WIP: Deathwatch Watch Captain w/jump pack - Part 1

For my next Deathwatch character, I chose a captain with jump pack.  This character will use his mobility to back a unit of Vanguard Veterans, or simply to move about the field of battle as necessary to bolster troops, turn back assaults, etc. where needed most. He's armed with a combi-melta and xenophase blade.  I'm not sold on the xeno-tech, but its a solid sculpt and will be a fun painting challenge for me.

I have elected to leave off the jump pack during painting, especially since this is a character and I want to do a good job and not be hampered by trying to get under and around the mounted pack. Visible in the picture below, I used small blobs of blu-tac (or any wall mounting putty) to cover the mounting points on the jump pack and model so that they may be properly glued on with plastic cement once all is done.  I find this to be superior to super gluing painted parts together.  In my experience, the super glue does well enough, but the underlying paint all too easily peels off if dropped or handled roughly allowing the pieces to separate, and sometimes peeling/chipping enough to hurt the paint job to surrounding areas.  As these are meant to be gaming pieces, I expect such rough handling to be inevitable.  It's a small thing, but easy to do before priming and I think it pays off well in the end.  The pack is simply mounted to a piece of wire set in a wine cork for handling while painting.

First up after an airbrush priming with Vallejo primer black...the signature Deathwatch silver arm! Nuln Oil Gloss was applied over Vallejo Steel.  Vallejo old gold was applied followed by a pin wash of GW Agrax Earthshade applied directly to the gold only, allowing some to pool around only the gold details.  The gold doesn't cover the best over the silver and gloss wash in places, so more is added as you'll see below...

With the arm out of the way, it was time to set about the rest of the metal and gold details.  I moved to Vallejo Brass for the gold because of its richer, more yellow hue. Vallejo gun metal was used for the remaining metal parts.  Just visible in the picture below, the putty has been removed to reveal the clean grey plastic underneath.  At this point, there won't be any more rough painting so there is no worry that the bare plastic should get covered over to prevent plastic cement from doing its job later. Also, I hadn't mounted the backpack very well on the wire, and the whole assembly became too fussy.  So I have removed it and will use a latex glove while handling the pack during painting to avoid any natural oils for my fingers spoiling things. 

Then some work on the right shoulder where a Deathwatch space marine is permitted to present the colors of his home chapter, in this case the Blood Angels. No shading has been applied at this point, but the blood drop has some simple highlighting towards orange. I thought it fitting to have my particular force of Deathwatch commanded by the original Angels of Death (Dark Angels and Blood Angels).  No offense to any Blood Angels out there, but the Dark Angels were my first true love among the space marines, so they get seniority in this project. :)

Next up, the cloak and remaining details...then on to the shading and highlighting.  I hope to have this character to done by the end of the week. Some routine family-wide "back-to-school" illness and other business has kept me from making more progress to this point; however, several other Deathwatch characters wait in the wings, their silver arms already painted as I managed a good batch painting session during last Sunday's football (that's american football for those friends across the pond...). 

So there should be a good run of characters making an appearance here if I hold true to the progress thus far achieved.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!