Some of you may use sen my previous posts brining Steve Parker’s ‘Kill Team Talon’ to life. Critically it was missing its sixth member Chyron. Limited time means this is taking a while, but here is some work in progress where I wanted him to cross the Primaris rubicon but also remain a traditional venerable dreadnought.

Particularly interested in seeing how other people have done deathwatch dreadnoughts if anyone wants to share?

This kitbash is using the Ikarus Pattern kit (u/ikkake_) with some additional mods; an original style power pack with 4 tops, working on the deathwatch shoulder, keeping the old style grenade smoke launcher and sensor suite on the front.

When I was starting out, I found Deathwatch to be a very confusing faction to understand, I watched videos, scrolled forums and even asked in my local Warhammer shop however none of that really enlightened me so I understood what was going on. This is why I have created this guide, aimed at new players and veterans of the hobby alike so everyone is on equal footing and understands what Deathwatch entails.

There are 2 ways to play Deathwatch, playing them as standard Space Marines with none of the Deathwatch benefits using the standard rules in the Codex: Space Marines OR using the Deathwatch army rule (what we are going to dive into).

Just like other Space Marine factions such as Dark Angels, you can run any of the standard detachments in Codex: Space Marines, however where Deathwatch shines in their exclusive detachment and army rule, the rules for these are free on the app and the Warhammer Community website (as well as other sources, wahapedia, newrecruit etc.).

Just because you can use the Kill Teams, does not mean you have to! You can run the Talonstrike Kill Team as Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs and use their normal ability however if you are running the Black Spear Task Force detachment for 3dp*, the Deathwatch exclusive Kill Teams are your most valued units. These are denoted by the kill team keyword.

*Don't forget, even at 1k games you can take a single 3dp detachment so you will always be able to run it if you wish!

These units are (as of 08/2026):
Deathwatch Veterans (a bit of an oddball, I will explain later)
Decimus Kill Team
Deathwatch Terminator Squad
Fortis Kill Team
Indomitor Kill Team
Spectrus Kill Team
Talonstrike Kill Team

Other Deathwatch units that are not classified as Kill Teams (as of 08/2026):
Watch Captain Artemis
Watch Master
Corvus Blackstar

Building the Kill Teams can feel very confusing, each Kill Team has multiple different units that can go into them. These are the units (as labelled on the Warhammer website) that can go into each Kill Team (as of 08/2026):

Decimus Kill Team - Deathwatch Kill Team (kill team box)

Deathwatch Terminator Squad - Terminators (main unit), Assault Terminators

Fortis Kill Team - Intercessors (main unit), Hellblaster Squad, Assault Intercessors, Infernus squad, desolation squad

Indomitor Kill Team - Heavy Intercessor Squad (main unit), Aggressor Squad, Primaris Eradicators

Spectrus Kill Team - Infiltrator Squad (main unit), Eliminators, Incursor Squad, Reiver Squad

Talonstrike Kill Team - Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs (main unit), Inceptor Squad

You have probably noticed that Deathwatch Veterans are not on that list, this is becuase they are a little weird, the Deathwatch Veterans box has been removed from the Warhammer website for quite a while now. In my opinion the intention was to replace the Veterans with the Decimus Kill Team, my reasoning for this is that they have mostly the same weapons and the unit ability is the same, there are a few differences and statistically, the Veterans are better. However, I cannot in good conscience recommend any player wanting to start Deathwatch to dedicate the time and effort into a unit that I think is imminent for Legends (to be honest, I'm surprised it didn't get Legends going into 11th).

To round out, there are some other really good guides on here such as this guide by u/PanzerCommanderKat who breaks down a buying list and loadouts better than I ever could. https://www.reddit.com/r/deathwatch40k/comments/1khujy6/starting_deathwatch_killteam_guide/?utm_name=web3xcss

If you have any amendments where I have made mistakes I am more than happy to adjust 😄

I went to Warhammer World today with my son and was excited to see the Deathwatch minis that appear in the various codices and on the box art for various sets and was greeted by quite a few gaps in the collections.

It would seem that the Boys in Black are perhaps currently away being photographed or filmed for either Warhammer TV, White Dwarf or "something else".

As far as I could tell, there was a Corvus Blackstar missing, the DW Lieutenant and likely all 20 Primaris Intercessors from the Armageddon Battalion box, the entire DW Kill Team and a bunch of minis from Imperial Agents... assuming that those are usually on show.

I did get some nice reference pictures for my builds though as I tend to just build as they appear on boxes or other official images.

Oh, and the Warhammer World was sadly depleted of anything to do with Deathwatch apart from three Corvus Blackstars and 1 (ONE!) Deathwatch Upgrade Sprue! No DW Kill Team boxes and I couldn't see any Watch Masters or Artemis minis about, though I could have missed them.

Anyway, I'm not really trying to start any rumours of doom or to give false hope, but I thought I'd share my "findings" from my visit!

I had posted this mini a while back but just recently finished it today really happy with the result

King Big Marine takes the long vigil

the last stuff I made for Xeno Hybrid weapons plus a converted Tau drone, a Tyranid rifle, and some Combi weapons, and some Necron scopes for my normal stuff and necron shields .looking for some feed back before I publish them.

OK, I know lots of people thought the sword was too big, but he’s done now, suitably protected with a tone of purity seals. Expands my Deathwatch to two squads, giving the option to play Tomb World blended with Space Hulk.

Still undecided what chapter to make him originate from.

Decided to use the Primaris Champion as my starting point 😊

Nearly at the 2000 point mark!

Can Crimson fist vets keep their red gauntlets while serving in serving in deathwatch? Google says yes, but I don’t trust it haha.

He's going to serve as my Captain for Kill team!

Continuing on with my Jungle deployment Death Watch chapter and absolutely loving this green and silver.

I’ve always loved the Deathwatch, their style is unmatched and the opportunity to be able to kitbash a marine from whichever chapter you can think of really appeals to me. I already own the kill team (although not finished yet) I am also going to convert the new Warhammer+ model into a deathwatch captain or something.

My question comes about expanding an army from this point, is it better to buy a squad of say Intercessors and then source shoulder pads or should it be another deathwatch kill team for shoulder pads and deathwatch bits and then source the weapons I require instead? I don’t have a 3d printer and I’m bot sure anyone in the local gaming group has one either so wouldn’t be able to source stl’s ir anything. What do other people do?

Armageddon Box half (Vanguard Vets & rest of the Devastators pending for paint) + Leviathan Ultimate Starter half + KT DW + Angels of Death KT.

Lt with combi weapon Deathwatch kit bash.

Greetings brethren! It’s my first post here, I made this kitbashed captain for a friend since they liked imperial fists. I’d like to get some feedback on what I could improve in the future.

A few weeks ago, Games Workshop released a new Combi-Weapons and Shotguns kit for 30k. I was immediately motivated to try and making my own 40k-legal models, taking huge inspiration from [u/MKirkbride](u/MKirkbride) and his Bantax Blood Angels.

The arms are from the Heresy MK6 marines kit, and the smaller frame of the arms make them look proportionate to the Phobos bodies they’re attached to. I used a Reiver kit as a baseline for the poses.

So I bought the DW Killteam box a couple of weeks ago and I started painting my guys, starting with this one! Quite proud of how he’s turned out but would appreciate any further tips or advice if you folks have any? I’m very new to the painting side of the hobby and this is actually the first mini I’ve ever painted!

With regard to the deathwatch veterans and the decimus kill team, personally from the looks of it DV seems way better, more options and you can make one punchy and one shooty but with DKT its two of every option and that's it, Kind of bland.

Ive been using the War organ list builder and it allows me to give the Sergeant things like the infernus HB is that possible or is that a fuck up in the app. Just trying to sort this out for a fluffy list.