On The Table - Deathwatch Scouts

The project for my one day off this week was DW Scouts. I made the choice to use them rather than normal Marines with Stalker pattern Bolters for a few reasons. 

One, they add variety to the "all Power Armor" army. There are rules for Deathwatch Scouts in two of the RPG books. I am still unsure why GW did not give Stalker pattern Bolters to Scouts only in the Codex. It would have sold more of those old Scout kits.

Two, there is only one Stalker pattern Bolter in the Deathwatch box. That is insane when it could have been a bit that clips onto the Bolter rather than a whole gun. It is even more insane when there are already Sniper Rifles in the Scout box. I wanted 5 of these and I am not going to buy 5 kits. 

Three, I have a surplus of Scout minis from when I thought that I would make a 10th Company. Why spend more money than I precisely have to. 

Lastly, despite all the cloth, they are easy minis to paint. I almost finished 5 in the time it would have taken me to get as far with two Power Armor Marines. I am not going to put the same amount of detail into them as I did with the mini of Rufus, my Deathwatch RPG character. I skipped the extra washes and touch ups. Close enough is good enough for these guys.

I am using that same basic color scheme hat I used for the Deathwatch mini for Rufus. Black armor (dug), Stormvermin Fur outside of cloak and jump suit and silver accents. I washed the whole mini black then painted on some black wash. then I used Agrax Earthshade on the areas where I needed extra shading. After that, it is touch up, highlight and finished. 

My plan on fielding them is as fire support. 5 Marines with Stalker pattern Bolters produce 10 shots that hit on a 3+ at 30"-36". I plan to add in two Marines with Heavy Bolters and two with Missile launchers. Even before turning this into a formation, this is deadly at range. I am unsure what I would add into this unit, but that is a problem for later. Regardless of what I add or how I field them, they are going to dominate unless they are in close combat or face 2+ Armor Saves. 

I though about converting the Sniper Rifles to more closely resemble Stalker pattern Bolters, but no matter what I did, they would always look like converted Sniper Rifles and not Stalker pattern Bolters. I decided that the instability of cutting off and gluing the barrels was, in the end, not worth it.

On the table next are a custom Watch Captain with TBD Wargear, a Heavy Thunder Hammer Marine and another Power Armor Marine of TBD Wargear.