The Deathwatch are here...

After reading about the creation of the Deathwatch in "The Beast arises"-series from Black Library the idea of having a "small" force has grown on me.

The last time I was at my Games Workshop store to sit and paint for a day they had this event where you buy one single figure (pick the body parts you want to use from the Deathwatch sprues) and paint him up. There are some rules, as the entire army should have the same bases and so on, but apart from that you are free to do as you like.

I opted for an Ultramarine with a combat shotgun, and gave him a helmet (as I don't think I'm too good with painting skin and hair).  He was quickly assembled and primed, and now I have spent some time painting him up to the best standard I can. 

I put the last color on him yesterday, so tonight I need to do a little clean-up work, wash his combat knife with Nuln Oil, and do his base Astrogranite. Then I will take him with me to the store next time I go there and put on a blue wash and a stone colored (don't remember the name of the paint, Karak Stone maybe) drybrush on the base there.  I will take a picture of him when he is done, and post it here.

I've decided to make a small force and have both as a stand-alone army and as troops to assist my Inquisitors. I would love to field my different Inquisitors with different support troops. I have a very small band of Grey Knights (painted dark blue), I have the Deathwatch and I have the Tempestus Scions. The Tempestus Scions will usually be part of my Astra Militarum army, but they do lend out troops to the Inquisition on request. I have painted up a command squad so far, but I might revisit them to do their pants again if it is in a different color than what I use for my Imperial Guard units. I would like to have as much unity as I can while still showing a distinct difference between the different branches of service and my two different infantry regiments.

The plan for the Deathwatch is to make enough to use as a stand-alone force, but not an entire chapter. I have one Dreadnought, and at the moment he is the only heavy hitter. In the future I might add another, I will see what I have in my boxes of unbuilt or unpainted miniatures and take it from there.

I have one Watch Master to lead my army. He has a trusted captain that leads the troops on missions, that is Captain Artemis, one of the few if not the only named special characters that the Deathwatch range have.

I have two boxes with 10 Deathwach troops in them (one of these are from the Start Collecting box that also included the Dreadnought and Captain Artemis). I also have a box of 10 regular tactical Marines and a box of 10 Primaris Intercessors that I will convert to Deathwatch by using some spare special weapons from the Deathwatch boxes and the shoulder guards from the Deathwatch Upgrade sprues. On these sprues there are also 2 Terminator shoulder guards on each, so I plan to have 5 terminators as well (or maybe 6 if I have a spare one somewhere that I can use). I haven't bought the Terminators yet, as they were out of stock at the Games Workshop store when I was there, so I will get it next time. 

I could probably dig some up from my existing boxes too, but I do love these models, and the fluff for my Gatekeepers explains why I have so many of them. If GW don't have them in the store next time I go, then I will take a box from my storage.