Who watches the Deathwatch?

Warhammer 40,000 – I'm still keeping my head above water, it's crazy every spring I seem to get flooded with a bunch of new commission work, typically it's for a game that just released the previous season or that has recently seen a upsurge in popularity. As of late i've been seeing an awful lot of 40K models come across my table. This seems odd to me as if you believe the interwebs that game might as well be on it's last legs with the amount of "new" games; that play better, are cheaper and generally better designed; that are stepping up to knock the champ off it's proverbial golden throne. 

Locally I think many players feel burned by the "new hotness" and are going back to an old stand-by. I get it I've always loved 40K and never have an issue popping into a store during a game night and finding someone playing it. With other games the scenes fluctuate so frequently a game can die before you finish painting up your models. This is the reason I kept my Space Marine army (and one day plan on finishing the damn thing) no mater what games come and go you can always count on 40K to be there. Sure you might have to mortgage your house to update all your rules, but at least you know how to play it.

Anyway enough rambling, my latest project involves updating a clients Deathwatch Marines to match the jump pack troops I did for him a while back with the Dark Angels commission. He had painted these himself at some point and decided that he didn't like the colors (and repainted them again, maybe a few times). As is often the case he dropped them off with the models I originally painted for him and asked me to make them match. 

Sadly this wasn't going to be an easy job because the models would need to be stripped before I could do anything with them. A quick trip to the Home Depot (actually it wasn't quick because I had to make four stops before I remember Home Depot is the only place I can find Simple Green) and the models found themself in a bath of blue simple green. I let them soak overnight and spent some time scrubbing the models with a toothbrush. After scrubbing them for significantly longer than I remember having to in the past I only got the first layer of paint off them. Back in the blue stuff overnight and repeat two more times. I was eventually able to get them down to the black "primer" stage which is pretty mindblowing. I've never had to scrub and soak for so long so I'm wondering if the formula for Simple Green changed or if my client just did something crazy with his paint.

Once I go them back down to a base layer I reapplied the black and started picking out the details in metallic gunmetal, red and bone. He was pretty open to what chapters were represented on the shoulder pads so I got creative and did some custom chapters to make use of the decal sheets I have on hand. 

These are just about done just a few little details to finish up and I'll be able to send them back to my client who will be happy to have some matching Deathwatch Marines.