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With my university year coming to a close, I feel that this might be the best time to start a blog that will help keep me motivated to build and paint the collection of models that appears to have been taking over my room the past year or two.
This blog will be about converting every single marine/miniature I have to create a unique Ultramarine army through both conversion and painting style as well as detailed bases (since I'm a bit of a sucker for the finer details )

The scenario for this blog is as follows:

"The Quantum Sector in the Segmentum Pacificus, located near the Eye of Terror, came under attack by a daemon incursion, lead by a World Eaters warlord Aratock the First Blooded. In the opening weeks of his Blood Crusade through the Sector, worlds were consumed before his power. His campaign seemed unstoppable for the populaces, and Solace looked to suffer the same fate of all the other worlds in its system, but they were not forsaken. Help arrived in the form of dozens of Space Marine chapters and Imperial Guardsmen, called to battle by the High Lords of Terra. Together they would blunt and turn back the World Eaters general and his forces.
The Sisters of Battle stationed on Solace were the first to fall, defending their shrines to the last as Aratock sought these buildings out. For what significance is unknown to the Imperial forces at this stage. The Imperial regiments that were planetside have been decimated, shadows of their former numbers as they hid and fought a retreating war. What remained of the people on Solace watched in awe as the sky rained drop ships and drop pods, disgorging forth troops to fight in the twisting and rubble strewn streets of Solace. For the first time, hope had returned to Solace."

***
From the writings of Rodarius, the Rough Poet.
Self appointed scribe of the 17th Red Devils Infantry "Underdogs".
9 997 945.M41


And now with that rough bit of writing out of the way, here are some images so far of my efforts. The conversion work is going to be subtle on some, and possibly more extensive on others. Ill be going home in a day or two and so Ill be able to upload more photos of the models in a more complete stage. I hope you all enjoy taking this ride with me

Probably my two favourite built marines so far simply because of the poses of the models.


The dreadnought has had more subtle conversion work done.







And picture for size comparison.




Apologies on some of the blurry images, I had to make do with a potato to take them. If you click on the image, you should be able to get upclose and personal with the details on the models.
Hope you all enjoy the start of this interesting journey, any questions or comments you might have are welcome

Dis gun b good!

@thenoobbomb - Thanks, mate. I'm hoping this thing will keep me motivated over these Christmas months

Update time!

Arrived home from uni and decided to do a few bits and pieces. I have found that taking photos of my phone tends to de-saturate them a little. In relity, the dreadnought has sharper highlights and the gradient from blue to dark blue is more visible. But, that's what you get for trying to use a phone to take pictures, I suppose

Anyway, Here are some almost finished shots of the Venerable Dreadnought and the first Tactical squad built and ready for priming.









The squad was created using some bits from Anvil Industries, they do some great bits to help convert tac marines and their weaponry, the drum mags being a favourite of mine.







As always, questions and comments are most welcome

With recent work commitments, there has been little time to focus on the hobby, but I come forth now with a few pictures of some Ultramarines
These are just the base and then first highlight layers on the marines so far:







I hope you guys enjoy these.

good stuff! i'd like to see more highlighting on those SM but the project is good looking, keep it up!

 deathalus wrote:
good stuff! i'd like to see more highlighting on those SM but the project is good looking, keep it up!

Thanks
The highlights come in the next two stages of painting on the armour. So far they have only had a basecoat, a wash and then a drybrushing of a lighter blue to highlight the armour overall before I'll be going over another lighter blue. After that comes a bit of edge highlighting to pick out the sharper features, stay tuned for more.

Great work!
Keep up the good work!
Regards
Mark

Here, have some bases for my scouts! Im focusing on the rubble/urban theme for my basing which will be focused around greys and blues with some bits of rust thrown in for good measure.





More updates in the coming days as I am currently just going through and putting the second layer of blues on the tactical squad.
Hope you enjoy

After a bit of busy scheduling with work and things happening in day to day life, updates were unable to come sooner as less and less time was able to be diverted to the blog.
But. Not for long, for I have for you all today, an UPDATE!!
Here we have some lovely near finished paintschemes on the squad Sergeant and another marine as well as some near completed scouts.
The first Tac squad has all of the blues and golds down and painted with the exception of the highlights on the armour. Still to go are the all of the metallics and the battle damage as well as finishing off some bases with extras.

Without further ado, here we go, prepare yourselves... There is a small ocean of pictures to wade through

























Here are the bases painted for the Tac squad, missing a few last drybrushes or coats of paint but overall shaping up nicely.





And finally we have some scouts. The scheme for the scouts is based on a dark armour fatigue Ultramarine scheme I saw in a WD magazine article that featured a team members Ultramarine army in the changiing to the newest edition of 40k. Seeing the way the scouts were painted made me want to do my own in a similar fashion. What the camera doesn't show is the subtle variations of greys in the fatigues to give a very dark urban grey feel yet still retaining the dark image over all. I wanted my scouts to be wraiths in the urban warfare, not bright blue and white like the standard scheme for Ultramarine scouts would have them seen as.









Of course there is still the matter of the skin tones needing the be fleshed out a little more but they are also shaping up nicely for the squad at the moment in time.

Any ways, sorry for the carpet bombing of pictures, I just thought that a picture might saya thousand words where I have been slaking lately in the updates.

As always, I hope you all enjoy the models and comments and questions are always welcome.

Heavy conversion, Ultramarines and really nice painting...

You have my attention, sir! Good stuff!

Thouse are anvil legs right? good stuff sir!

@Paradigm - Why thank you. DakkaDakka already has so many Ultramarine blogs, I shall need to up my game to stand out it would seem.

@Slipknotzim - Indeed they are, very excellent too and get the job done just right to give a more machine and mechanised feel to the legs, reminds me of Heresy era armour which I think looks amazing.

Very thoughtful marines! The blue is looking good with the highlights.

Small little update!

Due to some room rearrangements happening at the moment, I am unable to keep all of my things out to build and paint models, so for now I decided I would give you all a small taste of other things I had been working on a while ago but never got around to showing.

So for today, I bring you a picture of my first try at a World Eater marine in need of a wash in the joints and a Imperial Guardsman Sergeant complete with plasma pistol and powersword. As well as a little bonus pic for those that love small fluffy creatures





Here we have the start of an allied guard attachment, the 17th Red Devils that accompany the Ultramarines on Solace after drop podding onto the surface.







And finally, any rabbit lovers out there? These little bubbies were born not too long ago and they have appeared to taken away precious time from my hobby... No regrets though, just look at those little faces!

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Very nice bases. Did you use the basing kit from GW for them?

 Ustrello wrote:
Very nice bases. Did you use the basing kit from GW for them?

On some of the bases such as the guardsman, I used the 40k basing kit with the chaos helmet which works really well.

On others, I use a mix of plasticard, the 40k basing kit components and some dirt/sand from outside to create the varied gravel ground.

A great extra little touch are the skulls which can be bought in bunches on ebay and things for a couple of dollars in some places.

Really wonderful conversions. I like the marine with his bolter facing down the best. It looks like he's already put some Chaos scum down, but feels the need to pump a few more blasts of holy bolter rounds into it just to be sure.

Red Devils are looking good so far judging by the Sgt.

Is that demon on the World Eater's shoulder actually glowing?

Subbed! Cool work!

 Gorgrimm wrote:
Really wonderful conversions. I like the marine with his bolter facing down the best. It looks like he's already put some Chaos scum down, but feels the need to pump a few more blasts of holy bolter rounds into it just to be sure.

Red Devils are looking good so far judging by the Sgt.

Is that demon on the World Eater's shoulder actually glowing?

Subbed! Cool work!

Thanks for joining us

You can never pump too many bolter rounds into a chaos scum, the target just becomes more and more bloodies unrecognizable pieces!

The eye of the daemon shoulder pad has a glowing blue object source thing going on just like the eyes and chest piece. The glow of the deamon itself is more to do with the pale skin tones I've used on it and the glare of the nearby light source. I have a few more World Eater chosen members laying around not being put to use that I could always use for an update if I cannot gain access to my Ultramarines for a while longer.

Anvil bits, love them. Great poses on the marines. Specially the kneeling sniper.

+++ WARNING, BLURRY IMAGES INBOUND! +++

So I hate to do this to you guys... but its almost 1 in the morning at the time of posting, and with a rush of passion, I completed the scout squad and the tactical squad.

The only thing missing from the Tac squad would be their shoulder pad decals which will need to be done at a later date. All of the models have been pinned to their respective bases and all have weathering and some battle damage.

I apologise for the blurry photos, my phones camera assured me they were more stable but soon I shall have to be using a proper camera to do my photography.















A few of the sharper images offer much better views if you click to get close ups.

As always I hope you all enjoy, and please be gentle, they look a lot better than the picture portray

Great stuff, man! I really like the conversion and paint style!

I quite like the eyes on that Chosen marine. Looks intimidating!

Paradigm wrote:Great stuff, man! I really like the conversion and paint style!

Thanks Paradigm I just wish I had some better pics for you guys to really see it all.

angelofvengeance wrote:I quite like the eyes on that Chosen marine. Looks intimidating!

Thanks AOV, the eyes are done with a simple white that touches the edge of the eye slot, and then glazed with Guilliman Blue Glaze to colour the eyes, giving them a bright blue appearance.

To apologise for the last batch of mostly scrappy photos I put up for a show of progress, I found some spare time today and dug out the Olympus I usually use to photograph.

Being a bit rusty, it took several rounds of trying different settings to find what felt like the right ones for the miniatures.

Because of the way the camera takes in a little more light, the models appear almost a touch washed out, but I assure you the Ultramarines have a darker paint scheme in person and the photos will hopefully get better as I learn to use this camera once more.
Now lets get down to business











Here are some retaken shots of the scouts as well for your viewing pleasure





And also on the blocks were some guardsmen. Trying to figure out how the overall scheme of the Red Devils would start to look on more guardsmen is a bit tricky, and the first attempts at battle damage look rather odd on the single model, but it's all a progress shot none the less. The armour plates are flat toned simply because they are missing their highlights and only base colours have been painted on them so far.



There are also a few pics I uploaded of some WIP on a few World Eaters chosen from the DV box set. If anyone is interested, I'll upload them here to the blog as well, but at the moment they are sitting in my gallery here in dakka dakka.

As always, the pictures can give you much more detail and closeups if you desire to click them andI hope you all enjoy.
Any c&c are also welcome.

Good stuff! The WE and IG are coming along nicely as well!

"You there, random citizen of the Imperium! Yes you there, Sir(and or Madam)!
Let me ask you a question!
Have you ever wanted your local priest to be less boring and more exciting?
Of course you do!
Have you ever wanted to see your local priest weilding a shotgun one handed?
Of course you do!
And have you ever wanted to see him smite the enemies of the Imperium with chainsword in hand?!
I think we all know the answer to that!
Today ladies and gentlemen, we have a very special surprise for you!
Introducing to you all today on the Battlefields here of the once mighty Solace, The Old Kook!"







Jokes aside this is a priest I converted to be placed in a guardsmen squad. At the same time, I generally like the overall look of the model although I am thinking of adding a few more touches here and there. There is almost an inquisitors retinue kind of feel the Old Kook, and there is a bit of backstory/fiction of written for him... Ill probably put it up once the model (if ever ) is completed.

Hope you all enjoy.

Awesome conversion, so simple yet so effective!

 Paradigm wrote:
Awesome conversion, so simple yet so effective!

It's amazing how well scout arms work on Empire models (or vice versa perhaps...)

WIP shots for you all today.

With some storms hanging around the coast here at the moment, i decided it would be a perfect time to finish building a couple of World Eaters models and base coat them while I still had the chance (and the time!)

With Christmas just around the corner, my paintbrushes were feeling like a little red christmas cheer was in order. I bring for you all some bases and WIp shots of the two chaos figures, Aratock the First Blooded and an unnamed character. Included as well is a first applications of base paints on the Red Devils Priest, The Old Kook.















Hope you all enjoy. I should have some more updates sooner, rather than later.