Although the primary theme behind the new army I'm building for next year is "radiation", I couldn't resist adding a Dominatus Kill Team from the new Adeptus Astartes: Deathwatch book, as well as a Corvus Blackstar flyer for them to get around in. The Deathwatch rules themselves are fantastic, centered around small units with lots of firepower and an abundance of re-rolls. The justification for including them in this army comes from the Ordo Xenos Inquisitor with the rad grenades; the Deathwatch marines serve as his bodyguard.
Since the models are from the Kill Team Cassius box, I outfitted the unit with the weapons present in that kill team, which is more or less outfitted for close-in shootouts before a close-combat assault. This works out well for running with the Inquisitor since the rad grenades decrease the toughness of the unit they assault. For the kill team, I included the five models in the Donatus Kill Team, which act as a Veteran Squad, and Edryc Sedorax and Antor Delassio, who act as Vanguard Veterans
In terms of painting, I tried to paint them as close to the schemes from the box as possible, with the exception of the Dark Angel. The Zameon Gydrael model has his most obvious Dark Angel iconography chopped, filed, and smoothed away to make him into a Black Shield. I'm only showing the Veteran Squad for now since that's all I got to. Apologies for the bad quality pictures; making a good light box is on my list of things to do for next month.
Vael Donatus
Rodricus Grytt
Zameon Gydrael model, now the Black Shield Iton Atasas
Ennox Sorrlock
Drenn Redblade
Squad Donatus
I also figured out a way to make the weapons of the Kastelan Battle Robots modular using magnets. I drilled a magnet hole into the upper arms and should piece and super-glued a 1/8" x 1/16" neodymium magnet there. The insides of the phosphor blasters are hollow, and unfortunately don't easily lend to mounting a magnet. Instead, I snipped part of the sprue frame to the right length, super-glued a magnet to it and glued it to the inside of the phosphor blaster. Below is a shot of the mounting before the other half of the weapon was glued on, showing the two magnets connecting.
Kastelan robot phosphor blaster hand with sprue piece and magnet inside.
Kastelan robot phosphor blaster hand and arm held together by magnets.
Thought for the day: Only in death after highlighting does duty painting end.