Watch Captain Artemis

My 11th edition 40K Deathwatch project needs a leader and there is no one better than the mighty Watch Captain Artemis.

Although the official mini is a cracker, with the release of the Armageddon I decided the Captain that came with the box would make an excellent conversion opportunity to reimagine Artemis.

The conversion was fairly straightforward with the left arm, sword and shoulder pad left over from the veterans kit. The right arm was shortened and replaced with a bionic arm wielding a plasma gun. To represent his usual hellfire extremis pistol I added an extra container of plasma / flame.

I lost the captain’s left lower leg armour piece so one was donated from the combat patrol chaplain on bike.

An inquisitor symbol from the Deathwatch upgrade sprue was added to the halo which although was a pain to glue in, came out very cool.

Consistent with my other Deathwatch brothers, Artemis was painted in his Mortifactors colour scheme with the usual exception being his silver left arm and Deathwatch iconography.

The bone colour sections of the power armour used GW wrathbone and white paints with the bone contrast paint for some texture. Highlights were a combination of the same paints.

The black sections of the power armour and his cloak were grim black speed paint and grey highlights. 

The power sword and pistol used a mix of silver and gold speed paints with plasmatic blue for the blade and the plasma parts of the weapon.

Other metal areas used leadbelcher and gun metals for highlights.

The skin used crusade skin sped paint and Vallejo elf for highlights. The scar under the bionic eye got a red wash to highlight the battle damage achieved in the glorious service of the Emperor.

With two units done, next up will be a Fortis Kill Team using the Armageddon intercessors. Rumour has it Alpha Legion operatives have taken a keen interest in the Deathwatch.

Deathwatch Veterans

With five Deathwatch Veterans completed, it was time to add some more bros to take the unit to ten strong.

With the exception of the Gravis brother and his heavy bolter, the weapons were spares from the veterans kit.

I took advantage of the spares to add in two power weapons and Astartes shield for some melee punch. One bro stuck with the customisable bolter and the remaining vet went with a frag cannon using the hellstorm bolter and grenade launcher option from the vet sprue.

Although the  Gravis dude came from the tyranid attack game, the other marine bodies all came from the combat patrol magazine infernus marines. The vet weapons and shoulders fit nicely on these minis with a minimal amount of conversion required. The gravis left shoulder pad was removed and a deathwatch one added.

As is the case with this project, I chose shoulder pads from chapters I thought would be fun to paint and to come up with my own recipes for their power armour colours (see further below).

My favourite from these is probably the flesh tearer whose power armour came out really well with the basic approach of mephiston red and the druchii purple wash.

Beware the yellow and black attack of the Scythes of the Emperor. I will do a couple more of these bros in future units as I like the Stryper colour scheme. 

Sword and board with the Iron Snakes and Dolph the Red Scorpion.🦂 

Heavy attack time with the Crimson Fists.

With the veterans and Decimus kill team finished, next up is my Artemis and Fortis Kill Team using the marines from the Armageddon box

Deathwatch Veterans and Chaplain with jump pack

 Project Deathwatch continues with this unit of veterans and the chaplain with jet pack.

Painting followed the approach of the Decimus Kill Team with a focus on deep lines and bold colours and highlights.

The chaplain was an easy conversion as the left should pad was separate and could be replaced with a Deathwatch one. Painting for the chaplain used the following and I have included the blue wash I used to highlight the detail on the Deathwatch shoulder pads.

As I wanted the chaplain to be a Blood Angel, I added various shades of red (see recipe below for the Blood Angel veteran) over armour panels and some appropriate transfers.

Although most chaplains have most of their trim painted gold, I decided to limit the gold paint to symbols, weapons and icons. Instead I painted a lot of the armour trim with broadsword silver which is a little darker than the polished silver used on the Deathwatch arm and shoulder pad.

The base was painted with my usual mix as follows with some extra cork “rocks” and skulls added.

For the veterans I went with a mix of weapons similar to the Kill Team. With the variety of load outs, I went with chapter shoulder pads I thought broadly went with the archetypes of these weapons.

Below is each and the paint colours I used for their power armour.

First up is the Sarge the White Scar and his xenos blade.

Lamenter and his bolt gun. Painting those checkers was easier than I thought it was going to be.

Space Wolf (somewhat) and his mighty hammer.

Dark Angel and his heavy bolter.

Blood Angel and his black shield blades.

I have enough weapons spare to bulk this unit out to ten with some extra bros or mixing in some of the kill team dudes.

Decimus Kill Team

 Project Deathwatch has begun with the first unit being the Decimus Kill Team.

Unlike most Deathwatch armies, I decided to paint them in their chapter colours with the left arm the Deathwatch silver. Where a right shoulder pad had trim, this would be painted black along with any eagle / chest iconography.

Weapons would similarly be mainly black with bolt gun metal and some gold trim.

Although this is going to be a challenge, I like the idea of running a unique army and coming up with various paint scheme to match or somewhat align with each chapter’s colours.

I also decided to paint a little different and try deep colour for the line work and a little bit of the comic style feathering. This worked better in some than others but I am happy to give a new paint style a go.

I chose to assemble these bros as the Decimus as I wanted to run a five man unit with both the heavy bolter and the plasma incinerator.  

I like the versatility of different weapons so I will need to study each weapons stats to allow for reasonably quick game play.

Of course the plasma had to be painted in Dark Angels colours.

I chose the shoulder pad of various chaptersI like the idea of painting. These are pretty common chapters but I look forward to trying some other lesser known dudes.

Base colours for each was black and then white primer.

Each power armour paint scheme mixed in various colours so I have tried to have each bro aligned with the paints I used.

Salamander sarge

Dark Angels plasma incinerator 

Imperial Fist heavy bolter 

Iron Hand thunder hammer

Ultramarine marksmen bolter 

The next unit is a five man veteran squad and a chaplain with jet pack.