It looks like I'll be venturing into running Deathwatch again, with a female player showing interest in playing a tanking human character (inquisitor and battle sister have cropped up as ideas). I did let a different player run a battle sister in a campaign years ago, using the inquisitor's handbook progression leading into palantine, which gave her a lot of skills but understandably less soak. Blood of Martyrs seems to have a better write-up for the battle sisters, but I've never seen it in play.
I plan to start the campaign with Rank 1 Deathwatch marines, with an additional 1000xp to flesh them out a bit more. So 14,000xp in Dark Heresy 1st edition terms.
More mechanical options have cropped up since I ran that campaign and I'd appreciate any suggestions on their viability. I'm inclined to add a bunch of high quality gear to every option bar the Deathwatch-equivalent, since that option already gives astartes-grade gear.
My current list:
1. A Dark Heresy 1st edition character, moved into ascension level.
2. A Rogue Trader character.
3. A Rogue Trader character for a few ranks, then moved into ascension rules for odd combinations.
4. An inquisition servant, massively gene-enhanced and armoured - mechanically identical to a Deathwatch space marine.
5. A variant of Black Crusade character creation.
6. An Only War character.
7. A Dark Heresy 2nd edition character (no guidelines for conversion, even the questionable ones from prior editions, and with a lot of new combat-changing talents).