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Thanks bonz! They are slowly coming together. Was able to get a little more done tonight just wish I had more time. In the final stages of them now so that helps I can see the light at the end of the tunnel so to say. Anyway the one pictured below is the closest to being done so here he is gonna drill the gun barrels to!

Finally Got a good amount of work done! And i now HATE painting Gold! So far everything is coming together rather smoothly. Just some detail work left to do, and my Sgt. needs a head.

The Golds were done in four layers to get the look and tint right, two layers of burnished gold to get good coverage, nulin oil to get down in the recesses of the skulls and Imperial Eagle, and then a quick brush of burnish gold again just to bring it back up to color. Eyes have been painted red, though hard to see in the pic, will get better ones up soon). Weapons are gunmetal grey with a nulin oil wash and burnished gold on the skulls or imperial eagles.

Where I'm running into and would like opinions is getting the edges highlighted, The blue color has come out perfect with the blending that I used even up to the white highlights from a "lightsource" but need to get the armor edges done just to make the models crisper.

I'm going to attempt to take a really light blue or white and just do a quick edge drybrush on a test model to see how that turns out.

Thoughts Comments Suggestions all welcome!!

(One these are done next in line, Assault Troops w/ jump packs, Terminator Squad, and a Dreadnaught all on the chopping block!)

Whats Up guys! Finally a Update worth putting up! I know its taken longer than planned but hey atleast they are finally done. First Squad of the Ultramarines Second Company. Aside from some small nit picky things to indicate Company and Squad.

So Finally Done here is Ultramarines Second Company Squad Fennion

Comments and Critiques Welcomed!

Sicarius himself would be proud. They're nicely done and certainly to a high table top standard! Keep it up.

Thanks Tigurius! Between your blog and Nevelons Yall keep me well updated on Ultramarines Stuff. Hope I fit into the mold with both of yalls skill level.

Working on My Dreadnaught and My Assault Squad, (Got the First coat of blue on em anyway) But I'm already playing around with a new technique in my head to try on my Terminators. Just wanted to run it past everyone to see what they thought or if it would even work.

I wanna try some battle damage since well they are terminators and walk into the middle of all hell. Was thinking for the paint scheme to go standard white primer then, a quick silver, followed by the almighty hairspray, then do the normal blue paint scheme and do the whole water trick to get back down to the silver to show distress in the armors.

Thoughts on this or think its to much or wouldnt work with the models as small and detailed as they are?

Personally, I don't do battle damage, just because I like my models clean - but it sounds interesting. Perhaps do a test model and let us see

I know that a line of black with metal grey then silver on the top is a good way of doing batlle damage, but I'm not an expert.

I’m with Tigurius on this one. I paint my Ultras parade ground clean, so don’t have any experience with weathering and damage. But done right, it can look awesome.

What you are talking about doing sounds right. I know I’ve seen it done in other blogs, but have never read a detailed tutorial on how-to. People do it on regular infantry, not just tanks, so I think you’ll be OK. And if you are going to rough up one unit, the terminators are the right one to do it on.

One would assume that all the marines from your company are going to be weathered at about the same rate, so should be mostly uniform. One squad might be stuck at the sharp end for a little too long and get roughed up more then their peers, but for the most part I think their battle damage would be even. But the terminators are from the first company. They are probably bouncing from the hottest part of the battlezone to the next, with not a lot of time for rest and recovery. They get shoved into the meatgrinder, have the grinder break around them, and then move on. If anyone deserves to have their paint chipped, it’s these guys.

You can also get a cool chipping effect by ripping up a bit of sponge (from a blister pack) and stickeing it into one of those plastic things that come with brushes to protect the bristles.

Gives you a good level of control and placement is up to you.

On the marines, I think the edge highlighting is fantastic and brings them up to a whole new level, awesome painting.

Hey guys figured I have enough done on the Assault Marines to give a update without bombarding everyone with posts.

Blue has been done exactly the same as the Tactical Squad and Bonz mentioned the highlights so to let everyone know the highlight color is a 2:1 Alaitoc Blue and White (water down of course)

I'm really wanting do do power swords and axe on them but last attempt at a power weapon didnt vibe well so may just go with basic on these and play with working on power weapons with some extra ones Ive got laying around.

Quick Question just to ease my own skills, What Gold does everyone use? All mine have been done with GWs burnished gold and it works its just it takes sooooo many coats to get to the right level.

Anyway Here are some WIP pics of the Assault Squad!

I use Shining Gold personally, but it’s a pot from the late 90’s, so not very helpful to you. The new golds don’t seem to match up very well.

Silver metallics have far better coverage than golds, so what works is mix silver with a light brown paint (eg. XV88 from the current range) which will give you a kind of weird gold colour with 1 coat coverage. Then just go over it with your choice of metallic gold (eg. burnished gold). Might work for you

For gold, I use a base of XV-88 and then Gehenna' Gold. Wash with Riekland fleshshade. And last Auric Armour Gold as a layer.

That's some good looking Ultras you have there mate. For gold I actually start with a Vallejo air copper then yellow gold then finally bright gold in layers.
As for the battle damage the hairspray can work but can go VERY wrong if not done correctly. For a couple of £/$ you can get ax chipping effect that only comes off where you need. I use a burnt umber as base coat for a rust effect so if you wanted to do bare Ceramite then you could use a bright silver/aluminium to get the effect.
Love the edge highlights (something I am not able to do on my Scars unfortunately) and good look with AMs, I'm finally finishing off my batch and don't wish to do any more for a long while.

Keep up the good work and let us see a test termie

Thanks guys they are getting there. Gonna attempt to try the xv88 as a base for gold. Started the experiment with a test terminator tonight will post the results soon and if everything goes as planned will give a step by step on how it's done. Worked on my assault marines a little more tonight so I will leave y'all with a pic of the first one done , aside from cleaning up the base of course.

Looks good mate. I love assault marines, honesty, I do...

Have you thought about a brown wash to help warm up the gold?

using a Earthshade Wash on them and then re-highlighting with burnished gold and I've got my bottle of XV-88 out that Im gonna start using as per deadmeat85's suggestion. Just finished the one AM how I had been doing them in case the other technique changes the tone of the gold abit.

Did however pick up a New Captain Model, wasnt to happy with the first one I did. May still use him for something but I think a stripping is in order. As well as a Land Speeder.

Saturday Morning....stuck at work....stayed up all night finishing my Assault Marines, its sooo worth it lol. Though if any little kids come in to bang on drums I may snap and go all Inquisition on them.......

Finally they are done. Well until I get a pen to finish up some of the details on the cloth. They were fun to do and I think they turned out pretty well. Thanks to everyone for the XV-88 tip never crossed my mind before but made a huge difference with the golds. As well as the brown wash as per Nevelons recomendation. I may get a different gold and touch em up just once more real quick to brighten some of it up.

Am abit disappointed that I didnt do power weapons on them just havn't gotten the feel of making them look right yet.

On another note, Got a test terminator started and just from the first hand experiance so far using the hair spray trick.....let it dry alllllll the way before apply the next layer of paint.. Otherwise when it does dry it will leave cracks (though they actually look kinda cool and its not very bad but it is there)

Plan on getting the one Terminator done over the weekend and will post pics of him and if it turns out right will do a step by step for anyone wanting to try it also.

Anyway guys here are the (Mostly, aside from a nit picky thing) Done Assault Squad!

This is nice stuff, good to see progress.

I would suggest maybe a bit more wash on the gold, to really give it a deeper, dirtier texture. Other than that, it's great.

I really like the bases too, where did you get those?

The vanguard kit makes some very nice looking marines, and your’s do not disappoint. I need to get around to slapping some paint on mine.

It’s hard to get a good feel on the gold from this distance. It looks fine at the arm’s length distance, but sometimes you can get a better idea on where to improve from a close up. The lighting is also makes it hard to judge. The lightning claw, for example, looks like he could use a little more wash on his shoulder pad, but the relic blade guy next to him looks like he got hit a little to hard, and could take being lightened up a bit. But that might just be the lighting/shadow.

Thanks guys the critique helps out big time. Just another set of eyes can do wonders for making them all they can be....(in the arrrrrrrmy) sorry bout that had pauly shores voice in my head on that one for some reason. I kind of felt bad at the beginning of this blog for not having a whole lot of finished marines done but wanted to give everyone especially anyone new a good step by step. May go back to the first post and edit it to send everyone to the second page in case they just wanna look at mini's.

Your right the lightning claw really needs to get a good washing, where as the others need to be brushed just a bit to be brought back up to a nice gold color. Went through and highlighted the straps for the jump packs as well across there chests just to bring them out abit. May get a new set of pics up as soon as I finish up the Dreadnaught I'm working on. (Which is in the final stages, a day or two more and it should be done.)

Then for everyone curious about using the hairspray technique. The terminator is next in line and ready to go to be finished up.

I May pickup the Vanguard kit just to have it. Is it bad that I have a closet of unpainted Tyranids and Eldar and Chaos and Death Korps and still go buy new Ultramarines?

Tigurius the bases are all hand done. Just basic 28mm bases with cork glued on, throw a little sand on the edges, paint black, then dry brush with your choice of 2 different grey colors! I can do up a quick tutorial with pics and the exact colors I use if you'd like me too.

Again guys thanks for the suggestions and ideas!

 CoyoteCasket wrote:

I May pickup the Vanguard kit just to have it. Is it bad that I have a closet of unpainted Tyranids and Eldar and Chaos and Death Korps and still go buy new Ultramarines?

What you’ve been referring to for the last few posts as "assault marines” are actually the new vanguard veterans. So you already have the kit. Regular assault marines have a lot less bling and fewer power weapons.

And it’s always OK to go and buy new Ultramarines.

Your right lol I had Sternguard in my head for some reason which is a tactical squad with more bling.

 CoyoteCasket wrote:
Your right lol I had Sternguard in my head for some reason which is a tactical squad with more bling.

Frankly, the new sternguard have the bling level of honor guard. Which is how I mostly built my box of them. And if you don’t own any, I’d recommend a box of them. Between all the extra bits from it and the vanguard box, you can put together pretty much every option for wargear your characters will ever need. Sternguard being one of my MVPs in most of my game helps them out as well, very fun unit.

So I broke down and stopped by the hobby shop on the way home from work and it's all nevelons fault! Picked up a box of stern guard and because it was there got a devestator squad cause I didn't have one. Granted they will have to be put in line after the terminators but still. I suppose I should start working on my actual army list now that I have several different squads.

Did Nev put a gun to your head and force you? BUY PLASTIC CRACK, NOW!

 Tigurius wrote:
Did Nev put a gun to your head and force you? BUY PLASTIC CRACK, NOW!

I love this....

<hides gun>

List! Weren’t you planning on just putting together a 1,000 point list of Ultramarines again? Or have you decided to abandon you reasonable, limited approach and just join us full-force?

Looking back over the blog, and what you said earlier you have/are planning:

Captain

Van. vets
Stern. vets
Termis

Tac squad
<other troop>

Pred.
Dev squad

My under-caffeinated, back of the envelope, math puts that at close to a 1k list right there. Might be a bit over, depending on options. Not a bad intro list.

 Nevelon wrote:
<hides gun>

List! Weren’t you planning on just putting together a 1,000 point list of Ultramarines again? Or have you decided to abandon you reasonable, limited approach and just join us full-force?

Joinnnn usssss. /choas gate voice.

Just tipped 3k points myself, you can't just have 1000 points - don't make Nev come and "visit" you again. That list isn't bad either Nev, though it isn't nearly risky enough and doesn't have enough drop pods

Buy some bikes. Everyone loves bikes....