Building a Deathwatch Kill Team

My Dark Angels Command Squad is now almost complete. The Champion is coming along nicely, and I've slowly been working on the banner. I want to continue on with the Dark Angels throughout 2015, there is even the possibility that I'll be heading over to Cardiff in February for another Dark Pact gaming weekend. It would be nice to have a few more painted toys to take the fight to Jim's (as yet) undefeated Tyranids. I have a whole pile of Ravenwing to go, in addition to a Vindicator and what not. But in the meantime, I am feeling the need for something that isn't Dark Angels, which I can work on in bits in the manner of my Ultramarines, which are now going to take a break as I try and sort out a character figure for them. And so I have decided to put together a Deathwatch Kill Team, which will be both playable in the main 40k game, but will be particularly good for Kill Team games.

I have always wanted a Deathwatch Kill Team. The notion of a Inquisitorial militant chamber made up of marines from various chapters has always appealed to me, especially fielded alongside an Inquisitor and his retinue in a small-scale skirmish narrative. With the dearth of cast shoulder pads knocking around my bitz box at the moment, there has never been a better chance for me to make a ten man Kill Team. I already have the conversion set, which includes heads, some special bolters and their cool shoulder pads, here they are with some other bits I'll be using.

Some bionic legs and a Mk. III helmet alongside the other parts I plan to use.

Close up of the heads and bolters.

Close ups of the left shoulder pads.

These are the chapter shoulder pads I am going to combine in the squad:

Running from top left to bottom right: Praetors of Orpheus, Iron Hands, Genesis Chapter, Aurora Chapter, Dark Angels, Ultramarines, Silver Skulls, and Blood Angels.

Sadly there isn't much by way of background information on the Deathwatch, save for an old White Dwarf article and the Fantasy Flight RPG books. The 40k Wiki and Lexicanum seem to sum up most of the additional information from the RPG books, so it saves me having to pay for an RPG book I will never use. From the look of it, the Deathwatch are more extensive that I had imagined, leaving me some room for cool conversions. An Epistolary, Keeper or Apothecary would be nice additions to the squad to make it a little more varied.

I also have several figures which I am going to use as the basis for some of the Kill Team marines. I will use some old metal Blood Angels, Space Wolves and Dark Angels figures, painted in the Deathwatch livery of course, but I hope the little extra details on them will make them a little more individualistic and really highlight their chapter origins. The basic colour scheme is black, with a silver left arm and shoulder pad. The right shoulder pad is the chapter of origin shoulder pad.

Thus far the following chapters will be represented:

• Ultramarines
• Praetors of Orpheus
• Genesis Chapter
• Iron Hands
• Aurora Chapter
• Dark Angels
• Silver Skulls
• Blood Angels
• Space Wolves

There is still one more spot on the team, which could go to a "blackshield" or another chapter affiliated marine, any suggestions would be appreciated.

Finally of course, no Ordo Xenos militant arm would be complete without an Inquisitor to lead them, and Forgeworld's Solomon Lok is the chap for me. He looks like an Ordo Xenos inquisitor, whilst most of the Games Workshop produced Inquisitors are Ordo Malleus types to my eye, except for one who looks like a Witchunter.

I will get started on this and post my progress as it unfolds. As for rules, I reckon Sternguard Veterans from Codex: Space Marines will do the job nicely since they get the fancy bolter ammunition for which the Deathwatch as famous. 

+ The Emperor Protects +