One of my earliest projects when I got back into the hobby was a group of ghostly Howling Banshees as objective markers. I couldn’t figure out how to paint Striking Scorpions and as soon as I learned that scorpions in nature glow under fluorescent light, it gave me a great idea on how to tackle these and do a fun little throwback to some of my earlier work. This also meant that this ended up basically being a speedpaint project, since with the exception of some bright white highlights a lot of this was just alternating drybrushes between Hexwraith Flame, a little Gauss Blaster Green, and some White Scar too.

I broke from the original “scheme” of my ghostly Eldar with some red eyes this time, I thought that made them pop more, along with the scopes on the pistols. I also tried to throw in some drybrushed OSL and a little extra detail on the bases to make up for the general lack of painted detail on the miniatures themselves. These were a quick project and felt a little bit like a “cheat” but it was really nice to get a whole 10 models out of my shame pile so fast.

As nice as these new sculpts are, Howling Banshees are still my ride-or-die melee choice. These objectively look better, and work better rules-wise in 10th edition, but I gotta be true to the heart and soul of my army. That being said, for larger games I can definitely see these being helpful with the Infiltrate keyword, and I might bring them along every once in a while just to mix things up.

“The scorpion might be a small creature, but its lethal sting and biting claws can strike terror into the hearts of larger beasts, as well as kill them. The Striking Scorpions epitomise the deadly attributes of their namesake, and are ruthless killers who revel in the hunt.” – Kill Team: Salvation, Games Workshop, p. 29.