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I'm looking to paint the symbol for a veteran squad on the combi-plasma guy's right pauldron... how do you guys do it? Just white on blue, or paint a white square and then detail away the blue?

I've put all the recently painted sternguard in the pic, so that you can judge my competency and skill level when giving advice.

Veteran symbol is the Crux IIRC, so best way to do that would be a white square and then fill in the blue on top of that.

Start with a simple + cross.
Add horizontal and vertical lines to the ends of the cross.
Paint another set of lines, shorter than the first just adjacent to them on the inside edge (so you have 'stepped' end pieces on the cross).

If desired, do a small circle around the centre and dot with your base colour.

Hi !

I personnally paint all my markings 'cause I hate decals, and I play Ultramarines too.
I tried several solutions and now I prefer to paint the symbol itself directly rather than paint a white square or circle and detail away with blue.

I start with astronomican grey from the foundation range, but I think there is a white base now so this may help. I draw reference points that I'll use to place the marking. Then I draw lines to have a general shape. Next, I thicken those lines/fill the shapes.
At this step, I correct with blue the inevitable mistakes that I have made.
And then I repaint the marking with white (this is where the white base could help, to avoid this step).


I like to use different markings, I use the Insignum Astartes artbook as a reference. For a crux terminatus symbol I proceed as follow :
- 4 dots, up, down, left, right
- two thin lines to have a vertical cross
- 4 short segments on the ends of both lines, now the symbol looks like 4 "T"s joined on the center of the shoulder pad by their "bases"
- I join the ends of the segments to the center. Now I have 4 triangles.
- I fill the triangles
- Corrections with blue
- Repaint with white

Bearing in mind, you have more leeway with Veteran insignia than with normal marines, whilst the Crux is the standard, you could do just about anything, it's safe to assume that these guys will have earned their share of awards over the years, so they may have personal heraldry.
Look at Tyrannic War Veterans, they have their own special badge, not a Crux Terminatus.
Since you're deviating a tad from the standard Codex markings though, you can put anything you like in there really.

Looking good

Indeed..they are your Vets, feel free to make your own markings.
and keep up the great work!!

What are your bases going to be?

 FarseerAndyMan wrote:
Indeed..they are your Vets, feel free to make your own markings.
and keep up the great work!!

What are your bases going to be?

I'm a little torn here. I've got quite a few already based on an urban/grey gravel. But I'm thinking of doing either Martian soil (redish) or light earth toned sand. Kinda leaning towards the red rocks. I've got an Honour Guard squad to base too, so i'll probably do the same for them.

Got the Cross done, looks a little Iron Cross, but it'll do