Freodom: Warhammer 40,000: The Deathwatch

Apr 12, 2021

Warhammer 40,000: The Deathwatch

It is clear that we are fighting a losing battle on Earth. The alien hordes are overwhelming in number. The best we can do is slow down their progress. The only hope for humanity is to tackle the aliens at their source.
- UFO: Enemy Unknown, UFOpedia entry Alien Origins

If I remember correctly, the Deathwatch were invented in 3rd edition as a single squad of Marine xenos-hunters you could include in an Imperial army as a sort of ally. I thought this was very cool since it was a sort of 40k XCOM, and when a copy of Deathwatch: Overkill was available at our friendly local gaming store for a considerable discount, I grabbed it.

I was delighted to find that the Overkill box included a Blood Ravens Librarian; they were the protagonists of the excellent Dawn of War. His name is Jensus Natorian; all of the Overkill marines have names, and as far as I can tell, all of them seem to have come out of the Knights of the Old Republic name generator. Anyway he's our HQ choice. Since I'm figuring this out by 8th edition rules, a Librarian with force sword and bolt pistol works out at 88 points. I'd recently read N.K. Jemisin's amazing Fifth Season, and the model made me think of Alabaster.

The fact that all the Deathwatch marines originally come from some other chapter and still bear that chapter's heraldry is one of the big reasons I wanted to build some Deathwatch models of my own. It gives me a chance to own models representing chapters whose names are bouncing around my head for whatever reason, or that have cool names or shoulder pad designs, in a unit that I could actually conceivably use on the tabletop.

I don't know why they paint the left arms of their armor silver. I choose to believe that in the past, a Johnny Silverhand posergang stopped an alien invasion of Earth, and the association of silver left hands with fighting the xenos has survived into the 41st millenium.

The way I look at it, the models in Overkill make a start for four units. First, there's Ennox Sorrlock (Iron Hands, big Kotor vibe) with his combi-melta, Salamanders Terminator Garran Branatar with a heavy flamer and that power fist-meltagun thing, and Zameon Gydrael (Dark Angels) with a plasma pistol and power sword. Clearly these guys are going to be the core of a devastating short-range shooting and mêlée unit; looking at the codex, I guess that means this is a Malleus kill team. The Dark Angel has the most sergeantlike equipment, so does that mean Malleus kill team Gydrael?

Then there's Vael Donatus, the Smurf with the special boltgun, and Rodricus Grytt (Imperial Fists) with his frag cannon; I'm thinking I'll build a shooty squad around them, maybe a Furor team. I hope Brother Grytt doesn't mind I changed his company.

The two jump pack fellows, Antor Delassio the Blood Angel and Edryc Setorax (Raven Guard), are outfitted for close combat, so I think they need to be in a squad of their own.

Then we have Jetek Suberei, the White Scar on his bike; while you can include bikers in Deathwatch squads, I find the idea absurd, so I'll have to look into a bike squad later.

And, of course, the titular chaplain of the Kill Team! Frankly, I thought he was boring; and besides, we already have a smurf. So I gave the Chaplain a Techno Roider head from Statuesque Miniatures, to make Chaplain Messia of the Scythes of the Emperor, seen here awaiting her jump pack.

As a bonus, I found an ancient Terminator with lightning claws I'd assembled but not painted back in the day; I stuck him on a bigger base and made him a Jade Paladin. I freehanded the chapter logo and am still in absolute shock over how well it turned out.

Anyway I'm sure I'll build a close combat squad around him at some point!

I was also delighted to find that the Dark Angels veterans box I bought for an entirely different project came with an assault cannon; joined to an ancient metal Deathwing terminator body I had lying around, this combined with a Kromlech power maul to make a Terminator for the Furor team:

I followed the heraldry instructions in the Deathwing supplement to the original Space Hulk and split the shoulder pad between the Deathwing symbol and the Terminator's personal glyph, which I repeated on his leg.

By now I was getting into building Terminators, and decided to dig into the Grey Knights bits I got ages ago to make Captain Phasma, for this Deathwatch Terminator from the Exorcists chapter. They're a Grey Knights successor chapter, after all, so it makes sense they'd have similar equipment! I'm calling that halberd a power axe.

Since the Deathwatch upgrade kits I ordered weren't showing up, I gave both Terminators Grey Knight shoulder pads and painted them silver. It's close enough!

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed painting Space Marines black, and tried to get my hands on the discontinued Start Collecting Deathwatch box so I could have some more. Unfortunately all the start collecting boxes were sold out, and, of course, Brexit happened: the jump packs and Deathwatch accessory sprue I ordered in January still haven't showed up. So this is everyone from Overkill, and I have to say, I'm quite happy with them! The Deathwatch paint scheme is surprisingly simple and effective.

That was fun! Whenever we get Games Workshop deliveries again, I'm making more Deathwatch dudes.

Also I made some Warlord Games Judges Anderson while I was at it, so maybe I'll post them here.

I originally got myself a Judge Anderson to use as an Inquisitor with my Custodes, and I didn't really know what to do with the model with the bike, except that it was cool so I built it.