I have never played Warhammer 40k. The cost in money and time of building an army was too high for me especially when none of my gamer circle was going to build an army to play against. Well, now there has been a slight shift in my view of 40k based on the introduction by Games Workshop of the Warhammer 40k Killteam boxed set.
The idea of Killteam (KT) is that you build a 200 point force for smaller tactical engagements. So far, the forces I have seen built for KT range from 4 to 40 models. The boxed set comes with enough Space Marines for 200 points and enough Tau for about 140 points. Also included are painting guides, a KT rulebook and mini version of the full 40k rulebook as KT uses most of the combat mechanics of 40k and all of the point values. My buddy and I each picked up a set for fifty bucks and I gave him the Tau and he game me the Space Marines.
The first thing I did before assembling the models is research how to get my Marines to as close to 200 points as possible. A few days and spreadsheet later I was able to build two squads, each with a veteran sergeant, one with a special weapon, one with a heavy weapon and each sergeant with a combi-weapon.
Then I built the squads and started painting them. Since I had very little knowledge of the chapters or codices I decided to paint them in Cthulhu themed colors. Below is the work in progress picture of the main sergeant.
Below is squad two on the ground floor. The special weapons squad with a flamer. They are set on a piece of terrain I built for Frostgrave.
Below is the first squad with heavy weapon.
The picture of the whole group of Adaptus R'lyeh.
