Shvagyer's Ultramarines (2ed marines p.#86)

[Stoic Raptor]

This is a beautiful army and it's an inspiring example.  I've been painting for decades and still can't turn out professional results like this.  Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing more of it.

[Ishagu]

I absolutely love your work. Each miniature you paint comes off as unique, like a character with their own history.

 

Fantastic.

 

How are you finding the Primaris? Imo the models are incredible. I never thought I'd say this but I would be willing to completely replace my old Marines with them once the range grows.

[ShVagYeR]

Ulfgrim Alvsbane - Thank you! B&C has been an incredible source of inspiration for me, so I'm really happy to give back.

 

Ishagu - Thanks! I do treat each and every one of them like a character to some degree, mainly because I only do batches of 2-3 miniatures at a time. As for Primaris, I really like the models. Now that I've done a bunch of them, I feel more comfortable with conversions and stuff. I wouldn't want them to replace my old marines completely though. I'm too attached to those little dudes. :)

[nusphigor]

really really beautiful work mate!

[ShVagYeR]

III Intercessor Squad Athos

 

Now expanded to 10 men.

 

 

 

Models:

 

 

Sergeant Athos' name comes from the 8th edition codex, although the squad number is III instead of IV. I've decided that changing all squad numbers to match the new codex would be too much work, so my 2nd Company will kind of diverge from the official one, while still retaining common elements like squad names.

 

 

Default Intercessor Pose #1.

 

 

 

Default Intercessor Pose #2. These were my first Primaris models so I just followed the instructions to the letter.

 

 

 

Default Intercessor Pose #3. Getting a better hang of what goes where with these models...

 

 

 

Default Intercessor Pose #4. This one's pretty dynamic.

 

 

 

Ok so this is where I decided to start making things more interesting. Besides, as a generale rule, I never have two identical models in any given unit. So this dude is actually a Hellblaster with his weapon swapped from an Intercessor. An extra touch is the converted grenade launcher and some grenades attached to the rifle casing.

 

 

 

This model came with the Getting Started With Warhammer 40000 brochure. I'm going to use the scenic base on a HQ or something.

 

 

 

Here we have another Hellblaster turned into an Intercessor.

 

 

 

And an Intercessor model from the other unit in Dark Imperium. He carries the unit's second grenade launcher.

 

 

 

For the final model I decided to go to town with its conversion, so here we've got the bare-headed Lieutenant's legs, torso slightly rotated, helmet removed from the belt and placed on his head, some pouches to fill in the gap, the bolt pistol arm aiming, and the bolt rifle arm from another Intercessor.

 

I've still got plenty of Dark Imperium models to do (bought 2 Primaris full sets), but now that I'm more confident with those, I'm going to convert more and more to make them more unique. :)

 

 

nusphigor - Thanks!

[The Pounder]

They look amazing!

The conversions are seem less and well done.

I really like the crest on the Sergeant, I think I'm going to do that on my sergeants and officers.

Just fits the Ultramarines and looks cool!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Well done.

[ShVagYeR]

IX Hellblaster Squad Dryden

 

Fire support is here.

 

 

 

Models:

 

 

The sergeant is pretty much default, as are 4 other models assembled and painted in accordance with the Dark Imperium guidelines.

 

 

 

This is kind of a classic space marine pose.

 

 

 

And so is this. I'm too cool to look in the direction I'm pointing my gun. ;)

 

 

 

This one's head is slightly rotated to make him appear differently (again, default pose #3 from DI).

 

 

 

And this is the last one that I didn't convert.

 

 

 

I can't remember for the life of me which model I converted to make this one. But basically at this point I started taking Intercessor parts and switching their bolt rifles to plasma incinerators and that's pretty much it.

 

 

 

Intercessor-turned-Hellblaster number two.

 

 

 

Same thing here.

 

 

 

And here. This one's really cool, like emerging from behind cover and advancing.

 

 

 

This one I'm most proud of. It's the power sword lieutenant, a bit converted. I really liked the pose of one of the models from the multi-part kit, so I tried to emulate it here.

 

 

And that's it. I'm taking a short break from Ultramarines infantry for the time being. Right now Shadespire models are at the top of the painting queue, as well as Moon Base Klaisus ruins (almost finished with those), the Imperial Sector buildings, and a Repulsor I got for my birthday in September. When the Klaisus ruins are finished, I'm going to set it all up and take a nice group shot of the whole UM army. :)

 

 

Jud Cottrell, Bjorn Firewalker - Thank you both!

[Hopper21]

Great photos!! And models!

[Stoic Raptor]

Many of the best mini painters I've ever seen are from Poland and I wonder why that is.  Something in the water? :D

(They have the prettiest girls, too)

[ShVagYeR]

II Intercessor Squad Telemachus

 

 

Finishing this unit brought me to 20 completed Intercessors and only a few more left to be painted.

 

 

 

Models:

 

 

Sergeant Telemachus is slightly converted from the regular Intercessor sergeant found in the Easy-To-Build box, and the First Strike box which I got my buddy for his birthday but he was gracious enough to give me the Primaris models as he was only interested in Death Guard. He's been given a laurel wreath, because Romans in space.

 

 

 

You'll notice that the running theme in this unit is that all of them have purity seals on their left pauldrons. That's for easier identification during a game -- to differentiate them from the other Intercessor squad in my 2nd company.

 

 

 

At that point I was slowly running out of unique sculpts so you might notice some slight conversions like torso rotation and such.

 

 

 

Here's another model from ETB/FS. Really like his pose, but placing him on the ground floor of ruins is going to be a pain.

 

 

 

This dude has a converted grenade launcher. The barrel should be much thicker, but it works.

 

 

 

This one used to be one of the sergeants in the Dark Imperium box. The helmet was moved from his belt to his head, and the gap filled with a pouch.

 

 

 

And here's the second grenade launcher dude.

 

 

 

Another Intercessor.

 

 

 

This one you might recognize as the Hellblaster sergeant.

 

 

 

And finally this one used to be the Primaris Ancient.

 

 

 

Currently I'm working on my third and last Intercessor squad (with only 5 dudebros). Then I have a Lieutenant, an Ancient, six Inceptors, 10 Reivers, and a Repulsor... and that's not counting non-Primaris models. However 2018 is the year I'm not buying any new models so there should be plenty of time to finish up the backlog.

 

 

Hopper21 - Thanks, glad you like them!

 

Knight of Lupus - Hahah thank you for the kind words.

[Joukernaut]

Awesome work! love it!

May I ask how you converted the grenade launcher? I'm pretty positive I'm going to steal your idea if you let me in on this secret  .

[The Pounder]

Amazing work!

Always a joy to see your updates.

[Wraithwing]

These are great.

 

Can I ask how you converted the grenade launchers? Would love to do something similar myself.

[ShVagYeR]

Thank you all!

 

I put together a quick tutorial for the grenade launcher. It isn't top Photoshop work, but I hope it's clear enough. :)

 

(step by step description below)

 

 

 

1. Start with a regular bolt rifle.

2. Cut away the extra bits on the bottom and under the barrel.

3. It should look like this.

4. Use any kind of greenstuff/foamboard/plasticard/whatever you like to add this extra shape. It looks like this from the side...

5. ...and like this from the front. It's like a cuboid that aligns with the casing above, and then on the bottom a  isosceles trapezoid (?).

6. To finish it off add a barrel and drill it. You can use a greenstuff sausage, a q-tip, anything you like. I ask my nephew not to throw away the stick once he's finished with a lollipop. Also great for assault cannons. ;) Make sure it's at least as thick as the bolter barrel, even better if thicker.

7. This is the end result where I didn't really follow the thickness advice.

8. Or you can go an extra mile and paint some fake highlights on the flat side surface to make it look more like the grenade launcher from GW. I also added some grenades stuck to the bolter casing for extra effect.

 

 

I wanted to do a real tutorial with actual pictures, but I ran out of Intercessor models. :(

[Redrandy93]

Brother really like all the conversions!

[Joukernaut]

Thanks for the effort to make the tutorial ShVagYeR!

[ShVagYeR]

VII Reiver Squad Aulus

 

 

I do apologize for the lack of updates. However I have been busy throughout 2018 painting models for AoS/Shadespire, Horus Heresy, LotR, and also 40k, which includes my Ultramarines army. But only recently I managed to take some decent pictures and over time I am going to post them here.

 

 

 

Models:

 

 

As you can see, this squad belongs to the 4th Company. Sergeant Aulus is a converted Intercessor with some modifications.

 

 

 

Now the rest of the squad are variations (and conversions) of the 3-man Easy-To-Build set. I had three (well, two boxes and one from the First Striker starter). That explains why I had to do some weird stuff to come up with the Sergeant above.

 

 

 

Four dudes have bare heads, while six (including the Sergeant) have helmets. If I want to run them as two 5-man squads, it's gonna be the Sergeant with bare heads as one squad, and all helmets as the second. How am I going to tell who the Sergeant is in the latter? Well, keep on reading.

 

 

 

Interestingly, this unit came to be over a period of over 8 months. Lots of stuff came in between.

 

 

 

Using the Citadel Paint app I gave dark skin a try. Turned out pretty well.

 

 

 

Some of these poses are a bit awkward, but it was important for me (as always) to make sure that no two dudes are the same. Even if it means a strange turn of the torso.

 

 

 

This Reiver is clearly descended from Guilliman, with the blonde hair and all.

 

 

 

At this stage I was going to experiment with a pure Reiver Kill Team (had been using the Reiver Sergeant in KT games to moderate success), so things started to get funny. This Reiver, as you can probably tell, is a Demolitions Specialist. My friend's comment was "there's some space left on the forehead".

 

 

 

Binoculars can only mean one thing: Scout Specialist. In line with the White Dwarf article suggesting how to convert your KT dudes.

 

 

 

And finally this is the squad's Second, also Sergeant if running two squads, also Veteran Specialist in KT. Which brings the unit to the conclusion.

 

 

 

Redrandy93 - Thanks!

 

Joukernaut - No problem at all, I hope it was useful.

[Joukernaut]

Awesome work as ever. Glad you’re back.

I’m looking forward to the rest of your ultra work.

[Ishagu]

Lovely Reivers. Your paintwork is very elegant.

[ShVagYeR]

VIII Inceptor Squad Gloccus

 

 

This is another unit that I managed to finish in 2018, varnishing the final model just a few hours before midnight on 31/12. :)

 

 

 

Models:

 

 

Sergeant Gloccus is mentioned in the 8ed codex as leading the Inceptor squad assigned to the 2nd Company. The squad number is different, but at some point there has to be a separation between the codex and my dudes, unless I want to go back and re-apply decals on older squads. Anyway, the Sergeant is the stock pose from Dark Imperium with some extra bits added.

 

 

 

This is the second default pose.

 

 

 

And the third one.

 

 

 

At this point I was experimenting with reposing them, as much as the Dark Imperium kit allows that. I'm moderately satisfied with the end result, as the pose is quite aggressive. It isn't very visible, but there are purity seals on the large engine cowlings of the jump pack. I'll explain why after showing the last model.

 

 

 

Didn't do much here other than changing the angle of one of the arms and turning the head slightly more to the side. No extra stuff on the jump pack.

 

 

 

This dude has some small aquilas on the jump pack. Now if you go back and browse through the models again, you'll see that three of them have unadorned packs (including the squad's second-in-command) and three have some extra stuff there (including the Sergeant). That's for the rare occassion where I will run them as two 3-man squads to be able to tell the difference quite easily.

 

On a side not, I ran them in a Narrative game recently against Evil Sunz Orks and they were... underwhelming to say the least. A lot of Power Levels for mediocre firepower, no CC ability whatsoever, and some extra mobility. But I have to admit the models are pretty cool, even with the fiddly flight stands.

 

 

Joukernaut - Thanks, it's good to be back!

 

Ishagu - Thank you!

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Any advice on how to do the yellow checkerboard? I’m assuming you are using a decal.

[ShVagYeR]

No, that's freehand. I do the grid first, then fill up squares with yellow, and touch up the blue ones to make sure they're not much smaller than the yellow ones.

[ShVagYeR]

I Tactical Squad Sevastus

 

 

These models from the Space Marine Heroes line (and two regular dudes) bring the infantry portion of my 2nd Company to the conclusion.

 

 

 

Models:

 

 

Brother Castor comes first, because I'm going to use the order from the Space Marine Heroes website. I tried to emulate the paint scheme and details as seen in the official source. The only difference is I went all helmets for now, possibly going to paint bare heads in the future. They're sitting safely in the bits box.

 

 

 

Brother Gaiun has a very dynamic pose, as well as an aquila on the base. I really like him.

 

 

 

Brother Garus is clearly the sniper and to such an extent that even his bolt pistol has a scope lol. I like the inclusion of a relic Heresy-era bolter on this model.

 

 

 

Brother Titus is reloading his bolter, with the spent mag on the base. I didn't think of that when making a similar model for the 5th Tactical Squad.

 

 

 

Brother Promethor rolled a 1 at least once when supercharging his plasma gun, but thankfully that didn't discourage him. The bionic arm only makes him angrier.

 

 

 

I wasn't really sure about Brother Remus' missile coming out of the launcher trailing smoke, simply because I suck at painting smoke and fire (see my Guilliman's sword a few pages back). But ultimately I decided not to chop the model up and give it a try. Could be better, but also could be much worse, so there it is.

 

 

 

Brother-Sergeant Sevastus' pose clearly marks him out as the leader. Onwards, to victory!

 

 

 

Brother Vanial is the resident grenadier. The grenades on his chest make just about as much sense as in the case of one of my Reivers. Well, the Emperor protects.

 

 

 

This marine was assembled from some old bits, including Devastator legs (you get 6 pairs in a box including the kneeling ones, so having two boxes I had two extra pairs). I used the scenic base from the snapfit Intercessor that comes with the intro brochure.

 

 

 

And finally the mandatory beakie which all of my squads have at least one of. Again, Devastator legs and some pieces of the old Imperial Sector terrain chopped up on the base.

 

 

All I can say those have a been a pure joy to paint, much more so than Inceptors. Which, if you read my note about them in the previous post, somebody recently enlightened me about them having two Heavy Assault Bolters each as opposed to one (well duh!), so basically I was using half of their firepower in that Narrative game instead of full 6 shots per dude. I stand corrected and I will definitely run them again soon. As well as Squad Sevastus just to show them off.

 

The important thing is, a goal that I set out to fuilfill back in 2016 is closer to completion than ever, and that is completing the full 2nd Company of Ultramarines. I've got all the infantry finished as well as a Dreadnought and 5 or 6 Rhinos/Razorbacks. The only stuff left to do is an Ironclad Dreadnought and a Repulsor, and at that point I'm going to call the company 100% done. Which should happen within the next few months, although currently I'm distracted by some old LotR minis from early 2000s.

 

As always thank you for stopping by.

[Captain Idaho]

Great stuff.