Ultramarines! WIP

I went to the nearest gaming store yesterday (Armored Ogre Games) for 40k day/evening and watched a game between a team of Tau and Ultramarines battle Blood Angels and Tyranids. I asked Frank the Ultramarine player if he had any unpainted minis that I could have a go at and he promptly showed me a bunch. I choose one that I like to paint for him.

It was already primed (a thick black, I really need to push my message of thin thin coats of primer at the store) and the glue work wasn't totally up to snuff. After some surgery (split the jump pack and cut the arms off) and cleanup I glue him back together and went to work with the airbrush. Mordian Blue if anyone is wondering :)

He still needs battle damage, a VIII on top of the jump pack, a base, some scripture to protect him, and maybe some other weathering, but it shouldn't be much more work to get him done.  I really hope Frank likes my little experiment as I think he might have some high expectations. "Sure I'd want a professionally painted mini." or something similar at least, was mentioned. While I won't be ashamed to put down my Imperial Fists on a gaming table, I have no illusions that I'm a professional Painter:)

So what do you people think, will Frank be happy with his Assault Marine?

PS I've actually painted some Imperial Fists since last, but the WIPs hasn't been that interesting. Will return with a group photo of 1500p of fists plus some highlights:)

First battle damage

What is this? Two updates the same day? What has happened is that I have been painting more after watching TV. Here's a WIP of the Land Raider.

And here we have the first battle damage. Any opinions? Does it look ok? I went with blood red, chaos black, and finally mithril silver. I'm thinking of going with sunburst yellow, bleached bone, and finally mithril silver for the yellow hull. I don't want too much though, it's Lysander's personal "Panzartaxi" after all. Such a bad ass first captain rides in style :)

(I'm keeping away from yellow on weapons so I can reuse them on Space Wolf vehicles later on:))

Comments are very welcome at this point. I'm a bit nervous about the prospect of painting battle damage on such a large surface (I'm going for more of a worn look than being shot up).

Various updates

Did some airbrushing today and here's the results. I was very surprised how well Boltgun Metal worked with an airbrush. The finish was really awesome. I'm going to add some black wash, black drybrushing, and some special treatments on the flamer (hint: blue). I do wonder if I can add some weathering to the metal color *hmm*. And if you look in the top right corner, that's a future project taking form :)

I ended up winning one Assault on Black Reach Tactical squad. I intend to make it a plasma squad, so plasmagun, plasma cannon, and absolutely no plasma pistol (+15p in the current codexes is silly). Might put a combi-plasma on the sergeant though. Going to be conversions at the very least. So stay tune for Squad III, 4th Company, Imperial Fists :)

My wife and I went out to find me some gift for me for our 3rd anniversary. I thought it was time to try to cut down on the plastic crack and went for another of my vises, books. This is today's loot. Half priced books had this awesome stack of Horus Heresy books in real nice quality. I've got tons of reading material now :)

Until next time, be careful out there!

Magnets and a crazy idea

Started with some nice big magnets behind the tracks. I really can recommend these. I think they are around 1/4" for us whom are trapped in the terrors of the land that don't do SI. Gotta buy me more of these since I'm using them on the backside of the sponsons :) Still don't know what I'll do with the extra weapons (2x hurricane bolters, 2x flamestorms) :)

Here we have the Land Raider, very overexposed so we can see the frag launchers and smoke launchers. All of it is magnetized. And one important lesson to all you kids from uncle Flekkzo. Get the polarity right, every time. I didn't once, and I am not happy about it. It was a pain to dig that magnet out of the plastic and glue :(

Now on to the crazy idea. Assault on Black Reach Marines. I'm thinking about getting four sets of them and paint up squad III to VI of the fourth Company. I'm also thinking of repainting my two squads to be fourth (green) instead of fifth (black) to give me I and II. Add to that my Assault Squad and that would be 7 squads. After that I would need to get 10 Assault and 10 Devastators.

Super poor grammar aside, that would be a full Company of Marines. Would be awesome to field in a game of Apocalypse. I could add a Captain with a command squad and why not a librarian and a chaplain. And yes, I am crazy for even thinking of doing this, but it would be soo cool :) Anyone agreeing with me? :)

Some more miscellaneous magnetic Land Raider pictures

Woroxon wanted to know about my magnets, and yet I ended up taking any good pictures of it. I will try to rectify that now! I glued the magnets on the backside of the frames. You can see the bottom four in the picture below. The other four are hidden already. I'm going to add magnets under the tracks so I can plopp the fun grenades on the front on and off. I hope to acquire a standard Land Raider weapons sprue in the future and the standard Land Raider doesn't have them :)

Another W.I.P. picture. Has a bit more depth now, and some more highlights. You can also see how horrible the door looks. I decided to retcon the whole thing and claim that that piece comes from an old and venerable Land Raider (Terra Ira) that now lives on in this one. Going to try to paint a bunch of battle damage on it and dirty it up a bit. Make it Venerable :)

And here's one of my little Hobby Helpers :) The runt of the litter, Merryweather.

Land Raider W.I.P.

Turns out two things didn't work out the way I'd hoped. Golden Yellow apparently covers Iyanden Darksun just fine when using an airbrush, and Sunburst Yellow doesn't cover a thing. Ended up using Bleached Bone instead and adding Iyanden after the fact at the bottom of the sides. Also painted the engine covers Iyanden Darksun instead of Golden Yellow. I will add a bunch of soot later, so I thought I'd play around a bit :)

The white color I got with my airbrush #$(%#$*%^#($ sucks, because it peels off just so damn easy. Not fun! I ended up re-airbrushing the white parts. So I've used up a bunch of masking tape today :) Also, painting white with a brush? NO WAY, doesn't freakin' work at all :( Gotta airbrush that stuff.

Doesn't this look a lot better painted? I haven't highlighted/washed anything (except a black wash on the wings) yet, that's the next step. Maybe, just maybe, I can finish the hull today. Then there's weapons (plus some Rhino/Razorback ones) and tracks left:)

Still haven't decided 100% what to call the yellow beast. Terra Ira is winning at the moment though.

Break over, back to painting! :)

Teaser

The Land Raider is assembled, I've even assembled some of the weapons. I primed it (white of course) but I fear I might have, by mistake, over primed a few spots. Really irks me as I thought I'd learned by now. Kids, don't overuse your primer! A little is far better, and that way you can come back.

Next up is the airbrushing, and I've rearranged my hobby / rat room today so I should be able to do the deed tomorrow. White and Yellow, here we go! And I thought I'd leave you, my faithful readers, with a little teaser. I personally think that engine looks pretty much a lot better with both those logos on there :)

Imperial Fists are awesome

Only one big question left, what to name the beast. Malleus feels a bit cliché, but Pugnis might work better. I want it in Latin, to make it sound righteous :) Maybe Terra Ira would be a suitable name. Just hope I get it right :)