Death Watch project - help me out!

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**PhillyT**

Hey everyone,

I Need a little help. I am thinking of starting a Deathwatch project and wonder what the best way to go about it would be. Recalling the old rules, Deathwatch used special bolts similar to the Sternguard, so unless they have put pout something new, I figure I'll use the current stern guard rules.

Are there new Deathwatch rules out there?

But what might be the best models to use? I am almost thinking that just grabbing the current stern guard kits, mixed with a unit of regular tacticals, for a set of 20 Deathwatch troops. As an alternative, I would love to pick up some MK4 Forge World kits to blend in. I adore that class, so it would be neat.

Anyone have a good way to go about this? I recall that the deathwatch have one shoulder with the deathwatch symbol but the other has the chapter markings of those sent. Seems like a fun way to add a little interest to my various imperial armies.

**Hanskrampf**

No rules. Use the Sternguard rules.
Try and get shoulder pads from Ebay or buy the Deathwatch Kit from GW. Mix and add flavour from different kits to your taste, e.g. Blood Angels legs for a Marine from the Blood Angels.

**jonolikespie**

I love the idea of a Deathwatch army but dislike the 7th ed rules so wont make it.

If I did thought it could go like this:
Sternguard rules for all basic marines, but keep in mind you can have dreads, scouts, termies, ect as well.

Use Sternguard kits certainly, but it's a set of 5 static legs so I'd never use more than 50% of those legs for it. Ideally if you like mk4 armour I'd suggest mixing in 60% sternguard, 20% tac squads, 20% heresy armour but only have sternguard legs at about 25%.
You want the torsos, shoulders, heads and weapons from the sternguard basically, then mix and match the rest.

As for painting the all black, one silver shoulder and arm and one shoulder in the chapter colours bores me immensely, as an army it might be a lot more practical than my idea but for a painting project I'd go back to the old school scheme which was just the chapter colours with the silver shoulderpad and arm.

As well pick up a few bits from ebay so that if you have a space wolf or blood angel in your army they still have a few runes/trinkets/icons ect from their home chapter sculpted on.

The Fantasy Flight Games Deathwatch RPG book is a pretty good source of inspiration for this, if you don't have the books you can find a lot of the artwork from it just by google image searching it too.

**PhillyT**

Awesome. Thanks for the input!

I have around 130 painted marines and 6500 points worth of my home chapter. This is just additional fluffiness to go with my Inquisitor and his forces. I am thinking maybe a dreadnaught, a librarian, and then the one or two tactical squads.

I like the mix and match idea. Under the old rules, did the deathwatch heavy blotters also get access to the special rounds?

**jonolikespie**

I believe they did, and still do in the RPG. As well I believe at least in the fluff at one point that had a lot of other cool toys like grave tech in their heavy bolters so they can fire them on the run.

**pelicaniforce**

The old deathwatch rules were roughly these:

Deathwatch squads came as an HQ option for imperial armies.

The squads were always lead by a captain. Back then, captains had the profile of a wolf guard battle leader, I.e two wounds and ws5 but otherwise same as a current captain. Actually no, they were also ld9.

The captain could be made a librarian.

Two marines could get m40 targeters. Those were bolter scopes that made bolters heavy1 pinning. Rules were usually weaker at the time.

Heavy bolters had suspensors, which allowed them to fire as assault3 18".

They had ccw and could use their bolters as ccw. One or two marines could by special ccw.

They had special issue ammunition that wasn't as good as the stern guard version and they could only use one type for the whole battle.

The point of them being HQ is that they don't have armies and the most you would usually see at one time is a single kill team of fifteen.

There is currently a deathwatch formation somewhere that you could look at if you want to do an entire army of them.

**kronk**

Take a look at Grey Knight PA and Terminator Kits. They have excellent Inquisition shoulder pads, legs, and other bling for your Death Watch guys.

Like these two guys.

**Insane Smile**

You might like this. It's a link to a DeathWatch blog I had my eye on. Good stuff but although he's currently on hiatus I think.

**Lynata**

jonolikespie wrote:The Fantasy Flight Games Deathwatch RPG book is a pretty good source of inspiration for this

It's worth to keep in mind that FFG's idea of the Deathwatch is very different to GW's, though.
This doesn't have to mean anything - it all depends on which sources you want to stick to, and/or which version of the Deathwatch you prefer.

pelicaniforce wrote:There is currently a deathwatch formation somewhere that you could look at if you want to do an entire army of them.

Well, it's not an "army" .. at least if you're referring to the "Deathwatch Strike Team" that was in the Warzone Damnos book.

On a sidenote, there may or may not be a link to the original DW Kill-team rules in my old Deathwatch group's wiki.

**CaptainRavenclaw**

I have some of the old metal deathwatch shoulderpads and bolters...but I'm in the UK so it wouldn't be worth the postage...but you could always try to find them on ebay.com

**PhillyT**

So deathwatch conversion kit is $25. That, plus one regular tactical box, will get me ten guys. I will give one a plasma gun and another a heavy bolter, then use specialist heads to complete the set so I don't need to use the helmet less models.

I have a captain, rhino and dread I will paint deathwatch as well. Seems like a good start to me. Do deathwatch use chaplains with any regularity? I assume not since they are very chapter specific.

Are red guns and silver left shoulders and arms the norm?

**jonolikespie**

Chaplains do exist within it and gun colours can vary. I think red is old school but these days FFG are mostly going the silver route.