Deathwatch: Killteam Neverness

With all these exciting Deathwatch releases that have came out (and as of this writing, still coming out) over the past year, it was finally time to break out my Deathwatch guys. I started this killteam back in 2004, when Warhammer 40,000 saw the release of it's 4th edition. It wasn't long after the core launch that 4th ed's Tyranid Codex was released. To coincide with it White Dwarf, in one of the last Chapter Approved articles, did an article on the Deathwatch and all of their snazy Specialist Ammo. So began my work on these guys, but that work languished due to a lot of factors and ultimately they were packed away for another day.

The Deathwatch Vets. In their disarmed state.

As some long time readers of this blog might know, this wasn't the only time I dabbled with the Deathwatch. Back in 2013 I modeled up my player character for The Doctor's Deathwatch RPG campaign, Erik Axegrinder. I used him in a few 40k games as either a Lone Wolf or a Wolf Guard Pack Leader.

Erik Axegrinder.

Along comes Death Masque, the starter set I just can't resist. A perfect little force for Deathwatch and Harlequins (recall my recent clowning-around, part one and part-2.) both are armies I would like to build up, but as small forces likely to be used primarily as allies.

Over the weekend I bought the new Deathwatch Codex and with that came the flood of ideas that spring forth while reading this new book. Oddly, I am confused by the game designers decision to exclude any special characters  considering the Killteam Casisus models and the new Artemis model. It seems like a new turn fro GW. But reading through the rules, I am quickly moving past that.

Deathwatch Librarian.

The Librarian above was selected to be the leader of my Killteam. And he is sure to have a role in the upcoming allied force that I am constructing. True Grit was still a thing when I started building him, thus the one handed bolter idea. Not that the rule would have applied to him so much as I just thought that it looked cool.

Heavy Bolter marine.

One of the reasons I wanted to make some Deathwatch marines way back then was that it would give me an excuse to paint up some marines from different Chapters, even if all I would be painting is just their respective shoulder pads. A Chapter that I always thought was cool but I knew I would never do a proper army of, is the White Consuls. This guy in particular is the heavy bolter trooper. Oddly, this model came missing his left arm so I constructed one using some bitz.

White Consul badge. 

I hand painted this icon, but it was so long ago that I can't recall if it was difficult or not. Sadly, I may have to repaint it and according to the background in the new codex, animal/beast Chapter icons are stated to be painted facing forward as a show of vigilance and bravery. So that's something to consider...

After Death Masque arrives I will be able to maximize all the extra bitz I will have on the 3 guys that don't have arms yet. I am looking forward to pretty much completing 2 small armies with this one boxed set.