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Okay, so I started 40k in late 4th edition and completely missed out on the brightly colored mayhem that appears to have been known as edition 2. I have, however, come into possession of several of the earlier rulebooks/codices from this time period and I have to say I'm feeling a little nostalgic. (which is weird, as again, I missed out on this edition) So, as can often happen in this hobby, I decided that I would see if I could scrounge up any relics on ebay. One week and several hundred dollars later, I had managed to acquire the following:
3x Tactical Squads of 2nd edition marines (the push-fit ones from the boxed set)
A partial tactical squad of the same (I intend to use them sternguard vets)
A Space Marine Captain
A Metal Veteran Sergeant
An original Rogue Trader Predator (spoon top) and Rhino, both still in the box, unassembled.
A squad of old-style terminators. (2nd/3rd edition)

So anyway, all this is to say that I have decided to paint up some old-style ultramarines in all their bright, primary-colored goodness!
Here is the first model. I would love to here y'alls thoughts!

Thanks for the feedback!
Will definitely try to brighten up the yellow on the next model. As far as the bases -- goblin green is not going to happen, as I really don't like the look (one part of the retro look that doesn't make me feel nostalgic). I tried to hint at it by using green as a base color, but I guess the end result is going to have some stylistic anachronisms. Also, once I have the look I want to usefor sure, I may try painting some modern sculpts in the same scheme and see what I can come up with.

Okay, so I had already had this partially painted when I started this project, actually the first truly retro model in my collection. Its still a WIP, but I think I like how it's turning out.
Also, to clarify, I guess the retro-look I am going for is not actually 2nd Ed, but the 2nd Ed models as they were painted for the third edition codex.
As always, I would love some feedback on the paint-job.

Well, I was going to be working on the first tactical squads for the army, but winter decided to make a grand entrance and the cold/snowiness of the things is preventing me from spray-priming the miniatures. Instead I decided to start working on this Terminator Librarian I found as an extra in one of my ebay purchases. I think it is probably among the oldest models in my collection. Anyway, I saw the one they did on Tale of Painters and was inspired to try and do this guy justice... Here's where I'm at so far. (also, those of you who said I should go Goblin Green for the bases... you were right. It does look good.)

Just a little more work on my librarian. Not sure what I'm going to do about the haft of his axe/ what color I'm going to make the power blade. I'm thinking the same low quality NMM gold effect on the axe handle that I used on the chest eagle? Also, most of the power-swords I've seen from the time period are done in red, so I'll probably end up going that route for the blade. Would love the thoughts of someone more knowledgeable about the era.

So, haven't had the chance to paint much for the last couple days. I did manage to get this guy at a good price on ebay and have decided that he will be perfect as captain for my force. (the previous captain just got a new backpack and a demotion to veteran sergeant. Anyway, looking forward to painting him up.

So I'm wondering how heretical it would be to turn this blog into one about doing a modern (not at all retro) ultramarines army and a retro blood angels force simultaneously? I started painting the tactical marines, got about five done and realized that painting the ultras that color wasn't doing it for me. I love all the shiny brightness, but the actual painting process wasn't fun, which to me is the whole point of the hobby. On a whim I decided to paint one of my push-fit marines in the classic blood angels colors (black rims, yellow eagle) and really liked how it turned out, so I kinda want to put the retro minis I picked up into that project. Anyway, I'm still very new to dakka, so I guess I'd like to know if that's cool? Do I have to get a mod to change the name or something? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Alright then. So I have changed the name of the blog into something vague enough to accommodate my painting ADD. Without further ado, I present my first painted retro-themed blood angel:


So this is the direction I see the bulk of my retro-minis going. This guy took about half the time that the Ultramarines did and was a lot more fun to paint. That being said, I do still have the dream of owning a the complete second company of ultras someday and will probably pursue that shortly (although with a paint scheme that does not involve the tedious yellow shoulder rims)

Okay, so the winter weather has prevented me from priming any more models, but I have been quite busy assembling my Christmas goodies. Just wanted to show off a couple of the highlights. For my Ultramarine Army I converted a Captain from various boxed sets.




I know it's a relatively simple conversion, but I like the way he turned out. I also wanted to show off the assembled rogue trader predator kit for the retro blood angels:





There's a lot more to come, but that's it for now. Cheers.

Okay, so I didn't think I would be resuming this blog. A little while back I sold all of my 40k models including everything I previously showed here. I was pretty sure that I was done with 40k forever, but after lurking around some of the other Ultramarines blogs here on dakka I got the itch and so have decided to resume work. I'm starting from scratch, but thanks to some ebay steals I have a decent sized army on its way again. I've decided to use more of the later models but keep the retro-theme intact. Here is the first combat squad.


What do y'all think?

@paradigm: Thanks! I was pleasantly surprised by how well the new tac squad worked out.
@Joe Rugby: Glad you liked the kneepads. I was trying to mimic the style on the old metal tyrannic war vets.
Now have the second combat squad finished.


I've managed to snag quite a sizeable army off of ebay and there are some genuine retro-goodies in there as well.


More to come.
As always feedback is welcome.
Cheers.

Just a quick update: Next up to get painted is a tactical squad from the 2nd ed starter box that I managed to get cheap off of ebay.





Weather permitting, I should be able to prime them in the next day or so. In the meantime, I hope to assemble the squad's suitable old-school ride...

Okay, so I keep dropping this blog and then wanting to re-start it. I keep deciding that I want to be done with 40k, and then inevitably end up re-investing in it. Mostly I blame Gitz and his Mantis Warriors project which keeps drawing me back in with the amazing stuff on it. At any rate, I have decided once again to try my hand at a really big painting project: A Demi Company of Ultramarines! And some Blood angels...and some dark angels... and some space wolves. Also Grey Knights. They'll need somebody to fight... like Orks! And Chaos Marines... and Tyranids... yeah and Necrons! The Tau can come too. Darn Ebay and thier bulk lots of unrelated packages! At any rate, I have been able to resume work on the retro-ultras and begin on some retro blood angels. Hope you enjoy!
First up we have the Assault Squad:

And A Rhino for the Tactical Squad to ride in.

And A Terminator test model...

And a blood angel.

Next up will be a test model for the Dark Angels followed by either the rest of a Blood angel Combat Squad or an Ultramarine Captain.
Well, let me know what you think. Feedback is always welcome.

So... the results of my latest ebay binge have begun to arrive. I'm still amassing as many older space marine kits as I can afford/find. At least ones in relatively good condition.
One of the things I find most interesting about this project is that it gives me a chance to explore what the 40k hobby was like well before I was involved with it. I was able to get ahold of the Space Marines: Warriors of the imperium box, which looks to be one of the first all-plastic space marine kits produced after the rogue trader era beakies.



I have a sizable amount of 2nd ed plastic push-fit marines, so these will mostly be assembled as various sergeant models along with a plastic close combat weapons sprue that came with an old techmarine. Using the two together, I should be able to produce a good number of reserve tactical squads just in case I ever decide to fully bow to the collecting madness of going for an entire chapter...

Also arriving was my 1998(?) Pattern Battleforce Box. It came with one of the more recent tactical squads, the old-style plastic terminators, three bikes, a landspeeder, and some ruined terrain. I thought the terrain was a really nice touch, and kind of wish battleforce boxes still looked like that.





Lastly, I used several of the missle launcher troopers that I have amassed ( I think they come from old paint sets?) to form a retro-style devastator squad. The sergeant was converted from an old bike sergeant torso and the plastic marines mentioned above.



Well there's today's update. Let me know what you all think, feedback is always appreciated.

Was able to get a little painting time in today and was able to start work on my Ultramarines Captain, He's outfitted such that he can be a generic captain or a stand-in for Sicarius.
Not sure how the NMM is going to work out for his backpack and shoulder pads, but we'll see...

Well, I ran out of glaze medium which has ground my painting to a halt until I can re-supply. Didn't realize how dependent I was on that stuff for my painting. Oh well... in the meantime I have continued my stockpiling and assembling frenzy in a desperate attempt to get as much as possible primed before priming weather goes away. First up we have the lmt. edition Heroes of the Adeptus Astartes Box.



This was a nice box, because it gave me the Chapter Masters of all the chapters I am currently working on, plus some generic heroes. the only thing I regret is that it did not come with the banners to fix to their backpacks. (Not really a problem, as I have decided to cut them down to reduce break-ability.) I managed to get a couple of them put together, but was hesitant to start on Logan Grimnar, as he looks to be a little more involved...



Also, I managed to put together some of the pieces from the battleforce box. I had forgotten what a pain it was to put landspeeders together. ugh.



A shot of the Ruins.



And the Bike squad...



Lastly I have some shots of the first anagonist army I intend to paint, old style Tau Empire. I managed to get a hold of the old army box which contained the codex, a limited ethereal and several actual boxes of units inside. Pretty cool, and it came with an extra devilfish, which was sweet.



Some shots of the contents. I really like the old style illustrations they used to put on the unit boxes. There was some really evocative artwork out there that I find much more enticing (if less practical) than the pictures on the current boxes.

Battlesuits



Ethereal



And that's about if for right now, I've got some good weather today, so I hope to get a good amount of priming in if possible.
Cheers.

I can imagine. That and the metal dreadnought seem like real nightmares. I had the great eagle model for the Lord of the Rings range and that stupid plastic nub snapped off the very first time I test-fitted it to the base.

Eventually I will, but those are the older style of bikers and I don't have as many spare parts for them. The current bikes mix well enough with the old and will be easier to convert with my modern bits. I plan to eventually have the full squad of ten bikers (or eight plus the attack bike) to form the second assault squad of the 2nd company.

Had a productive hobby day yesterday and was able to prime and assemble a bunch of models. Got my 2nd Ed Terminator Squad assembled, as well as my Tau Crisis Commander, Devilfish, and a Squad of Fire-Warriors.









It's been a while since I put any Tau together, and I was pleasantly reminded of what a joy they are. The devilfish is in my opinion, a very elegant model, that takes all of fifteen minutes to properly assemble, and fire warriors are also a very good kit considering thier age ( as long as you don't look to closely at their thigh armor)...

In other news, my glaze medium should be arriving soon, so I should be able resume painting fairly shortly.

Cheers.

Soooo... Haven't been able to paint much as work has been a little crazy lately, but I got a package from across the pond this last week and managed to knock out the Sergeant of my Blood Angels Teminator Squad.
Banner Courtesy of Bash

Okay, so I apologize for the randomness of this blog, but my work on the blood angels terminators has been sidetracked by the arrival of my first Betrayal at Calth box. At first I wasn't sure how the heresy era marines were going to look in the retro style, so I knocked out a test model.





Compared to a modern tac marine...



Must say I am pleased with the result. All of the Calth minis are beautiful, crisp detail, minimal flash...etc.
Anyway, this box is probably going to absorb my attention for the immediate future. I got 5 boxes (Self Control? I don't believe that's a thing right? yeah... somebody made that up...) which I plan to paint as mostly Ultramarines, with maybe one box being different so I can actually play the game ( I'm thinking Salamanders for the other...)
Thoughts and comments appreciated as always.
cheers.

Got A little bit of work done on my Calth Squad Sgt. Having a little difficulty with the hazard stripes on his powerfist. Also, apologize for the darkness of the photos. I need to fiddle with my lightbox a little it seems.

First of all, I want to thank everyone for the positive comments -- they really help me stay motivated. I was able to finish the BaC sergeant today, and am pretty pleased with how he turned out.







Also, I began work on my test model for the cataphracti Teminators. Having a little difficulty there. At first I had him painted up with a lot more yellow/fake gold effect. It was overpowering the blue, so I toned it down some to this point.





Not sure if I want to keep the yellow at all. I've thought about replacing the gold areas in the GW photos with plain silver or simply going all blue, with a red bolter, hazard stripes on the fist and just a white stripe for the helmet in a sort of nod to the RT days. Feedback on this idea is especially welcome. Cheers.

Thanks guys. I'm still mulling over what direction to take on my Terminators but in the meantime, I have the rest of the first combat squad nearly finished.



Had some fun freehanding stuff onto the kneepads and I liked how the check pattern turned out so, I decided to give my rhino the same treatment. It needed something to give it a retrro-feel anyway.



Not terribly neat, but it gets the job done. Also want to give a shout out to you lamenters players out there. I can only imagine the pain your left shoulder pauldrons must cause you...
Well that's it for today . Cheers.

Okay, so just a minor update today. Just knocked out the test model for my salamanders space marines (I'm going to use these guys in place of word bearers so I can actually play the BaC board game.)
I initially went with yellow eye lenses like the salamanders in codex: Armageddon, but decided I didn't like how they looked and opted for red instead. Nothing particularly retro about the scheme, but it doesn't look too out of place next to the ultras.





That's all I managed today. I hope to finish the Ultramarine combat squad soon, and then move on to one of salamanders.
cheers.

Thanks guys. Back in the day I actually had painted a whole battle company of Salamanders (which, sadly, I rage-sold after one of the GW price hikes convinced me I was done with 40k forever -- we see how well that worked out...) so I got a lot of practice perfecting the flame symbol. It was actually kind of nostalgic painting this guy up.

Okay, so I've finished the first combat squad of Ultras from BaC except for flock and gravel. I decided to renege on the green bases. I know this is retro-heresy, but for some reason I love the green bases on the blood angels, but can't bring myself to feel right about it on the ultramarines.... Also I apologize for the blurriness of the pic, didn't realize until after i had uploaded...



Also just for fun I thought I would do an army shot in shameless imitation of LDP.



That's it for today. I'm not sure what's next for me. I'm thinking about painting up a trio of contemptors for the Dakka monthly challenge, or it might be a combat squad of Salamanders.
cheers.

@Stormwall
First of all thanks for the kind words. As for your question, I draw inspiration from tracking down old codices and rulebooks from that era. What looks "retro" varies from chapter to chapter, but as a general rules of thumb I would go with these:
Goblin Green Bases (which I cheat on)
Brighter colors in general
Yellow for the barrels of heat-based weaponry (melta and flame) Plasma coils do not glow, but tend to be straight metal.
Retro models rarely incorporate Gold paint. Instead they tend to use a very basic NMM effect. I imitate this by painting a layer of Averland sunset and then glazing this with (whatever the current vermin brown equivalent is -- skrag brown maybe?) and then highlighting the very edges with white.
Hazard stripes on weapons (CC usually, bolters is mostly an Iron warriors thing) Checkerboard patters, army badges on Greaves.

Well that's all I can think of at the moment. If you like, I could probably throw a tutorial up for how I do my ultras.
Hope that helps. cheers.

Sons of Orar you say? Yeah, I would say your best bet is hazard stripes on the Chainswords and Powerfists, the fake-gold effect for the chest eagle and maybe some red and white checks on the pauldrons or kneepads. If you want to go all in, then green bases and maybe do something crazy colorful like bright yellow for the bolter casings.

Wow guys. Thanks for all the responses!
@LDP I'm glad you're liking the blog. I'm pretty sure it was reading your Ultramarines blog that made me want to restart this one after initially abandoning it.

So I've decided to throw my hat in the ring for the dakka monthly painting challenge. I was torn between contemptors or the Salamander combat squad so in my typical fashion I've decided to do something else entirely.
Blood Angels Devastators.



To be fair, I've wanted to start these guys for a while, and the challenge is as good an excuse as any.
cheers