Ashen Sentinels - an Ultima Founding Space Marine Chapter

I got some of my miniatures professionally photographed

In preparation for a 40k Campaign that will run at my local gaming group, past weekend I got together with some friends to get some photos of different 'scenes' that are going to be in the Campaign source book. Did I mention that one of my friends is a professional photographer? Here are some of the pics from the session - we were all blown away with the results! I'll share a post about the campaign in the not too distant future, but in the meant

July 29

Work in Progress

Which Company for my Bladeguard - help me choose!

Call to Arms has started, and I'm going to paint a squad of Aggressors for it But at the same time, I'm painting three Bladeguard Veterans; I'll chip away at these in the background, aiming to have them done by the end of the year. In the meantime, I'm mulling over which Company these Veterans are going to be from They're intended to go with the Boarding Patrol I've already completed, which is from the 4th Company. I had originally intended that these would be from th

firestorm40k in Work in Progress

June 15

Preparing to go on a Crusade

I’ve completed a Boarding Patrol of my Ashen Sentinels, and once I’ve painted Bladeguard Veterans and Aggressors (next on my painting desk), I’ll have some flexibility as to what I can take for playing that game mode. But the next ‘phase’ of this army is doing a ‘standard’ 2,000 points worth of models. Rather than repeat what I’ve already done, I’ll be painting a different selection of Primaris miniatures and models – and as I do so, I’ll be using them in an ongoing narrative-driven campaign wit

May 31

Testing, testing... (again)!

Even though I've still not finished the Marines I wanted to have done by the end of last year I'm queuing up the next unit* I'll be painting - these Scouts: *technically 2 units, one to go with my Boarding Patrol, the other for 'regular' 40k - but I'll also field them as a Kill Team I've been thinking about how I want to paint them - specifically, their fatigues. I've had a few ideas to try - black, dark grey, khaki or military green, but I wanted to test wh

February 11

About That Colour Scheme...

I had intended to post this for new year, but time got away from me I'm currently on a brief break from painting Ashen Sentinels to work on Imperial Fists for Legions Imperialis - but just to give a further insight into my creative process I wanted to talk about the inspirations for the colour scheme I chose for this army. To start with, a factor in my hobby decisions is usually whether I've painted a particular colour scheme before - if I've done something previously, then I tend

January 7

A strange observation...

I am deep into painting the next three squads - and Lieutenant - for this Boarding Patrol; I've now finished highlighting the armour, so now I'm painting the undersuits. Rather than talk about that (not massively exciting ), I thought I'd share an observation about how washes seem to work differently on miniatures with a different pose. When I had base-coated the Hellblasters and Lieutenant, after I gave them a wash of my, uhh, custom wash I felt that - for whatever reason - the ar

November 8, 2023

A Message to Rostokhar III....

++++ INCOMING MESSAGE ++++ ++++ SECURITY IDENT: MARSHALL THETA-EPSILON-GAMMA ++++ ++++ MESSAGE PRIORITY: ULTIMA+++ ++++ TRANSMISSION SOURCE: ROSTOKHAR QUINTUS++++ ++++ MESSAGE COMMENCES: HOSTILE XENOS CYBER-FORM ENCOUNTERED - UNKNOWN FLEET OF XENOS ORIGIN DETECTED IN SYSTEM - ASTARTES OF ASHEN SENTINELS 4TH COMPANY ENGAGING - REQUEST REINFORCEMENTS FROM ROSTOKHAR III SKITARII COHORTS - PETITION ASTARTES TO DEPLOY IN GREATER STRENGTH IN SYSTEM - BY THE OMNISSIAH'S WILL ++++ ++++ PICT-CA

October 6, 2023

About the Chapter Insignia

Over in the Works in Progress forum, my most recent post revealed the Chapter Insignia - here I wanted to briefly explain my thinking behind it. There's two main things to point out from an 'in-universe' perspective - firstly, reflecting the Chapter's origin that they were intended as reinforcements for the Shadow Stalkers Chapter, there are echoes of their predecessors' Insignia. This symbol was named after the Eclipse of Strontium, the Ashen Sentinels retained the star

September 15, 2023

A Commentary on the Interrogator's Report

To follow up my previous blog post – and thank you if you read it! – here’s a bit of a ‘commentary’ on the background/lore that this piece of fiction was intended to help establish. Firstly, where I’ve mentioned specific named characters, planets and warzones – these reflect my plans for the army I’ll be building and painting, as well as other wider hobby projects. To begin with, my hobby focus initially will be on the Rostokhar campaign – the initial squads of Ashen Sentinels I’m p

September 11, 2023

A Report by Interrogator Hyo Flavignus

015.012.M42 REPORT OF HYO FLAVIGNUS OF THE DISPOSITION AND DEPLOYMENT OF ULTIMA FOUNDING INVESTED CHAPTER CINERE VIGILIAS – THE ‘ASHEN SENTINELS’ Thought for the Day: Blessed are those in the eyes of the God-Emperor who hath died in His service. My Lord, I humbly submit for your attention the report you requested, the culmination of six Terran-standard months’ research and investigation, following the events of 229.011.M42 (c.f. war for Strontium Epsilon). As

September 1, 2023

The Importance of the "Three P's"

...and by that I mean 'Planning', 'Preparation' and 'Practice' As I've gone into each step of painting these Marines, I've followed each of these steps - using my tester Marines to plan, prep and practice before painting the finished squad. Except, the one time I didn't do this fully, it caused me a bit of faff! When it came to doing the highlights on the Chainsword casing, rather than try it out on a tester Marine first, I just went straight jn. I usually do straightforward painti

August 30, 2023

What's in a name..?

While you can find some painting updates in my painting log over in the Works in Progress forum, I'm currently working on a piece that will set out some of the background of the Ashen Sentinels - but before I post that I just wanted to write a little about my process and 'inspiration' for choosing names when I'm doing this. For the names I've chosen for some of the Chapter's Captains, my starting point has been some local history. My home county is Suffolk, which has a few castles s

August 10, 2023

Pulling some threads together

...and by that I mean neither the social networking app, nor items of clothing What I actually mean is story threads - it's time to talk background for the Ashen Sentinels. Without going into too much detail (yet ), this Chapter is a continuation (or sequel? ) of an on going narrative and setting that started with my Chaos Marine army, the Legion of Taurus. Their story was developed and fleshed out over a number of campaigns, most recently culminating in a Kill Team campaign. The b

July 20, 2023

Decisions

While I spend the next week or so highlighting the armour, I'm looking ahead and thinking about how I'm going to do other parts of the model. So I've turned to my test Marines to try out some ideas. Firstly, the Aquila on the chest - my first thought was to do this in red, I've slapped a base coqr of Mephiston Red on, but I worry that won't stand out against the helmet. Second idea - black. One coat of Black Legion Contrast - yeah, I think that's too dark, it doesn't st

July 18, 2023

Things to come...

While I carry on with panel lining (and because I won't have anything to show for it for a while ), I thought I'd post some pics to show what's next. The Marines I'm all working on are intended for games of Boarding Actions, I've built more than 500 points worth, so I've got a choice for games. First on my 'shelf of WIP' are a squad of Hellblasters, and two Lieutenants. (Ignore the Contemptor Dread, that's for my Heresy Imperial Fists army ) The reason the