Hello Everyone,
I have been collecting the parts for, and working on, my deathwatch army for going on 7 years now. I have painted nearly every model I have at least 2-3 times as my abilities change or I find that I don't remember how to paint it in that style. In addition with an increase in the variety of bits available has made it so I can make the dream deathwatch army I had always wanted. However the primary factor contributing towards this initiative is that I have very little time to attend tournaments, but have a lot more hobby time(funny how that happens). My plan is to try and do a combat squad a week from start to finish. If I am painting a character than I will do all versions of that character and it will count for the week (Such as a foot version, a bike version, etc)
I have also invested in a lot of new gear for this project for my workstation. I will be sharing which items I purchased as I get them, and will then incorporate my thoughts and reviews as I use them. I have found that the tiniest thing can make a HUGE difference in my willingness to work on hobby materials, so I figured I would share with the hopes of helping other novice hobbyists.
In addition over the course of this project I will be experimenting with a lot of different techniques and tutorials until I find one I am happy with and will be posting my results. I hope that I can provide some insights from the perspective of a decent painter and hobbyist as well as some of the lessons I have learned in my 18 years of playing this game(started at the ripe old age of 10).
So here is a picture of my workstation
It took me awhile to get everything I needed to make it work. There is a lot of little things, but it has a really functional feel to it for me so far.
However the most important aspect is these
Furniture Lifters
As a taller hobbyist I found that my posture was really abysmal, I would crouch over to be low enough to the table, or I would slouch in my chair. This would result in back pain after an hour or so, making it really hard to get started. These make it so the table I got is now at perfect elbow height with my chair. While it is currently still unpleasant that is mainly because I am using back muscles that have atrophied after years of bad posture. Eventually that will go away and it will be much more superior.
Next is a combination of both
Sunlight Bulbs and
Light to increase my ability to actually see the details. The number of times I painted with a bad angle or missed something obvious because the lighting was not good enough. In addition the light is not harsh nor is it unpleasant.
Now, when it comes to get my different chapters I have gone through many third parties, acquired individual pads from different places etc. However what really made it all possible was an artist involved in 3D printing service called
Matt Sweitzer on shapeways.com. He not only had a great selection of chapter pads, but you could ask him to mix and match, which was crucial for my deathwatch theme. In addition he will design any custom pad for free regardless of how many sets you actually plan on buying. I was super ecstatic and have ordered a large number of pads from him. I ordered the regular plastic pad option and they look great. They are a little delicate during shipping but shapeways was great about crediting me so I could order another set without issue. Matt has told me that he will tell them to package them a little better going forward so should not be an issue anymore.
Here are pictures of some of the pads I ordered, as well as the deathwatch pad next to the old metal and plastic pads.
With his help my chapter count is over 70 official Canon Chapters. (can be seen at the
Thousand Chapters Challenge)
So I look forward to working on this, I really appreciate any insights, advice, etc that people might have as I work through this project.
Combat Squad One will consist of:
Ultramarine SGT
Minotaurs Special Weapon trooper
Death Spectors, Exorcists, and Guardians of the Covenant tactial marines
If you are interested in getting some parts to make your own deathwatch, let me know. I will see what I have extras of and we can try to work it out. In addition I will be magnetizing many of my guys so I will have lots of left overs from my old redundancies from combi to heavy and special.