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For a long time I have wanted to do the Ultramarines 2nd Company from the Space Marines Codex. It provides a perfect layout of the company man for man, squad for squad. I decided with the decent money influx from my deployment, I can do that without killing my wallet. The other day I ordered half of the company, and am currently awaiting their arrival. I counted the bits I need, and made appropriate orders through a few websites. My ultimate goal here, is to replicate the entire company exactly as its seen in the codex. There are some limitations I have forced myself to stick to, in order to save money, and not have a ton of other bits I won't be using anytime in the forseeable future. For instance, I need one Mk3 head...just one. Now, unless someone wants to donate one, I'll stick to a regular head that I can find in the box. Certain boltguns just can't be found. I think you get the point.

So, with a few bits I have laying around that aren't being put into my small Blood Angels project I started while here, I made up some test models. I picked a few guys out from the codex that I can make with spare parts, and went to town. The result so far? Fantastic! Now just for the blasted stuff to get here so I can seriously get busy. I have run into one snag so far. I wanted to use the Forgeworld Ultramarine transfers, but they are out of stock, and have been for some time. I emailed them to ask when they might have an idea on restock time. Their reply? They explain to me that their printer in which they use to print their decals is broken, and they are in the process of replacing it. So until then, I'll attempt to make due with the transfers that come with the models.

Here is the sergeant from 5th Squad, Tactical Squad Vandar:



Nothing amazing, by any stretch of the imagination, and pardon the platform in which I used to take pictures. It was field expedient. Like I said, this is just a test. The test models I completed will probably not be included in the army, I was just experimenting with how to accomplish things, easier methods to doing what I normally do. I also did up some assault marines, but I don't have any pictures readily available of them.

I will update regularly. I figure with the amount of free time I have, and my painting skills/ability, I can just about get one marine done per day. So every week and a half per squad basically, depending on how things go with the Army side of the house during my stay here.

Wish me luck!

Can't wait to see these done, it's going to be a really unique army, and if that guy's anything to go by, it'll look really good.

I will follow!

I'm making a company of my own! Dark Angels tho.

Okay, I got some pictures for the other two test models I did.

Here we have the Devastator Sergeant from 8th Squad, Devastator Squad Tirian "Gulliman's Hammer"

I'm actually pretty happy with the way he came out overall. I'm currently awaiting the arrival of the Chapterhouse Studio smooth shoulder pads. The project required 26 of them total. I decided not to put regular shoulder pads because I will actually put him into the army. The pack isn't glued to to make sure there is room for the shoulder pads.

Here is a shot of the powerfist. It came from the Death Company boxes, and with a little bit of work from my exacto knife, it became a regular powerfist. I hand painted the chapter symbol onto his powerfist. I'm contemplating scraping that off and redoing it, or using a decal instead. I'm not sure yet.


an assault marine from 7th Squad, Assault Squad Ixion "Macragge's Avengers"


You'll notice the two red stripes on the side of the chainsword, and what you can't see is the chapter symbol painted on the left side of the bolt pistol. He came out better than expected as well. Its possible he'll find his way in as well. I have three other assault marines built, and I'm waiting on some more paint before I finish them up.

That's all I have for now. I'll give another update once some of the goods arrive.

I'm liking what I am seeing so far mate. Your painting is nice and neat and crisp. Perhaps some edge highlighting in the future?

 Paint_To_Redemption wrote:
I'm liking what I am seeing so far mate. Your painting is nice and neat and crisp. Perhaps some edge highlighting in the future?

Thanks! I was planning on doing that. I'm experimenting with a good color that is subtle and not too much of a drastic change in the blue, but still allows it to pop. I'm waiting on a P3 Wet Palette to arrive. I would normally make it from home made materials that I can pick up from the super market, but I can't just walk down to the store and pick it up. I figured it's just easier to buy everything from a one stop shop. With that being said, I'm contemplating using blending to accomplish lighting techniques that might normally be accomplished by highlights.

I'm currently using Ultramarine Blue from the old paint line. Does anyone know if there is a difference(or how much of a difference) in hue from that, and the base paint Macragge Blue?

 Firehead158 wrote:

 Paint_To_Redemption wrote:
I'm liking what I am seeing so far mate. Your painting is nice and neat and crisp. Perhaps some edge highlighting in the future?

Thanks! I was planning on doing that. I'm experimenting with a good color that is subtle and not too much of a drastic change in the blue, but still allows it to pop. I'm waiting on a P3 Wet Palette to arrive. I would normally make it from home made materials that I can pick up from the super market, but I can't just walk down to the store and pick it up. I figured it's just easier to buy everything from a one stop shop. With that being said, I'm contemplating using blending to accomplish lighting techniques that might normally be accomplished by highlights.

I'm currently using Ultramarine Blue from the old paint line. Does anyone know if there is a difference(or how much of a difference) in hue from that, and the base paint Macragge Blue?

The basecoat on these Eldar is Macragge Blue if that helps. Not sure if it'll be possible to judge the color through a picture or not. The highlights are Altaitoc blue I think

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/457753-.html?m=2

That does help a bit, actually. It's a little hard to tell, but at this stage I'm going to say that Macragge Blue is ever so slightly deeper blue, than UM blue. Could be the lighting, I'm not sure. I guess once it arrives I'll make a comparison.

Altdorf Guard blue is actually the new Ultramarine blue, Macragge blue is the new Mordian blue. And Calgar blue is pretty nice for highlighting Altdorf Guard/ Ultramarine blue. (The word 'blue' has now lost all meaning to me).

Looking good though, I've got the page open in front of me and I can spot which guys you've done, you even did the seal on his chest! keep it up man!

I hope there will be pictures of all the boxes of goodies when they turn up!

Looking really good so far with the test models.

FINALLY AN UPDATE!!!

A convoy came in and delivered our mail. There was this tiny package for me. I took it back to my tent, and with righteous fury ripped it open. Inside the little bag from Chapterhouse Studios was the 26 smooth shoulder pads I ordered for this project.

They are slightly bigger, seemingly longer than the GW plastic shoulder pads. I pulled out two of the shoulder pads and began work, scraping off the little bit of flashing, then took them out for a quick splash of spray primer I had acquired from another FOB. I painted the undersides which would normally be hard to get to with Ultramarine Blue, then tested the fit after they had dried. Now glued in place, they are indeed bigger, and the fit is a little off(might be the pose) but they look great. After a decent coat of the UM Blue had dried, I applied the decals, then glued on the pack.

Here are the results:




I like the shoulder pads, the quality is good considering what I paid.

Niiiice, I'm loving that powerfist.

Alrighty we are in business!!!

Went to the closest FOB for the all day ordeal of picking up mail. I got the package I have been awaiting the most. It took a month, but its finally here:

The first half of the 2nd company.

I plan on going in order(1st Tactical, 2nd Tactical, 5th Tactical, 7th Assault, and 9th Devastator), then once I order the second half(which won't happen in Afghanistan it appears), I'll do the remainder of the company.

Look for the updates in the next 2 days or so, depending on how busy I am, and how much trouble I have accomplishing what I want.

Wish me luck!

Between our OPTEMPO and my lack of motivation to build and paint, I finally finished Tactical Squad Solinus. Still waiting on my forgeworld transfers, however.


I tried to do everything as close as possible like I wanted. Basic paint job, and it will look great on the table. Not going to anything stunning. I'm happy with the results. Still a bit of touch up work to do.

I had to basically make custom heads. I had a few Blood Angel heads laying around, so I'm working on shaving them bald, picking heads that vary enough from each other so that each bald head is different. The sergeant head came from a devastator box, I just shaved off his sweet flat-top haircut. That is a custom made power sword, from a basic left hand chainsword, and a cut sword from the champion's powersword. Very few bits had to come from other stuff I had laying around, so I should be able to finish this up without having to buy a ton of spare bits.

Running out of time here, at a rapid pace. I am shooting straight for building everything I have so I can get it home, and then it will be finished via airbrush.

Weapons section of 9th Devastator Squad Tirian "Gulliman's Hammer"

First half of 7th Assault Squad Ixion "Macragge's Avengers"

Completed(minus bolters) 2nd Tactical Squad Manorian "The Shield Bearers"

Still here in Afghanistan, and my case arrive to get my figures home. It motivated me to get some decals on the only squad I have fully painted. So here it is!



Some freehand work to be done. If they have the Ultramarine symbol on their right pauldron, they need some little tactical arrows pointing back and forth. I'll do that when I get home. Overall I'm pretty happy with them.

Life is crazy sometimes. I haven't had a chance to post anything in quite sometime. Here is where we sit with this project:



Lots of figures built, but not a not has been painted, I just haven't had much time. More to come hopefully!

Nice to see you still working on this project.

Got bored of painting tons of regular marines, so I worked on some stuff on the side.

I'm working up a 1st Company attachment which will consist of Terminators and Sternguard. So here is the WIP stuff:

First off we have a nearly complete squad of Terminators:


These are all magnetized so that I can switch freely between assault terminators and standard terminators, and all of their different wargear options. I have more pictures but well...you get the idea.

Next up: Sternguard.

Completed Sergeant


Played with different techniques to produce gold, so far using Screaming Bell with a heavy drybrush of Griffon Gold is my favorite. This will be the permanent technique, and this stuff will be repainted prior to clear coat.

Finally: NEVER SKIP LEG DAY!

I have decided to change this to "My works of the day, a WIP blog" to encourage myself to do more model work. Since I only find myself able to paint maybe 5 or 6 minis a week, I will be posting them one by one as I finish. I won't be just doing my UM here, I'll be doing whatever I have that I feel like painting. Keep your eyes peeled for some upcoming work.

Went through some of my "defunct" models, the stuff I'm not using, and dug out some old tanks. Using my bits I prepared two Leman Russ tanks for combat, they just need to visit maintenance for a new paint job then hit the wash rack.

Got a wild hair up my butt a while back when the Burning of Prospero box set came out. MkIII marines, in plastic, for cheap? Sold. But who would they be? The Iron Warriors, that is who. I've loved their fluff, their style of war, and their paint scheme.

They will be run as Chaos Space Marines. Enjoy the pictures!

First up, 20 of them in progress. Finished the base coat with the airbrush today.




On to the good stuff:

20 Chaos Warriors. I've taken a picture specifically of the autocannon gunner. I converted it using a weapons team autocannon from the IG and the heavy bolter that came with the kit.




Terminators:


Last but not least, the centerpiece of the army. I've always wanted to run a Knight Titan(or in this case a Renegade Titan) and this was the way to do it. Fully magnetized, all weapons(though not all built) can be swapped out at will.

Nice !

The Iron Warriors are looking awesome and the Knight makes an awesome centrepiece.

EDC

Something showed up today. Much needed reinforcements for the Iron Warriors. More firepowahhh!!!



Deimos Pattern predator
Ryza pattern Lascannons
Kalibrax pattern Autocannons
Legion Combi-bolters

Little bit of extra dakka for my Iron Warriors. I choose the combi-flamer just to help them protect from getting charged. Autohitting D6 is ballin, and will hopefully discourage any fools attempting to disrupt my fire support.

I got working on the Predator last night, and discovered some issues with some parts. I have an e-mail into FW and I'm awaiting a reply. Here is how it sits currently:



The hull sides are just test fitted for now. I need to finish cleaning them up and fix a few kinks and then it is ready to go on.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Last update for the day



The final Havoc squad, 4 Lascannons and a Combi-plasma. Not a huge fan of the banners, but I like to make unit leaders stand out a bit. I figured this is the easiest way.

Overall, I am really happy with the Lascannons and Autocannons. Lessons learned from the Autocannons was to shave the "firing arm" to stick more closely to the weapons.

I love the Deinos preds. I really want a second one for my Blood Angels.

Nice job on tge heavy weapons teams.

EDC

Still no reply from Forgeworld regarding my barrels. Just need to throw on the tracks and I'm going to start painting.

I also tried to the GW "air" line of paints for the first time. Results were good, and if you have an airbrush is a better deal than buying the spray paint cans from your FLGS.

Check em out:

My buddies Primaris Marines he is working on. This was Macragge Blue at 35PSI. No issues with over-spray as a result of it being too thin.



Below are my Havocs with Autocannons. This is leadbelcher, again at 35PSI. I made a mistake here of not giving them a black undercoat first. It was very hard to figure out if I had applied sufficient amounts of paint to the models. That lead to some messy over-spraying or areas just plain ole being missed. Lesson learned.

Havocs with Lascannons are done. They are pretty good for a semi-rush job. They'll look great on the table.



In other news, after nearly a week, I got a reply from Forgeworld about the barrels for the Deimos Predator. They are sending me a replacement and I should have it in a few days. I'm excited to get this cursed thing finished so I can crush the faithful.

Making another FW order soon since my boss bestowed some overtime upon me. My leader is going to be this wonderful guy:



I'll be putting together a unit of Chosen using MkIV armor and these bits here:



Just something to mix it up a little bit and pick them apart from the regular chaff(if you can call them that).

More to come this weekend.

Looking good dude. The autocannon hacocs look great!

EDC