40k Deathwatch - Patience is a virtue...

So I'll admit that when I picked up Overkill it was predominantly for the Genestealer Cult models and the Deathwatch chaps were pillaged for parts to use with the Thousand Sons (as there were several tasty older-mark armor sets in there). I was rather impressed with the models however, and ended up trading away the painted Cult for a new-in-box set of Overkill that was tucked away into the Closet of Doom for a rainy day. With the release of Death Masque it started to cloud over and I picked up the box with the rationale that I could use the Harlequins for the pointy-eared gits army. The kill team sprues really caught my eye though - while the Overkill models are gorgeous, I do prefer multi-pose kits in general and they are simply grand. So, they all got built and based and I got stuck in.

As I'd mentioned before I had built a trio of Space Wolf terminators as test models and to sort of get my eye in a bit and try out a couple recipe ideas. If they didn't end up perfect, well they're just Space Wolves. Hah! I felt that the Black/Shadow Grey/Fortress Grey was a little too stark on these which I tried to address below. The blued steel is perhaps a bit TOO blued as well, I think a bit more deliberate silver over-painting is in order. Overall though I got these far enough along to establish where I wanted to go with the scheme, so they were set aside.

After getting the two kill teams built and primered, they were all then given a coat of painted-on vallejo black to ensure that any later cleanup on the black will match the overall color - the primer I use has a different level of tone and shine so it ends up being rather noticeable painting black atop it! Then I mixed up a bottle of 50/50 black and shadow grey, and gave all of the models a reasonably light drybrushing to catch all of the various hard edges, trusting that I'll be able to back in and clean up any egregious over-spatter later.

Next up the models were given a more selective line highlight with shadow grey, concentrating primarily on the hard edges of the models upper surfaces. This step took approximately one million hours, or at least that's what it felt like! This technique is definitely challenging me to take my time and paint as fine a line as I can and really think about where to place them, as opposed to my usual speedpainting techniques which mostly rely on gratuitous drybrushing and liquid talent. I wouldn't exactly say that it's been fun, but it has been instructional and it's always good to try and get out of your comfort zone now and again! I think I'm going to go one step lighter on a few selected extreme highlights, then clean up all the black panels as best I can. At that point we'll see how they look - I'm thinking they'll likely benefit from a black wash at the end to blend and tone all the highlights back down a touch.

 

As a bit of a reward for all the tedious line highlighting I thought I'd treat myself to a little build time - I knew straight away that the other model in the command tanks box from Warhammer World would end up being a Deathwatch tank (it's just far too modern and encrusted with Aquilas to work in the Heresy), and I am really happy with how it turned out - looking forward to painting it up!

I particularly like the tank commander model, as well as the eagle weapon shroud on the heavy bolters, definitely blings it up to the ostentatious level of the Deathwatch marines!

I loved the look of the Corvus, and the Watch Master with the Guardian Spear is just awesome, I ordered up the Strategium Command bundle which includes a full 10-man veteran squad as well so I could build a kill team to my own spec rather than relying on the formations laid out in Overkill and Death Masque. I also knew that I wanted to bang out a couple squads of terminators using the various leftover bits from all the heresy terminator kitbashes I've done over the years, and figured I ought to tot up the points and see what I had in mind for this supposedly nice little boutique project. ...3500 points. While at first I was shocked, at this point I've come to think that's almost perfect - surprisingly high for the model count I have planned, but that's just about the ideal army size for one of my projects and in comparison to the massive numbers of broadly anonymous heresy warriors it'll be nice to just focus on a few models that all have a ton of personality. This will very likely be an army that never actually fires a shot in anger I think, just a fun project to while away the time before Forge World finally releases Inferno later in the year and my beloved Thousand Sons actually get some rules!

We're just 10 days out from the Nova Open, and I though I'd continue to flog the rather excellent raffles going on this year, which include several fantastic armies as well as some truly stunning single pieces. You need not be present to win, and the armies will be shipped anywhere worldwide! Absolutely worth checking out, it's for a great cause!