Ultramarines

The most vanilla marine yet... from the photo I see this guy needs another coat of matte varnish on his shoulder pad. I sealed all of the decals with Games Workshop's Lahmian Medium which does a great job in dulling down shiny details, but this joker needs a little more attention...

Someone asked about the paints I used for the Ultramarines. I presume they were primarily interested in the blue. All of my models start with a black undercoat. All of the paints were from the new Games Workshop range. I painted the armor with Macragge Blue, leaving the black showing in the recesses between plates. Then the model was given a wash of Drakenhof Nightshade. The next step was the most time consuming, though not nearly as much so on the modern marine models. I painted all of the armor plates again with Altdorf Guard Blue and left the darker colors showing in shadow areas - the underside of the legs and arms, around obvious joins int he armor, etc. In large flat areas, this meant blending the color out, but in small areas I simply left a fine line of the darker color showing. The final highlights were fast and consisted of Calgar Blue painted on the sharp edges of the armor (seen best on the helmet above).

Other colors were far simplier and applied in only two layers - Leadbelcher and tiny highlights of Runefang Steel for the metallics, Mephiston Red and Evil Sunz Scarlet for the visor (with tiny dots of White Scar and a coat of 'Ardcoat Vanrnish to make 'em shiny), and Celestra Grey and Ulthuan Grey for the white details such as the stripe on the helmet and studs on the shoulder pad. I don't remember what the browns for the pouches were, but any earthy color will do.

The battle damage was done by adding small chips and cracks with Abaddon Black and highlighting the underside of each with Lothern Blue. The mud and dust was built up by stippling and drybrushing in two coats, first with Mournfang Brown and then very lightly with Karak Stone, but you should use the same colors you would normally use on the base of your models. These colors are focused primarily on the feet and lower legs, but the errant splash here and there (such as the shoulder guard above) is not out of place.

Hope that helps! More Ultramrines and Red Scorpions on the way and don't think I've forgotten about the Grand Alliance period...