It's a long road... It's now an almost complete road.

[Lucifer Fellblade]

I've dabbled in the novels and the fluff for a long time, never quite committing to an army, however I've decided to start painting now I have much more patience than my 14 year old self did the first time round, to see if I can get to a decent tabletop standard. Much to your dismay I'm sure, I've decided upon painting the cliche choice, the Ultramarines, 2nd Company style.

 

Baring in mind that I had next to no painting experience I should probably have bought a small tester set to try it out, however typically when I arrived at my local GW I talked myself into spending £60 on the SM Battleforce and a Commander, along with another £60 on assorted paints, brushes, washes, foundations and books.

 

I hadn't completely abandoned my senses though as I decided to paint up 5 standard tactical marines as a tester to post on here to ask for some C&C before plunging into the real work.

 

Now onward with the pics you're waiting for.

 

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/184/progressuc9.jpg

 

1. Mordian Blue over Chaos Black undercoat

2. Ultramarines Blue

3. Tin Bitz on gold bits

4. Shining gold over the top

5. Some highlights (later brightened up)

6. Silver metallics and bolters added

 

These were the stages I went through, although I forgot to take a few pictures towards the end as I was flagging a bit wanting to finish them, the main stage missing is the final highlight stage after I decided the previous one was almost impossible to see, and the basing which is pretty straight foward anyway.

 

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/1614/finalfrontpk4.jpg

 

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/4315/finalbackfz8.jpg

 

The final outcome is obviously far from the amazing standards that are on show on this site frequently, but for the first 5 marines ever, I think I did a fairly decent job (although they aren't that bright, it's the flash).

 

Now you're thinking why I posted in this section rather than the finished product forum, well that's because I intend to carry on updating the thread with the rest of my purchases and hopefully using any advice to improve the final outcomes.

 

As of now, here's a pic of whats remaining.

 

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/3503/remainginges9.jpg

 

1 Commander

5 Scouts

10 Tactical Marines

5 Assault Marines

1 Rhino (assembled)

 

So if there's any stages I did wrong, something I could've done better or whatever you want to say, please post as I'll be reading it all and taking it onboard.

[Xanthier]

Very nice work there! One thing I've noticed is that your highlights look slightly chalky - possibly due to the lighting. However, I've found that the Asurmen Blue wash helps bring a vibrant blue back into any highlights, plus it helps everything mesh together more, and gives additional shading. If you decide to go down this route, test it on a marine who only has the blue done.

 

Other than that, great work thus far.

[Squallbuddy]

Great job starting out! I just started a Black Templars army myself, and brandy new to painting mini's myself! Good job! Can't wait to see more!

[En-Zar]

Those are really good, some people struggle to even paint that well!

 

Seriously, If you can do an entire army in that quality it'll look great.

 

You said you bought washes?

Did you buy the brown, blue and black ones?

 

if so, those will make your stuff look oodles better (brown inks / washes tend to make gold look much better, and black washes are good on bolters). Although, in your case I would skip the blue wash, your guys look good enough as is, and I think the blue might be a little dark for "classic" ultramarines, its more of a crimson fists shade.

[Vissah]

They look really good mate.

Im a starting painter myself and I finished one squad took me about a whole week lol.

The only problem I have is painting the eyes they are so damn small lol

I will post some pics later.

[Lucifer Fellblade]

Very nice work there! One thing I've noticed is that your highlights look slightly chalky - possibly due to the lighting. However, I've found that the Asurmen Blue wash helps bring a vibrant blue back into any highlights, plus it helps everything mesh together more, and gives additional shading. If you decide to go down this route, test it on a marine who only has the blue done.

 

Other than that, great work thus far.

 

The camera flash really does make everything brighter and stand out more, but the highlights are quite chalky, I don't (at the moment) have any brighter shades of blue so I just made do with adding white to the UM blue, probably a little too much.

 

Those are really good, some people struggle to even paint that well!

 

Seriously, If you can do an entire army in that quality it'll look great.

 

You said you bought washes?

Did you buy the brown, blue and black ones?

 

if so, those will make your stuff look oodles better (brown inks / washes tend to make gold look much better, and black washes are good on bolters). Although, in your case I would skip the blue wash, your guys look good enough as is, and I think the blue might be a little dark for "classic" ultramarines, its more of a crimson fists shade.

 

The only wash I bought was the Asurmen blue wash, which on the previous models I've only used to shade around the shoulder pad edges, next time I probably will buy the brown and black washes as I've heard nothing but good things about them.

 

And thanks to everybody who posted for C&C and compliments, makes the painting go much faster when you know it's appreciated.

 

At the moment I think my small array of paints is a bit limiting, especially when I come to doing sergeants helmets, as I only have one shade of red and no red wash. However to keep the momentum going and avoid that problem I've just assembled and sprayed the Rhino and 5 more standard tactical marines. One thing in particular, how essential is having a larger size brush to painting tanks? I'm leaning towards saving it till I can buy a tank brush to avoid lots of streaky mess.

 

So tonight I shall mostly be painting these.

 

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/4880/nextstepok3.jpg

 

Edit:

 

Update.

 

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/3998/updatelk7.jpg

 

10 complete tactical marines, now without flash. I've decided to paint up the rest as sergeant and plasma, melta, missile and flamer troops, so I can have all options available and still have a complete 10-man tactical squad.

[13skullz]

this is actually very nice for a beginner which you said had nearly no skill?!

check out my post over here. linky..same answer on your marines.

 

+EDIT+ post at bottom. disregard the painting advice.

[Lucifer Fellblade]

Having spent the majority of the night, and some of the morning painting the next stage, I'm picking up quite a pace.

 

The next squad I chose to do was the scouts, after struggling a bit with the arms to get them to link up right I managed to get them to pose ok after filing some stuff down. A bit of deliberation later on what colour to do the cloth pieces, I decided on a nice white to offset the lack of contrast in the scouts since they dont have shoulder rims. I made up a hodgebodge way of getting white to paint decently onto the scouts and I think they turned out ok, but I'll let you be the judges of that.

 

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/9902/scoutskk9.jpg

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/8416/scoutsbackiw7.jpg

 

Next up is either gonna be the sergeant/special/heavy weapons tactical marines, or the assault squad.

 

Edit: A decent group shot of stuff so far.

 

http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/3406/update2vz8.jpg

[RWJP]

I like those scouts a lot!

 

I wish I could have painted that well when I began... It's taken me years to get close to your standard!

 

The white looks good, although I would suggest a wash of brown on them, followed by another layer of white, just to give them a bit more depth and texture...

 

Other than that, Fantastic!

 

Corus

[ShinyRhino]

These all look great.

My only advice would be to lighten or darken the leather bits on the scouts. It's hard to tell where the boots end and the bases begin, as it look slike the same color was used. Even if you just do a darker brown wash around the feet, it would give some separation of color.

Bravo, and good choice on Ultras Second Company.

[GLD]

All look very very good, especially for a beginner...I think the purchase of a pin vice to drill those gun barrells would really finish them off nicely!!

[JetfireUK]

That's a great standard to start with. You've managed to do a lot more than I've done in two years' of painting! I'm only now starting to complete my first battleforce which I bought last August!!

 

Your standard of painting is perfect for tabletop and the rate you're putting out your marines is great - I should thank you for you keeping me up the backside to finish off my possessed figures!

[Hubernator]

Right, here comes Captain Antismurf :D

 

*lots of rambling*

 

"ahem" they're very good models. Nice finish on them. And if those are your first then you've gots mad skillz :P No seriously, well done to you :pinch:

[Race Bannon]

I'm going to chim in and say that these look fabulous for a starter. You don;t need a lot of detail with troops and honestly, if someone is looking at them from 6 inches away then they are looking for mistakes.

 

If you can paint skin and eyes then a space marine army will be easy to paint.

 

Let me advise you on the red: base the area with Mechrite Red, THEN paint over that with red. Wooo it will be bright! Then a wash and you are set.

 

Also, on the UM badge: get Micro Sol. Trust me, it will make painting the UM badge a thing of the past.

 

:pinch:

[Lucifer Fellblade]

Well first things first I'm gonna thank you all for posting and your complements, I took a bit of a break yesterday and reading the new comments made me want to get back to painting.

 

So as I said in the last post, I painted up the last 5 Tactical marines, but since I had 5 extra bolter marines from the combat squad this meant I could use all the weapons on the sprue and still have enough for any squad configuration.

 

The sergeants helmet was a bit of a fuss, first I accidently painted it blue, then brown, then I finally got the red right. However I only had the Mechrite Red foundation paint for a red, which caused me a bit of dilemma and is the reason why the highlights on him look even more chalky than the others, I'm gonna be buying some more reds next time I go to GW.

 

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/8/fronttw3.jpg

 

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/7956/backgm9.jpg

 

So that's all the boring tacticals out of the way (until the next set I buy of course), so now I hear you ask 'What's Left?' well, thats what the next picture is for.

 

http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/4153/update3hk8.jpg

 

Still remaining:

 

1 Rhino (Should I save till I get a bigger brush? Only got a Standard now.)

 

5 Assault Marines

 

1 Commander (Saving till last)

[nurglephill]

very nice work indeed, and your just starting out? i have been painting ultramarines since rogue trader.....got so sick of them im now doing death guard....(no more blue for me!) having said that.......yours do look kinda nice.....

[Magos Explorator]

Great stuff! A Tank Brush will save you lots of time on the Rhino, and I've found them useful for basecoating Marines too.

[Lucifer Fellblade]

Next step is complete, only the Commander and the Rhino to go.

 

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/639/assaultmarinesfe6.jpg

 

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/9899/assaultmarines2aa8.jpg

 

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/817/update4wh9.jpg

 

The next step I'd like to ask you guys about, recommendations for the next purchase. I was thinking maybe picking up some terminators, not sure which type though, and maybe marneus for something to really take my time on, what do you recommend?

[RWJP]

From a painting project point of view, i'd say marneus as he's a beautiful model...

 

From a creating an army point of view, i'd suggest something like Devastators or a Predator.

[Vissah]

I always love Dreads, so I say go get one of them ;)

[Magos Explorator]

Devastators, Terminators or a Dreadnought. Or all three! :tu:

[Xavyer Jubal]

I see that uve highlighted the helmet of the Assault Vet. with red mixed with white......i dont know if u like pink highlights :) but i suggest that when the next time u highlight bright red, u mix in a bit of orange or yellow so that it stays in the same colour group, besides this minor thing i think ur beginnings look really excellent, Well Done :tu:

 

Xavyer

[Lucifer Fellblade]

I see that uve highlighted the helmet of the Assault Vet. with red mixed with white......i dont know if u like pink highlights :P but i suggest that when the next time u highlight bright red, u mix in a bit of orange or yellow so that it stays in the same colour group, besides this minor thing i think ur beginnings look really excellent, Well Done :lol:

 

I'm planning on picking up some brighter reds to use in my highlights specifically for that purpose, it shouldn't be too hard to redo the highlights, so it's something I'm aware of but I felt I could get away with it for now.

 

Thanks to everybody for the suggestions, I think I'll be picking up some Terminators and a Devastator squad, maybe a Terminator Librarian or Chaplain as well, anybody got a suggestion as to which?

 

I was thinking Chaplain simple for a focal point from the black rather than a Librarian with more blue, but in gameplay terms what would be the better choice for a smaller force?

[DarKHaZZ13]

chaplin

 

libby's, while nice, fluffy and decent looking are rubbish in the majority of games

 

I suggest (feel free to ignore) you get a terminator chaplin, and a squad of termies (depends on the game you want to play as to which you buy)

in fact, buy next motnhs (or the month afters) White dwarf...comes with a terminator! (buy 5 and you have a cheap squad)

 

after that you need another "big thing" so either a tank (of any varity) or/and a dreadnought (because I think they are awsome)

 

nice painting...

I've been at it for 8 years now and mine are like trash compared to yours

 

keep it up ja?

[Xanthier]

Very nice progess there, especially the speed. I'd quite recommend more troops actually, since in 5th edition they're fairly important and a full squad of 10 marines is a nice all-round choice anyway. You'd only have to buy a combat squad of 5 to have a 2 full units of 10 too.