Deathwing Assault

Why Deathwing?

If you were to take the time to scroll back through this hobby blog, you will notice that asides from Blood Bowl, my first step into Games Workshop was largely down to the Dark Angels capturing my imagination. When I was a teenager I read a collection of short stories which included Deathwing by Bryan Ansell and William King. 

Later, I got the original Space Hulk game quickly followed by the Deathwing expansion box, and the box art grabbed me. 

Space Hulk - Deathwing

Inspired by this, I started collecting a Dark Angel army (which I've covered very early on in this blog). 

Deathwing - From bone-white to Old School white

Over time, Games Workshop moved away from the 'white' that was shown on the Deathwing Space Hulk box art, and moved into more of a bone white vibe. They also largely dropped the 'native American' culture influence, and assumed a more monastical influence. They even brought back Lion El'Johnson, the Dark Angels Primarch, which I painted in a bone-white Deathwing theme... 

Lion El'Johnson - Dark Angel Primarch

But when it came to painting the contents of the Deathwing Assault box, I had a change of heart. I decided to honour the old miniatures of my childhood Deathwing. (some would call this "Old School). This has been done and documented by lots of other Dark Angel enthusiasts, but I thought I would give my take.

Bases

As a bit of a change, and because I was starting to run our of ideas for bases having tried to choose bases that help the miniatures stand out for a Grey Knight, Sisters of Battle and (most recently) a Custodes army, I decided to go with a Space Hulk themed base for the Deathwing, using the Sector Mechanicus bases. I left them on spru, but primed them in Chaos Black and gave a light spray of Leadbelcher...

Priming Sector Mechanicus bases

...and then set about painting them:

Sector Mechanicus bases

It doesn't come across too well on the bright photos above, but I applied some rust weathering and darkened down the metals to resemble the internals of an ancient space hulk cast adrift in the warp.

Priming

The next thing to do was to build and prime the contents of the Deathwing Assault box, along with a Ballistus Dreadnought I picked up. I haven't covered/built Belial as yet. I will be doing him separately along with a Dreadnought Captain, Librarian and Chaplain (watch for a future blog post).

Colour Forge - Ghoul Grey

I primed the miniatures in Colour Forge's Ghoul Grey, and then got my airbrush out... You will notice I attached the miniatures to their basic bases with a tiny dot of superglue. Later, I snapped these off and attached them to the Sector Mechanicus bases.

Airbrush white

...and applied some white scar first, and then later the Liquitex Titanium White. I was disappointed with the Air White Scar coverage, but the Titanium White was super-smooth and really good.

White highlight layers

As you can see, I sprayed the Titanium White from above, leaving the Ghoul Grey for the recesses... giving that 'lit-from-above-in-a-dark-space-hulk-corridor' vibe .

I then had to set about painting all the details.

Storm Bolters - I don't like the red casing that GW have for Dark Angel bolters... so I decided to stick with black. Achieved mostly with Contrast Black Templer.

Chest Eagle - Runelord Brass with Retributor and silver highlights.

Eye Lenses - Red using blended orange and yellow with white dots for lens shine.

Deathwing Red Eye Lenses

Purity Seals - The usual parchment colour but with a Magus Purple seal.

Crux Terminatus - Tried to make these largely grey stone with the bones only having a bone effect. just for the colour contrast.

Power Weapons - When for the classic blue, blending as much as possible. Also noted, my first plasma weapon!!

Power Fists - Tried to give each Terminator some individuality, with their own heraldry

Deathwing Knights Shields - Actually, I thought the bone white and red / green would help the shields stand out a bit and demonstrate the white of the armour. To avoid too much "bone" colour, I opted for stone-effect scrolls. Wording to be added later when I'm feeling confident enough for some free-hand and inspired names...

Deathwing heraldry - Inspired by the Deathwing short story and the fluff that GW produced at the time, I tried some free-hand symbols on the shoulder shields (I think the proper name is "ecranche"). Forgive the photos... they look pretty appalling close up... but look good to the naked eye on the table-top.

The squads

Terminator Squad A

Terminator Squad B

Deathwing Knights

Deathwing Assault Squads - Group shot

I hope you enjoyed this blog post - It really is just for my hobby diary, but feel free to share any thoughts or questions you may have. If this helps or inspires anyone, then even better!