Deathwatch Raptor Battle Brother

The Raptors is one of my favourite chapters. Their tendency to prefer tactical soundness over bravado is unusual in 40k universe, and particularly among the Astartes. I wanted at least one of my Deathwatch Kill Team members to be a Raptor.

 The kneeling legs felt like a natural choice for a Raptor, having him utilize cover rather than standing up, trying to stop enemy projectiles with his face. The fact that the kneeling set of legs was Mk.VI was just icing on the cake, suiting the Raven Guard successor well. I went with that idea, choosing a helmet and torso of the same mark.

 Unfortunately, since he's kneeling with his left knee down instead of the right one, I found it very difficult to pose him like he's aiming or shooting his weapon. Having the right knee up would have required an awkardly extreme twist at the waist for him to aim his bolter forward. So I decided to have him do something else instead, and using an auspex fit the bill. At first, I had him look rigt at the auspex, but it made him look nearsighted, with the long, conical helmet's beak nearly touching the auspex. I decided to have him look around him instead, as if to confirm the readings on the auspex for himself.

I wanted his armour to be relatively undecorated, and intend to paint all the decorations there are on his armour in rather muted colours. To this end, I chose not to use any of the shoulder pads in the Sternguard kit and just sculpted the Raptors Chapter Badge on a standard one. Luckily, the Raptors have a lot simpler chapter badge than their Primogenitor chapter.