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I do love a good salvage project Will look forward to the refurb. Is it too early to ask where you're headed with paint, theme, etc?

- Salvage

 Boss Salvage wrote:
I do love a good salvage project Will look forward to the refurb. Is it too early to ask where you're headed with paint, theme, etc?

- Salvage

It took me a while to get the joke I'm excited about it. Instead of working overtime, and just buying models, I spent a full weekend stripping, disassembling, scraping off glue, regluing, and patching with green stuff. It's kind of cool to see a pile of nearly trashed models clean up to something presentable.

As paint, I'm thinking about doing the most basic thing possible: 2nd company ultramarines! I took advantage of Miniature Market's sale to grab the Army Painter Ultramarine spray and touch up paint, so my plan is to hit the models with white primer, then the blue spray. Depending on how dark it is, I'll either highlight up with Reaper's Ultramarine Triad, wash with Army Painter blue wash, wash with Paynes Grey, or some combination of the three. For army and squad markings, I'll probably use decals, which means I'll need to find some, which shouldn't be hard, and probably invest in micro-sol and set.

The real question is, given the third edition vintage of these models, do I paint them in modern gold trim and black bolters, or do I go gloriously old school with red bolter cases and yellow trim?

I got two rhinos more or less fully prepped:

Old school Red Bolters FTW


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Old school Red Bolters FTW

 Albanyadriel wrote:
Old school Red Bolters FTW

Lol, maybe I'll paint one of each and see how they grab me.

This lot included some MKI style rhinos, and also a MKI Vindicator, which I decided didn't fit in with the more modern marines, but would look great as second line units for my Emperor's Children. I gave the Vindie a nice bath, and it came out not too badly:



The astute among you will notice how awkwardly the side panels are sitting, They quickly fell off, revealing wads of glue that had to be chipped out with a dremel! However, I was able to reassemble the tank, and add some brass etch:





I'll be painting this bad boy up in a nice purple and gold to match my EC.

Ooh. Quite a load of work you've got there. I just about can't get myself to strip and clean old models anymore, so I respect your determination.

 GrimDork wrote:
Ooh. Quite a load of work you've got there. I just about can't get myself to strip and clean old models anymore, so I respect your determination.

Lol, yeah, about halfway through a weekend spent scrubbing, rinsing, drying, disassembling, filing, and reassembling 15 year old models I realized that I was spending more time on these figures than they were probably worth, especially given my ability to work for straight time overtime. Still, I was finally watching seasons seven and eight of the Office on Netflix and enjoying myself a lot more than if I worked and bought the models at retail. It's definitely not something I'd be wild about doing a lot though!

Out of the piles of stuff, I was able to just about squeeze a demi-company, with enough bodies to build about 20 more marines. I'm going to be on the lookout for more heavy weapons and sergeant bitz, but for now, I have something at least playable.

Stripped and rebuilt models, squad by squad:

Tactical Squad. The lascannon was from my bitz box, and wasn't stripped.


Tactical Squad. A tac sarge with powerfist, because 3rd edition was the best!


Tactical Squad. I think a multi-melta is really amore appropriate here, but I worked with what I have


Devestator Squad. Speaking of working with what I had, check out that sexy monopose 2nd edition missile Launcher!


Assault Squad. More than any other, these models required rebuilding. Many of them had been glued to the base by the heel of the plant foot, not the toe, given them an "Emperor's Limbo" vibe. For some reason, these models also had the most "creative" conversions. About 14 assault marines boiled down to the 10 you see here, and it would have been fewer if I hadn't gone with flamers.


Captain. hey, remember this model? It was the coolest thing back in the day, even if the most natural approach for assembly was essentially identical to the metal models of the time, it was a cool multipart hero that lead to... nothing, actually. I guess the Chaos terminator hero kit, but the plastic Warboss never arrived, and most other characters can now be built out of regular plastics. Still, cool model.

Very nice progress . I don't envy you painting all those marines though, can't get myself to paint them anymore. Looks like a nice start to a force though!

 GrimDork wrote:
Very nice progress . I don't envy you painting all those marines though, can't get myself to paint them anymore. Looks like a nice start to a force though!

I don't have high hopes for how nicely painted the army will be. I want it to look good on the tabletop, but it's going to be a speed paint.

My secret weapon:



I figure a nice coat of that over a white primer will give me a fantastic base. Pick out the shoulder pad rims and chest eagles in yellow, bolter cases in red, and barrel/clip in gunmetal. I'm not sure if I'll do a full wash, or target specific areas (armor with AP blue quickshade, metal with black, skin with sepia). Paint the areas between armor plates black, and they'll look sharp. I'll worry about decals/squad markings late...

I was able to give the army a nice white base coat:

That sounds like a plan! They came out quite nice from the primer.

Do you need blue primer over white? I have a can of the same stuff for my son's training Marines, and it seemed to give good coverage and take paint pretty well without a separate undercoat.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
Do you need blue primer over white? I have a can of the same stuff for my son's training Marines, and it seemed to give good coverage and take paint pretty well without a separate undercoat.

I didn't want to risk it for two reasons. First, a good number of the models have pewter components, and I wasn't sure how well the blue would adhere. Second, with varying layers of paint, I figured white primer would give me a blank slate.

I just don't trust them as primer, but I might try it for later models if it worked for you.

That's fair. I pretty much never use sprays, so I don't know if there is any difference in adherence between plastic and metal.

Looking forward to more WIP shots!

Wow what a project. They've turned out quite nice so far, looking forward to seeing them with with some blue.

EDC

Yep, just seeing them get to this stage is pretty cool.

This is glorious. I love seeing a good strip and re-painting.

When you said the mk1's didn't fit it I was going to ask if you where going to get rid of them....then I saw you had EC's so...I can't wait to see them painted up

 evildrcheese wrote:
Wow what a project. They've turned out quite nice so far, looking forward to seeing them with with some blue.

EDC

The first squad all blue:




I found it hard to get a really good coat. I'm glad I primed the models, so I can hit the crevices with paint.

I have trouble getting a comprehensive coat with rattle can primer too. Looking more and more like ultras.

Thank goodness for 100% match, amiright?

Very efficient blue-ing.

If only there was a quick way to do all the details...

EDC

I was reasonably productive over the weekend, and after some trial and error, I think I might have a color scheme!

First, I filled in the armor joins with charcoal, including between the backpack and the vents:



I then touched up the blue with the 100% match paint, and threw a dark brown layer on the base:



I then based the weapons with RMS Gory Red, and hit the metal components with old reliable VGC Gunmetal:



My first dead end was basing the yellow trim with RMS Marigold Yellow, which I thought would be warm and orange enough.



I added some RMS Fair Shadow (another dead end) and a wash of Army Painter blue Quickshade (ditto)



With the base painted brown and the yellow highlighted with RMS Sun Yellow, here's the first run:



The blue is too bright, and the yellow is way too yellow.

To fix the blue, I washed the whole model with a Paynes Grey wash: a healthy dollop of Payne's Grey ink, some water, and some flow release: Payne's grey is a very dark blue, and while it can bring out nearly any color, it makes the blue pop.



To fix the yellow, I recoat the trim with RMS Orange.



I highlight the yellow with Golden Acrylic Diarylide Yellow (a semi transparent bright yellow), and the bolters with RMS Fresh Blood. Overall, I'm really happy with the look:

Moving onto squad two, I am taking advantage of my simplified approach to make some pretty decent progress.

Blued and blacked:



Base coated:



Post Payne's Grey wash:



I also have two rhinos nicely blued up, with black on the tracks and some Payne's Grey over the gaps:



I blocked the Ultramarines blue back in, then highlighted the edges. It's subtle, but I'm probably not going to go back:

Some more progress!

Squad #3 is just getting started:



Squad #2 is almost there:



And Squad #1 was dull coted and had flock added:



I finished a few other side projects, including the post apocalyptic civilians from Wreck-Age:





I got this guy as a gift from merry olde England. He's a Salute exclusive model, and I'm pretty sure the first 54mm model I've ever painted. I like how the very limited palette worked out, but the model on the whole is really kind of unsettling. I'm not sure what to do with it



Digging through some boxes, I found this really cool Imperial Preacher, which after a tour through Stuff of Legends I realized is actually a Daemonhunters Heirophant. Still, a model like this really sums up the crazy that is the grim darkness of the far future: religious talismans, over the top weapons, and a look of unhinged malevolence.

It's time for a two thirds of the year summary! Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of my rehabbed marines, but today I want to look back at what I've accomplished so far. I'm pleased to say I completed my three main hobby goals by May! While I still have some unbuilt Ogres floating around, I completed the Mega Armies. Admittedly, I'd gotten a lot of the prep work done last winter, but 61 Ogres and 80 Goblins is a lot of painting, even if they were already build and primed! I also painted 42 Bolt Action Germans, for what was basically a complete, if non-optimized army. I have 20 Blitzkrieg German plastics, but as I had bought them for cheap mostly to get the prone models for MMGs and Snipers, I'm not worried about them. My Privateer Press is utterly fully painted, with 20 models complete. I painted the 20 man 30k Tactical Squad I bought a year ago, as well as two apothecaries I recently grabbed, for 22 models. finally, 17 Deadzone models, two Salute event exclusives, some Wreck-Age Post Apocalyptic survivors, and a single 40k Imperial Priest bring us up to speed.

For those not keeping score, that's 251 models, which even with 80 of them being very basic gobbos, is a good bit of work. I have some more projects ready to come off the table, with a lot of progress made on my rehabilitated Ultramarines, and a few side models that were a fun diversion.

Looking forward, I want to finish up what I've build of the Ultras. So far I've assembled a full 50 man demi-company, a captain, a dread, and an Attack bike. The Demi Company is coming in for a landing, but I don't have any pictures. Well, I do have some pics of a single squad I'd entered in my Tale of Many Gamers Pledge:



I went into this project knowing nothing about decals, and now I am a true convert to Micro Sol and Micro Set. I've also added Future Floor Wax to my arsenal. Kronk, a handsome and generous DCM, hooked me up with some of the decals and banners you see, and I've found more on eBay.

Once I move past the Ultramarines, it's back to the Horus Heresy, as I've finally ordered the EC shoulderpads for my betrayal at Calth box. For now I'm going to build a second 20 man tactical squad, and leave the other 10 unbuilt until I see where I want to go with the army. The terminators I might just build for fun, and the Contemptor (#4 for the army ) will get painted out of obligation.

Once I get past the power armor though, I'm ready to dive into the mother of all projects: adding unto, and possibly even repainting, my Imperial Guard! I found my box with almost 200 praetorians, unpainted, and I'm going to raise two more full platoons with heavy weapons! I also did a little shopping at a local bitz swap:



Not a bad haul for $110!

I've been a bit busy lately, but I haven't gotten anything actually done until very recently. Presented for your enjoyment are my second tactical squad:



And an assault squad:



And then came a tragedy of errors. I had started putting decals on my devastators, when I noticed that I had put tactical squad markings on them, not the devastator markings. Oh well, time to scrape, repaint, and re seal with future. I also discovered a bag with Rhino bitz, including the accessory sprue, which meant I could add stormbolters to my Rhinos. Of course, they had been more or less fully painted, as seen in the background here:



So, time to dig out the drill, knife, and files!



It's a pain in the ass, but I love me some WYIWYG!

Great work here - Second Edition Ultras back with a vengeance!

Nice work on the Ultras, really digging the Tac and Assault squad. A real shame you put the wrong transfers on the devs...

EDC

Those are some good looking Marines!

Azazelx wrote:Great work here - Second Edition Ultras back with a vengeance!

Very technically, they're all early third edition models. But the 2nd company didn't switch to Gold trim until mid to late 3rd edition, but definitely by the 4th edition codex.

evildrcheese wrote:Nice work on the Ultras, really digging the Tac and Assault squad. A real shame you put the wrong transfers on the devs...

EDC

It's not too bad. I'm throwing endless coats of Microsol on them now with the correct decals, so I'll have some pics up shortly.

Stormwall wrote:Those are some good looking Marines!

Thanks! I'm having a lot of fun, and I think the pseudo-heraldric nature of this paint scheme works better with my paint style than a grim-dark realistic approach.

A few actual updates!

The Rhinos, now with actual storm bolter! I feel like the pop of red really ties the rhino together, in a weird way:



A plastic captain. I tried the new technical gemstone paints out on this guy, and they're awesome! I hit the gemstone on his chest, and the eyes of the backpack eagles.



Devestators with correct squad markings! They still need some microsol, and dull coting, and the actual squad numbers, but they're basically fully painted.



And, don't forget the 0-1 options for the demi-company... here's an old school, all pewter dreadnought. I couldn't find the smoke launchers or banner pole, so if anybody has those parts their looking sell, let me know.

 Polonius wrote:

Azazelx wrote:Great work here - Second Edition Ultras back with a vengeance!

Very technically, they're all early third edition models. But the 2nd company didn't switch to Gold trim until mid to late 3rd edition, but definitely by the 4th edition codex.

Yep, they're the 3rd Edition multipart plastics. It's just that the bright yellow and Aquila armour will always say "2nd Edition" to me. (even though the move to MK7 and brightness happend at the end of the RT era)

The new recruits look great as well.