Walking out of History - Deathwatch Ultra Marines

Cassius was probably the first Ultra Marine character I liked.

Way back when I was in late middle school/early high school (I guess you could figure out my age from that?) White Dwarf had some special with a trio of Ultramarines characters you could convert from basic characters and easy bits (back in the day, when they recommended hobby projects, including not a screed of kits you needed), including character versions of a terminator captain, a standard bearer, and a chaplain, and Cassius was the one who stuck.The captain had a cool plasma gun that was later recycled by Dark Angels, and it's still not a good idea to put a power fist on an overpriced support model, though it did kinda' justify the aesthetics.

This is, I think, a way nicer iteration of Cassius than his metal version, and I appreciate that his gear matches the concept scheme of the original Deathwatch Inquisitor model (though, looking at the set, I expect this was coincidence), and it's kinda' fun to see this take rather than the much more obvious remake of the model as an even more xtreme(!) veteran Tyranid Hunter than his regular form.

I was pretty happy with how Cassius came out- I enjoy doing shaved heads, and it was interesting trying to copy the gold style I did for my Space Hulk Blood Angels.

Donatus serves his purpose pretty nicely- I think he represents a pretty classic veteran bolter marine, and I like the aesthetic shift made around 5th-6th edition to veterans getting mini-crests in a lot of iterations, something which I've adopted across the board despite of course not being remotely practical.

My whole unit will be seeing the red 3rd company stripe and bolters, mostly because I think that pure black heraldry other than that silver shoulder (esp. when the shoulder is in NMM) is pretty boringly homogenous.