Deathwatch: Overkill Part I: Deathwatch!

At long last, the entirely of my Deathwatch set has been completed, and by "at long last", I mean I've had them done for about a month now, and just not bothered to photograph anything. Life gets in the way. You understand. 

As with the offerings from their last board game, the Deathwatch sprues don't disappoint, nor are they entirely without questionable decisions on GW's part. Not on these three, however. These fellows are great. It's nice to see Ortan Cassius with a face on, and now I can field him without having to go looking for that other model. 

They made sure to put in a lot of extra detail like the backpack shrines, reliquaries, and whatnot that add character to each individual model, which I'm in favor of. Adding personality to Marines is a good thing, and these could very well have been nice metal special character models 20 years ago. Anyone remember when they put out a zillion different officers and librarians? Ah the good old days. 

While I applaud adding variety and neat details, I didn't at all approve of a little psyber-birdie that hung precariously atop the already breakable antenna on the White Scar's bike. What dumbass thought that was a good idea? It'd never survive a year of use intact. 

And for the (rather phoned in) 40k rules, where's our Storm Shield for the biker? Ah well, I suppose that's just nitpicking. 

A Terminator with a heavy flamer AND a built-in meltagun? Now you're talking! Why don't they get these as an option in addition to the usual? Too useful? That shot cannon is a sexy bit of kit too. Does this mean we're getting a new Imperial Fists codex where they carry these instead of those wimpy heavy bolters?

Yes, I painted the servo skull. Yes, the psyber eagle is STILL sitting on my painting desk with a base coloring of reddish brown feathers, just waiting for detailing. He's not separate in-game, though, so he may continue waiting. 

You can tell these were the last of the bunch to be designed, and that they pretty much ran out of steam when they got to the Iron Hand, who is rather boringly reloading his gun. Why didn't they at least make a him a Techmarine with a servo arm, or better yet, a servo harness? And that Ultramarine is what, just a regular Sternguard? Jeez, guys, is it that hard to come up with something swanky for him too? Maybe he's a sniper or something? Ah well, at least that Space Wolf is interesting. 

Yes, I'm aware the line is based on books. No, I haven't read them yet. Maybe I'll get to them.... eventually.