Ultramarines Intercessor

Long time no post, but I’m still kicking! I’ve been quite busy with work and other 1:1 life stuff (more on that soon-ish), but when I’ve had time I’ve chipped away at another Primaris marine: an Ultramarine Intercessor!

When I started my Primaris First Founding chapters/legions project, one of the goals was to build each model with an upgrade sprue to give them some extra flavor. I decided to make one exception, and that was with the Ultramarines. Being the posterboys of marines and GW, he was built as generic as possible.

In addition to building each Primaris model as an individual, another goal was to try out different ways of painting marines. For my Dark Angel I tried a combination of volumetric and edge highlights, while for the Space Wolf it was subtle volumetric shadows and edge highlights. I’ve wanted to try the ‘Eavy Metal approach for some time, and what better model for it than a box art Ultramarine! The color palette and process is also very well documented nowadays, perhaps best by Dave Perryman, an ex-‘Eavy Metal painter. I followed his YouTube video for most of my model.

There’s a whole lot of edge highlights going on, and while on the studio models all of the highlights are applied on every edge, I confess to applying the final highlight only on upward-facing edges. This is mostly because I couldn’t make it thinner than the previous one (as far as I could see), at least consistently, so I thought I’d not cover all my previous work and save some time in the process. Still, I’m super happy with the result! While on closer inspection I can see that the box art is way sharper, the highlights thinner, from a bit further away it looks like I have my own ‘Eavy Metal model! I also feel like I improved my brush control quite a bit, especially doing the knee and shoulder pads where you don’t have an actual edge to highlight.

Probably the biggest departure from the studio version are the shoulder pad markings. I’ve always liked the idea that each marine can have slightly different heraldry. This is/was often shown in Codexes and White Dwarfs, but rarely shown on models. However, the Indomitus box came with very nice Ultramarine decals, many of them a bit different from the others. I chose an Ultima sign with “XIII” on it for the left pad. For the right one, I used some “vintage” decals from the Battle for Macragge boxed set. I quite like the big squad number and the small tactical arrow, and it satisfies my need to make every model, even a box art Ultramarine, my own in some way 😀 I had some issues applying the decals and had to do them twice, plus paint over the older ones as they were more transparent/not as white as the new ones. Got it looking nice in the end though!

The base also got the box art treatment. I found it interesting that the main brown color was done without washes, just drybrushing. Efficient! I tried static grass for the first time here, and while I’m not totally happy with the result, it’s fine. I used Army Painter’s Field grass which is not quite the same tone as on the ‘Eavy Metal models (anyone know which product they use?). I washed and drybrushed the grass to integrate it more to the base, which is another deviation from the studio models, but I quite like the look. Also, this was my first base without a black rim. Back to black with my future models, I think.

So yeah, this was most likely my last finished mini for the year. Not a bad one to end on, I reckon! I don’t know what I’ll paint next, but it’ll be something a bit quicker, a bit less precise 😀 Hopefully I can get back to painting right after New Year’s!

Where It All Started: Ultramarines

Time for even more old minis, and this time we’re going right to the beginning! Last week was winter/skiing holiday and I got to spend some time in our summer cottage (I know, I know.. It’s Finland!). I’ve got all my old minis from my (pre-)teenage years there and I thought that I’d document them. Beware, less-than-stellar paintjobs, a mis-mash of different edition models and Goblin Green bases inbound!

I started the hobby, like many others, with Space Marines. I also had this strange notion that I had to replicate the box art, both in painting and even in modelling (ughh..). The first box I bought was a Space Marine (or WH40k?) paint set, which came with nine pots of paint, a brush and five 2nd ed. monopose marines. Below, my first ever GW miniature!

Okay, so I’m pretty sure he’s not my first one.. They’re monopose! Actually, I think he was originally painted by my brother, who also bought the same box, but didn’t care for the hobby in the end. I got his models, touched them up a bit and formed a full Tactical Squad. But, this one model is the only one I have that has the original yellow shoulder pad trim, so for all intents and purposes, he’s my first one!

Somewhere along the line I ended up switching from the 2nd company yellow to the 3rd company red. It was to do with the box arts, what else? Originally I had no idea what the trim colors meant, I just followed the ‘Eavy Metal examples, and so my Command Squad (below) was always in 3rd company colors, while the rest of the models were in 2nd company. When I eventually got the new Command Squad, which had the new 2nd company color scheme on the box, I decided to switch everything to 3rd company as they had the cooler banner!

Speaking about banners, they were all drawn on paper with a pencil and painted with the same undiluted GW paints that I used on the minis as well. I didn’t actually have pink paint, so the Tyranid head on the Standard Bearer’s flag is colored with a pencil. As the standard in the new Command Squad was plastic, so I couldn’t use pencils, I had to man up and mix my own pink paint!

As you can tell, my force was pretty HQ-heavy. Part of it was that they were cool models, and maybe a bigger part was that I bought whatever my meager pocket money could afford and what was available locally. Blisters were cheaper than full boxes!

The final two pictures are of the new Command Squad, which as I recall was the final box of marines that I painted before quitting the hobby (or going on a long hiatus, as it turned out). The reason that they’re not in the same photo is that I’ve been keeping the sarge and the banner bearer with me all this time. The squad as a whole shows the height of my teenage marine painting skills, and provides a reference for comparing where I’m now with my painting.

I do have to say that while these are not great paintjobs by any means, they’re not bad either. Especially the last minis that I did would be on a very respectable tabletop standard if you’d only throw a wash on them. I’ve always tried to be tidy with my painting and keep the colors in-between the lines, which does take quite a lot of time but I reckon is worth it in the end.