[WIP] 139th Ultramarines

[Marqol]

Hello!
After about a half year break followed by different interests I have put my main 40k army to the side for major re thinking. With the release of plastic mk4 marines I have decided to jump into the Heresy and start an ultramarine army. I am not going for a "good" list or anything like that I am simply building what I like while trying to stick to a fluffy theme. That theme being a Calth based Ultramarine force that is doing what ever they can to mount a defence. So battered marines, angry captains, that sort of thing.

I've been using the BaC box as a start off point and while I do have five lovely Cataprachtii's and a Contemptor I am mainly concentrating on the core of my army. With Pride of the Legion as my rite of war I am using veteran tactical squads to give the idea that man power is scarce, they can't just go having giant blobs of 20. So far one tactical squad is fully made and based. One brave volunteer was test painted but the rest I'm waiting for when I can purchase the Macragge Blue spray to speed up the process.


On the left my first sergeant, nothing too fancy just a simple ugprade chest piece. On the right my brave test marine, still needs some gold which I am going to try some of the Retributor Armour.


A close up of the test marine, apologies for flash, still a novice at photo taking. Hopefully a new camera and a cheap DIY lightbox will help.

A reinforcement dropship shall hopefully be with me soon, bringing some Praetorian heads, the start of my Locutarus Storm squad, the start of my command squad and a Khârn. Yes, a Khârn. My idea for my company commander is to be a very angry Ultramarine that has been through a day of nightmares. The aggressive pose and the chipped armour of Khârn's model work very well to the idea I have. Also that mkIII marine is just asking to be painted as a Word Bearer.

Thanks for reading!

[Flint13]

I approve of any use of Khârn. He is the best.

 

Your test marine is looking good so far, but I agree, a lightbox will totally pay dividends! ^_^

 

He definitely deserves some Retributor Gold. Have you tried it before? It's amaze. You won't be disappointed.

 

Anywhosit, keep up the awesome work! I really wanna see these guys multiply... 

 

even if they are silly loyalists

[The Pounder]

As above, looking good!

Keep em coming.

[Marqol]

@Flint13 Not the tried the new golds yet, only ever used the peasant golds. Shall be picking some up from my local store friday. Thanks for the words!

@Jud Thanks! Always good to hear from a fellow Ultramarine player!

Now I've tried to write bits of fluff here and there for previous armies but I am not very good at it so always ended up scrapping them. But with the help of a friend who did some proof reading and was basically an editor for me. I am happy enough with this to put it out there and see what feed back I get. 

++++

 

 Heavy footsteps sounded their approach, the three blue armoured warriors thundering down the alleyway with their weapons braced and ready to fire at any target that dared show itself. The target of their growing wrath was straight ahead of them,  a three story admin office, the stone surface pock marked with gunfire. More importantly,  their target was the heavy bolter nests entrenched on the upper floors. 

 

 Icari was first up, the door already weakened took little effort to collapse, the legionnaire shoulder barging the metal and causing a shower of sparks. Braxxus, the squads sergeant followed him in, pistol raised, power fist humming as he clenched it closed. Nial came in third, his salvaged phobos pattern bolter held up, scanning the room for targets. 

 

"Clear."

"Clear."

"Clear." 

 

 Came each of their replies before moving further into the office, dashing down a wide, half destroyed corridor. Above them came the chatter of the bolters, the nests sending leathal fire down the street it was watching and cutting down anyone unforunate enough to be in the open. They had to be quick, the faster they eliminated the nests, the more lives would be saved. And today, lives were very costly. 

 

 The trio came to the stairs, lavish stone steps that were now dented and covered in dirt. Icari once again on point, wasted no time in charging up them, taking two or three at a time. Before he could reach the top however, their first assailant appeared. One of the robed brotherhood that the XVII had follow them, chanting fanatics, a ruthless mob, that is all Icari saw them as. Not wanting to waste precious ammunition, the legionnaire closed the gap between them and ripped out the mans throat in a small fountain of gore. And then like a lifeless doll his body was thrown to the side, tumbling down the stone steps.

 

 At the top lay another corridor that stretched to their left and right, mirroring the one below. A burst of fire to their right showed them the way and without a word all three continued on their path. One more door stood in their way, one more door and then they'd be on the enemy position. But, typical to today's events, the door was suddenly flung from its hinges, Icari having to skid to a halt to avoid the debris. A large, lumbering, red shape came towards them, its size just squeezing through the frame. 

"Contact, Contact!" Shouted Braxxus, firing his bolt pistol, the shells just plinking off the Cataphracts massive shoulder guards. Icari joined in, firing bursts at any potential weak spots, each round bouncing uselessly off the hardened plate. Now it was the traitors turn, lifting up his combi bolter, he aimed at Icari's faceplate and fired. The bolter rounds first denting the armour before penetrating and leaving the helmet a mess of blue ceramite, of blood and of skull pieces. The now dead suit of armour dropped to its knees, just sitting for a moment before falling forward with a slam.

The two remaining Ultramarines, enraged at the death of their brothers opened fire with everything they had. A few lucky shots managing to get through the thick armour but hitting nothing that would slow the Word Bearers advance. The sound of the terminators laughter echoed from his helm like a metallic cough, as if the Word Bearer was taking sick pleasure in the situation. With a furious cry, Braxxus ripped off his helmet and rushed the traitor. His green eyes concentrating on the face plate of the Cataphractii, making it a target. 

 

The traitor stopped his advance to bring his bolter to bare but was too late, Braxxus was already on him with his power fist drawn back. In an explosion of gore he punched the Word Bearer, the energy field of the fist connecting and shattering the armour before turning the head into mush. The Cataprhactii fell, leaving the corridor open. On the other side of the door, panicked gun crews could be seen either grabbing rifles or trying to flee. 

 

Both Ultramarines advanced in silence, their bolters making bloody punctuation for their intent.
++++

[Marqol]

So my Forge World order arrived as well as a small spree at my local gw. And over the weekend I've been trying to get a lot of stuff to the stage of at least built. These are the last pictures I'll take at my desk, the others after should be from a nice DIY lightbox. Finding it a bit more difficult to source a good sized box for this.

First up is my bit more work on my first Veteran Tactical Squad. As you can see starting my first steps down the path of Volkites. The gold is just a basecoat of Retributor Armour, I'm just testing different washes to see what feel I like best.




Also orderd a Mk4 command squad (well duo) from Forge World. My legion standard bearer.Gave him some nice rubble to stand on with plasticard tiles. A power fist because I just like the mental image I had when planning it.


And I've also ordered some assault marines, Locutarus Squads sound a lot of fun. I've run out of bases but I did manage to get three done. Here is the strike leader all undercoated. I got 20 praetorian helmets, mixing them into the tactical squads but think I want to concentrate them on the Locutarus squad as they are a unique unit.


My Khârn came too and while not pictures yet I am making good progress. Shaved off the knee pads and removed the armourless arm. Gave him the UM upgrade sword to be a paragon blade and he has the FW Praetor eagle shoulder pad to give him that Artificer look.

The deaded mk3 marine from the Khârn base has been donated too my allies project. I finally decided to buy myself a knight. I'm working on a Knight house with ties to macgragge in some way or other. Maybe not directly to the planet but to Ultramar at least. So thought a dead word bearer at the base along with some other details may help the Knight look like he is really above the battlefield.

That's the end for this update, hopefully next one there will be the lightbox and much better quality pictures.

[Dantioch]

Looking awesome dude, always great to see more Ultramarines!

[Marqol]

Well I got a lightbox going, isn't perfect but it does the job. And I got a lot more ultramarines built and going through the painting. Though I have hit a snag as I can't seem to replicate a few colours here and there. Especially with the weathering.
Some shots of my Praetor as he needs to be photographed and he seemed a good model to test the lightbox on.







The blue is darker in reality, just camera settings that are making it lighter. Will play around with them as I try different things.

I have hit a bit of a barrier though as my weathering started off as a heavy dark wash with mud splatters. How ever I have gotten stuck with making it consistent on all the models, so I am looking for new ways to make the army look consistent.

[The Pounder]

So my Forge World order arrived as well as a small spree at my local gw. And over the weekend I've been trying to get a lot of stuff to the stage of at least built. These are the last pictures I'll take at my desk, the others after should be from a nice DIY lightbox. Finding it a bit more difficult to source a good sized box for this.

First up is my bit more work on my first Veteran Tactical Squad. As you can see starting my first steps down the path of Volkites. The gold is just a basecoat of Retributor Armour, I'm just testing different washes to see what feel I like best.

Also orderd a Mk4 command squad (well duo) from Forge World. My legion standard bearer.Gave him some nice rubble to stand on with plasticard tiles. A power fist because I just like the mental image I had when planning it.

And I've also ordered some assault marines, Locutarus Squads sound a lot of fun. I've run out of bases but I did manage to get three done. Here is the strike leader all undercoated. I got 20 praetorian helmets, mixing them into the tactical squads but think I want to concentrate them on the Locutarus squad as they are a unique unit.

My Khârn came too and while not pictures yet I am making good progress. Shaved off the knee pads and removed the armourless arm. Gave him the UM upgrade sword to be a paragon blade and he has the FW Praetor eagle shoulder pad to give him that Artificer look.

The deaded mk3 marine from the Khârn base has been donated too my allies project. I finally decided to buy myself a knight. I'm working on a Knight house with ties to macgragge in some way or other. Maybe not directly to the planet but to Ultramar at least. So thought a dead word bearer at the base along with some other details may help the Knight look like he is really above the battlefield.

That's the end for this update, hopefully next one there will be the lightbox and much better quality pictures.

The Locutarus are an amazing unit.

You'll have lots of fun with them.

[Marqol]

@Jud Yes I wanted to get an Ultramarine specific unit and these stuck out the most to me. Got 2 done so far, 3 base coated. The other 5 are in an order hopefully on the way soon.

I am 5 tactical marines down now after trying some varnish which left them all rather shiny for my liking. But I have plans to get a second calth box soon so not impossible to get them back. Overall I've been working on getting more tacticals painted, trying new things when it comes to weathering here and there as well as my Macragge aligned Knight House. I'll try to get some pictures of the Knight when I find a nice spot for him, my lightbox is a bit too small.

But I have been trying some new techniques in regards to taking pictures and got some snaps of Veteran Sergeant Tiber, the 139th Standard Bearer. He's the MkIV banner with a praetorian helmet and a power fist because you need to slap those daemon worshipping word bearers away from your lovely banner. He needs a few highlights here and there and the odd detail picked out, but the overall colouring is done.









As I said I have the 5 remaining Locutarus members on the way as well as 3 scimitar Jet bikes. Plans for them at the moment are a squad of 3 for starters with a sergeant and some portable choom.

Thanks for reading.

[The Pounder]

Looks great, good use of decals!

[Luna707]

Your praetor is fantastic!

[Marqol]

@Jud Yeah I tried one of the banner decals first but it just didn't go in smoothly and I just couldn't get it working so went with my own basic design in the end.

@Luna707 Thanks, just waiting till I need a mk2/3 weapons kit to nab me a Serpenta.

Been un doing some weathering I did on a few of the models as it seemed a bit too heavy and at the moment I have 5 of my first tactical squad (the other 5 are the overly varnished ones) that are nearly at completion. Just a few details to pick out here and there.


For my Rite of War I'm planning to use Pride of the Legion as I think 10 man squads work better to a battered, barely put together force theme. Sergeant, choom and a heavy bolter with suspensor web. Plan is to have three of these squads, two kitted out like this but then a third in a rhino outflanking.

Now my squad members have the double triangle tactical symbol except for my heavy bolter as he was a little experiment that quickly got canned.


I also decided to add a few phobos bolters into the mix. From reading Know No Fear I got the image that as the Word Bearers attack, marines aren't in a 100% state of ready so are grabbing what they can.


I also got 5 of my Locutarus squad to a similar stage. The other 5 should be arriving tomorrow or saturday. Only thing here is I'm wondering how to mark the sergeant out more. Debating painting the visor white, any opinions?





And last part of the update. I was wrong, the knight fits in the light box.


The missing shin pad is needing some work as I accidentally put a few too many layers on and its gotten a bit thick. I wanted an allied Knight House that comes from within the 500 world of Ultramar so I themed the colours and some of the symbolism around the XIIIth legion.


I went with the crusader as I just like the imagery of a big walking mini titan with lots of guns.


The base is just a fantasy movement tray cut into place and stuck on some cork board to give it a bit of height. I do wish I added some more cork or maybe some girders etc amongst the earth to break the brown up a bit.


Close up of how I tried to theme the Knight house with Ultramar. I also tried to mix a few symbols together from different transfer sheets but ended with the Hawkshroud hawk. For now its a falcon *shifty eyes*

Hopefully tomorrow I can start work on my remaining 5 Locutarus and my jetbikes. I'm looking forward to the bikes as they look fun to paint and model around. Going to try my hand at some more scenic bases too, move away from just cork board and sand.

Thanks for reading.

[Dantioch]

Loving the Locutarus, keep up the great work!

[Vulkan He'Dan]

Everything looks great! As for the sergeant, in Tempest is shows squad sergeants having a white stripe running down the centre of their helmets so you could add that to make him stand out a bit.

Always love seeing the glorious boys in blue

[SkimaskMohawk]

Just fyi you need 2 knights to use them as allies in 30k

[Marqol]

@Dantioch Thanks, the remaining 5 showed up in the post so will get working on them asap. After the jet bikes of course. 

@Vulkan He'Dan Thanks for the kind words. Yeah my sergeant with a MKIV helmet has a stripe just seems a bit more awkward to do with the Praetorian helms. Might just try one down the visor. 

@SkimaskMohawk Yeah I did read that up. Knight was more I just really wanted to paint one, I am into the hobby for the modelling more than the gaming (I'm pretty bad at the game side) But I do plan to get a paladin up soonish. Or maybe a lancer if I dare go the FW route. 

[Marqol]

Well a small update today. I had planned to finish a few more of my tactical marines but I have hit a snag. The scheme I'm using uses a dark brown/black wash to bring the Macragge blue down as well as give the model a rather dirty look. How ever I am failing to get it consistent across each model and it just doesn't sit with me. I tried reversing this with layering some macgragge over it again or using sponging a bit more heavily to bring up the edges but it still just doesn't look right. I like the dark blue I get, it's quite deep but on the table it gets lost very easily, details don't pop out.

So to square one it is. I have a few plastic Calth marines about still that are going to be my new test models. I've collected a few blue recipes to try (Anymore that people can suggest will make me a very thankful frater indeed) and once I've settled I will look into strpping the models done so far and going from there.

But I am still going to be building and modelling untill then. My jetbikes arrived friday and while I am waiting for some scenary parts to base them I have got them built up.

The sergeant I wanted to stand out so decided to add my first plume of the army. I'm not 100% on but going to leave it for a few days and see how I feel. Company Champion sword was in my mind perfect for the charging forward, always like cavalry look.

[Marqol]

Been doing some work on building up my remaining Locutarus assault squad members as well as the jetbikes. Plus my next order has been placed which shall bring some fun additions to my company.

First some WIP shots of the jetbikes, started on one to just test some colours and how the bikes should look overall.

I decided to go the route of mobile choom for the upgrade weapon.




I have also been finishing off my 2500 List. I've gone for 2500 as it's a checkpoint to get my Ultramarines too and then which I can add to. It also serves as a kind of wish list for me to help focus what I actually want to buy.

++HQ++
+Praetor- Artificer Armour, Paragon Blade, Volkite Serpenta, Iron Halo, RoW (Pride of the Legion)
+Legion Command Squad - Standard bearer and 2 chosen. (1x Heavy Chainsword 1x Lightning Claw 1x Power fist)

++Troops++
+Legion Breacher Squad - 9 x Breacher Siege marines. (4x Power Sword 1x Volkite Charger) Breacher Sergeant (1x power sword)
+Legion Veteran Tactical Squad - 9 x Legion Veteran Space marines. (1x Heavy bolter with suspensor web. 1x Volkite charger) Tactic (Fearless) Veteran Sergeant (1x Power fist)
+Legion Veteran Tactical Squad - 9 x Legion Veteran Space marines. (1x Heavy bolter with suspensor web. 1x Volkite charger) Tactic (Fearless) Veteran Sergeant (1x Power sword, Artificer Armour)

++Elites++
+Contempttor Dreadnought - Twin Linked Volkite Culverin, Close combat weapon with twin linked bolter.
+Legion Destroyer Squad - 9x Legion Destroyers (2x Rad Missile Launcher with suspensor web) Destroyer Sergeant (1x Power Sword)

++Fast Attack++
+Jetbike Sky Hunter Squadron - 2x Sky hunters (1x Volkite Culverin) Sky hunter sergeant (1x Power Sword)
+Locutarus Storm Squad - 9x Locutarus. Locutarus Strike Leader (Melta bombs)

++Heavy Support++
+Legion Vindicator - Twin-linked bolter, dozer blade, Laser Destroyer Array, Armoured Ceramite
+Legion Leviathan - Storm cannon, Siege claw, Twin linked Caliver, Armoured Ceramite, Phosphex Discharger.

I haven't thought much about what works with this list, my skill at playing the actual game is quite low so I stick to models that I like and ones that look fun to paint. I do take advice if people have it though. Hopefully from this you can see how the army will progress over the coming months.

Thanks for reading
Marqol