the others

This is perhaps my favorite of your vlogs so far! Good info & neat ideas aplenty! I haven't made a Necron force yet, but I've had ideas for years now, and this vid brought some of those old ideas back and now percolating in parts of my consciousness, and got me thinking about what dynasties I might create and how they will look. (as I mesh my old ideas with the 15 yrs of lore that has expanded the scope of fluff since the days I was active with my Tomb Kings Legion in 40K & BFG. The most labor-intensive conversion I've done so far, was turning a metal WHF Liche Priest from the Tomb Kings Army into a metal & plastic SM Chaplain for an Assault Squad w/jumppacks. My fingers were raw for a few days (i'm sure there's better ways to trim & file metal), but I was rather satisfied by the result!

I've been thinking about starting a Thousand Sons kill-team. I'd paint the number nine ( Sacred number of Tzeentch) on their pauldrons and paint their left wrist brown to make them look more like vault dwellers from the Fallout series.

Kill Team was a very very smart decision on GW's part. It not only leads to smaller and quicker games but it is open to a lot of customizing not only on the models but like peoples head cannon has gone all over the place with it at my store and its awesome. We have something more conventional like my Scrapp Hunta Ork warband, to a Dishonored Sons chapter of Space Marines, to a Guard group that are all Running Man-ed out to make KT become more Blood Bowl like and turn their matches into Arena Games. Then on top of that the system can be modified for a lot of fun House Rule game types. I have even spend the last month putting together a rule and campaign set just for that purpose actually!

Great presentation UA....your choice of Necrons as an example for customization reaaallly nailed the point home. Your fervor on the topic is inspiring....now excuse me while get cracking on some Killer Teams of my own👍

Where did you find the female space marine head?

This is the coolest idea I've seen for Kill Team. 10/10

Love the colour scheme of your Black Templars, the bone white looks sick

I really like the idea of trophies since it's tough to customize guardsmen, especially when I have a killteam of 16 and you can only do so many different backpacks or shovels and whatnot. I may start trading people for their excess bits from other armies so I can do this since I only run one army.

Gotta have your dudes be your dudes, with such a low buy in for kill team, the customization potential and breathing room to piecemeal bits to spiff up your models is endless. I absolutely love that one bit off of the Chaos Terminator Lords that is like a row of spikes with various helmeted head stuck on it.

Those Necrons look amazing 😀

Nice Shirt! I hope Catalyst Game Labs wakes up some day. Excellent video, adding character and I.D. is definitely part of Kill Team's strengths.

Love your marines! Every single one of them!

since my first set of spacemarines came out so boring, I built up extra parts quick by buying several "special" kits next, the rest of my marines since all have personality, I love individualizing each one :) ive even been making a names list for all 80+ of my astartes :) lol overkill maybe but its super fun giving life to each soldier :)

I would love to customize my Kill Team, I already have actually. It’s my Kill Team from the original KT Game, which is also my Veteran squads for my Cadian Guard army. Too bad the Guard doesn’t send Veterans on Kill Team missions. Apparently, I can either send in a Stormtrooper squad (not much customization for my Kasrkin), or bog standard guardsmen (also, not much customization for troopers in your army), but not Veterans (sooooo many customization chances, and they totally fit in with your full 40k Guard army).

I really like your customizing ideas. :) I'm planning a Howling Griffons Kill Team based on the old skool "Sigmar Vi Insurgency Force" from the Badab War. Mark VI armour with desert camouflage!

Great video! Thanks for the ideas and for turning me on to Kill Team!

I am just getting into 40K and love the idea of Kill Team. for me time to play and cost are a factor. Kill Team I think is the solution to that. Your video has my pumped up to customize my models. Thanks.

if you want to make a zealot just dig into the empire flagellant kit. Best kit for conversions ever made!

One thing I've been doing with my Astra Militarum is painting their skin color different! A little diversity on that! Makes me wish to personalize them, since they already have this "small" difference!!!

I've been debating about Kill Team for a long time, but your videos are convincing me it may be worth it (especially your video about building a starter list for 50 or less.)

When I finally have enough time to work on my kill team I'm going to make a scout/sniper kill team of reasonable marines with a Ghillie suit instead of the regular camo cloack. I just need to figure out the best way to make the Ghillie suit part.

I notice that all your models paintwork is speckled, Is that due to the priming or airbrush paint?

I built a Deathwatch Intercessor Kill Team all with Auto Bolt Rifles. Gave the Sniper a Stalker Bolt Rifle. The Comms guy has the open arm Comms gear. The Heavy is toting a Auxilliary Grenade Launcher. The Sergeant is pointing out targets down range. It's a character design thus far. I am waiting on a Sheathed Power Sword to complete the squad then painting them up. I am looking forward to seeing how it plays on the table.

Great ideas. Reminds me of the stormtroopers from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

More kill team stuff is always great !!! More more more :)

My Tau have scopes, the stealth suit has a unicorn esque antenna, and my comms specialist has a radio pack. Gonna build a Cadian team next, its so much fun

I painted my Space wolves in Admin grey instead of fenris and reddish orange shoulder pads with claw patterns. My Commander is white/grey. I wanted to have grey wolves with a white alpha

Love that sergeant!

Immortals do have a bit more personality (Though not nearly as much as Praetorians, Lychguard, and the Actual Characters), though they're called that because they were the soldiers of the Necrontyr, not do to ge (All necrons are over 40,000 years old)

Exactly what I did. I made custom shoulder pads for different chapters in the blood angels codex because I wanted a team assembled by dante from all blood angel chapters

nice battletech shirt sir

A great topic; nice video! The specialists that seem hardest to differentiate for me are the Combat and Zealot specialists. I've got one of each in my Harlequins team and I'm still trying to figure out how to make them stand out from the team and more importantly, each other.

Really quick question: What the varnish you like to use?

the guy that collect seals could have multiple color ones, giving a feeling that it has colected a lot from dead spacemarines.

One problem i have is storing & organising all my fun bitz so i remember that i have them and can use them for brainstorming projects like this. Any tips, suggestions, philosophical observations?

Finished my two imperial knights from the Renegade box and never used the imperial award thingies. Clipped them and saved with a view to using as awards for my troops moving forward. Like you mention; guy killed a tank with a one shot blast or something, I can paint up an award and slap it on.

Call me old fasioned...I still go to the bank as well Atom! Still haven't tended to the painting of my models yet. Just bought my Warhammer40k rule book (my new bible)a couple days ago. An upgrade from the basic rules from the First Strike book I've been using. I wanted to ask, does "Kill Team" have it's own rule book or are they in the official one? I should've bought Kill Team I suppose. After watching this I kinda want to.

any good ideas for tyranid customization

Love those Black Templar!

Unrelated to the video, but I have to say it: I LOVE THE BATTLETECH SHIRT!

I have a Tau killteam im finishing now with identical bodies but each helmet is different. The idea was inspired by my old paintball team

Hey atom! Just got back into the hobby at 23, been 7 years! Anyhow.. I've noticed my hobbying taking too long.. as i did a chaos knight for aos taking 3 nights of 2-3 hrs ea to finish one.. and at that pace I feel like I'll never finish an army.. would love a video on speeding up the painting? How to paint in batch well etc... also, thanks for the videos, helps a lot! Cheers, from Sweden!

Whoa that purity seal trophy idea rules, might have to borrow that trophy taking idea for the necron kill team I’m going to make

Amazing content as always

I wanted to start 40k for a while, but was put off by the hugeness of the rules and models. I loved tyranids but didn't want to spend a ton of cash in an arms race for a competitive list, with kt I can play with a small number of models and still enjoy the experience.

I did wonder about dem purity seals

Look man, that t-shirt wins every day. #youdonegood

What does the matte finish do to the colors. Could you do before & after pictures? I've only recently gotten into painting plastic models, and to say I have no idea what half the paint materials do would be an understatement.

Where can I get that btech shirt ? Its awesome 😎

Great video!

Hey I'm new to war hammer and I'm getting ready to paint my kill team. I have a question for anyone here. Dose it make sense (in lore) to have AdMec in different colors? Everywhere I look they have red and white clocks. Thanks for any help/advice!

So I may do a Kill team, should I get custom armor and make them blood Ravens or should I go Space Wolves

Best place to start is always the story. Once you have the narrative behind each model they become really easy to put together rather than winging it as you go.

I want to start Kill Team and have bought a Start Collecting! Deathwatch... problem is I can't decide how to build my models because I have no idea what makes a well rounded list.

Fantastic content as per usual! Your videos are my only port of call before deciding whether or not to buy new wargaming products. Would be great to see your take on the new 'Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game' relaunch by GW some day! Keep up the great videos. You have yourself another Patreon backer!

Is it just me or is the "purity seal" Immortal channeling Ursa from "Superman" or Tazryn...I'm not sure.

that sergeant is going to piss so many people off, she's amazing

New to the hobby and just checking out vids currently. Is there a rule to how much you can customize them?

Dose anyone know if you can use sucsesor chapters for space marines

I want to play kill team as I've recently become interested in the hobby again. I was wondering if the kill zones were necessary? Like could I just make my own? Also would I be able to use artist acrylics like liquitex basics mixed with medium to paint my minis? I'm really trying to achieve this on a tight budget haha!

Thanks for your vidéos. Sorry for this noob question but... where did you get female SM heads ? Are there several suppliers ?

First up, I'm a HUGE fan of you show and love the quality and information you put out. I need to ask.. why do all you models almost look "grainly/flowerly" if you know what I mean. When I paint my models the paint looks smooth while yours seems to be "bumpy" all over. I'm sorry for my poor explanation... maybe its your primer or something?

Could you put the in-video links in the description as well? I’m often on a device where I don’t get the in video ones (game console app and phone app)

Hey, where did you find the stick-on shoulder pad insignia? I'm looking for an alternative to buying the FW shoulder pads for the raven guard, but I haven't been able to find the stick-on insignia. Thanks in advance!

As I paint a squad of pink Cadians

holy crap! does this mean i can make a 40k last chancers type of thing?

You talked about spraying them with matt varnish, what brand do you recommend?

Love the Space Marines. Great inspiration for my Space Hyenas I plan to make off some Space Wolves :)

9:11 what did you use to make those shoulders and head?

Love the shirt! Great advice too!

*Cries a little at female Space Marine* Cool video man! I always learn at least a little on how to enhance my game when watching your videos!

My kill team of Guard are based on 1980s British army colours

Hobby hero what is that?

I loved your content already, but the female space marine tipped it over the edge.... New favorite wargaming youtuber.

I reckon you and I could throw some cool painting ideas off each other

Can deathwatch use sniper scouts?

When buying from shapeways do I need to wash the bits I buy from them or should they be ready to be primed?

Come for the advice. Stay for the T-shirts

I love your shirt! Where did u get it?