Deathwatch characters

I thought I should write an update on the work with getting the Deathwatch force together.
According to the codex, a typical Watch Fortess have four Watch Companies that each are led by a captain. And a typical company have four killteams, but this do vary a lot.
Watch Fortress Alamo de Béxar have 6 companies. 4 regular ones, one primaris and one special company (that will be explained towards the bottom of the post). The Companies are usually just called one, two and so on in high gothic so Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quartus, Quintus and Sextus.

Watch Company Primus have a Watch Captain called Aramis and he is a Mortifactor. Aramis is the character that comes with the Start Collecting box under the name of Artemis, but I wanted to be able to give him his own story.
The watch company have four killteams, each consisting of ten marines and each team is led by a Watch Sergeant. The Sergeants are not named yet, but they hail from the Imperial Fists, Ultramarines, Raven Guards and Black Knights chapters. Kill team two also have a champion from the Dark Angels.

Watch Company Secundus is led by Watch Captain Athos of the Silver Skulls. He also have four ten marines strong killteams with sergeants leading them. The Sergeants are from the Raven Guards, Dark Angels, Iron Hands and Novamarines. The first killteam have a Blackshield champion.

I have put in some charchters from the Deathwatch range in the third killteam, they are led by Sergeant Ennox Sarlacc so the team is called Killteam Sarlacc. This is actually Ennox Sorrlock from the Cassius box, but to change him in to another character I took the name of the monster in the Star Wars movies that swallowed Boba Fett as it was kind of similar.
His killteam also have several other known charcters that I need to find alternative names for. They are Vael Donatus, Rodricus Grytt and a company champion named Zameon Gydrael. These are also from the Cassius box.

Watch Company Tertius are mission specialists. Their leader is Terminator Captain Porthos. Porthos has served the Deathwatch for as long as anyone can remember and don't wear any chapter markings. He has three five-man Terminator killteams under his command. They are all led by Terminator sergeants, two of the teams are made up from Dark Angels Terminators, but the first team have a Terminator from the Salamanders. This is Garran Branatar from the Cassius box, and he also needs a new name.

The third team is a close combat team, and are all Blood Angels.
This company also have a killteam using bikes, they are led by White Scar sergant Jetek Suberei, but he will get another name at a later time. He is also from the Cassius box. He leads a team of four Raven Wing bikers.

The final two teams are both ten man Vanguard teams. They are led by sergeants Antor Delassio of the Flesh Tearers and a yet un-named Raven Guards sergeant. In the latest of the two teams Edryc Setorax of the Raaven Guards serve. These two characters are also from the Cassius box and will be renamed.

Watch Company Quartus is led by a currently un-named Utltramarine captain. He has for killteams under his command, and the sergeants leading them are Brazen Claws, Ultramarines, Black Templars and Black Consuls. The first killteam has a Blackshiled champion.

Watch Company Quintus is a primaris company. The Company Captain is Ultramarines Captain Octavius. He has two killteams consiting of regular primaris marines and they are led by lieutenants from the Ultramarines.
He also have  team of Hellblasters led by a Dark Angels primaris sergeant and a team of Reivers led by a Flesh Tearers primaris sergeant.

The captain also has two three man Agressor killteams led by Ultramarines and Dark Angels primaris sergeants.

Finally there is a contingent of Space Wolves that have sworn themselves to serve in the Deathwath to repent a failure of a mission. They consist of two ten man squads of regular space Wolves and a five man Terminator team. They are led by a Wolf Lord who now serve as a Deathwatch Captain. His name is Asgeir Frostbite, and I have a larger backstory for him that can be told at a later time.

Did you get the literary reference in the captains? If not, I will explain... Aramis, Athos and Porthos (the captains of my first three wach companies are the names of the three musketeers from the classic book by Alexandre Dumas).

Deathwatch

While documenting my Deathwatch army on paper I found out that I was actually missing one killteam (10 man squad) so I had to get one more start collecting box. That also gave me another dreadnought, so now I have one for each of the original five Watch companies. Four Dreadnoughts (think they actually are Venerable Dreadnoguhts) for my regular Companies and a Redemptor dreadnought to go with my Primaris company. The new killteam is built and primed, and ready to be painted up and sent in to action.

While priming my Redemptor I think I got a little too much spray primer on the hinges on the front, so now he top panel is stuck in an upward position. Because of that I am considering sending that Dreadnought to serve with my Gatekeepers and building my second one to use with Deathwatch. Or I can just close the lid and glue it shut. I will see what I end up doing.

Now all that is left is naming some of my characters, and painting the entire army up  to a good standard. I have no hurry in getting the army ready, so I will take my time and paint them to the best of my abilities. As I paint one unit at a time I will also make sure I have a name for the sergeant (or lieutennant if it is a primaris squad) and other members of the squad if they stand out for some reason (an example here is the characters from the Cassius killteam box and also special troopers like Champions and such).

I have named my Watch Fortress  Alamo de Béxar, and I am trying to think up a natural place for it to be located in the universe.
The commander of the Fortress is Watch Master Barret Travis.
After he was made captain in the Deathwatch, he knew he would serve the Deathwatch for the rest of his life. Rumors have it that he then got a Techmarine  to bless his armor and send the shoulder guard with the chapter insignia back to his chapter to serve the chapter with honor. Other rumors say his chapter has later turned traitor and that this is the real reson he has removed the insignia from his armor. Only the Watch Maste himself knows the truth, but now he only wear Deathwatch insignia and he serves with duty and dedication. 

This is the only finished and based model that I have in my army for now, and he stands on my desk so that I can use him as reference for all other Deathwatch models that will be painted.

The Reclusiam is lead by Chaplain Deus, an Ultramarine who trained extensively under Chaplain Cassius and has followed in his footsteps. For this figure I am using the Cassius model that came in the killteam box, but I don't want to use him as Cassius as he has a lot of back story in the existing lore. 

I want to have someone I can make up a story for myself. Deus is a latin word and is often used for sky or heaven, so I thought it to be a fitting name for a chaplain.  

I also have three Chaplains that are missing names for now. One Mortifactors Primaris Chaplain, one Dark Angels Chaplain and one Blood Angels chaplain with jump pack. Of my Reclusiasm models, the Primaris chaplain is the only one that has gotten any paint. He is more than 50% done.

The Librarius is led by Chief Librarian Voldus who like the Chapter Master doesn't show any other loyalties than to the Librarius and the Deathwatch. This model is the model for Grand Master Voldus from the GeyKnights, but I like him so much I decided to use it as Deathwatch. The shoulderguards fit, and my story for him will be solid. I also have two other Librarians, an Imperial Fist Primaris Librarian and the Blood Ravens Codicier Librarian Jensu Natorian (who I might re-name as he is from the Cassius box).

These are the models I have specific names for as of now, but I am working on finding fitting names for the others. I want to have names that sound correct according to what chapter they hail from, but I do not want to use names that is used in official lore. However if a character has two names, I might take two well known names and add them together in a new way to create my character.

Armies on Parade! Results are in!

Today was parade day!

I managed to finish everything yesterday evening, but while doing so I discovered a lot of small holes in the expandable foam where the paint hadn't covered the foam. I covered all that I found yesterday, but while setting up the board today I saw several more. So I hoped people wouldn't notice it too much. Apart from that I was quite happy with everything.

I had not tried to put everything up on the board, but I had thought out how I would like to do it. Here it is all set up and ready for the parade.

There are a few different scenes on the board. One of them is this where the Big Mek (Mek Gyvva) meets with the team of Grot Mechs who build the crazy weapons he thinks up.

Here is a close up of the Grot Engineseers or Mechs, The one in front on the right is the leder and he has lifted his arm in salute for the Big Mek.

Here is a better picture of Big Mek Gyvva. I might give him a new name in the future if I find an ork that is quite a lot bigger, as I would like my biggest Mek to be big both in size and stature. But I am very pleased with the look of this one, and I am very happy to use him as Mek Gyvva even though I have another Mek who is just as big.

A Grot tank is out in the terrain, while the Rokkit trucks are driving up to the field where they will test fire their Grot missiles.

On the top, the Rokkit trucks are lining up to fire as a single grot tank armed with a  lascannon is standing guard looking for enemy aircraft. On this side you can still see the reegular mechanicum scull on the tower. I am sure the grots will change this too eventually (but I only had one skull to use).

The orks that ride in the Morkanaut are out in the field while the grots are working on fixing some minor electrical issues and reloading the weapons.

The Mech Grots have started to adapt the area to their liking, and have stated by making their own version of the mechanicus holy cog symbol by tearing down the human looking skull on the wall and replacing it with one more fitting for orks and grots.

On the hill the stompa Da Punisha is standing guard in case the Tyranids or the Dark Eldar from the neighbouring tables feel like trying something...

Here is a better picture ofthe skull symbol on the front. What the picture isn't showing so well is the weathering that I did with Doombull Brown and Ryza Rust on the spikes at the bottom of the skull. But when I take my table home from the Games Workshop store in a while I will line up the different units and take some pictures to present on this blog. I will then take better pictures of this.

There are several Grots outside on the stompa, worrking on small repairs. One of them is either being a daredevil, or he has slipped while working and is now hanging on for dear life. It's a good thing he is wearing a helmet...

I wanted to add a little color to the board, as it looked very brown, so I found a broken pipe from the Promethium relay pipe set, and glued it on. Then I used a bright green to paint the river of sludge and then pored on a solid amount of Nurgle Rot on top of it.

The people that came in to the store and voted liked what I had done this year, and I got my first Armies on Parade award, earning myself a third place. Here is the bronze medal on the table.

Here is a better picture of the bronze medal. I am very happy with winning third place, as this is the first time on three tries that I actually win something in Armies on Parade.

I was also awarded a diploma for "Best monster or machine" for my Stompa, and that was also very fun. But in all fairness I think it was because they had enough diplomas to go around, as the Tyranids on the table beside me were better. They were the best painted 'nids I've seen at Games Workshop, but he won "Best themed army" and also won the gold medal.

That sums up the Armies on Parade for 2018, and the #AoP tag can get a little rest until it is time to do some serious thinking about the 2019 entry. I already have a few things in mind that I will explore. If I do as I have so far, then next year should be a Age of Sigmar entry, and then I am toying with an idea of an entry with the Kharadron Overlords. If I go with Warhammer 40K then it might be a two level board with Imperial Guard and some urban warfare. But I am leaning towards the Kharadron as I would love to paint those models.