Ultramarine Commander almost done

I started working on this guy when I was doing the Ultramarine half of the Calth box set.  The blue was airbrushed and all the base colours done, so it was just a matter of finishing him off.  He's almost there now... just need to add some text to the banner and his shoulder pad and add a decal.

He's a mix of parts from the Ultramarine upgrade sprue and the old space marine commander multipart box.

Calth Finished

I'm calling this one done.  I changed my mind about doing oil washes for the Word Bearers, so I was able to finish up in a few less steps.  I'd say that they are a good table top level, but I'm happy with them.  Everything is back in the box and the board pieces are still unpunched.  Maybe I'll get a game in some day, but for now they are in the stack of fully painted GW games (Space Hulk, Dreadfleet,  and Assiasinorium).  I've got the deathwatch box now and have the genestealer half assembled and primed...

The stages for the word bearers were:
Spray black base
Red airbrushing (directional highlighting)
Silver details
Black details
Green eyes
Gloss spray (airbrushed future floor polish)
Decals (using micro sol and micro set)
matte spray (testors dull coat)
Shoulder pad silver edging
green eye highlights

Calth Word bearers progress

Here's a quick picture showing the state of things on my Calth set.  The Word Bearers are almost ready for their oil paint treatment, and the Ultramarines are pretty much done.  The bases are basically done as well, so they are passable as table top ready, but I'd like to add some more details and highlights.

Calth Ultramarines almost done

A little more progress on the Calth Ultramarines.  I have all the decals done on the tactical squad and terminators, so they can get a matte spray and finish up the bases.  I may try to do some edge highlights, but that's not necessary for the level of finish I'm going for on these guys.  The terminator captain is almost done, just some more highlights and decals and he'll be done too.  The Word Bearer guy needs some work, but I'm liking how the red is looking on him so far.

Its good that I'm making progress since my Deathwatch box is showing up this weekend...

Betrayal at Calth - more progress

Here's some more progress pictures of my Calth marines.

The Ultramarine tactical squad is ready for a matte seal coat now that the decals have set nicely.  They received a few coats of micro sol and that helped them conform nicely to the shoulder pads.  The terminators have their oil wash and are ready for another gloss coat for their decals.

The Word Bearers have been drybrushed and given black details, next up will be silver.  I'm not happy with the brightness of the red, so I may do a quick overall highlight of the armour before moving to the oil wash.  I'm thinking something like Wild Rider Red thinned down red will do the trick.

Betrayal at Calth Progress

Here's some more progress pictures of my ultramarines as well as the base coat (airbrush) for the word bearers.  The ultramarine tacticals got a coat of future floor polish to prepare for decals, and the terminators got their coat to prepare for the oil wash.  The captain is just getting normal layers, so he won't need the oil wash.

The airbrush layer on the word bearers was just red over a black primer, with a quick orange coat to brighten things up before layering it with red again.  I'm not sure if they are bright enough yet, so I may do another coat of red before moving on to the details.

Betrayl at Calth progress - Terminator Captain

Here's some progress pictures of the Terminator Captain, who is getting the Ultramarine treatment.  I gave him the same airbrush base coat, but will be painting him using normal layering instead of the oil wash.  This will help him stand out and is more enjoyable to paint.  I'll do this for the Dark Apostle as well when I get around to doing the Word Bearers.

These pictures are before I applied washes to each of the areas.  Black to the metal and grey, dark brown to the gold, flesh to head.  After that I touched up the blue and applied a fine black wash to all the armour.  Next up will be highlights.

Calth Ultramarines - Oil Wash results

Here's the results after using a Q-tip to wipe off the excess oil wash.  I waited about 6 hours after applying it and took a q-tip to each model (both ends, one per model) and wiped away as much of the wash as I could.  I had to be a bit careful on any sharp bits so they didn't catch on the cotton, but for the most part I was wiping away everything on the flat surfaces.  In the end all that is left is what was in the recesses and you don't need to do much highlighting.  I'm pretty happy with these guys, and they could be left as is, or if I have time I could add some edge highlights.  They'll definitely need a matte spray finish, but I'll do that after I do their bases with some sand finish.

I wish I had made the highlights a bit more pronounced with the airbrush, so that's a note for next time.

This is before

Before

After

After (he'll need some highlights on his helmet)

The whole squad after I finished

Calth Ultramarine Tactical progress - Oil wash

I managed to get through the oil wash stages on my tactical troops from the Calth box.  This was a bit of a test, and I'm pretty happy with the results.  To review, first was laying down some basic highlights with the airbrush (blues), adding silver, gold and black (plus some grey and red details), then spraying with future floor polish before adding an oil based black wash.

The idea is this... future floor polish is an acrylic gloss finish.  This will protect the paints underneath from the oils and allow me to rub off some of the black after its partially dry.  The gloss finish allows the paints to flow nicely, and since its from a bottle I can airbrush it on.  The oil wash is just a mix of thinner and artist oil paints.  I'll be using black, but you could use whatever makes sense for the colours your are shading.

Tactical squad with the acrylic gloss coat

Closer look at the gloss finish 

All ready for the oil wash

Oil wash applied

Ok to dry for a few hours

Ultramarine progress - Airbrushing

I finally got around to airbrushing these guys.  I had to check that my compressor wouldn't wake up my son, and thankfully being at the opposite side of the house was sufficient.  So that means I can work on things while he's napping or sleeping.

Anyway, I added some highlighting layers to these guys.  I'm using Badger minitaire paints, and found that they weren't really adding much until I added some white to the paint.  In the future I think I'm going to start with a black base rather than blue and work up the colours.  After a blue and white coat I added some blue ghost tint to the models.  Some of it helped, but I also think I may have messed up some areas.  Maybe I'll give these guys another shot before moving on to brushing on the other colours.

Calth Ultramarines Base coated

Here's a couple pics of my Ultramarine force before and after the base coat.  I used double sided tape to attach them to the strips of wood and sprayed them with some army painter sprays.  Nothing fancy here.  I did the underside of the shoulder pads gold in hopes that it'll save time when I do the edges.  Next up will be some zenith highlights with the airbrush followed by the additional base colours.

I'm thinking the process will be:

Spray base coat
Airbrush highlights
Additional colours
Airbrush gloss (future floor polish)
Oil wash
Matte spray
Decals (maybe paint some gloss on areas for decals first)
Final highlights (going to try water colour pencils)
Matte Spray

Final assembly and basing.

Hopefully this will be quick and easy.

Ultramarines Commander Tutorial

Here's another Ultramarines tutorial and painting guide from the Archives.  Its the Space marine commander from Assault on Black Reach, but he's virtually the same as the plastic blister commander. Enjoy!

Originally posted here:
http://itslikewatchingpaintdry.blogspot.ca/2013/10/ultramarines-commander-finished-and.html

*****

Another addition to my growing Ultramarines force, this time the commander from the Assault on Black Reach box.  With the cape on this guy he painted up quite fast.  I was also pretty happy with how the banner turned out.  I've seen so many of these guys unpainted that it's cool to finally have one that's fully painted.

Pics and painting guide below.

Ultramarines Tactical squad Tutorial

Here's a look back at my archives of a tutorial for Ultramarines Tactical squads.  I've got some great Ultramarine tutorials, so check them out.

Orginally posted here:
http://itslikewatchingpaintdry.blogspot.ca/2013/10/ultramarines-tactical-squad-finished.html

******
Alright, the first (of many) Ultramarines guys that I've got to paint up to make an army.  These guys will form the backbone of my army, so I'll have to paint up a bunch more of them.  I'm using the normal GW colours for these guys, and I'm sure I'll get faster at painting them as I do more of them.  Hopefully I'll get a vehicle tutorial posted soon.

Legion of the Damned (tutorial and Guide)

My first memory of Legion of the Damned was when the first Games Workshop store opened in Toronto and they sold a limited edition Legion Sergent.  Of course I was collecting Orks and my brother Blood Angels, so he got the guy.  He ended up doing a full squad using regular marines with flames and bones painted on regular armour.

Anyway, these models aren't quite as old as that, and they're finecast (failcast?) but have still been around for a while.  I've wanted  to paint them up since the Space Marine codex came out last year, but only got around to them now.  I dug out an old White Dwarf painting article (from the previous paint set) and basically followed it to paint up this squad.  Nothing earth shattering, just your typical black armour, bones and flames, but the painting guide is below along with a video tutorial.  Enjoy.

Ultramarine Chaplain FInished and Tutorial

Here's another of the new plastic characters from the Space Marine release.  This guy has fantastic detail, and I enjoyed painting him as much as all the other plastic characters that have been released.  I used the same basic scheme for black armour that I typically do, which is highlighting then bringing it down with a Nuln Oil wash after.

Anyway, a painting guide and full video are after the break.

Space Marine Librarian Painting Guide (plus painting video)

Here's that new Plastic Librarian single sprue kit that GW released with the codex a little while ago.  Its an amazing kit, and the detail is steller.  I used the same general paint scheme, but picked a different blue for the armour to make him a little different than the rest of my Ultramarines.