Assemble the Deathwatch!

After wrapping up the Techmarine the other day I figured it might be a while before I paint any other troopers so I figured a muster shot was in order. I do have three other figures (two regular and one Terminator) to paint up, but they're not even in the HUD so they'll linger a while in the bits bins. Here's the breakdown...

Tactical, Apothecary, and Librarian Ultramarines

Tactical and Techmarine Black Templars

Tactical, Apothecary, and Assault Sons of Minos

Blood Angel and Salamander Tactical Marines

Devastator, Assault, and Tactical Dark Angels

The others I mentioned will get painted up eventually and added here, making for fifteen total Deathwatch troopers and a single Terminator Captain. They are; a White Scars tactical Marine, a Fists (Imperial or Crimson) Assault Marine, and the aforementioned captain whose parent chapter I don't know yet.

Mk6 Deathwatch Techmarine

On the eve of the last Deathwatch RPG game I finished up this figure for one of the players at the table. When rolling up his armor and armor histories he got both the Mark 6 Corvus armor as well as the "xenos foe" history. I don't remember the details exactly but basically his armor has the claw of some alien embedded in it. This old school Techmarine model is perfect for that since it has a Genestealer claw adorning the right shoulder.


Over at Constantly Ricking Obscurity there is an amazingly awesome tutorial on how to make your own servo-arms. It came about a month after I kit-bashed the one you see here, but it's good to know for future reference.


Of all the Deathwatch I figure the Techmarines are the most particular about their equipment, so I kept the backpack/servo-arm and the helmet traditional red. I also painted everything with a lot of wear-and-tear, scratches, dings, and dents. The right pauldron is covered by the Genestealer claw, so you can't see parent chapter livery (this Techmarine is a Black Templar) and the left pauldron looks to be a mass of nuts, bolts, and wires. Not exactly the Deathwatch symbol and crest, but I didn't want to hack up a classic model.

L to R: Librarian, Techmarine, Tactical, Devastator, and Apothecary

Here's the whole five-man team of RPG player character models. There is still one model missing, and that would be Andy's Space Shark assault marine (can't find any pics of it but here's some of his Deathwatch). Our RPG group is a little different from the tabletop group in that most of the RPG guys don't currently paint figures, that's why I painted all of these up for them to use in our Deathwatch sessions.

Deathwatch Marines: Specialists

Today we have two more Deathwatch characters. This time around is an Ultramarines Librarian and a Dark Angels Devastator marine. The latter is armed with an ambiguous "heavy weapon" and the former has a psychically enhanced force weapon (sword).


I used a Black Templars backpack for the librarian because it had a thick tome chained to it, I figured it fir his theme. The Dark Angel was a whole bunch of trimming and ad-hoc'ing with various bits and pieces. Hey, I used "ad hoc" as a verb!


I have no idea where I got the Ultramarine's bolter from, but I love it. It's got an extra large casing, and a scope with 'doohickey' wires. I used an Ultramarine decal on the librarian and an embossed icon for the Dark Angel. Funny thing though, the librarian was supposed to be a Blood Angle marine! Oh well...


Regular and Dark Angel-specific Deathwatch ceremonial pads


The librarian was killing me. I wanted to give him glowing eyes to represent "raw psyker power" and I wanted his honkin' big force sword to glow in a similar manner to match. I used a mix of wet-blending and dry-brushing on the sword and I'm fairly happy with how it turned out, it does look a bit better in person. The eyes, I dunno, I'm not happy with them but I kept redoing them so much I got kind of over it. Did I mention I did the wrong chapter?


Hmm, I am torn on this one. I went with a new style and I wanted to basically make him look un-40k, and un-space marine. I think I accomplished that, however now that he's "un" those things, I don't know if I like it or not. The player this figure is for isn't a tabletop gamer, nor is he all that knowledgeable in the 40k universe, so it doesn't matter, it's a "cool figure with a big gun" in the end.

Deathwatch Marines Reporting In

I still have a good number of built-but-unpainted Deathwatch troopers, you can see them here. I'll be getting to them in addition to what you see here, but these are moving to the front of the line. These five represent five of the six player characters we've whipped up for our upcoming campaign that should debut in June. The sixth character is an assault marine of the Carcharodons chapter that Andy is whipping up.


This is my personal character, a Sons of Minos tactical marine. I'm building him up to be a leader-type tactician, so I went with the "hey, go that way" pointing arm. I also equipped him with a storm bolter. He won't start out of the box with one, but they look too cool not to stick it on there. Being that these are for an RPG, we can be a little lax with the gear. Speaking of gear, he wears MkV Heresy armor, as evident from his chest piece and helmet. Rounding him out is a very old backpack and a Ad.Mech. shoulder pad. I know it's not technically a Deathwatch pad, but it looks very cool and can easily pass for one. An embossed Sons of Minos shoulder pad will adorn his right shoulder when it arrives.


Our devastator marine is being played by a long-time roleplaying friend but zero time tabletop gaming buddy. He couldn't tell the difference between a heavy bolter and a meltagun, and he could care less probably to boot. He wanted a BFG, so that's what I set out to do here. It's ambiguous enough it can pull double duty in multiple roles, and it looks pretty snazzy as well. I took an assault cannon, added a box mag and a scope. I also modified a standard backpack to look like a heavy gunner's pack, complete with an articulated targeting range finder thingie. He's a Dark Angel, so DA bits finish out his kit.


Here's our Ultramarine librarian armed with Deathwatch bolter and force sword. I don't know where the bolter comes from, but it looks pretty robust. The fist gripping it is a tad large for scale, but hopefully painted it won't be too noticeable. A Black Templar backapack ('cause it has a book chained to it) and a hanging scroll, along with the helmet round him out.


Our apothecary is also from the Sons of Minos (he's looking for a Gene-seed cure) and was fun to put together. Like my character up top (and the Dark Angel) he is wearing robes, these will be dark brown compared to the DA's white ones. Slung on his side is his DW-pattern bolter and small pouches are on the other side. His medical-grade chainsword, medic backpack, and super gauntlet of healing +3 round his kit out. Oh, he's also awaiting his embossed chapter shoulder pad for the right arm. Thanks again John!

This techmarine almost didn't make the cut. It was a roll on the armor histories chart that cinched the deal however. One of the results is something along the lines that an epic battle long past ended up with the armor being impaled by an alien beastie's natural weapons. Well, the claws (or whatever) broke off in the armor and are still there today. So here you have it, sculpted over twenty years ago this techmarine fits the description to a 't'. This Ultramarine is still waiting on his servo-arm backpack.



I love the building phase of troopers. You can see my bits box in the background, it's not the biggest, but it does have a nice selection of stuff to choose from. I just tinker around, dry-fitting some items and digging around for specific ideas. The targetter on the devastator was a happy accident that just fell together as I was trying to do something else. So once I have all the bits I need for each model I scoop them up and put them in their own bags until it's time to build them. Well, they're built so I guess it's time to paint them!

Deathwatch Kill-Team: Name Those Battle Brothers!

The first five Deathwatch troopers are done of my big batch. I have no idea how I chose these five, because they're not a squad by themselves, they're actually from all three kill-teams I had devised in the original planning. These guys were a blast to paint up, but the pics didn't turn out quite like I had hoped, the Black Templar for instance looks way too shiny when in person he's really not. I was going for a semi-gloss look to the armor however.

From the title of the post you might be wondering how we're going to name these guys. I stole this idea form the Sons of Taurus blog (which is really cool and should be checked out for sure) and I thought I'd try it here. SoT invited readers to name members of his Traitor Guard army, I got to name the Rough Rider tramplemaster "Gyro", which was cool.

Well, let's do the same kind of thing here, but there's a slight catch. You have to have had, or currently have, an army of the Battle Brother's particular chapter to name him. For instance, if you've got a Black Templar army, ahem BJ, you'd have first shot at naming the above Black Templar. If this is too restrictive, we'll just open it up to whoever wants to name a guy, but chapter holders get first dibs. Just leave a comment below, say who you are, what chapter you represent on the tabletop, and what the Battle Brother's new name is going to be. It can be whatever you want as like as it sounds, you know, stalwart defending soldier of the vast dominion of man, kind of name, no "Sgt. McFluffy McFlufferson" or whatever.


Apothecary: Ultramarine


Tactical Marine: Ultramarine


Tactical Marine: Salamander


Tactical Marine: Blood Angel Brother Malach


Tactical Marine: Black Templar


The shoulder pads are what make a Deathwatch team so fun, and even though everyone has the same color armor, you still get lots of variety here. As you can see, I'm sticking to chapters whose decals I have access to, I'm not feeling up to free-handing this stuff. This does mean I'll miss out some of the more flavorful chapter icons, like Space Sharks!


Not only did I try to individualize them by shoulder pads, but I also tried to paint each Battle Brother's gear in different and unique ways. Left to right up top; the Blood Angel has a short sword in a red scabbard, the Ultramarine has leather pouches and a holster, but the Salamander has green pouches, an assortment of grenades, and a Kroot pistol which I'm passing off as some kind of dueling laspistol trophy from some past campaign.


I only had a single apothecary backpack, nothing else, so I had to get creative for the rest of the medic's (left) accoutrements. An ammo missile pack, painted up to match the pack, came out looking not half bad and can certainly pass off as syringes and the like.

For the Black Templar (right) I went with white gear to match his shoulder pad. I really like the way these turned out too, it's a great contrast to the black armor, yet is so simple to pull off. The combat knife is from second edition, and the backpack is from the Games Day Emperor's Champion model that came out a while back.


Here's a shot of all seven Deathwatch members so far. As you can see, in addition to individualized gear, I also mixed of the colors of the boltguns for each trooper as well to further each trooper's distinction. This pic includes the most recent five I just painted up, Brother Elyas for the upcoming RPG, and my original test model. It's doubtful these guys will actually see action in an 'official' game of 40k. I intend to use them as PC avatars in upcoming games of Deathwatch, as well as "impossible odds" type special forces scenarios using the 5150 rules or the like. I still have my copy of Inquisitor as well, maybe dust those off a bit as well. By the way, go to the Specialist Games section of GW, and those Inquisitor rules are free!

Omega Level City Fight

40k City Fight Battle
Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Opposite Quarters
Size: 2,000 points per side
Stratagems: Ammo Dump, and a bunch of others
Forces: Fallen Dark Angels/Orks vs. Ultramarines/Cadian Guard

City Fight, Cities of Death, I don't even know what we were playing. I do know that the vaunted 'gamer sweetspot' is not where we are at with 40k. We simply just don't play it enough to make it enjoyable when we actually do play. I'm saying "we" a whole lot, but I can speak just for myself too, I just don't know the rules, I don't know my army, I don't know anything about the mechanics of 5th edition 40k apparently. This last week made that all too clear. There's no excuse to have to look up the rules on how to cast a psychic power during a game. If you don't know, don't take a librarian. If you don't know how hits against an armored vehicle work, don't take a dreadnought, the list goes on and on.

What do I like? I love the models in 40k, any faction, any type just about, the models are just cool, plain and simple. I love a battle-strewn table full of buildings and bunkers and rubble. I love the fluff, the grit and the struggle. I love the narrative created during or after the game. I love hanging out with my friends, rolling dice, and pushing around little toy soldiers going "pew pew". What I don't love are, you guessed it, the rules. Be that as it may, I need to learn the rules properly and make the best of them, there's no excuse otherwise.


We played an omega level city fight game, but honestly, the "city fight" influence fled my mind before turn one. The cool thing was the table; we filled a 4x6 portion of the game table with all manner of urban terrain. It made for some very tight quarters and looked pretty neat, especially from a mode's eye view of the action.

Great blogs run on great pics I've always said, and although I am not claiming my blog to be great, it's something I strive for nonetheless. To that end, I now give you mucho eye candy from the battle itself. We started kind of late, and had to quit halfway through, so there wasn't a clear winner. Also, Flounder left his new Tyranid codex (and army list) at home, so we had to call an audbile at the last minute and let him use my Dark Angels. Since he allied with Biscuit's space Orks, we decided to make the Dark Angels part of the Fallen. On the other side of the table, Andy and I jointly led a combined army of Cadians and Ultramarines. I gotta give Andy credit, for being a pretty anti-GW rules guy, he was pretty enthusiastic.


lots of building, big and small...


the industrial crane by a battery of generators


more terrain pics, it really was a neat environment


my Ultramarines made a showing this time out


Biscuit's Ork horde is shaping up to be pretty darn impressive


Initial deployment of Ultramarines and their Cadian allies


the Cadians utilized the 'ammo dump' stratagem...


...as did the Valkyrie!


Originally I deployed my old-school scouts on the crane, because it looked cool. After measuring it though, they were so high up in the air, their bolt pistols were out of range of any targets! You can see tiny Ork images far below them on the ground.


I eventually opted for a barricade for the scouts instead


Narrow alleyways for the Orks


SPANG! Immobilized Dreadnought on turn one, arrrgh!


Ork truk "negotiating" the tight turns


Flame on! Marine heavy and regular Cadian flamers couldn't stop the truk


Ork Boyz disembark and charge into melee under the crane


Fallen Dark Angel snipers lend cover fire to the advancing Ork mob


The squad that moved around a lot, but never found the fight


Yes, you're seeing it right, a proxy Chimera dozer blade courtesy of Lego!