When I was just getting into Warhammer 40K sometime in the late 90s, I combed their website to decide which army was for me. Back in those days the Ultramarines weren't as heavily pimped as they would become, and Games Workshop wasn't yet a publicly traded company full of marketing malarkey, so I feel the landscape of selection was a lot less biased.

I definitely wanted to do some kind of space marine army, and ultimately settled on the Dark Angels due to the fact they were green. After attaining their army book and reading through it, I favored a sub-faction of sorts called the Deathwing, who were all decked out in the prestigious ultra-heavy terminator armor painted in an off-white. One of the upsides to this is how they were much higher in points cost than regular soldiers so I would have to buy fewer of them in order to have a full army.

Despite this easing my financial burden, it was still always a big hassle to find any cash as a kid, and as I developed other interests in high school the Deathwing army languished as little more than a dream.

So a few months ago I found myself with a pile of Deathwing miniatures I had accumulated from bargain used mini bins at various points in my adult life that had become old unfinished projects and ideas that I never followed through on. I also found myself in need of some good ol' fashioned work with my hands and so set myself to laboring on finishing the army that I wanted so badly when I was a kid.

Cob's Deathwing

Using the 3rd Edition rules (with the 2004 errata) I put together 1500 points of these bad boys, deciding to go all out with custom bases off Etsy. I almost exclusively use Army Painter paints these days ever since GW changed the name of most of their colors and increased their prices to unreasonable heights (again).

It's a fairly standard configuration for the army, nothing really wild or unique about it, especially since they are mostly from the era before GW started offering so much variety in their individual armies.

Most of it consisted of the old metal figures from the 90s, with the occasional newer component here and there that I thought would still fit the old aesthetic. As you can see they're not exactly Golden Daemon winners, I am happily satisfied with a basecoat and a quickshade on most figs, with usually a little more time spent on commanders.

The core soldiers consist of three squads of Terminator marines. Painting is difficult for me to maintain concentration on for the long periods of time it requires, especially when painting the same guys over and over again. So this was the first time I ever used a spray to put down the main color for the army and then just brushed on the details with other colors, correcting as needed. It didn't just save me a tremendous amount of time, it saved me an astronomical amount of patience and energy and made getting through the whole army a breeze compared to past painting projects.

The banner is a 90s design but is a newer plastic part. I was amazed at how easy it was to paint. I always wanted a space marine army with a fully painted banner, but I never liked the look of flat free-hand that I could do. I know practice makes perfect, but I just liked the standard banner designs that GW made for these guys and wish they made more banners with the design cast into them.

The sergeant of the command squad is the only one here that I significantly modified. Higher ranking Deathwing guys tend to wear robes with their armor and I wanted to set him apart a little bit from the regular rank and file. What I did was take the loin-tabard from a plastic space marine veteran from 4th or 5th edition and cut it off and put it between his legs. I took a plastic robed dark angel chest piece and using my dremel carefully cut and shaved away the excess plastic until I could pop them on, also shaving away some metal off his chest to make the fit a bit better, then used some putty to fill in any gaps. I thrashed a different Deathwing terminator in order to acquire the ceremonial knife they wear and put it on this one.

The land raider and the dreadnought make up the heavy support wing of the army. These were decidedly less simple to paint and taxed my patience deeply, which was not helped by it being he height of summer and my hesitation to turn on the AC in my workshop (the circuit it's on often becomes overloaded even after doing some electrical management in the room).

This was the first tank I ever painted in spite of being in the hobby for a very long time. It was a slog. One of my closest friends described it as having a lot of greeble. The word has since found its way into my personal vernacular for accurately describing some of the most agonizingly boring painting I have ever had to do for so much time. I was able to paint an individual terminator in about 20 minutes, whereas this took several days of effort. It was during this that I recalled seeing so many half-painted Land Raiders in used miniature piles gathering dust in shops (including this very model) and understood that it had humbled many a nerd. I must say I'm a bit less satisfied with it than most of the others, but not enough to attempt to redo it.

The dreadnought was a walk in the park comparatively, even in spite of its own greeble. I ended up using a metal venerable dreadnought that was released sometime in 4th or 5th edition in the mid-oughts because I felt its aesthetic would mesh well with the army. I replaced the dreadnought fist with a different one from a later model as I used the original for a different conversion I may post someday. It unexpectedly was a lot of fun to paint.

The commanders are a Deathwing Company Master and a Librarian (psychic wizard). These guys were modded out by me a few times over the years in my occasional attempt to finish this army, and were some of my first customization projects.

The Librarian is from 4th or 5th edition in the mid 2000s. The terminator librarian that was available back in the older editions was too clunky and static for me, though I hope to find a use for it someday. Maybe for the old school Space Hulk. I think the right arm and the shoulderpad are from the last decade or so. I really enjoyed the idea of him having one arm for casting spells (or psychic powers or whatever). The axe is from the old terminator librarian as I felt the staff the original figure came with was too decorative for the classic aesthetic I was going for. I was only able to put a helmet in because I own a dremel and was able to drill out the old head without much trouble.

The Company Master was the very first custom job I ever attempted. I cut out the old head and did some damage to the seals at the corners of his robe, as well as scraping the camera at the left corner of his shoulder. It discouraged me a lot at the time, and it wouldn't be for a few years that I would attempt working on it again, which is when I gave him a pair of lightning claws in lieu of a sword and gun. They were a mismatched plastic pair I was able to find in the late 2000s, and was not satisfied with the final result. When I went to work on it again recently, I could not find them which was ultimately for the best as I found a pair of metal ones that do match and I think look much better. I took off the right leg and added one with specific Deathwubg iconography since the original was a generic space marine commander. I was able to replace the seals and the camera with bits from my various bins, and even added a shoulder emblem from a newer shoulder pad that I thought added some gravitas.

You may be able to gather that I am a stickler for helmets in my armies. I just think that soldiers should wear their defensive gear in battle, faith in the Emperor notwithstanding. I will fight people on this.

After this army was completed, I put it away for the day they would be called to battle (perhaps when I find someone else as unimpressed with the modern rules as I am, or at least someone as blinded by nostalgia). I was able to find a very cheap and effective storage box from Jucoci made of cardboard and would recommend it for people who aren't going to be taking them out too often. It's not what I'd call fragile but open it carefully so you won't tear it.

There are still a few things I want to expand on. I wanted to give everyone a shoulder badge with the Deathwing symbol. I don't really like transfers and the stencils were not cooperating with me when they got that small. I'll need to make molds and castings with putty, and I have everything I need for it, but it will take a long time and thus require a commitment I am not sure I want to put forth right now.

I also want to add one more guy to the command squad, as I assembled the army from what I had in my random parts bins and so came up a tiny bit short. It is technically legal by 3rd ed rules as is, but I would like it to be a nice matching five man squad, and it would bring it much closer to the points limit. I have the figure, but am working on other projects at the moment and will have to finagle it into the schedule.

Next up are my Plague Marines, who would decidedly prove to be more of a challenge.