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I have.. no idea. The guy with the thunder hammer and lightning claw should lead the most badass company though, that's for sure.

I's very useful to look back at what you've accomplished and see where you've come. I have a challenge for you. Take a look at your first miniature (of this line), and your last. Ask yourself... "Is my latest effort significantly better painted than my first?" If it is, great! You're on the right track. If it isn't, then challenge yourself to learn a new technique. Just one... that will move you one step further down the path of becoming a better artist. Dakka is just loaded with talented people who would be wiling to help you learn, all you ever have to do is ask!

GrimDork wrote:I have.. no idea. The guy with the thunder hammer and lightning claw should lead the most badass company though, that's for sure.

As the guy with the jump pack, he’s a shoe in for Captain Numitor, Lord Executioner, of the 8th. The most badass company is, of course, the 3rd.

Gitsplitta wrote:I's very useful to look back at what you've accomplished and see where you've come. I have a challenge for you. Take a look at your first miniature (of this line), and your last. Ask yourself... "Is my latest effort significantly better painted than my first?" If it is, great! You're on the right track. If it isn't, then challenge yourself to learn a new technique. Just one... that will move you one step further down the path of becoming a better artist. Dakka is just loaded with talented people who would be wiling to help you learn, all you ever have to do is ask!

I think a good judge of that will happen when I paint one of those old RT captains. I can look at both my terminator captains, and the latest one is notably better then the old one. But how much of that is the detail of the modern sculpt? As much as I love the old stuff, GW does put out much nicer looking minis these days. Next month I’ll do a year progress update, once I’ve got all 12 of my entries from Para’s competition. Even over that timeframe, I’ve improved.

Here is a pic of the guys awaiting paint:


We’ll see how they look compared to the old RT Lt. Commander, who is one of the older minis I have. One thing that gives it away is the red eyes. After an (early) point I standardized all lenses to a metallic green. He pre-dates that.

(He wasn’t in my earlier list of captains. He was filling in for the company champion before I painted up a new one. But as his RT rank was basically second in command for the chapter, he should be here)

Here is a slightly better solo shot of Captain Ardias. He’s one of the models that already has a name, as he’s been playing that role since early 3rd edition.


And the latest painted captain pic:


Edit: Gits’ comment also decided who I’m painting next. The leftmost RT captain just moved over to the active painting spot. Let’s see what 25+ years of experience has done for me!
Edit 2: Opps, forgot a captain. In the theme of my fuzzy time setting, I have a Captain Fabian from the future, after he fell in glorious combat and was entombed into a dread. This was 3rd ed me trying to justify the fact that there were two captain listed in assorted places for the 3rd company.

Not bad freehand work on the name scroll for younger me with a brush.


Automatically Appended Next Post:


OK, that’s what I’m going with. For now. Who knows what will happen if I get/build more captains. And what are the odds of that?
(some of the first names are from the 40k Lexicanum, so take with salt)

Back row, from the left in company order:
1st Company, Regent of Ultramar, Severus Agemman
2nd Company, Master of the Watch Cato Sicarius
3rd Company, Master of the Arsenal, Mikael Fabian (in front with the chainsword)
--Jehnnus Ardias (in middle, with the SB/powersword)
--Mikael Fabian (In back, in the walking coffin)
4th Company, Master of the Fleet, Cpt. Idaeus
5th Company, Master of the Marches, Caito Galenus
(front row)
6th Company, Master of the Rites, Cpt. Epathus
7th Company, Chief Victualler, Cpt. Ixion
8th Company, Lord Executioner, Cpt. Numitor
9th Company, Master of Relics, Cpt. Sinon
10th Company, Master of Recruits, Cpt. Antilochus

I think on my to build list is going to be more arms for Cpt. Fabian. I’d like to have a PP/PS combo, just because that’s what he used in a fluff piece. Plus they do look cool. He’s also my go-to foot captain.

There you have it, a chapter (plus a few) worth of captains.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just because I love to see how many post I can auto-append:


I forgot I had made a nice sword arm with a BaC blade and one of my UM shoulderpads. Already primed even. Plasma pistol was one already on arm, with an ornate eagle shoulderpad I normally reserve for captains. Will get primed sometime in spring. I think I have 2 PP arms kicking around anyway that I made for the assault marines.

In other news, went up to the new store hoping for a pick up game tonight, no luck. That’s 0 for 2 at the new store, but at least last week there were 40k people to chat with.

Not a total loss. I had a $20 gift certificate, which when paired with some guilt free money from my wallet turned into a stalker/hunter box. It’s overpriced for what it is, but when you shave a bit off the top, becomes reasonable. Might field as-is, or as a counts-as whirlwind. I might see if I can cobble together some sort of missile turret.

Man that comment was spot on from Gits.

I also love the Lt.commander, even if he is a bit dated compared to your new. I look forward to the BaC captain.

Oh and you can totally make a freebie TFC with the hunter portion of the gun if you are running a stalker.



Edit: 2k posts, woo~

Nice collection of Captains. I like the bike dude, especially his helmet with the red markings.

EDC

Nice! (Getting the stalker/hunter, not the getting no games in).

They're a nice looking tank, and Stormwall has it right. With some magnets you could get yourself a TFC too.

The stalker/hunter has me torn. I prefer the look of the hunter. Mechanically the stalker is a far better choice. I’m pretty sure I can swap between them, but will need to double check the sprues.

One problem with the TFC idea (which I have given some thought) is the fact I only own one techmarine with a harness (from my actual TFC). And have no plans to get another one while they are still finecast. I guess I could just sub my other tech, he needs to see more play as it is.

It’s hard to choose which one of my captains is my favorite. They all have their pros and cons.

I believe the Hunter/Stalker kit has enough parts to make both weapons and interchange. This is one of the threads I went to while researching Ultramarines, always looking good.

 40kFSU wrote:
This is one of the threads I went to while researching Ultramarines, always looking good.

Thanks. I think. Now I feel all responsible, like I should pick things up a bit to represent the chapter a bit better. Icky grown-up feelings.

I’d go through and try to make a list of my fellow Ultras who I’ve drawn inspiration from, but whenever I do that I feel like I’m going to forget someone. Don’t want to hurt feelings or leave anyone out. I do make an effort to name drop other blogs and pics when I do think of one, but compiling a list seems a daunting task.

I’d do a search on my own posts in this section of the board, but I’ve got quite a bunch, and not all of them are in my fellow Ultra’s blogs. It would not be a good thing for the chaplains to see my browser history. There may be a little heresy in there.


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OK, this is just going to be a draft/WIP, but I think I am going to try to gather up some links to my fellow Ultras.

In no particular order, and defiantly leaving people out (not intentionally)

"For Guilliman! For the Emperor!" - Straightsilver's Ultramar stuff.
Randy's Ultramarines 3rd Co. & Macragge PDF
LDP's Ultramarines
SRM's 2nd edition Ultramarines and friends
Ultramarines, Blood Angels, Grey Knights and House Hawkshroud.

I’ll try to dredge up some more later, The Wife just got home.

Some painting progress. Just the basic blue and black at this point, but I’m working!



While I’m at it, I think I’m going to try to freehand the old RT captain heraldry on his shoulder. Work up some fluff to how he received a battlefield promotion to replace the fallen captain, and just had time to swap shoulderpads, and not update all his rank insignia.



Somewhere, I have a powerfist with that on it I freehanded back in the day. Could not find it this morning, but will try to locate it for a comparison pic later.

Look, a rhino chassis:


As I put this together, I was reminded how much the pred needs a new kit. I had similar thoughts when I was assembling my vindi. The pred is just a new turret slapped on top of a rhino. This guy has a slightly more robust front plate, and reinforced sides. Feels more sturdy, tank-like. Oh well, on to the gun assembly. My back timed out last night, or I would have done more. It’s no rush to finish though, so I just stopped and moved to the recliner. Getting old sucks (but beats the alternative) The only part shared between the two guns is the antenna array. I’ll see which one looks better without, and cob something to fill the spot. I suspect it’s going to be the stalker that gets a little kitbashed.

I have that figure... just love it!

Hopefully I’ll get more paint in today, just been having fun building.



Right now they are basically done. I might glue a few more parts down, but I’m undecided. Do I want the guns to actually be able to pivot and point toward my foes? Do they need to be able to elevate? How many separate pieces do I want to prime and paint? Some I’m leaving unglued so I can get a brush in there. The hunter’s main gun, the side sensor housing, and both the ring they sit on and the base for the rhino are separate. That’s not too bad. The only thing I’d still glue would be the ring to the base, and that would kill the rotation. Probably leave it as-is.

The stalkers are in a lot more bits. Each gun mount is made of three pieces, two sides and a base. Plus the 2 guns and the base plate. Lots of bits, some small and fiddly. I could glue the sides of the gun mount to the gun, which would eliminate the ability to elevate, but make 4 less separate bits. I’m not going to glue the bases to the guns, as that would make painting irritating. If I was willing to forgo the ability to pivot the guns, I could glue them to the base. I’ll probably take the middle road here and just fix the elevation. It might be a little juvenile, but I do like to point guns at things when I shoot. Dakka Dakka noises optional.

The driver is sporting a Mk. IV helmet, courtesy of the BaC box. If I ever do play HH, he can be a nod towards the period driving a new rhino. He and the other hatch are just placed in, can be swapped out. I almost went over the top with the driver, thinking of giving him a ML or powerfist or something crazy. I still might, have the spare hatches. Might save that for a “I’m bored, want to build something” project.

I do like the fact that you get two separate weapon systems. I’ve got the spare rhino hull, I could put them both on the table. Makes it more likely for me to grab another one of these guys. I’d have to not field my pred to get all the guns on the table though. It and my razor are my only normal modern rhino hulls. But if I could get another stalker on the table, I could field the AA force. Spare guns could also counts-as nicely as TFCs.

As could something I found hiding in the back of my workbench. And old mole mortar! Just one small problem:

OK, it’s more of an Epic problem. I have no idea where this guy came from. I never played epic. He’s been rattling around for a while now. Almost tempted to paint him for next month’s challenge “Size Matters Not”


Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends!

You too!

Man, between you, Paradigm, and a couple of others...be luck if I don't start painting marines again..

Absolutely exciting, still rooting for the TFC even though you probably won't do it.

Because of your RT picture one of my sergeants has captain heraldry with a red slash over it, showing his demotion for censure.

If I need to work it into a list, I have zero problems fielding the loose guns as TFCs. Probably won’t modify them for the job though.

Also, on my list of pie-in-the-sky projects, all the random guns might find a place when I get around to building a polar defense base display board. Cut little slots out where they can fit in. Would make a lot of sense for these kind of guns to be part of that.

Getting a little more paint on. Almost done with getting the base colors blocked in. Quartered the shoulder, need to clean up the white, but that will take some time. I didn’t snap a pic, but I got the guns blacked and drybrushed on the dread. I think I’m going to heat stress them, so that will be a number of additional steps, but I like they way it turned out on the ven dread.

I realized when I was chatting with Hissy over in Ratius’s thread that it’s been a while since I took a picture of the shelf. So I grabbed the camera and got a new one.

While not that different from the previous one, there is a bit for stuff crammed on there. Rough count puts me at about 250 marines, plus vehicles (20ish more). If I count everything in to to build and to paint piles, I’ll add ~60 more bodies to that and few more vehicles. Over half the first company, a third of the 10th, roughly two battle companies, and far more HQs then I need. Not bad. Not bad at all...

That's a lot of Ultramarines!

You're light on the tanks (which is reasonable, because SM tanks are lacking for the most part) - I know I'd like to see more armour. I'm quite looking forward to you getting stuck into the Stalker/Hunter.

Wow! That is pretty amazing.

Paradigm wrote:That's a lot of Ultramarines!

Gitsplitta wrote:Wow! That is pretty amazing.

Thanks guys, glad I can impress. With quantity, if not quality.

Zambro wrote:You're light on the tanks (which is reasonable, because SM tanks are lacking for the most part) - I know I'd like to see more armour. I'm quite looking forward to you getting stuck into the Stalker/Hunter.

Emperor knows I don’t need more troops. Although I could probably use a few more scouts. And after putting together the BaC terminators, I did get a little bit of a hankering to get some modern ones. But I’ve got plenty of basic guys in power armor. So most new purchases are probably going to be more tanks. It looks like Whirlwinds are back on GW’s website, they were out of stock for a while. Probably next thing on my to-buy list. Unless I just get another AA tank box, and work with the hunter=WW counts-as.

I almost tried to prime last Tuesday. It was warm(ish) but just a little too humid, due to melting snow. I figured if it cleared up the next day I would, but it poured. So no luck. It’s mild out now, but very damp still. So the to-prime box is going to have to wait a bit longer. I still have the Vindi that’s giving me coy looks. If I wasn’t painting the dread this month, I might have done that instead. So there is some hope of seeing some treads rolling across this blog soon-ish.

Lotsss of crunchy Marinesss Mr Nevelon.

(Nice).

 Ratius wrote:
Lotsss of crunchy Marinesss Mr Nevelon.

(Nice).

No eating the Ultras! Bad Bug! Go find some guardsmen to snack on.

OK, I decided to drag stuff out and sort thing a bit. I’ve sorta done this halfway a few times, but decided to actually lay everything out. The 2nd company:


The 10 empty bases are for the last BaC squad, and the one in the command squad is for an apothecary. He’ll use one of my last 3 pairs of legs. Big one is the contemptor currently getting paint. I’ll strip the old PC force marines to fill out the ranks of bolters. Will have to find a bunch of new arms for the heavy/special guys. I’ve got plenty in the bits box dating from the original RTB01 boxes, but will have to make sure I have enough. I do feel a little bad not utilizing them better. That’s a lot of retro heavies that will be going to waste. But since the swap shelf was full of spare fancy guns, I just didn’t need them. As this is a very long term project, I might pick up some basic bolter boys before I get around to striping them. In an ideal world, they can be ranked up for 30k support squads rather then demoted to bolters.

I could also shake free a few more RTB01s from the BA shelf. More nostalgia there though. Picking up another tac box would solve my problems, but is a lousy use of my hobby budget. One of these days I need to liquidate some of my old unused stuff to fund more active side projects. I hate dealing with random people though.

In other news I’m borrowing a lecture series on DVD from my father-in-law on photography. It’s done by one of the guys who works for National Geographic. I suspect most of it will not be applicable to minis, but I might be able to glean some new skills from it. Can’t hurt.

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend.

--Nev

Wow, that's impressive. I could never do an actual company... don't have anywhere near enough regular old bolter marines for that.

Thanks for sharing all your Ultramarines Nev.

Neat seeing them laid out like that.

Gitsplitta wrote:Wow, that's impressive. I could never do an actual company... don't have anywhere near enough regular old bolter marines for that.

Spare heavy/specials/sarges can always find a use on the table, but there is an upper limit on how many bolters one man needs. A battle company is about twice that number

Yorkright wrote:Thanks for sharing all your Ultramarines Nev.

GrimDork wrote:Neat seeing them laid out like that.

Thanks guys. While I was on a roll, I dragged out some more:

The 3rd co:


1st. co:

One squad of sternguard is all bolters, the other will be 5xC-melta 2xHF.

10th co:

(forgot to put the LSS with them)
These guys are kinda a mess. I feel like I should pick up another basic scout box just to help level out the squads. Mostly an eclectic mix of metals, with a dash of plastic snipers and the crew of the LSS. Another stick of snipers still on sprue. I’d also like to flesh out the bike squad a little.

And the whole lot:


And those that remain behind on the shelf (mostly chapter level stuff and transports)

OK, I’ve been monkeying around with a new photo tool (Photoscape X) in an attempt to present my work a little bit better.



Still need to figure out how to get the setup I like. Getting the crop right and the pictures framed is both simple and a little tricky. But as I’ve only been playing with it for about half an hour, I’m sure I’ll work something out. Some of that time was getting iPhoto to cough up my pictures. I’d like to get it ironed out by the end of the month, so when I do my year in review for Para’s competition, I just need one pic per month, rather then five-ish.

Done the washes on the golds for the Dread’s legs and the Lt. Next step for both of them is a blue cleanup pass, then the wash. Not sure if that will happen tonight. I booted up DoW again, and am playing through the campaign. Fun times.

Looks like a nice start. Photos could almost use frames separating them .

 GrimDork wrote:
Looks like a nice start. Photos could almost use frames separating them .

Was thinking that myself. I think I might also need to get some stock graphics to fill empty slots. Chapter symbols, Aquilas, and the like. Still poking around.