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Hello there!
Finally time for me to start this Blog. I'm pretty busy atm with school stuff but I'll try to post updates whenever I can.
Here I will be posting my Ultramarines stuff, both finished and WIP, and I'd be glad to get some feedback from you!
So since this is the mini thats currently sitting on my desk, awaiting it's finishing touches, I figured I'd show you Captain Favian Martellus of the second Company.

The idea for him came when I decided I want a cheap Captain that can hang back with a squad of tacticals to give them 'Bolter drill' without being a points sink, and as you can see he is very basic. However his Bolter has some goldtrim and might pass for a relic or a master crafted weapon
Of course he should be alright for small points games but I don't know if hes worth taking in bigger ones.
Anyway, just let me know what you think!

Really nice clean work there. What have you planned next?

Thanks Dreadclaw!
My next project will be a conversion of an Ironclad dreadnought. I'm not too pleased with the way the stock model looks, but I really like the idea of a hulking warmachine with additional armor and heavy weapons.
I'll post some WIP pics of the conversion, as well as the rest of my collection thats already finished!

Nice clean paint job there.

Generally for low point HQs I prefer other ones. Captains work well when tricked out, but bare bones can struggle. Still, some formations need them, so having a basic one on the shelf can be useful.

He could always serve as a sternguard sarge if you need to find a place for a fancy bolter on the table.

Hey guys!
Just wanted to post a quick update of what I'm currently working on.
Like I said, my current project is an Ironclad Dreadnought. However, I don't like the look of the model out of the box, so I went for some subtle conversions again. Check it out:



I'd be glad to get your guy's opinion and/or feedback!

Cheers!

Nice vibrant shade of blue. Need to see the dreadnought assembled to make a judgment but certainly the green stuff work looks good.

That’s pretty serous looking hammer!

Thanks for the comments guys!
Next steps on the dread will be adding custom HK missile racks and making a scenic base with some rocks that the dread will be resting his foot on. The leg will also be converted to make for a more realistic, dynamic pose.
Oh and some details need to be added to the front plate still.

I'll keep you posted!

Hey there!

Just wanted to let you know I got some more work done on the ironclad dread. Since I really like the idea of hull-mounted HK missiles, but found the original ones in the box much too big and clunky, I decided to convert some SM Missile launchers for that purpose: Here's the result:



I still need to add some parts to the front of them to make them look more like actual barrels, but since it's a bit fiddly to cut off thin rings from a plastic tube it might still take me a while.

Some more work also needs to be done on the main body, apart from adding the barrels though. I will add more detail to the chest area of the sarcophagus, maybe also throw in a few purity seals to make the whole thing look less techy and more gothic (another thing that the standard, out-of-the-box ironclad completely lacks IMO ) and try to get a hold of a Mk III 'Iron' style helmet for him.

I did almost finish work on the legs, which I repositioned to make for a more dynamic pose. His left leg will be resting on a stone plateau made from cork board, but for now I just propped him up on his base so you can get a general idea of the pose I have in mind for him:





Note that the helmet is just a placeholder. Like I said, I want him to eventually wear a Mk III style helmet to fit his otherwise very siege-oriented look.
I also added some greenstuff spacing inbetween the torso and arms since I really wanted to avoid the very rigid and clunky-looking pose of the standard ironclad dread.

While I was working on him, I kept trying out different weapon options to make sure they would also work with the above pose. It was only then that I realized I actually own quite a large variety of arms for my dreadnoughts already:



Ah well, I guess I'm just a sucker for scifi mechs and cant keep myself from buying more. After all, Dreadnoughts might actually have been the reason I even got into 40k all these years ago.

Anyways, I'd really appreciate you guys' feedback and comments! I'll keep you up to date on the progress on this guy!

Thanks for checking this out! Catch ya later

You can never have to many dreadnoughts! They are an iconic part of the game, and really encapsulate the grim darkness of the setting. Wounded near death? Hooke ‘em up to life support, slap some armor and guns on them, and send them back to the front.

Probably some of my favorite kits as well, the venerable dread especially.

And while they might get a bum rap about how they do on the table, they can still get the job done. I had a blast a few games ago where I put all 5 of mine on the table.

Even in death, they serve!

I absolutely agree. I tried getting some more grimdark into my second dread by giving him one of the heads from the WHFB Zombies set and painting it in a sickly, greyish tone. I think he instantly reads as 'technically dead', but still kickin'
You might have seen a pic of him in my gallery!

Although I realize its a bit silly to build a hulking, multi-ton war machine with massive armor plates only to leave the pilots unprotected head stick out, I still regret nothing! xD

I'll try to get some of that 'walking tomb' feeling for this ironclad dread as well if I can. Might even go for some lit candles or sth to get the grave tone across...

Hello again!

Since I was pretty busy the last few weeks I didn't get around to work on my Ironclad Dread conversion much, which was very hard for me because I had ordered some bits from ebay that were tempting me constantly. However, easter holidays are finally upon us, and as soon as I had the time I got knee-deep into conversion work!

It's been a few days of constant cutting, filing and glueing, but now I can proudly present to you the result. Since the dread is now basically finished, I figure he needs a name as well:
Let me introduce you to 'Thouras Cordero, exalted siegebreaker of the 2nd company of Ultramarines'.



As you can probably tell, Thouras is a venerable hero of the chapter who has served the emperor for countless millennia. I believe there's probably no more fitting helmet for an ancient Ironclad dread than a Mk.III 'Iron' pattern one. It took me quite a while to fit it into the rather tight frame of the frontplate, but it worked out in the end, and I eventually managed to achieve the pose I wanted.

But since I am absolutely in love with 40k dreadnoughts and I've started a small collection of magnetized weapon options for them, I could'nt stop there. I ordered a Mk.V Heavy Bolter and Mk.IV Plasma cannon from Forgeworld (two amazing sculpts IMHO) and a frag cannon as well as some other bits from an online seller. I've noticed the BA Furioso frag cannon lends itself very well to conversions, and I had something very special in mind when I ordered it:
I had realized that a certain bit (the ammo feeder for the SM Missile launcher) would fit perfectly onto the side, making for an instantly recognizable missile launcher. This gave me an idea: why not make one of the classic, Rogue Trader Era 'Spitfury' missile launcher found on the classic metal dreads?
When the bits arrived, I made short work of the HB and Plasma, since they only required minimal tinkering to fit right and magnetize. Then I set out to work on the Missile launcher. After a few days of greenstuff, glue, file, rinse and repeat, this is the final result:













I slightly deviated from the original plan to make it as similar as possible to the classic RT Dread ML because it probably wouldn't have been as recognizable and on top of that hard to make it seem plausible, since the original is a bit off proportion-wise. Instead, I went for the look that Forgeworld has revived for their heresy-era missile launchers. (In searching for some source images, I came across some RT facts, too. Man, I still can't believe the Rogue trader dread sculpt is now 30 years old, that's just barely older than me! )
Of course, this was just a fun little side project, since I don't think I'll be able to use it in-game (it's a right arm and ML are supposed to go on the left), but I enjoyed building it immensely and I'm rather happy with the result. So what do you think? Is it recognizable?

Now that all the parts are assembled and ready, I'll be able to start basecoating soon! Take a look at the massive hoard of weapon loadouts I've got incoming for my 3 dread chassis now:



As you can see, I have made a straightforward, right CCW arm with storm bolter (didn't like the flamer on there), an assault/siege drill left arm (might proxy for a seismic hammer), a plasma cannon right arm, an actual SEISMIC HAMMER left arm, a twin-linked heavy bolter, a custom chainfist/blade left arm, a 'Spitfury' ML right arm and a hurricane bolter right arm.
With all that said and done, I'll probably take some time to get a nice 'Macragge blue' spraypaint basecoat on the dread and all the bits as soon as I can. However, I may have to head to my local store since I'm not sure if there's still enough left in the can. Either way, I'll keep you up to date on the painting progress!

I'd be glad to get some feedback and ideas from you creative people out there! Until next time, peace out!

Beautiful conversion work, the MkIII helmet is a fantastic touch.

Loving it! You're doing some really amazing things for box dread weapon options. I really love the old school style missile launcher.

EDC

That missile launcher is such a great idea! Excellent execution too.

Hey there!

Just wanted to show you what the Ironclad looks like after basecoating. After a visit to my local GW, I'm now stocked up on spraypaint and lots of good stuff to work on for the next few weeks. Unfortunately, real life keeps me a bit busy atm, so progress on my Ultramarines is a bit slow. Still, I wanted to share with you what I've got so far and what I've been working on recently. So here we go!

First, just a normal dreadnought CCW, made from the fist of an AOBR dread:

I know I should've put a flamer on, but the thing just looked so terrible and clunky, like it would get absolutely wrecked the first time the dread would actually hit something with his CCW, so I put on a much more compact Stormbolter. Sue me

Next is a twin linked heavy bolter:

Pretty much as is from FW, but I had to fix some parts that were broken.

Another very pretty FW sculpt, the plasma cannon:

Also left this one pretty much standard, but had to put in a spacer so it would fit on all the dreads I have.

Now for a typical ironclad weapon system, the hurricane bolter:

Some slight conversions on this one, like recessing the bolters further into their housing and converting the bottom greebly bits to make the whole thing look less clunky. It's still pretty huge, but I think it works.

Next up is one of my personal favourites, a scratch-built heresy-era spitfury missile launcher:

I'm very pleased with this one, and I think the basecoat really brings the whole thing together and let's you appreciate what it will look like when it's painted.

Now for the other side of the dread! First up, of course, a nice, big old chainfist/chainblade!

This one's pretty much scratch built too, apart from the shoulder armour part. Another one of my personal favourites. As you may guess, I tried to emulate the look of the FW chaos chainfists that I absolutely adore

Next one is a converted/kitbashed assault drill, made with bits from the assault centurion drills. This one might stand in for a seismic hammer in a pinch.


And finally, of course, a big old ACTUAL seismic hammer to give the dread some anti-armour capability!

Pretty massive huh? I always felt the seismic hammer you get in the ironclad box looks like something you would whisk cream with, so it had to go!

So that's it for the dread for now, but there's also something else I've been working on. There has been a promotion and a new member has been added to my company command squad. This one is in a foul mood today:



Looking forward to your comments! See ya later!

Looking good. You should edit put the profanity of the last pic though. Language in images will get it pulled.

Silly me

whalemusic, thanks for letting me know! I got plenty of other pics, I'll change it!

That greenstuffing is absolutedly seamless now it has been primed. Well done

Hello again!

It's been a while since my last post. Not much going on hobby wise, but I figured I'd show the weapon options I got done for Thouras:

First off, the assault drill:



I think the paint did a nice job of covering up the greenstuff work and pulling all the different parts together.

Next up, the twin-linked heavy Bolter:



Not much to be said about this one, except that some paint on it only emphasizes what a damn beautiful sculpt it is

Lastly, the plasma cannon:



Another beautiful sculpt. I hope my paintjob does it justice. The slight glow is painted on, it's very subtle but I was anxious to overdo it. Unfortunately I don't own an airbrush, but I hope the effect turned out ok.

Let me just drop a quick teaser before I leave you:



Until next time! Have a good one!

Really awesome work on the dread! Loving the retro missile launcher and the paint is beautiful. Keep up the good work!

Nice stuff! good progress on the paint.

Biker looks good, got plans for a bunch of them? Or just the one?

Thanks for the kind words guys!

The last biker I did I had a dynamic pose on. Made me want to rip up and re-do every other biker I had on the shelf.

When in doubt, you can always try popping a wheelie. Or have him ditching his ride, and leaping off the skidding bike, sword and pistol ready.

Yes Nevelon, your gallery actually proved quite a valuable source for inspiration, so I wanna thank you for that! The techmarine on bike looks epic!
I also really like your master of the signal that uses one of the classic metal terminator targeter arms! It's such an awesome idea for a conversion!

Those bikers look so good! a tremendous improvement over the basic scouty bike.

Thank you!



Just a little progress but thats the basic shape of the second guy done. Now on to number three, and let's not forget I still have loads of stuff on the table that is desperately waiting for a paintjob! But converting and kitbashing is just too much fun! xD

Are the armored flanges over the handle bars new to the kit or did you add them yourself? I don't remember seeing marine bikes with that.

 Warboss_Waaazag wrote:
Are the armored flanges over the handle bars new to the kit or did you add them yourself? I don't remember seeing marine bikes with that.

(not to speak for him)

Scout bike kit. You might notice the front wheel is different as well. Single exhaust on the back as well.

...I really need to get more scout bikes.

Some amazing work in here - keep it up!

Personal favourite - the finished Captain is awesome, and so is that Spitfury Missile Launcher for the dread.

Great stuff, looking forward to seeing more.