40k Deathwatch - Army 99.9% Parade Ready!

It's amazing what working under a deadline will do for my productivity! I had a blissfully event-free Friday evening and the whole day Saturday, and buckled in for a marathon painting session to finish off the army before next weekend's event. Barring any minor issues that may reveal themselves in the photography stage the force is ready to rock!

First of course is a quick look at the force on the board as I mess around with various unit layouts. I really need to invest in a monopod - this was as in focus as I could manage. Hope to get some better final pics from the actual event next weekend!

 

So let's go through what all got finished over the two-day marathon - First up is the Watch Master, which is a superb sculpt, and I rather like the peek into the upcoming Custodes rules with his Guardian Spear!

 

I was quite taken by the Blood Angel librarian in terminator plate that was shown in the book and knew I wanted to take a crack at it. Continued on with the ghostly green for the force weapon, definitely going to be using that recipe for future psykic gear and spell effects...

I'd taken a group photo of Kill Team Cassius a little while back, so it was only fair that Watch Force Artemis got the same treatment. The two 5-man veteran squads have been shown before, so it was really just two models that needed to be completed for this unit to make it to the finish line.

  

The man himself, Brother Artemis is my favorite sculpt of the DW range, having owned the Inquisitor 54mm scale version back in the day. I might just have to trawl eBay and see if I can find another one, as I'd sold it on yoinks ago.

  

Sliding into place for my Dreadtober vow is Brother Nihilus. His background is rather interesting in the Death Masque booklet, he's essentially an interred Blackshield, so it's anyone's guess as to what lurks in his murky past! That said, after doing nothing but Contemptors for so long, working on an old 'brick dread' was kind of fun.

  

Not a whole lot changed on the Corvus front other than a little more weathering and some edge highlighting of the red wing stripes (though they are blown out in the pictures somewhat). Really dig this model, but it would be 100% cooler if it was 20% larger. There's just a bit of dissonance to me between its stats and its appearance. Still, best flyer GW was released in plastic for quite some time!

Finally, the bodyguard unit for the Watch Master and terminator librarian, Squad Graul - While I appreciate the hyper-individualistic nature of Kill Team Cassius, I wanted these folks to have a very singular battlefield role - close combat and protection of the HQ units. At least that's the theory, we'll see how they perform once I get them on the tabletop!

Next up, back to the whole reason I picked up Overkill in the first place and ended up with this whole Deathwatch army - a swarming brood of Genestealer Cult gribblies!

40k Deathwatch - Dreadtober part 2 and more Corvus work

Frantically pressing onwards with the Deathwatch as the Armies on Parade deadline looms ever closer! Got a bit more work done on Brother Nihilus (doing triple duty for Dreadtober, Zombtober and the AoP project), started laying in the color blocks and some of the gold trim in preparation for further detailing:

 

So far, so good! Plenty of further highlighting and colorization to go of course, I think the usual blue power cables and plasma coils should really help him pop once they get laid in!

 

I will admit that I was having more fun painting the Corvus and ended up lavishing a bit more attention on it than poor Nihilus over the last couple days. Got the reds highlighted up, the canopy painted in and laid in a little weathering here and there to help break things up a bit. I'm thinking I might do a bit of extreme edge highlighting in a hot orange on the red just to give it a bit more oomph. Wasn't necessary on the infantry, but on the larges areas on the vehicles it may look good.

A bit more detailing on the front and undersides to go, but I really dig the profile of the model - the bog ol' inquisition symbols on the top and front are great! I do wish they'd designed the model such that the front doors were openable (they're just facade pieces that glue on to the blank plastic walls of the front of the model), but since 99.9% of the time I end up (usually accidentally) gluing the assault ramps on my land raiders shut I suppose it's not a huge deal. Hah!

Nearing the finish line! Got the basic black/line highlighting done on the remaining 6 infantry for the force over lunch yesterday, should be all done with the force by the end of the weekend!

40k Deathwatch - Corvus Blackstar painting begins

Another quick hit today, back when I started the Land Raider I'd also done the linework on the Corvus, and while I was working on the Dreadnought over the last couple days I'd also taken the time to lay in the initial colors on the flyer as well.

 

My favorite part of the model is the big ol' inquisition symbol on the roof, rather happy I went with the underslung hurricane bolters so as not to cover it up. Still a ways to go of course, but I quite like how it's coming along thus far!

40k Deathwatch - Land Raider complete and Dreadtober begins!

Got some more work done on the Land Raider over the last few days, and finished it off - took advantage of the nice weather to get it spray sealed. Phew!

 

Got the blues on the power cables and lenses and the various parchment painted which really helped bring the tank into focus. Next up was some sponge weathering to rough in some paint scrapes here and there, then went with some feathered mud spatter along the lower section of the hull. The tracks got some mud wash and dusting as well, and I'm finally happy with the look!

I especially like the tank commander model, though it isn't technically a deathwatch model it fits the aesthetic rather well!

 

Next up was some work on the Venerable Dreadnought Brother Nihilus, seemed appropriate to get cracking on now that Dreadtober is upon us! Worked up the marble effect on his shoulder pad to match the Land Raider, and got the edge highlighting started - quite a bit of cleanup to do of course but I'm quite enjoying how he's coming along so far!

In other news, as what should come as no surprise to anyone I'm diving in to the Genestealer Cult again now that the codex was released. I've picked up the book and a pair of each of the new Neophyte and Acolyte boxes, and spent some time penciling together a list to work towards.

I have the unbuilt models from the Overkill set lurking in the Closet of Doom, which I'm going to part out and came up with a 1900 point list - the intent is to build something to include the previously-painted Ghosar Cult and end up being a well-rounded 2500 point force. I have to say I was well pleased with this codex after the somewhat lacklustre Deathwatch book, and though I've said on many occasions that I dislike the formation style army building, I will admit that the Brood Cycle and Neophyte Cavalcade are quite fluffy and I am really happy to see the book allows for more integration of Guard/PDF forces. Quite looking forward to getting stuck in with the force, just as soon as I finish off the last of the Deathwatch for the upcoming Armies on Parade deadline!

40k Deathwatch - Land Raider painting continues

Just a quick one today - Got a few more colors laid in on the Land Raider yesterday and I am starting to feel better about it. Giving the eye something else to look at besides the line highlighting seems to help 'settle' the model a bit and help it look less like a big black brick.

 

More work to do of course, further highlights on the gold and red, then on to the usual blue power cells/cables and the scrollwork. Once this tank is done it'll be time to switch gears for Dreadtober and get cracking on with Brother Nihilus!

40k Deathwatch - Display boards and Land Raider progress, plus a broken vow

A bit more forward motion on the Armies on Parade force! A fellow 40k enthusiast and I decided we'd do a paired set of army boards, with his Craftworld Eldar facing off against my Deathwatch and he spent some time in his shop over the previous weekend putting together something for us.

He cut the 2x2 board and laid in some hills and craters on my side, and the floor level for some Eldar ruins on his side. As my bases are almost all dirt, and his are mostly Eldar Architecture, he left the ground color up to me. Took the paints I use for my bases to the local art supply store and found a couple bottles of craft paint that were pretty darn close (no way I'm painting the boards with Vallejo dropper bottles), and set to work. Much paint spatter later I had the dirt in, and some admittedly ham-fisted flocking - I haven't ever tried any terrain at this size so it was all rather experimental.

I handed off the Eldar side so he can tart up the Eldar portion, and went with some grey stone coloration for the craters, which will get some blast effect painted or airbrushed in at some point in the near future. So far, so good!

On the less enthusiastic side however are the vehicles. As I had remembered from the Imperial Fists and Iron Hands, fine edge highlighting just isn't my forte and the issue is exacerbated on larger pieces, such as the Land Raider. I did take the precaution of painting the whole model in Chaos Black before getting started, which has allowed me to clean up the lines where it was particularly egregious (and looking at the pic there's plenty more to clean up). Still, I'm hopeful that once the detail starts going on it'll start to pop.

I was reasonably happy with the slate/marble effect I tried out on the doors and detail plates on the front (and repeated on the dreadnought coming soon). It's not perfect, but with a little practice it might be a fun technique to add to the toolbox - practice makes perfect!

In other news I've perhaps slightly broken my vow to hold off on adding anything else to my Thousand Sons until the Forge World book and the new GW box set are released. Just a little bit. Ahem. The deal was too good to pass up, and thanks to one of the excellent folks on the Heresy30k Forum for ensuring the sons of Magnus have a sweet new ride! Much like the first one I built for the World Eaters, this kit was an absolute bastard to assemble, and even with prodigious use of clamps and rubber bands it still isn't quiiiiite seamless. Some of that can be attributed to warpage and shrinkage but honestly I've never heard anyone say "Wow, that Storm Eagle was so much fun to build!" ...I will say it's a cool looking model once it's put together though!

40k Deathwatch - Kill Team Cassius complete!

Managed a fair bit of painting time in over the weekend, and polished up the last of the infantry models from the first batch - all the 'fun' models that I left for the end as a reward for pushing through the basic models (if there is such a thing in the Deathwatch line)!

Really happy with how the kill team turned out as a whole, while I was initially down on the mono-build nature of the models, I have to say they really are quite cool sculpts. Each one really has their own character to a degree that you really can't capture with the build-yer-own Veteran kit!

 

Couple closeups of the two characters, Chaplain Cassius and Librarian Natorian. After trying out the effect on the wings of the assault squad sergeant, I thought I'd try it again to represent the psychic witchery on the Librarian. I think it works a little better than the more dark jade/neon green method I'd been using previously - gives the weapon a bit more of an ethereal look.

 

The terminator was a fun model, lots of fire and scales, reds and oranges. Rather enjoyed how the brazier turned out!

 

The biker is one of my favorite models of the set, Suberei really has a great sense of motion and a ton of cool little details. I was listening to the audiobook of Scars while painting these and I started to get a little twinge to do some White Scars on the Heresy side. Must... Resist...

Next up is finishing up the last few models in Watch Force Artemis, with a couple more characters - Artemis himself and, just in time for Dreadtober, Brother Nihilus! I'm also hearing rumours of further Genestealer Cult codexes and models on the horizon - there's still a whole set of cultists on sprues in the Closet of Doom, could be there's another army on the horizon while I await the upcoming Prospero book and box set!

40k Deathwatch - Armies On Parade challenge begins

I threw my hat in the ring at the local shop to work up an entry for the Armies On Parade thing going on in mid-October. Since I am already hip-deep in Deathwatch it seemed the obvious choice! I'm still kicking around ideas for the board, but first things first of course and that means figuring out an army to parade!

Fired up the cogitator and penciled together a 2500 point force that includes the two 'named' kill teams from Overkill and Death Masque, a small assault force of veterans and a Librarian in the Corvus, and an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor and her henchmen rolling in the Inquisitorial/Deathwatch Land Raider (as they share a lot of iconography). Best part is, a good chunk of it is already in various stages of being painted!

Once I got a list together I pulled out the relevant models to see how much room they'll take up on the board and start thinking about layouts. Pleased to see it's just about half-painted already as well!

Rather than start any models from the beginning I figured I'd better keep the momentum going on the infantry already in progress, and over the last couple evenings have been laying in more colors on the remaining character models. So far so good, rather happy with how Chaplain Cassius's face is coming along. All in all still enjoying the project, and having a deadline to work towards really helps me focus on getting a little more done each day!

40k Deathwatch - Squad Crull and Squad Donatus complete!

While I had the painting servitor subroutines running, I finished up the two Veteran squads that came in Overkill and Death Masque. They were a fair way towards the finish line already, but even so it was a good three or four hour session to pick out all the little details and go back to catch the little stuff I'd missed on them in the abortive batch painting process.

First up is Squad Crull, using the new Deathwatch kill team sprues. I think these are some of the best sprues GW has come out with, definitely the kitbasher's dream with all the bits! I was forced to arm them as shown in order to use them as part of the 'official' kill team, and while they certainly look neat it strikes me as a bit of an awkward array of armaments for tabletop play. Definitely looking forward to building a few more kill teams armed a bit more sensibly.

I was pretty pleased with how Sergeant Crull's Xenophase Blade turned out, it's a fun bit of kit and shows some good ol' Imperial hypocrisy. I'm planning on carrying that idea through and do a Radical Ordo Xenos Inquisitor with some further Xenotech and perhaps a Jokaero to accompany the Deathwatch force. Should be fun!

Next up is Squad Donatus, the Veteran squad that is part of Kill Team Cassius. These models also suffer somewhat from the scattershot armaments coupled with the mono-pose nature of the Overkill models. That said, for what they are they definitely were a blast to build and paint - they exude a bespoke sense of character that is a little hard to capture with the multi-pose models.

Next up are the characters and specialist models from the two Kill Teams, then on to the vehicles!