Remember these guys?

Do you remember back... hmmm about 8 or 9 months ago when I said I was working on De-Dark Angeling the Terminators from the Dark Vengeance set? Well I've been working on those guys again on and off as the mood hit me. Mainly for a difference in pace, but also because I had wanted to try out the then new GW paint range, I painted the first member of the squad in Ultramarine colors. So following in that first members foot steps I've continued working on the squad in Ultramarine colors.

Ultramrines terminators stand ready, mostly.

The above image shows the models in mostly the base colors, though the blue has been highlighted using the directions from one of the Games Workshop tutorials.

One thing I very consciously did was follow the color directions for the Captain Sicarius painting tutorial from the Digital Codex Collection. While the Terminators are from the first Company of the Ultramarines, I wanted to make it look like they were perhaps attached to the 2nd company and thus be under the command of Sicarius. I really like this deep rich red color which can be seen on the Sergents sash:

The, and most of the reds in the squad are done using a base color of Khorne red with a Baal red wash (The equivalent wash in the current series is Carroburg Crimson) gives the sash a deep crimson coloring that I then highlighted using Khorne red, followed by mephiston red followed by Blood red (wazdakka red).

I tried doing some wear and tear coloring on some of the models, again using the tutorials from the digital collection. The best example of this I can show is on the helmet of the Sergent.

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Death Watch detachment

And construction of the Kill Team Detachment has been completed (You know baring the possibility that I want to build a Death Watch Dreadnought just because I can, or I have that Land Speeder I could build. And a Storm. A little speedy transport wouldn't be unwelcome for a Death Watch team).

Anyway. 20 Death Watch marines with a watch captain:

 Placed in command of the detachment is a Death Watch Captain:

 Each Squad is lead by a Sergent. In this case, both Sergents are from the Ultramarines Chapter.

 Covering the heavy fire part of the detachment is a Quartet of heavy bolter armed marines:

4 Heavy Bolter armed marines provide the heavy support the rest of the detachment needs.

As with all Death Watch Kill teams, the detachment is comprised of Marines from various chapters. Here we see the 4 Fists (2 Imperial Fists, 2 Crimson fists).

2 Imperial fists along side 2 Crimson Fist marins

 2 Blood Angel marines:

2 Blood Angels serving in the Death Watch

 The members of the Death Watch detachment who come from the Aurora chapter

Aurora Marines serving in the Death Watch

The Ultramarines have 3 Brothers serving this detachment:

a trio of Ultramarines serving in the Death Watch

 While the Dark Angels have likewise provided capable team members

Dark Angel Death Watch members

The children of the death world Fenris, always eager for a fight, have provided members to the detachment:

2 Space Wolves in the Death Watch team

Honor bound to destroy those that would endanger the Imperium of Man, the Black Templars have a presence in the Death Watch.

With the cold methodical logic that makes them so dangerous, the Iron Hands provide fire support for their Death Watch Brothers:

I use very simple conversions through out the entire detachment to keep it as uniform as a Death Watch can reasonably be. Mainly part swaps. the Iron Hand marines are good examples of this as I use the torsos and one set of bionic legs from the Iron Hands upgrade kit for the pair of them.

There were only a hand full of 'free form' conversions through out the entire detachment, and by free form I mean I didn't simply decide to use a different part to accomplish the effect.


This Sergent is the first example. I use a pin in the left Wrist to angle the sword outward to signify him declaring a charge.

I angled the wrist to tilt the chainsword forward, as he signals a charge.

Another example is basically every one of the Heavy Bolter armed marines.

The right shoulder of the Heavy Bolter set up has the ammo belt coming right across the edge of the shoulder pad meaning the shoulder pad is actually one piece with the ammo feed and a couple cables. So I couldn't pop on the shoulder pad of the respective chapter. I had to literally cut away the old shoulder (minus the shoulder for the Black Shield mind you. He can just be a flat shoulder pad). I then had to use should segments from other arms (I used the shoulders from the tactical marines for reason I will explain in a bit) to replace the upper arm and then added the shoulder pad to that effectively rebuilding the bit with the chapter iconography.

Through out the entire detachment I wanted to keep the various little accoutrements and symbols that so characterize space marines. These include:

The Servo Skull on this Heavy Bolter Marine

 The bolter strap on this Iron Hands Marines
 

The tooth on the grip of the bolter of the marine on the right

The Templar on the left as been awarded a Marksmanship honor

The Marksmanship honor hanging from the barrel of the bolter on the left.

So, I mentioned I used the shoulders from the Tactical marines arms for replacing the shoulders of the heavy bolters and I alluded that there was a reason for this choice. Here's why:

In the new tactical kit, the hands are built into the bolters while the arms are separate pieces. You attach the hand and arm at the wrist. Nice option for conversions, but in this particular case it created a little bit of a head ache as it means I had to cut out the hands from the bolters, and then attach them to the Death Watch Bolters. 15 times... It gets a bit boring after a while. Anyway, This now means I have 15 arms, that I don't have hands to go with. So I further canalized 4 of the arms to rebuild the shoulders of the Heavy Bolters.

And there we have a 21 man Death Watch Detachment complete and ready for paint.


... you know, I do have all those extra Dreadnought pieces. I might just do a Death Watch Dread.

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Some busy work... sort of

Okay, so I got a little bored and started rooting around my bitz boxes. I ran across a pair of Dark Vengeance Terminators and some Forge World Ultramarine terminator shoulder pads. So I thought "Hey why not? I'm a good converter. I bet I can convert these Dark Angeled Termies into Ultramarine Termies.

 

Here is the first one. I had to carve down the shoulder so it would allow the Forge world shoulder pad to fit on it.

 

 The chainfist was adorned with very Dark Angel-ly iconography so it had to go. Only problem was that same iconography was laying across the cable going to the chainfist so I had to re-craft that lost segment. I used a segment of wire with the insulation cut into segments. Surprisingly it worked out really well.

The assault cannon armed terminator was a bit more of a challenge.  The amount of small details on the model made it difficult to effect any change quickly and I found myself having to work very slowly over an extended period of time for little noticeable change to the model. The best example of this approach is the feathers that had previously hung under the body of the assault cannon. I didn't want to have to rebuild the under carraige of the cannon so I went for a minimalist modification and only removed what I had to. In this case the feathers on the cannon. I decided to keep the hanging skull as decoration. 

For the moment I am leaving the hanging sword icons between the legs (that sounds like a dick joke just waiting to happen) simply because I can't easily remove them with out being forced to replace them with something else. Which I may do. I might add some purity scrolls or perhaps a different tabard.

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Wow... how that time flies

Wow, it's been almost 3 weeks since I started this blog! Holy cow! My oh my how the time does fly. Also I've been somewhat busy of late, between work and school those 24 hours in a day just kind of fly right on by. But I have more to report on.

I'm preparing for a Death Watch campaign with my gaming group and the big thing I'm focusing on is my character, Brother Quintus of the Ultramarines.

Quintus lays down a hail of heavy
bolter fire with Marcus'
heavy bolter.

 Story wise Quintus is a survivor of the first Tyrannic war on Macrage so he knows how to fight Xenos. I crafted what I feel to be a good bio for the character in order to give him some depth and explain who he is and such, which you can read below:

Born on the world of Prandium, Quintus showed his abilities at a young age competing in competitions of speed, stamina, and marksmanship, frequently besting boys 2 and 3 years his senior. His greatest rival became apparent when he was 8 and he took part in a week long challenge to cross the Northern mountain ranges. Quintus achieved a commanding lead early on, and pressed his advantage. On the second day of the challenge, Quintus found he had been passed by another 8 year old boy named Marcus. Quintus quickly redoubled his pace and quickly closed the gap with Marcus. The pair continued in the challenge for the next two days until the finish line was in sight. At break neck speeds the pair approached the finish line no clear winner in sight. It came down to the observers at the finish line to declare that Marcus the winner by only the slimmest of margins.

Quintus can also use a bolter.

Marcus and Quintus again crossed paths a month later at an archery competition. As the competition drew to it’s final rounds, only a hand full of boys including Marcus and Quintus still stood. Slowly, Marcus and Quintus beat their adversaries and it came down to the two of them alone. The pair continued to match one another shot for shot and the competition continued on without end in sight. After nearly a full day of shooting, Qunintus finally won the competition but only by the slimmest of margins. And so the boys rivalry continued to grow for the next few years as they competed in one form after another nearly without end, frequently ending in a draw as neither boy would back down or declare defeat.

Quintus using a Lascannon.

 While it was still a day of considerable pride, few were surprised when both boys were selected to be Ultramarines. The boys rivalry continued to thrive as they pair proceeded through training and conditioning and perhaps it was chance, perhaps it was their training officer trying to teach them to trust one another, but the pair were constantly assigned to the same training squads and operations. Gradually their rivalry became a friendly one as each of them grew into aspiring marines and were ultimately assigned to their first active squad as devastators.
When the Tyranids attacked Macragge, Quintus and Marcus were assigned to a unit sent to reinforce a defense line. As their position was overwhelmed and their squad mates scythed down, Quintus and Marcus were hard pressed to hold the line. As a Termegaunt grievously injured Marcus, Quintus picked up Marcus’ heavy bolter and proceeded to unload into the advancing termegaunts. Finding some new level of focus and prediction, Quintus was unable to miss a single shot, each bolt felling a creature with out failure. Doing alone what his squad had failed to do, Quintus was soon facing a wall of dead xenos.

Ultimately additional relief troops arrived and rescued Quintus’ squad. Marcus, injured beyond any apothacary’s skill to heal died soon after. On his brothers body, Quintus made a vow to fight the xenos and took up Marcus’ heavy bolter as his preferred weapon of choice. In the years since Macragge, Quintus has become highly accomplished as a devastator marine and gained the attention of Chaplin Cassius who offered Quintus the chance to serve in the Death Watch, a chance he quickly accepted.

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