Hi everyone,

I have been a long time lurker on Dakka Dakka, but not really got around to posting anything on here. I do regularly post on other 40K sites so some people may have seen these before, but I thought I would put them up in any case.

Just to give a little background my gaming group (there are four of us and we meet up fairly regularly when work and girlfriends allow ) set a challenge every January much the same as "A tale of four gamers" and we each try to get a 1500pt army painted in 12 months.

I am the only member of our group who has failed to finish two year's running (although technically I still have a couple of months left this year) so I am starting this blog in the vain attempt to get me motivated to paint and kick myself up the backside.

I am a very slow painter, who gets distracted very easily and who also starts planning his next army half way through his current one which means that he gets demotivated quite quickly (I am already planing a Dark Eldar army!).

So the year before last as part of our challenge I chose Ultramarines, as I thought they would be quite a small army and quite quick to paint. I planned out a small but hard hitting list and set off painting, only to then find that I was enjoying painting them too much and went off my list completely and so never finished on time!

Here are some photos of how far I got last year. A lot of these pics will be work in progress shots, as a fair amount of the army still isn't finished and unfortunately this project is on hold for a bit whilst I try to finish this year's army, but the two are connected so that's why I'm showing these.

Ultramarines HQ - Space Marine captain 2nd Company







Ultramarines Troops - Tactical Squad





Their Rhino







Ultramarines Troops - Scout Squad 1







Ultramarines Troops - Scout Squad 2



Ultramarines Fast Attack - Assault Squad







Well I think that's about it for now as I must be near my pic limit and don't want to double post.

I do have some more Ultramarines to show which will show where I finished up last year.

Then I will show this year's army, my Macragge PDF which fit in with this army. I thought I would show the Ultras frst as it explains a little of why I wanted to paint blue guardsmen!

Cheers, C and C always appreciated, and I will try to get some of these marines finished soon as I can work on them whilst I paint the Guard.

Its beautifully painted stuff but...

where on earth are the tactical squads boltguns?

I can see why your a slow painter, those models are awesome!

Wow! Impressive stuff, very well painted, love the highlights on the armour.
You could have come out of lurking status with some basic painted models and then worked your way up..... but no... instead you decide to show off your great painting skills straight away... Damn you!!

Wow fantastic mini's! Wish I could get blues as crisp as that! Can't wait for the next update and more pics

Wow I was thinking of starting an Ultra- army by you're great models make me think twice!

Great work, cant wait to see more

Cheers everyone, I am very happy with the way they have turned out but I do wish I could stay motivated enough to get them finished.

And Wizard12 the Tactical Squad have special invisible bolt guns!

No only kidding, I normally glue the bolt guns on last so that I can get at the chest eagles etc which makes them much easier to paint. I thought I had some more up to date photos showing them with the bolt guns attched but I couldn't find them this morning, but I'll have another look through.

I have some more of last year's Ultras to show before I post up my ongoing project (Ultramar related).

Ultramar Fast Attack - Land Speeder.





Ultramarines Elite - Terminators







I also have some pics of my Dreadnought too, but I will put those up later.

Cheers.

StraightSilver wrote:

Ultramarines Troops - Tactical Squad

Air bolters FTW! WYLD STALLYNS!!!!
Great job!

These are some truly beautiful Ultras, I must say the only thing to lets them down in my opinion is their basic bases. I think for such a superb force a more adventurous base should be used, you clearly have the skill to achieve it.

You have some nice marines there all the painting is neat and crisp, i am in the same boat as you that i get distracted easily and will start planning something half way through a project. good luck, i hope you finish it, get off the tinternet and get painting

very nice paint job,i like the highlighting alot.

Your work is beautiful! Very clean. The most impressive part is the interior of your tank. Great work!

I'm loving your work, very clean. How did you do the Gold on the captain's back pack?

Hi everyone,

First of all apologies for the lack of updates, I have been very slack both with my painting and life in general!

To answer some questions, the bases are not yet finished. I usually do the bases last as it is easier to add static grass etc once the models are varnished, and as much of the army isn't yet finished I have yet to do them.

And the gold is pretty straightforward. I start off by painting the area with Mithril Silver as this makes the gold easier to apply. I then paint the area in Shining Gold. This then gets a fairly liberal Ogryn Flesh wash, followed by a wash of Devlan Mud in the deepest recesses. This is then neatened up with Shining Gold and highlighted with Burnished Gold and then a mix of Burnished Gold and Mithril Silver.

I have some more pics to show.

The Ultramarines are still yet to be finished, I plan to get them done later this year. In the meantime I have been working on a new project for the last 11 months or so.

These are my Macragge PDF which accompany the Ultras.

First off are my Troops. These are an infantry platoon. These are still work in progress buut getting there.










I still have to paint up the autocannon teams and command squad but should have pics to show of these soon.

And with some of my Ultramarines to compare colour scheme





And a very work in progress shot of their what their Chimeras will look like:




And then my "counts as" Penal Legionairres. I didn't like the idea of Penal Troops in a Macragge army as it doesn't really fit the fluff. I therefore decided that some Special Forces Forward Scouts were more appropriate and still fit the stats:






I have some more pics to show but will put those up tomorrow.

Cheers for looking.

Wow! These are fantastic! As a fellow ultramarine player, I am extremely impressed. Funny, I was also thinking about making either an Iaxian regiment or a Prandium Survivors regiment. Though I was thinking forest camo with black or grey ultramarine "U" symbols.

Great work!

Normally not a fan of the Blue Boys, but man, these are AWESOME! Seriously! wow!

Your Ultramarines are AWESOME! The Macragge PDF are great too and will probably be my next army.

Cheers guys, glad you like 'em.

I must admit that I was also never really a fan of the Ultramarines but I decided to do them to challenge myself.

Now that I have started them I have changed my opinion entirely, they are nice and simple to paint but having the Codex to work from is also really fun in terms of unit markings and colours etc.

I can understand why a lot of people aren't too keen on them with GW ramming them down everybody's throats but weirdly I don't know anybody else in my gaming area (South East London) that actually plays them. They are quite a rarity in these parts.

@ Kolath: I think an Iaxian regiment would be really cool, and I think Forest Camo would work really well.

And it would be great to see some more Marine attached PDF armies, I have an idea for an artillery/siege regiment attached to Imperial Fists. Or banana guard as I like to call them!

So I have some more pics to show.

Unfortunately these pics aren't great quality as I lost my camera, but they give a good impression of where I'm at.

These are my 2 HQ units.

First up is my Straken stand in. I have had to remove his shotgun whilst painting him as it's a bit fragile. After a fair bit of feedback I am also going to build a better one as many people believe that a regular human isn't hard enough for Straken's stats, and as my army has Marine affiliations I will be going down a different route....

Hector Sicarius (of the proud Sicarius family), Commander of 2nd Company Macragge PDF, attached to Cato Sicarius' 2nd Company Ultramarines. "Counts as" Straken.




Next up is my Officer of the Fleet. Because Marines don't have access to the Imperial Navy I didn't want to use the regular model so I am using the Lt. Varras model from Battle For Macragge.

Ultramarines Fleet Liaison.


And then I have a "Counts as" Ministorum Priest. From a fluff perspective Priests were a bit of a problem. The rulers of Ultramar are the Ultramarines themselves who do not venerate the Emperor as a God in the same way as the Ecclesiarchy and so I felt they would be reluctant to have priests in the conventional sense. I also didn't want to include Commissars as they don't fit the fluff either. The Citizens of Ultramar are far too disciplined to need Commissars, and besides that would probably find the concept too barbaric.

Therefore I have merged the two concepts together and have PDF Chaplains, who not only look after the wellbeing of my trrops, but also enforce discipline where necessary.

2nd Company Macragge PDF Chaplain Caustus Glokta.





And then no Command Squad would be complete without some Melta Vets!



Squad so far:



And because I won't always want to use Straken I have started on another Command Squad, this time with plasmas, although after playtesting I am not so sure how good an idea that is....






Anyway, thanks for looking, I have a few more pics to put up which I will do later as I suppose I should do some work, .

Your pdf are looking cool, some really nice kitbashing going on and the Hector miniature is really nicley done. I was considering getting some of the fw brass etch but had not really seen it used very well and had been put of until now. In the right hands its very effective! cookies for you

Cheers Calibanite Lion, I have just been admiring your Dark Angels, they are very nice but are making me want to paint some Terminators now....

I suppose I could always go back and finish off my Black Templars I suppose....

The Forge World Brass Etch really can make a difference to an army and looks great when painted up but I don't know if I would say I enjoyed using it!

It needs to be carefully bent to fit on non-flat surfaces which can be tricky as it breaks or scratches very easily.

And it also seems to be the only thing I have ever worked with that sticks to a model instantaneously! This isn't normally a problem, but because it needs to be put on with tweesers it doesn't always go on exactly the way you want it to, and because the glue dries so quiclky it then means you can't go back and straighten it up as the Brass Etch just comes off!

I can assure you that you will quickly run out of expletives when putting it on and have to make up your own! I came up with some choice ones I can tell you!

Having said that they do really make an army stand out and are well worth the effort, and considering how much you can do with them aren't that unreasonably priced.

Hiya,

I have some more pics.

This is my "Guilliman Pattern" Hellhound.

The idea is that Macragge PDF use the standard Imperial Guard pattern Chimera, but because they are technologically superior and have access to Marine equipment they augment this chassis with Astartes variants, in this case the Razorback.

Guilliman Pattern Hellhound









As ever still very much work in progress. I also have a Devil Dog variant and a Manticore variant using the same principal, hopefully have some pics of thise soon.

Thorough, consistent, clean, prolific... All to a 'Eavy Metal standard... Very impressive sir.

Nice job! I always wanted to see more people play the Macragge PDFs. As they are heroes by themselves!

Stunning! MajorTom11 said it all, I shall watch this thread with great interest!

mate you've painted and created some of the best models ive seen.

Cheers everybody, thanks for all the positive comments.

I managed to get some more pics over te weekend.

This is the army as it stands so far:





Currently 1500pts if I stack up on wargear. Nothing is finished as of yet, but at least I can now game with the army.

some more of my vehicles.

Guilliman Pattern Manticore (still work in progress)





Guilliman Pattern Devil Dog(still work in progress)





And a very early shot of Sicarius' Chimera




Hopefully have some more pics soon. Cheers for looking.

The ultamite Ultramar Apoclypse!
Great Marines and guardsmen!

M.K

inspiring work!

Cheers guys.

Got some more pics to show.

These are the bodyguards for my command squad. Made using the Valkyrie door gunners as a base then some spare bits I had lying around.








These guys have been invaluable in all my games, even if all they do is jump in front of bullets!

Oh, man, totally awesome as always! Do you have an WIP shots of the chimera conversions? I'm curious to see more detail on how you made them.

I had been thinking about mounting chimera turrets on rhinos, but this looks really great (reminds me a bit of a Bradley IFV)

Nice progress, i really like the hellhound and devil dog, they both look great, id never thought of using the marine turrets on ig but they fit right in. The body guards are good although the guy with the grey hair looks really fed up with life lol, he needs to go see the guidance councillor!!!!

Everything is so clean, your conversion-work and your painting is just so crisp, amazing stuff, love the last chimera

Well guys, I didn't realise I hadn't updated my plog for quite so long!

Admittedly that's probably because my "hobby slacking" has been worse than ever, I was doing really well but then lost all motivation to paint.

I do have some pics to show though, although not much, but thought I would prove I was still alive!

So some progress on the Vendetta. The majority of the highlighting on the hull is done and I have started on the decals. This is the first time I have used proper decal products and varnishes and I have to say it is worth it and makes a hell of a difference. Of course I probably should have dusted it before taking the photos, and apologies for the crappy pics too, time for a new camera me thinks.....










And the reason this bloomin' thing has taken so long, the hand painted over a black undercoat white underside!

[img width=600 height=450]http://i1018.photobucket.com/albums/af307/MacraggePDF/DSC00925.jpg[/img]

I won't ever make that mistake again, it took about a month to get this bit painted, it has about 7 or 8 stupidly thin layers to get it white, but it's still not 100% smooth, but will do for this one. Next one I paint will get airbrushed though!

And I have also done a tiny bit more work on the Vet Squad. I got rid of the melta gun as I didn't like the way it overhung the base, so he now has a lasgun. I did make up a couple of melta gunners to replace him though, still got to drill out the barrels on these guys.

And I also made up another Vet, this one stopping for a cigarette, which I have yet to green stuff (and his arm's held on with blue tac for now).





Anyway, sorry it's such a tiny update, I have benn neglecting the painting side of things a bit recently but hope to resolve that.

As always cheers for looking.

tiny? TINY? Seriously - an awesome update. Beautiful, classy work as always. Lot o' win there.

Hey guys,

Well once again, it's been a while!

I have been a bit out of the hobby for the last few months, but things seem to be getting back on track so I have some updates for you.

I have been doing some more work on the army's transports, so I have some Chimeras for you.

First up is my "counts as" Straken's personal transport.

HQ: Company Command Chimera









It's only when you see these things on a big computer monitor that you realise there are a few things to sort out!

The gunner has something stuck to his breastplate and the highlighting on that needs redoing. And I have forgotten to paint a few bits, but it is still work in progress so not finished yet.

I have 3 more Chimeras to show, plus other stuff but don't want to bombard everybody with pics so early in the morning.

I think you have showed applaudable creativity in your pdf and the end result looks very good.

Great conversion work in ths thread.

The painting is soo crisp and just lovely and clean...and loving the conversion work going on

Very high quality work

Keeping an eye on this

Cheers guys,

I have to say the conversions have been the most fun part.

I already had a Cadian army, but wanted to do something a bit different when the most recent IG Codex came out, and I already had an Ultramarines army with tons of bits left over so it kind of went from there.

The army is taking a lot longer than planned though, but that's because I keep getting distracetd.

OK, so a bit more of the same, this time the transports for the Infantry Platoon.

Troops: Tactical 190








Troops: Tactical 450





Troops: Platoon Command








Still a fair bit to do on these, I have to varnish some decals (only spotted I had missed them when I uploaded the photos), finish off a couple of bits and then do a tiny bit of weathering on them.

Yowch. So very, very pretty. And blue IG always a good look Love the lenswork, esp.

This is fantastic, you've got a beautifully painted force that's stuffed with creative conversions.

I love this kind of blog.

I doth my cap to you good sir!

Keep it up!

This thread is awesome! Love all the subtle conversions and the neat crisp painting. I'll be watching this definitely.

Simply Amazing. Great clean and crisp paint jobs! Completely flawless!

Just an awesome job man!! AWESOME!! You've inspired me to finish my lot of Ultra's!!! several years int he making lol.. Love how you've added the IG element in there too. Are you going to possibly add a Bane Blade in there too

Subscribed!

Wow! Lovely work, especially on the vehicle lenses and vision blocks. I'm also a fan of your lighter colors for the PDF's uniforms and the vehicle stowage.

Awesome work!! Brilliant move going with the PDF. Love your work. More purity seals please

I hope you don't mind, but after seeing your Chimeras, I will definitely be doing something similar with the few tanks in my guard army. I honestly hate the look of the Chimera, but after you added that predator turret; it somehow seems right.

Great work.

That's an expensive looking army, lol. Looks great too. The idea of Ultramarines with supporting PDF was the theme between my Space Marine and Imperial Guard armies. I like how you have mixed Space Marine and Guard tech to show the influence of the Ultramarines resources on their PDF. The Predameras are awesome, though I worry the placement of the turret mechanism and such would interfere with its troop carrying ability. But hey, it isn't like 40K was ever about realism. The Valkyrie looks spectacular. Makes you wish GW had done half as good of a job with the Storm Raven and not ended up with that abortion it turned out to be.

Absolutely beautiful army. Thanks for sharing.

An incredibly polished army, keep up the good work!

They are painted SO nicely!
Well, if I start IG, I know what color scheme I will do

Great stuff! The clean painting looks really good and I like the imperial Ultramar-theme.

I dont know where to start. This is one of the best IG armies Ive ever seen! The painting is perfect, infantry conversions superb, and the chimeras are perfect. I love how you kit bashed your whole army. Cant believe I just found this thread. Carry on sir.

I love your converted Chimeras! What is the scheme for painting the canvas rolls on the vehicles?

Well it's been a while since I updates this, and admittedly i don't have a huge amount to show, but I have started two new armies since I began this project, which isn't much of an excuse I know...

Tiny bit more work on the Manticore:



And the army needed some higher AV so in goes a Russ:





The Russ needs to get painted for a tournament so hopefully I should have some progress shots for that soon.

I just read your first post in this thread. You are my long lost brother haha I can never finish anything and I do the same thing with planning new armies

Hi guys,

Well it's been a while hasn't it?

Unfortunately had a fairly crap start to the year, split up with the missus in January, and in between sorting out my flat etc I haven't really been getting much hobby done of late.

On the bright side though it means I now have a lot more time to paint.

So I have steadily getting back to my man dollies, and have some new pics.

As usual nothing is finished at this stage, but i am currently working on 4 different armies and keep flitting from one to the other.

First up we have some Ultramarines Rhinos, and yes there is a reason there are six of them with Tactical markings........ I must be mental!

Ultramarines Rhinos - Second Company




Next up is the third full Tactical Squad which is almost finished, so half way there.....

Ultramarines Tactical Squad - 2nd Company




Then the beginnings of a Scout bike squad.

Ultramarines Scout Bikes






And some progress on the rough riders.

Macragge PDF Rough Riders










And then just because I am more than a little bit excited about 6th edition, and stoked about the new allies rules here is my army in full, which I can use in standard games.

It's almost as if GW were reading my blog.

Your painting skills are really good. You've made me almost like the ultramarines

I agree with Krimsun, you'z startin' ta make me like dem ultra marines

Good to see you are still at it StraightSilver. Top-notch painting and modelling as always.

I can understand that you are happy with the ally-rules, as are I with my Alpha Legion army too. Legion operatives for meee!

Little bit chuffed, made the GW homepage today.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/wnt/blog.jsp?pid=2800044

I saw, and my local GW staffers were also singing your praises. Nice job!

I saw the GW homepage yesterday, but i just saw this blog today. congratulations on the front page! Glad to see more detailed pics here, your an astounding painter!

Congrats on the GW post! Also, awesome force you have, really nice work. I like battle damage, but also really like the clean crisp look

congrats on the gw blog post!

Cheers guys, it was a really nice surprise seeing them up there.

The plan is to crack on with the vets which should be fully base coated in a week or so, and then just go back and finish everything off, as a lot of it needs final highlights.

Then I will start my next crazy project, which involves more Guard, and Tau.......

Great work getting the Home Page Feature buddy! You really put my ultras to shame
fantastic!

Very nice, subbed for sure!

Cheers everybody.

Well, a teeny tiny update today, just to prove that I am still painting.

This is the very, very early stages of the first Veteran Squad (powerfist sarge and 3 meltas).

These guys have literally had their fatigues base coated in, but this is the most time consuming process, the rest is pretty quick after that.

So far just Bleached Bone with one shading of Kommando Khaki. They will get further attention once all the armour is lined in and base coated.

The photos show that my figures don't start out all that neat and tidy.







I have also completed this stage on another full squad of Vets (Harker and 3 grenade launchers), but didn't get photos of those guys.

The plan is to get all the armour done on this squad tonight, get it lined in and then start highlighting that and start on the flesh etc.

Very, Very nice. Well impressed.

Cheers LeadLegion.

Well a tiny update unfortunately as I didn't get any painting done over the weekend.

I have had to experiment with some new flesh recipes as GW have discontinued the colours I was using so i am having to try to replace them with other ranges.

These guys have been painted up with Coat D'Arms paints, and although the colours looked exactly the same I am finding their version of bronzed flesh to be too yellow.

However they look ok but I might have to play around a bit more.

So here's 3 of the vets with the flesh almost finished, obviously the rest is still WIP.

That is one heroically sized cigarette!

Nice stuff, as always!

Cheers Alpharius, I think looking at the expression on his face he needs a big cigarette!

I'm wondering if I should have painted it as a cigar now as I couldn't get it any smaller, but I think it works ok as a cigarette, doesn't help though that GW hands are so big.

This is absolutely amazing!
Great work making the Ultramarines a little more loved.

TMP

Cheers The_mini_painter, I must admit I was never a fan of Ultramarines before i started this project, but now I can't get enough of them.

Another tiny update:








I still have to paint the bandages on the first guy, and have had some issues with the guy with the respirator but that's more the FW sculpt than anything.

That's all the faces done on the guys without helmets, so I can now go back and start painting the armour and fatigues so hopefully should have this squad finished next week.

Still looking as good as ever, the face jobs are really good, nice and crisp

The Ultramar PDF regiments look awesome. They are UM enough to clearly be from Ultramar but not so much so that you get the feeling they are SM scouts.

Show us the tank!

I love this project. The guardsman with the bac-stick is by far my favorite. Or it a jho-stick the sneaky reprobate is smoking? You know, for medicinal purposes. Maybe they can get away with that sort of thing in the Ghost's, but I can see Ultramar's boys-in-blue being too happy with a trooper caught smoking jho.

I especially like your attention to detail. Every trooper has it's own individual character.

Well, not much of an update for me unfortunately, but I thought I would post in an effort to kick myself up the backside and get some work done!

The reason for the lack of progress is mainly due to the British weather. As daft as it sounds the heat has made painting very difficult as the paint is drying on the palette faster than I can get it on the model.

However I have got the shading done on the helmets, they are grey right now but will be white eventually. You also can't see it from the crappy photos but the belts and webbing have been base coated too.





I have also made a start on the very last squad for the army, a second squad of Hardened Vets with 3 grenade launchers and Harker.





And the other reason I didn't get as much done on these guys:





I know I probably shouldn't post that in this thread, but my poor old Dark Eldar are sat on the shelf in theor boxes staring at me every time I pick up a paint brush and I decided I would just start one model to give me a break.

I have to say already I can see I will be out of my comfort zone painting them, as the models are amazing and super detailed but that also makes them hard to paint, and I'm not 100% happy with the results so far.

I think I need to concentrated on the Ultras for a bit before doing any more DE.

Beautiful Dark Eldar figure. Lovely paint job. She's the reason I was planning on a Dark Eldar army -until 6th ed came out and I rapidly changed my mind!

I just wanted to say that this plog isn't dead, I have just been out of the hobby for a few months but should have some updates soon. Although they will be quite small....

But I have got my paints out again.

I thought you'd return

Small, large, it's still an update!
Glad to know that it isn't dead, though

Glad you're back, can't wait to see the newer stuff.

Looking great, not a great fan of the boys in blue back ground wise. However your army looks amazing and well done for the GW post (i know its a bit late) didn't think i'd see the progression of this army else where. Keep up the good work

Young Logan

Hey everybody, well it’s been a while…..

I have to admit I have been neglecting my hobby for a very long time. Life in general got in the way, plus a house move which has pretty much disrupted everything!

In the last month or so however I have picked up the brushes again but after over a year (maybe even 2?) I have struggled a bit to get back on form.

This has partly because I am still getting used to using Vallejo Game Colour. That might sound strange but I have used Citadel paints for over 20 years and hate change.

I have had to start using Vallejo as I am still working on 2 armies that have the same colour scheme and there is no longer a paint in the new Citadel Range that matches their old Ultramarines Blue, but the Vallejo equivalent matches perfectly.

So here is my first mini of 2014, still WIP but almost finished.





I have an absolute ton of marines lying around and needed to upgrade my Tactical Squads so this was a practice piece. If I’m really honest I’m not 100% happy with it but it has taught me a lot.

VGC needs a lot more thinning than Citadel paint, and if you get the mix wrong it’s too fluid for edge highlighting. After using Citadel for so long I found it instinctive to know exactly how much to thin my paints and now I am learning all over again…

The colour is a perfect match but the highlights are pretty sloppy, again this may be the new paint or maybe because I am very out of practice. I must admit my new painting area isn’t ideal in the new house either as the light is pretty poor, but the new house has 3 cats so I am limited as to where I can paint…

I also painted up a couple of heavy weapons marines and these seem to have come out better, think I am getting the hang of it now, but obviously they will get arms and weapons added at some point….



I have had to replace a lot of paints, and this has meant trying out new flesh recipes which again has been a learning experience. Once again this is due to GW replacing their paint range and if I’m honest I do not like the new paints, although again that might be because I haven’t used them enough yet.

So far I have struggled to find a flesh recipe I am happy with and I think this is because I have been using a black undercoat.

It’s difficult to tell from the awful photos (really need to get a new camera and sort out my set up) but I haven’t been getting results like I used to using the new paints. The face on the sergeant is quite sloppy, and this is because he has had way too many layers put on.

So I have gone right back to basics and started doing something I haven’t done for a long time, which is use a white undercoat. This has meant painting the heads separately but it has been soooo much easier and I don’t know why I didn’t do it like this sooner…







So these two are no way near finished. These have had a white undercoat, a very thinned coat of Cadian Flesh Tone, an Ogryn Flesh Wash (very diluted), followed by a layer of Dwarf Flesh.

They both should really just need a couple more highlights and be done.

The thing is to get to this stage before would have taken ages, a lot of paint and obscured a lot of detail.

These have taken no more than a couple of hours and I can still see all the detail so I am very happy with them (they look better IRL, the photos really are bad..).

I am also finding the new marine plastics have some great bare heads and I have a lot to practice on.

I have also been adding a bit of air support to the army.

This is a Storm Talon I am working on. Still very WIP but tbh not much more to do on it. Need to do some final edge highlighting and a bit of weathering but it’ll do for table top for the time being.





This was actually a really fun model to build and paint. It looks ridiculous in terms of design but was really easy to assemble and paint and it’s kind of growing on me…

And then a much nicer model but still early days yet. A Vulture for the PDF. Love this model, this one is actually one I have had sitting in a box in my “magic cupboard” for a looong time so is the all resin one. It was a right bugger to put together and needed a lot of work but is a lovely kit so am excited about getting this finished.





And finally some models I posted a long time ago, my Psyker Battle Squad, again still very WIP but you can see the conversions better now they have a bit of paint on some of them.









I didn’t want to use the metal / finecast GW ones simply because there are so few poses so build these and am pretty happy with them so far. These are the plastic tank sprue torsos on max Mini great coat legs which I think works nicely.

I am now not sure about the Grey Knight staffs, they are too big but it’s hard to say for definite as they are held on with blu tak for the photos, and they were a bugger to get hold of so reckon they’ll stay.

Anyway, thanks for looking, hopefully I will have more finished stuff to show next time, and will have better photos. And hopefully I will post more regularly too.

So I have a tiny, teeny update.

I have been painting up the new plastic librarian and have been really enjoying painting it but unfortunately that means I haven't been painting anything else.

Obviously nothing really much to see, and the photos prove once again that I cannot take photos to save my life!!

I have been working from the middle and working my way out, the little details like the scrolls and purity seals are really nice, there's a lot of stuff on this model that I missed until I started painting it.

Only problem is when the arms and staff are on you can't really see any of it...

So as I say still very WIP needs more highlights and washes. The only bit that I thought was finished were the yellow robes, but I don't like them so will probably try them again.







I will wait and see what he looks like tonight with his head attached and need to get some highlights on the power armour before I decide on the robes, but the back looks a bit streaky. I have also spotted a hair on the back which I didn't see until the photo was blown up on my monitor, hopefully that's just dust and not stuck in the paint.....

Oops, your image aren't showing up in Dakka!

They're showing up fine for me...

 Alpharius wrote:
They're showing up fine for me...

All I see in the Dakka Thread are these:



If I click the icon it routs me to photo bucket and then I can see the pictures.

I was seeing them fine before - but not any more!

The OP should just upload them to the Dakka gallery - then there are no more bandwidth problems!

Sorry guys, yes this was an issue with Photobucket which hopefully is resolved now.

However I am a complete luddite so how would I go about uploading them to the Dakka Gallery? Guessing there's a sticky somewhere? Photobucket always gives me grief over Bandwidth and I am not a big fan of Flickr so would be good to get around that.

Anyway, here's another small update, to be honest I have been spending way too much time in the pub which has meant I haven't got that much painting done....

I'm also aware there might be too much marine stuff going on in this blog at the moment so promise to rectify that with more Guard soon.

So a little bit more work on the Librarian.

Once again apologies for the [I Swear Too Much] photos, really need to sort out somewhere decent in the new house to take them.

The arms and head are just dry fitted for now which is why they are a bit wonky, and I have glazed down the yellow at the back but reckon it still needs a bit more work.

My god! That's fantastic! I'm in awe, such a clean, controlled job so far. Well done

LDP

The painting is very clean, but the blue is still looking a little flat to me. And for the record, there is no such thing as too much time spent in the pub!

Cheers guys, I know what you mean about the blue bossfearless, I think it needs one more highlight to make it pop, so gonna revisit him this week.

However I seem to be struggling a bit with power armour right now, think I need new paints to be honest.

And you're right, there is no such thing, but does make painting tricky.


So I have been doing a bit more painting, mainly for practice but also to give my army a bit of oomph.

I have a had a break from the Librarian but he will get finished hopefully over the weekend.

For now I have been painting up 2 new captains, one for painting practice and the other for the army.

Typically the one I was using for practice has come out better than the one for the army, but hey ho.

So here is a First Company Captain with Artificer Armour, Power Fist and Shield Eternal (fancy Storm Shield).

He is still very WIP and looking at the photos the armour needs a bit of attention as the highlights aren't working right now.







You can't really see it very well in the photos but the about the only thing that has turned out how I wanted it is the white cloak at the back.

But he's coming along, he will also have a back banner which should break up all that white and draw the eye back away from the Storm Shield, but I think I need to go back and neaten up his helmet and some of the power armour.

Then there is this chap, another of the single sprue plastics which I have to say I am becoming more and more impressed with, so much stuff to paint on them and they seem to just "work". Still don't think the price is necessarily justified but this guy and the Librarian have been fun to paint.

Obviously still very WIP like the first guy but think this guy is coming on better, which is a shame as I would probably never use this load out in a game.




This figure was primarily for me to practice on, I am feeling a bit rusty and having to relearn a lot with the new paints but also because it's been a while.

The biggest thing was for me to find a new flesh recipe and i think i may have cracked it.




This was very simple and I am happy with the results but will wait and see what it's like on the model, might need one more highlight but will leave it alone for now.

Hopefully have these guys and the Librarian finished over the weekend although it's valentines day tomorrow so might get killed if I do any more painting!!

Then next week I will start on my Devastator Centurions.

What was your buildup on the flesh?

Hi wyomingfox, the flesh was painted as follows:

I undercoated with Citadel Skull White undercoat spray.

Then applied a very thinned down layer of Cadian Flesh Tone (Citadel), this was almost like a wash, showing the undercoat through on the raised areas of the face.

I then applied a very thinned down wash of Ogryn Flesh Wash (Citadel) in the deepest recesses (eye sockets, cheek bones, mouth).

Then tidied up areas with Cadian Flesh Tone, then highlighted using Cadian Flesh Tone and Ceramite White (Citadel).

Then I gave the bottom eyelids and lips a very thin glaze of the Citadel red wash, but can't remember the name of that one off the top of my head.

It was very quick and involved far fewer layers than I usually do, but I think that was mainly due to the white undercoat and I don't know why I haven't painted heads seperately up until now......

Thanks for sharing

This is just to prove that I am still alive.

I have been pretty slack once again on the painting front although have more free time right now so hopefully will get stuff done.

Also have to make some changes to my Macragge PDF now as the new Codex has made some of my units obsolete, which is a shame as they were nice conversions and i had spent a fair bit of time on them. :(

Anyway just so you know I have the brushes out I got an Imperial Knight for my birthday a month ago and have been slowly getting it painted.

I know it isn't Ultramarines or PDF but it is blue and gold so fits the armies nicely....

And massive apologies for the terrible photos, I don't have a camera at the moment so these are off my phone, which is rubbish...






Still a way to go on it but it's getting there and has been fun to paint, love the model.

Wow, these are utterly fantastic! I have the compelling urge to add a ultrmar Pdf to my ultramarine force. cant wait to see more.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Love the marines too!

OK, so the Knight is pretty much finished. Just some detailing to do and another couple of passes of matt varnish over some of the decal areas.

I'm also unsure of some of the paint chipping, especially on the shield, never done it before so might have to retouch some of that as well.

But she's almost done and I have had a lot of fun painting her, here are some better pics.
















As I have uploaded the photos though I have just noticed a few bits I hadn't realised I had missed... doh!

Nice! Great painting resemblance to the stuff on GWs website, like the clean finish

I've just read through this whole thing, and I have to say, amazing work throughout. The PDF elements are really well done and the Ultras are exceptional. Great stuff, and subbed!

Thanks guys.

Well after I finished off the Knight I decided to start on a squad of Devastator Centurions. Not a massive fan of the models but for completeness sake wanted to add a squad and they are handy against MCs.

They were supposed to take a couple of weeks, but a month later they are still WIP and I have been rushing them a bit to get them finished but here's where they're at.





These have not been that enjoyable to paint, but I should have broken them down into sub assemblies. Plus the decals in the kit don't fit, they are too big so luckily I had the FW Ultramarines decal sheet, which is very handy.

Just a bit more to do on them then it's back to painting Tactical Marines....

Nice work!

StraightSilver wrote:
Thanks guys.

Well after I finished off the Knight I decided to start on a squad of Devastator Centurions. Not a massive fan of the models but for completeness sake wanted to add a squad and they are handy against MCs.

They were supposed to take a couple of weeks, but a month later they are still WIP and I have been rushing them a bit to get them finished but here's where they're at.

These have not been that enjoyable to paint, but I should have broken them down into sub assemblies. Plus the decals in the kit don't fit, they are too big so luckily I had the FW Ultramarines decal sheet, which is very handy.

Just a bit more to do on them then it's back to painting Tactical Marines....

OK. After spending a few, albeit under-caffineated, minutes trying to find that “bit more to do” I gave up. I think most of the world would have those on the table at that level. And be getting “oohs” and “ahhs” from their peers. Unless the only stuff left to do is the ritual sacrifices to the dice gods and machine spirits.

Cheers guys.

I must admit all there really is to do is paint their right arms, add another coat of matt varnish to the decals and stick the cables on, so about an evening's work.

However it's apparently gonna be over 30 degrees in London over the next couple of days so I don't reckon I'll get much painting done.

Well, not really a proper update as such purely because I haven't gotten around to photographing anything as such but will be rectifying that later today.

However I attended my first proper tournament this weekend run by the excellent guys over at H.A.T.E (Hackney Area Tabletop Enthusiasts).

This was a 2000pt escalating narrative tournament, so started out with a 500pt scouting mission and increased in 500pt blocks up to 2000pts.

It was great fun but 4 games in a day was a bit exhausting!!

However it meant i really had to get my finger out and actually get stuff finished to the Tournament standards, so everything assembled, based and painted.

As anybody following my plog will know most of my stuff is "almost" finished so I had 3 weeks of furious painting to get stuff finished, and although there are still little bits to do I did attend with 2000pts of models finished to gaming standard.

So my marines finally got their bolt guns attached, decals added (more on that later) and vehicles highlighted etc.

I also picked up a trophy for best painted army which I am very chuffed about as there were some gorgeous armies in attendance. An Imperial Fists army and Eldar Corsair army were two stand outs.

Despite not faring so well in gaming terms (2 pretty bad losses, a close draw and a win) I had a really fun day and think will attend more Tournies in future.

Here are some blurry phone pics for now, but will put up some photos of the models I painted for the event when I get home tonight.

Looks like fun. There's always something awesome about two well-painted armies facing off over a properly modelled board.

Hi guys,

Once again I find myself realising how long it was since i last posted any pics!! Must admit I have been actually painting a fair bit but don't seem to have finished anything!!

However I do have some (bad) pics to show just to keep the plog alive. I really need to invest in a new camera, or learn to take photos.

First up is my first ever Razorback. I can't believe I've never actually painted one, I have six Rhinos painted for this army but decided a Razorback made more sense for my Commander as he more often than not drives around in a Rhino with a 5 man combat squad.

I decided to make this one stand out a bit and as effectively he is from 1st Company thought some white accents would differentiate it from all the other vehicles. I have done this with the Macragge PDF and like it although I'm not sure if it works so well in this case.

Here are some WIP shots so far, apologies for bad photos.











I am still unsure about the white, it definitely stands out but looks a bit too much like a Mentor Legion Rhino now.

Next up is my version of Sergeant Chronos. I really like the GW version of Chronos but in all honesty was just being a cheap skate as i have so many marine bits lying around so cobbled together my own version, he is equipped the same so hopefully nobody will have any issue over him.

He looks a bit like Sean Connery at this point... still very WIP but almost done.







I am also working on a Razorback for a Chaplain and 2 Land Raiders but they were still so WIP I didn't take pics.

Hopefully I will be able to get as much of my Ultras and Macragge PDF finished off soon as i intend to start doing some 30K stuff, and eventually getting my Dark Eldar painted....

The razor looks very much the part of a command tank. The white looks fine.

Your Sgt. Chronos counts-as conveys “veteran tank commander” well, so fits the job just fine. Have you built the dismounted version of him? Just in case his ride gets blown out from under him.

Cool, cheers, was a bit worried the white was too distracting.

And yes Chronos will get some legs, he's gonna magnetised at the waist once I find some spare legs, I know I have hundreds of legs but my bits box is a bit of a mess - it's essentially a 6' x 4' cupboard.....

StraightSilver wrote:
Cool, cheers, was a bit worried the white was too distracting.

And yes Chronos will get some legs, he's gonna magnetised at the waist once I find some spare legs, I know I have hundreds of legs but my bits box is a bit of a mess - it's essentially a 6' x 4' cupboard.....

The white does stand out, but that’s kind of it’s job. The only shoulder trim I do on my Ultramarines is the white for the vets. And my Ultras are darker then the stock GW ones. So it really stands out. But subdued colors and sensible paint schemes are not for us. “Camouflage is the color of cowardice” We wear our heraldry openly, so the foes of mankind can tremble at the sight of us! And sometimes that involves color combinations that don’t make a whole lot of sense. So embrace your chapter-approved paint scheme, and if anyone says otherwise, purge them with righteous zeal.

Magnets is a great way to do Chronos so you don’t need to duplicate the build. One issue might be his servo arm. And I feel your pain about out of control bits boxes. I’ve got a couple of old tackle boxes that are starting to get a little too cluttered to be useful. But the thought of re-sorting everything out into a better system is a daunting one. Still on the to-do list thought.

Great looking army. I am loving it, awesome job.

Cheers guys, I will definitely stick with the white I reckon, which is good as I plan to do a matching Land Raider.

I will post some more pics later, forgot to bring my camera to work, doh!!

Awesome Rhino and Commander, the white is fine!

Cheers everybody, the white has grown on me after a couple of days looking at it so happy with it now.

OK, so I had planned to put up quite a few pics but my camera really has died, time to get a new one (the one I am using is about 10 years old...)

I have been painting, got a couple of Land raiders on the go and another Razorback almost finished but the only half decent pic I could get was of my Chaplain.

He is still very much WIP but seems to be coming on quite quickly, really didn't like the model at first but he's growing on me.

He’s either really pure, or compensating for something. There is a line between “short scrap of parchments with litanies” and “Look at my pretty ribbons!” I think this guy has crossed it. But 40k is all about the over-the-top baroque imagery, and chaplains are a leading force in that. I’ve not seen that model long enough for it to grow on me.

I do, however, like the job you’ve done on him. You going to build him stock, or have different plans for the gun arm a/o backpack?

Ha ha yes I agree completely, his parchments are way over the top - all I can think of when I look at him is the Andrew puppy, or how he doesn't trip over them every time he moves.

I am going to keep the backpack as it's pretty cool but still undecided on the gun arm.

My plan is to use the dataslate formation for him as it allows me to take him without using up a HQ slot and the rerolling all misses is very good but that means he has to have the bolt pistol.

I think I may magnetise the hand so I can do weapon swaps.

If you put a combi-flamer on him you could counts-as Cassius. As an Ultramarine, he’s a really nice choice for a chaplain on foot. If not the bolt pistol is a good choice. You want this guy in close combat purging heretics, and the pistol is a cheap and easy extra attack for the crozius. Of course, he would do that better with a jump pack, but I’m not sure how well that would fit with that particular model. You might be able to magnetize it as well.

Actually I hadn't even thought about a jump pack but now you say that it's really obvious.

The fitting for the back pack on this model is standard so there's no reason it wouldn't fit, so could be magnetised.

I'll have a look later, cheers for that.

I have some updates, but not much as I haven't had a chance to get much painting done lately.

These are all still WIP, some are more finished than others.

And as ever apologies for the truly awful photos! Really not my strong point!


Chapter Champion (also stands in for 30K Praetor)






Automatically Appended Next Post:
Captain




Predator





Devastators






Land Raider







Razorback - Chaplain




Razorback - Command



Macragge PDF Veterans - Sergeant Harper

Beautiful army, especially like the converted PDF vehicles... I actually remember the army from GW page, and I was amazed when I have seen it for the first time... Truly inspiring army.

Awesome work, love the Rhino and the first Captain!

That Captain! It is very well done, I love him, the white looks spectacular and so does his frill on his helmet!

I can't believe I somehow contrived to miss this blog! Awesome, awesome stuff. I'll be paying close attention to how you've painted your marines here when I eventually get to painting my own Ultras (though I promise to give credit where credit's due, if anyone asks )

Hi guys, not the most exciting update but I have been going back and finishing stuff off mostly.

So almost all the infantry for the Macragge PDF is finished - highlighted fatigues, finished weapon teams, painted boots, webbing etc and added decals.

I also have pretty much finished 6 Rhinos - just gotta add Storm Bolters and finish off small detailing and weathering.

And got the first Devastator Squad finished off.

Lots of pics.

Great stuff!

Cheers Paradigm.

I also managed to get an army shot of the stuff that's almost finished. The army has grown quite a bit since I last did a group photo.

Pictures aren't great but at least you can get an idea of how it all looks together.







I still have a ton of stuff to paint but from a gaming prespective there isn't really much more that I need to get done, just gotta go back and finish everything off.

What a gorgeous sight to behold!
So glad that this blog is still going - beautiful as ever. Your stuff is stunning and I hope you never stop uploading because your style and cleanliness is something truly admirable!

Cheers Lipsdapips, I've been eyeing up your Ultras too and they are looking great.

I will certainly be keeping the blog going even if the updates are a bit slow.

I still have a load of stuff to paint for my Ultras (PDF are almost finished) and then I'll be starting a 30K Ultras army....

So I'll be painting blue until the day I die I reckon.

This is a crisp, clean, handsome army, and it was an absolute pleasure to see it come to fruition over these past few pages. Looking forward to seeing what you'll do for 30k!

Lovely army there. Glad to see you are still at it.

Courage and Honour!

Cheers everybody.

OK, so I know I wasn't going to start anything new until I had finished lots of other stuff, but whoever sticks to that....

I got quite a lot of Heresy stuff over Xmas so thought I would paint up a small 5 man Assault Squad just as a colour test.

Sadly didn't read the unit entry so didn't realise minimum squad size was 10 so need 5 more but for now they are working as a painting exercise and I can always use them as a 5 man squad in my 40k army.

I wanted to tie my 30k stuff in with my 40k stuff and as they are 2nd Company my 30K stuff will have a bit more gold on them than is usual.

So far I like it but might not have so much gold on my standard units and save it for elites, but what do you think? Are the gold bonding studs too much?








Obviously they're not finished yet, got the shoulder pads and jump packs to add but they are getting there.

Looking good to me, the gold works nicely I think.

Cheers Paradigm, I think I'll stick with it, ties them in nicely with my other Ultras, although I may not mix bonded torsos with bonded legs as much.

The two main accent colors for Ultras are gold and white as far as I know. Nothing wrong with it. Especially in a HH army. I’m not as up on the details, being a 40k guy for the most part, but stuff seems more baroque in the past. Little more gold, little more bling. So it look fine to me.

In a 40k sense, they feel more like vanguard vets, but that’s mostly the ancient suits of armor talking. The gold helps the case a good bit though.

Ooh, I hadn't thought about using them as vanguard Vets in 40K but that would actually make more sense and i don't have any painted yet. Cheers, that's a great idea.

Well, they took a bit longer than expected but I haven't had much painting time of late.

So that's 5 down but need to paint up 5 more for the squad to be legal. I'm gonna call these done for now (not up for spending another £35 at Forge World....) and make a start on the BaC set.

Great stuff! Nice unit there that looks the part in your 40k force but is still notably different!

Cheers Paradigm.

My plan is to paint up 30k units that I can still use in 40k until I have enough Heresy stuff to game with.

So next up will be a couple of Pride of the Legion squads that I can also use as blinged up Tactical Squads in 40k.

That way I can pretend I don't have 3 armies on the go....

So I have made a start on an HQ choice - gotta say not really enjoying this mini so far....

It's the limited edition Praetor and the one I got had a lot of issues, mainly miscasts.

I should have sent it back tbh and FW did offer to replace it but one thing led to another and I never got round to it.

I have fixed him up as best I as I can - quite a bit of greenstuff, and thought would get some paint on him as a practice piece.

I had to swap the head, not because of any casting issues, as I hate the one it comes with.

Still very WIP but looking at the photos needs some tidying up but he's getting there.

Will obviously look better with arms.....

Nice. What arms you planning on putting on him?

You are the master of all things Ultramarine.

Soooo good. Really fantastic work.

EDC

Cheers guys. I do love the Ultramarines.

Nevelon the mini comes with power fist and bolt pistol, which tbh wouldn't be my weapons of choice but I will go with those purely because it's a limited edition model.

I plan to get another Praetor though and equip him differently.

So I decided to take a break from the Praetor for a bit (ever just get one of those moments where you aren't enjoying painting a particular mini but having a break helps?) so I started another potential HQ.

This is one of the guys from the MKIV Command Squad, the standard bearer is also on the go.

Again still very WIP but he's also getting there. Also quite pleased as this is the result of a day's work which is super fast for me - I'm getting quicker.

Obviously will be painting arms the rest of the week.....





The photos have kind of bleached out the colours a bit but happier with the head and face than I thought I'd be. Didn't like the look of the one that came with the kit and was going to swap it out but actually looks alright. He looks a bit small though.

StraightSilver - Your work is amazing and clean. As to your question about the gold bonding, I think its just the right amount. especially in a 30k force. Cant wait to see what you put out next!

Cheers Master Azalle, I am quite liking all the gold now.

Up next is the standard bearer from the MKIV Command set.

Standard Bearer WIP.





Have only just started on his cloak so it's looking a bit messy but hopefully have it sorted by end of today.

Then will be having fun with decals.... the standard decal looks like it will be a nightmare....

Coming along very nicely! Those MkIV Command marines are probably some of my favourites in the FW range, or GW as a whole.

Cheers Paradigm, have to say am starting to agree, loving painting these guys and very happy with them so far. Such lovely sculpts.

Progress is a bit slower than expected on these guys - the cloaks have been pretty fiddly to be honest but I'm very happy with them.

Still WIP, need to finish the gold parts but now the cloaks are done I reckon the rest of the models should be pretty quick - except the standard, which obviously is the biggest part of the model but looks like will be tricky to get the decal on....







[URL=http://s354.photobucket.com/user/MacraggePDF2/media/DSC01552_zpsq1ct5ihj.jpg.html][IMG]

Looking very sharp!

What is the recipe for that blue?
Any paint range so long as I can buy equivalents!

 TheCrusadeSmurf wrote:
What is the recipe for that blue?
Any paint range so long as I can buy equivalents!

The blue is all Citadel paints and is done as follows over a black undercoat:

Base coat of Macragge Blue all over (helps next stage)

Base coat of Altdorf Guard Blue all over

Mix up 60/40 Macragge Blue + Lahmian Medium and apply to recesses.

Once dry mix up 60/40 Drakenhof Nightshade + Lahmian Medium and apply to recesses.

Touch up where necessary with Altdorf Guard Blue.

Highlight 50/50 Altdorf Guard Blue + Calgar Blue keeping paint thin

Edge highlight with Calgar Blue

Highlight extreme edges with 50/50 Calgar Blue + Fenrisian Grey

Then finally at very extreme edges spot highlight with Fenrisian Grey

Sounds really long-winded but is actually pretty quick.

Hope that helps.

Very nice stuff on the 30k legion commanders so far! What colors did you use for their capes?

Excellent looking commanders.

EDC

Cheers guys.

The red is:

Base coat of P3 Skorne Red (couple of thin coats but goes nicely over a black undercoat).

Then very thin (roughly 70/30 but thinner the better as you can always go back over if it's too thin but tricky to correct of it's too thick) of Lahmian Medium and Leviathan Purple (or equivalent purple wash) wash all over.

Build the colour back up using thin layers of Skorne Red.

Then gradually add Citadel Evil Sunz Scarlet to Skorne Red until you are highlighting with pure Evil Sunz Scarlet (I did 3 mixes).

Finally add very sparing highlights with a mix of Evil Sunz Scarlet and Screaming Skull - about 70/30 red/bone.

I tend to avoid using orange or white when highlighting red as I like a nice deep red - bone stops it going pink or orange.

Your officers look fantastic!

These look fantastic, and I love that red cloak, It's really striking and very well done .

Thanks guys.

So I am gonna call these guys finished now, they took a bit longer than expected and I did rush a few bits but overall pretty happy with them.









Gonna take a quick break from Heresy stuff as I need to finish my 40K Land Raiders and do some work on the Macragge PDF but plan to start working through the Betrayal at Calth boxed set hopefully next month.

Awesome. The powerfist dude is spectacular, and that banner is amazing!

EDC

Cheers EDC, actually really happy with the power fist Praetor. I almost actually binned the mini as it came from FW in a pretty bad state and I hated the head but after a bit of green stuff work and a head swap he's actually turned out really nice. He's big as well, never really noticed the size difference between MKIII and MKIV.

Epic stuff, all three minis are simply excellent!

I love how these guys have turned out, and that banner looks fantastic.

Cheers guys, all 3 are actually beautiful models to paint, the MKIV Command Sqaud in particular - possibly my favourite Space Marine models.

The banner though took aaaaages.... it was a bit of a pain and is the reason the 3 models took so long.

I'm glad it's done though, happy with the result although there were a few issues but they are cunningly hidden behind the purity seals...

And at least I won't have to do another one for a while...

Purity seals, is there anything they can’t fix?

Amazing work there. All of them.

 Nevelon wrote:
Purity seals, is there anything they can’t fix?

Amazing work there. All of them.

Ha ha, no, they are my "go to" for everything.

Cheers, just gotta decide what to do next. Gonna finish my Land raiders this week (hopefully) and then maybe do some Suzerain.

Awesome work . That banner is epic in itself.

Stunning; the back of the banner is the icing on the cake!

Well after a long break from painting decided to paint something fairly big to get back in the swing of things.






Just got the base and decals to add, plus some text on the scroll on the sarcophagus.

Gotta say it's been nice painting again after a long break.

Hi everybody,

Small update from me, as ever bad photos though...

Considering starting a new plog as I have lost all of my photobucket links, not sure how everybody else is resolving that one?

Anyway I have managed to find a bit of time to get some painting done. Not much, just a WIP of the Primaris Lieutenant from the starter set. Need to get some photos in daylight as the face is looking a lot darker than in IRL.

Ok so apart from the base the Primaris Lieutenant is done. Took way longer than I was expecting (so used to painting "normal" marines and these are pretty different) but overall happy with it, hopefully be able to get them done a bit quicker now.

As always my photos are awful though! The blue is actually nowhere near that bright / light IRL.

Such a nice and clean looking marine, you can tell he just rolled off the assembly line. You do such nice smooth whites I'm envious. I can never take the time to do so many thin layers .

 Theophony wrote:
Such a nice and clean looking marine, you can tell he just rolled off the assembly line. You do such nice smooth whites I'm envious. I can never take the time to do so many thin layers .

Cheers Theophony, all of my Ultras go around with paint servitors on the battle field so they can be parade ready at all times.

And the white wasn't actually too bad, it's actually just Celestra Grey then Ulthuan Grey and a white highlight.

Excellent work on the Primaris Lieutenant.

The work on the head/face is particularly impressive.

EDC

Nice!

I think there is a way to do a mass download from photobucket, but replacing all the pics in the blog would have to be done by hand. I hope you try to get at least some of your finished pics back up, you do truly insertional work.

Quality paint jobs, I'm finding them inspirational to keep painting my own Primaris!

Please do update your Pics!

 Nevelon wrote:
Nice!

you do truly insertional work.

THATS WHAT SHE SAID!!!!! Sorry really couldn't pass up on that autocorrect .

 Theophony wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
Nice!

you do truly insertional work.

THATS WHAT SHE SAID!!!!! Sorry really couldn't pass up on that autocorrect .

I'd put you on ignore for that comment, if I could...

(Time to refresh the timestamp on that quote in your sig!!! )

Tiny update and some slightly better photos. These are just WIP pics of the Dark Imperium Primaris.

Tiny bit of progress.







how to upload photo to internet

Very nice and clean work. I wish I could free hand and do edge highlights like that!

Amazing work as always.

Thanks Nevelon.

I got quite a lot more done last night but none of it's very exciting at this stage, lol.

Pretty much finished base coating 10 Intercessors and the Gravis Captain from Dark Imperium.

Once |'ve tidied them up a bit I'll post some more pics.

Some very early WIP on the next 2 units of Intercessors and the Gravis Captain.

Everything's looking a bit messy at the moment, need to tidy up my base coats and get rid of some of the lumps and bumps. I have done more painting this month than in the whole of 2017 though so at least I'm getting stuff done.

Last night was spent doing the checks on the 2 Sergeant's knee pads. Did not enjoy these at all and silly mistakes meant i had to redo them both several times - hence the lumps. Hopefully can tidy these up tonight and a coat of gloss varnish should smooth them out a bit.

This is the stage I hate - lots of work but not much to show for it - this evening though I can start highlighting which is when everything starts to come together.

Really nice work on those Intercessors - the chequering on the knee pads is excellent.

Thanks Elnibbus, needs a bit of tidying up but not too much, mainly just getting rid of the rough surface, although IRL they look a lot better (seeing them on my monitor is driving my OCD brain nuts, lol).

I think I may have a solution to doing the kneepads in a quicker, neater way which involves using decals. Gonna experiment on a spare Primaris over the weekend.

OK so things are taking a lot longer than expected but first squad of Intercessors is almost complete.

Just have a tiny bit of tidying up, couple more decals and the bases to finish off (haven't decided exactly how I want to do them yet...)

I also have pretty much finished the other Lieutenant - I stripped his head as I wasn't happy with the stripe on the helmet but reckon I have a better way of doing that now...

You can also see the "varnish incident" wasn't completely resolved, mainly on the Sergeant's leg but it's only noticeable really close up.

Your work is fantastic!

How did you go about painting your checkers? Did you use a micron pen or a super fine brush?

Thanks Master Azalle.

The checkers were done freehand using a Citadel Artificer XS brush.

However rather than painting them all in at once i found the easier way to do it was to paint the kneepad blue.

I then painted a vertical line down the middle of the pad in yellow.

Then I painted horizontal lines across in blue and repeated this which eventually gave me checks the same size which I found much easier tbh.

Edit: This is a very quick mock up in paint but shows what i mean:

oh man, this is fantastic! Thanks so very much StraightSilver! I'm going to use this on my Dark Angels!

Awesome stuff, Straightsilver! I'm digging the checkers too. They're really fun to paint. Your ultras look super classic and I really dig that. Vibrant, lovely colour and super clean paint work! Keep it up

Thanks Lipsdapips.

So the next squad is on the go right now.

Got some issues with the sergeant though which only became apparent when looking at the photos on my monitor.

Not sure if the undercoat was too thick or I rushed the base coating but the chest aquilla and some areas of the armour need sorting. Paint is too thick and obscuring detail.

I also tried out a new method of painting flesh which was a lot quicker but is maybe too pale?

I also finally attached the head to the other lieutenant. I really, really struggled with the stripes on the helmet and this was my 3rd attempt - it will do, lol.

I think you nailed the striping! Well done.

I like the flesh-tone. I don't think it looks too pale at all. Very clean

Well, it's been quite a while since I added anything to this thread. 

I've spent the last 3 years painting Necromunda stuff and decided i needed a break, so have made a start on some 30K stuff, just because my Heresy army at the moment consists of 2 Contemptors, 3 characters and an assault squad.....

I haven't painted Ultramarines in ages but thought things would be straightforward but it's been surprisingly hard getting back into painting blue.

I started with the biggest model in the new set, The Spartan. Very early days yet and a lot to do but I got the interior finished over the weekend so I can at least now glue it all together and start painting in earnest.

Interior (WIP) - Now you see it







And now you don't.....





Lots to do but it's coming along.

Little bit of progress.

Just a brief 5 year break

Spartan is looking awesome so far. You ever owned a resin one?

I must have missed your first post returning.

Welcome back!

That’s a lot of fine work on the interior that you are not going to see much of. I’m a bit daunted by the spartan myself. Tanks always bug me; so much to paint. And it’s HUGE. Good luck!

 Nevelon wrote:
I must have missed your first post returning.

Welcome back!

That’s a lot of fine work on the interior that you are not going to see much of. I’m a bit daunted by the spartan myself. Tanks always bug me; so much to paint. And it’s HUGE. Good luck!

Do you think 10th Ed. is bringing us older hobbyists back?

 Tigurius wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
I must have missed your first post returning.

Welcome back!

That’s a lot of fine work on the interior that you are not going to see much of. I’m a bit daunted by the spartan myself. Tanks always bug me; so much to paint. And it’s HUGE. Good luck!

Do you think 10th Ed. is bringing us older hobbyists back?

I do wonder. New editions do tend to rekindle interest. But sometimes also drive people out. Different people like different things. The fact that Ultras vs. Nids is the face of 10th is certainly not hurting the return of my fellow Ultramarines! I’ve never left, so can’t speak for why people return.

But it is good to see the return of familiar faces.

Thanks everybody, I hadn't actually realised it has been 5 years since I last updated this thread, wow.

Most of that is due to work, my job is health and safety in a medical setting so COVID was insanely busy for me which had an impact on my painting.

But, I have also spent the last 3 years painting Necromunda exclusively (I have another thread for that somewhere).

However, 9th definitely killed my love of 40K. I haven't played 40K for at least 2 years and 10th has rekindled my interest.

But my local club also stopped playing 40K for similar reasons and everybody went all in on 30K. I am now playing catch up.

To answer an earlier post, I never owned the Spartan in resin. I absolutely hate working in resin and I think the advent of plastic 30K kits is what drove me to start collecting (plus I can use a chunk of the units in my 40K army).

So, hopefully, we will see more Ultramarines stuff from me - both 40K and 30K.

So, I've made a start on Spartan number 2....

Although just a WIP on the commander:



As always, terrible pics, lol.

Beautiful work, I'm glad you are posting again.

Nice and clean. Any weathering planned for them?

Thanks Tommygun1918, I am definitely going to have to tone down the tracks and add some weathering powders. The rest won't get too much in the way of weathering, maybe some weathering around the bottoms of the hull. I like my Ultras squeaky clean.