Thinking about a Deathwatch army

I picked up Deathwatch: Overkill for $130 including shipping on Bartertown and it has gotten me thinking. Once all the minis are painted up and combined with my existing Deathwatch Marines, I would have the start of a pretty nice Deathwatch army. I have outlined everything below with a little padding and estimated points costs with current rules. 

Chaplain - 90pts

Librarian, bolter - 65pts

Librarian, pistol, Mastry 2 - 90pts

Chapter Master, Power Ax, Combi-plas - 150pts

Sternguard x10, Heavy Bolter x2, Combi-melta, PS/PP - 280pts

Vanguard x5, Lightning Claws x2, Jump Packs - 120pts

Terminators x5 H Flamer, Combi-melta - 190pts

Bikes x3, Power Sword - 78pts

Finished - Tau Tetras

Ugh, I just wrote a huge write up for these minis and I lost it. So frustrated now. 

I went into a lot of detail on how I paint the Tau minis and now I don't feel like rewriting it.

When I lost the document I was writing about hard edge highlighting. So many people, when they try it, just trace the edges in one solid line. (I tried to find some examples but gave up) With hard edge highlighting, less is truly more. You want to put the least amount of paint down needed to achieve the illusion of a three dimensional surface. On my Tau flyer, I used too much in some places, but even then I was still figuring out how to paint such large minis with this technique/pattern.

The mini was $20 each and the paint was pretty good for me *8 of 10) and detailed. I value the paint at $60 because of the detail work on the drivers. Total replacement cost is $100. 

On the table - Tau Tetras

Also in the package from the Chinese recasters was these two Tetras. Forge World pricing and shipping as well as lackluster rules in previous editions made them not worth the expense. Before X-Wing took over my gaming world, I had a game of 40k with Charles and he brought Tetras. 

They dominated the battlefield. The Heavy Markerlights were able to get 4 or more hits each turn. The unit is amazingly maneuverable and able to get into position quickly as compared to the static nature of Pathfinders. Even for AV 10 vehicles, they are tough thanks to their special rules and cover. I fell in love and had to have them. 

As far as painting, I am doing them in my standard "ice blue" Tau colors which is proving difficult to paint at the same time as other projects. I am noticing that red and brown paint is contaminating my rinsing water and sticking to my brushes. When I go to paint the white/blue colors on the Tau, I can tell that my paint is discolored. It is so frustrating that I have starting to keep a third was pot on my painting table: one for colored paint, one for metallic paint and one for light paint. This would be fine except I also have a water cup, a soda and a beer on my desk. Sometimes, I get confused as to which one is which.

Finished - Khorne Cultists 22 of 30

I am a man of my word. I got up early (8 AM is early for a Saturday) and went right to the painting table. It took about 4 hours but all the detail work got done on these 6 Cultists today. 

Yesterday, I had all my base colors down and washed them in Agrax Earthshade before going to be and leaving them to dry overnight. Today, I retouched the areas that were washed too heavily and performed the highlighting. 

Only 8 more left and those are being basecoated now. I should have this massive project done way ahead of time for Greg at Cranky Old Gamer. 

On The Table Now - Korn Cultists 22 of 30

Tomorrow is a painting day. I am going to get up early on my only day off this week and paint like it is my job. I have a lot of projects on the table and it is time to start clearing them. Or at the very least, make some progress on them. 

The plan will be to finish, these 6 Cultists tomorrow and do some work on the previously pictured Lord of Change and the unpictured Tau Tetras. I also have the Jango Firespray, Tau Remora Fighters and Genestealers. Clearly, there are lots of projects out there and we need to finish some before we take on new ones. 

By "we" I mean me and not you, dear reader. You cool. 

On the table now - Greater Daemon of Tzeentch

Greg over at Crank Old Gamer did a rehab on this old metal Lord of Change for me and incorporated some fantasy wings. The transformation was epic. I base coated this mini before the Fallout hiatus and have not touched it in months. 

It started spray painted white and then basecoated it Celestra Grey. I washed it in Guilliman Blue and then drybrushed it again in Celestra Grey and that is where I left it for almost half a year. 

I did not have a good direction for this mini much like my Horrors. I liked the technique that I used on my Tau repaint and wanted to incorporate that into a more organic model. 

My main stumbling block is the cloth. After much thought, I have decided to paint it royal blue to try and tie it into the Horrors and 1k Sons Marines. I really wanted to do blue and green but I have failed to pull off that color scheme in the past. Guess it is good that I don't play Alpha Legion. 

On the table now - Firespray

I traded a buddy of mine for this Firespray from X-Wing miniature game. It was awfully painted. Muddy dark colors. Clearly the person had no idea on how to paint in even the most basic way (I find this common in X-Wing players). I struggled on how to repaint the mini. Most Firespray repaints are of Kath Scarlett and all of them are awful. Red and white are not colors for beginners. 

I dislike this repaint on more than an aesthetic front as it breaks cannon. Jango Fett stole one of the five Firespray prototypes and blew up the remaining four (like you do when you are a BAMF). There are no other Firesprays until the company that originally built them, Kuat Systems Engineering, breathed life into the project again. In the current Star Wars story line that X-wing is set in about 30 years after the Battle of Yaven, there are no other Firesprays other than Slave I. 

I am instilled with the original Holy Trilogy at heart and have been reading the Expanded Universe since I was a teenager. While I can't say that I take this stuff seriously, I do like my fantasy universe cohesive and internally consistent. I like fun but I love history, even my fantasy history, as fact more. Episode VII and X-Wing fluff is trumped by The Expanded Universe for me based not just on precedent but also on the volume of the body of work.