The Kin reach a genuinely good tabletop standard faster than almost any other 40k army. The models are large, the armour is built from broad flat plates with deep panel lines, and there is more exposed machinery than fiddly detail. Add a low model count and an hour spent on one squad shows across the whole force. Paint them like vehicles rather than infantry: clean panels, shaded recesses, crisp edges.
The signature look
The Trans-Hyperian Alliance scheme is warm ochre-bronze armour plates over a dark grey bodyglove, with a great deal of bare steel and brass on guns, packs and mining gear. Amber lenses give each model a point of glow, black-and-yellow hazard striping marks the working parts, and stamped runes and ancestor iconography carry the religious side of the Kin.
Painting the armour plates
- Undercoat Wraithbone - the warm base makes the ochre sing and saves a coat.
- Basecoat Zandri Dust, two thin coats, keeping the plate faces flat and even.
- Shade Agrax Earthshade into the panel lines and recesses only, never over the faces.
- Re-layer Zandri Dust on the faces to reclaim any staining.
- Edge highlight Karak Stone along the plate borders, then Screaming Skull on the sharpest corners alone.
The fast route is one coat of Snakebite Leather contrast over Wraithbone - see best contrast paints - then straight to the Karak Stone edges. Equivalents: Vallejo Iraqi Sand highlighted with Dark Sand, or Army Painter Desert Yellow with Strong Tone in the recesses.
The metals, and there are plenty
- Steel - Leadbelcher, Nuln Oil, edge Ironbreaker, with Runefang Steel on barrels and blades. Army Painter Gun Metal or Vallejo Gunmetal Grey do the same job.
- Brass - Balthasar Gold, Reikland Fleshshade, highlighted Sycorax Bronze. Or Army Painter Weapon Bronze up to Greedy Gold.
- Verdigris and grime - thinned Nihilakh Oxide in the brass recesses, Typhus Corrosion around vents and feet.
Keep the steel cool and the brass warm. That temperature split is what stops a metal-heavy model reading as one undifferentiated lump.
Bodyglove, lenses and hazard markings
The undersuit is Mechanicus Standard Grey, Nuln Oil, edged Dawnstone then Administratum Grey - or Army Painter Uniform Grey. Keep it dark so the plates stay the star. Lenses are Abaddon Black in the recess, Troll Slayer Orange over the glass, Ryza Rust at the centre and a dot of Screaming Skull for the catchlight.
Hazard striping is Averland Sunset into Yriel Yellow with Abaddon Black stripes over the top. Those broad plates also take transfers better than nearly anything else in 40k, so decals here are a legitimate technique rather than a compromise. Pick out the runic plates and a Kâhl's ancestor mask in brass, with black in the recessed runes so they read at arm's length.
League colour variants
The Kin are built around Leagues with their own liveries, so the plate colour is the intended place to make the army yours:
- Greater Thurian League - deep blue: Macragge Blue (or Talassar Blue contrast) edged Fenrisian Grey.
- Ymyr Conglomerate - industrial yellow: Averland Sunset into Yriel Yellow, hazard striping used liberally.
- Urani-Surtr Regulates - volcanic red: Mephiston Red into Evil Sunz Scarlet over darkened, sooty metal.
- Kronus Hegemony - dark green: Caliban Green edged Warpstone Glow.
Hold the metals, bodyglove and hazard markings constant and change only the plates. Two Leagues fielded together will still read as one army.
Tips and common mistakes
- Panel-line, don't drown it. An all-over wash turns these clean plates muddy - recesses only.
- Let the decals work. Flat, broad armour is what transfers are for, and they beat freehand runes every time.
- Split your metals. Cool steel against warm brass is the engine of the scheme; all-silver Kin look unfinished.
- Do the faces properly. With so few models in the army, an afternoon on the exposed faces and beards is affordable and very visible.
- Weather low. Dust on boots, tracks and lower plates; keep the upper armour clean, because these are miners in maintained kit, not wreckage.
When the palette is where you want it, open this scheme in the generator to swap brands, shift the ochre warmer or cooler, or build a League livery of your own.