Sons of Ultramar

My alterego has been extremely busy the last month or so working 50-60 hours a week, but I've not been completely idle on the hobby front - I just haven't had time to sit at the keyboard and post. The newest edition of Warhammer 40k, which I think is the best in decades, has prompted the start of a new army...

The new Primaris Marines are fantastic models. These are Intercessors - the equivalent of Tactical Marines. These new 'true scale' marines have much better proportions and some really dynamic poses. So far most of the offerings have been single pose kits, but for the most part I've been happy to build them as they come. Games Workshop will be turning out flipping great piles of Primaris Marines in the future so there will be plenty of scope of customizing units then.

It's taken me weeks to decide which chapter to paint my shiny new models. Although the background story GW has come up with allows you to field Primaris Marines along side their existing brethren, I didn't want to mix them with my Red Scorpions. I don't really like the idea of my rank and file towering over my terminators so I'm going to build a new army composed of all Primaris Marines and possibly some mortal servants of the Emperor (I have a full set of the Execution Force Assassins I've been looking for an excuse to paint) that won't seem out of place being a head shorter than these mighty warriors.

As you can see, I settled on Ultramarines. I did this for several reasons. My first inclination was to paint them as Imperial Fists. I even did a test model. The yellow armor looks great, but it took forever to get a clean finish, even over a white undercoat. Somehow I also only have ONE squad's worth of Imperial Fist transfers... I must have a hundred sheets of Ultramarine transfers, plus all of the new kits come with them.

Secondly, it is still unclear exactly how the new Primaris Marines are incorporated into the chapter company system. Some of the squad decals now sport numbers higher than ten - the new Space Marine Codex is due out in a week so we should have more answers then, but I was going through this process over a month ago. The poster boys for GW's collection has been the second company of the Ultramarines, so I knew I couldn't go wrong with choosing them. I intend to add squad markings to my units when I have more concrete info.

I'm happy with my choice. These have been relatively quick to paint and if I weren't away from home so much right now I could have had the entire box set finished by now. I haven't decided if I want to add some battle damage or weathering yet - I'm kind of enjoying the factory fresh look of these guys so far.

I'll have lots more Ultramarines (so far I have one box of everything they've released and more on preorder) in the future and post some thoughts on the new 8th edition of 40k as well. We've played more 40k since the launch of eighth edition than I think I played in the entire run of the last edition. I've been using Orks (LOVE these guys in eighth), but I'm looking forward to getting enough Ultramarines painted to get them on the table.

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...

Ultramarines

I have four or five different styles of Ultramarine decals (I never seem to throw anything away) and I want to use all of them in this collection, emphasizing the personalization of armor. The black and white checker pattern made a great background for this style decal and adds another unique element to this trooper.

Ultramarines

This Veteran Sergeant is marked by his red helmet (on his hip). He sports the slogan 'ULTRA' on his should in case there is any doubt. I forgot to mention the addition of battle damage on the other models. This was done by simply adding small chips and cracks with Abaddon Black and highlighting the underside of each with Lothern Blue.

More next week as well as more Warfare Miniatures!

Ultramarines

These posts will not be long beyond a few comments on specific details.

This is one of my favorite Space Marine models of ALL TIME! He just looks like he means business with that Multi-melta.

Rogue Trader - Ultramarines

One of the first wargames I ever bought (after Operation Warboard by Gavin Lyall and Charge! by Brig. P. Young and Lt.Col. J. P. Lawford) was Warhammer 40k - Rogue Trader. Along with White Dwarf magazine, this book was the one that really started my focus on painting models. I had painted Dungeons & Dragons minis in the 80's and some 1:72 WW2 stuff even before that, but the concept of collecting an ARMY and moving beyond simple base coats was spurred on by the photos in this book and the subsequent Warhammer 40k - Chapter Approved that introduced the earliest army lists for the game. 

Anyway, recently my brother came across all of the models I had from that era. Some have been lost, sold on e-bay, and a few take the field in my brother's Eldar army, but there is still a substantial collection. There has been a renaissance of collecting and painting Rogue Trader era minis (see some of the blog links to the left) and I carrying on the tradition I started last year of painting models I already own I decided to mix in some of these old minis among the other projects I have planned for this year.

Of course, I HAVE to start with Space Marines. I have two tactical squads, an assault squad, and a squad of terminators plus some extra marine troopers and characters and a couple of vehicles in the form of an original Rhino kit (still on the sprue) and a Dreadnought. This would have been a substantial force using the 1st or 2nd edition lists - well over 2000 points, but by modern standards is probably closer to half of that. I am actually going to paint without regard to point values as I haven't decided what version of the game to use them with. I may just go old school and simply throw models on the table without regard for lists or points at all. Besides the Space Marines, I have an equally large collection of the original Chaos Space Marines (including a Dreadnought), sixty or seventy Orks, a small group of Genestealers and Genestealer Cult hybrids, and a large assortment of pirates, mercenaries, and various Imperial characters like Inquisitors, Sanctioned Psykers, and Adeptus Mechanicus Priests. I'm going to come up with some sort of narrative campaign that allows me to field various combinations of all of these!

Back to the Space Marines. I had to decide which chapter to paint. My initial instinct was to go with Crimson Fists who are on the cover of the Rogue Trader book, but I already have an army of those.

I definitely wanted it to be one of the chapters from the original book. Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Space Wolves, and White Scars are also iconic and featured more than once in the early books, but in the end I decided to go with maybe the MOST iconic of the Chapters - The Ultramarines. The others have either evolved beyond the concept of the original models (like the Space Wolves) or doctrine of models I have available (like the White Scars). Besides I have always liked the bad pun of the Ultra-Marines (they have to be the best, they're Ultra) and in all the years I have been collection 40k stuff I have never painted an Ultramarine!

Finally after all of the long winded prattle, here is the first of my Rogue Trader Space Marines...

The classic artwork is filled with images of individualized embellishments to the Space Marine armor. In fact, in the Chapter Approved painting section (Battle Colours)  this is canonized by the story of Jon Blanchisan which relates 'the need for personalized iconography on all forms of armour and equipment.' I intend to take full advantage of that with these models and the model above sports a 'KIL KIL' slogan on his shoulder pad, a popular addition among the Adeptus Astartes.

There is no set schedule for this project, but there will always be some of these classic models on my table amid the mix of more modern 40k, Warfare Miniatures, AWI, and whatever else draws my attention. I'll post pics whenever I finish something new...