Kal's Primaris Ultramarines progress

[Kalamadea]

I've loved the Primaris marines since they were first leaked. I bought a bunch of the starter set models planning to convert into space wolves truescale models (and indeed a few of them were), but there's just too many models that it won't work on like bikes and thunderwolf cav. While watching some random battle reports I stumbled across All Miniatures Great and Small and his slow-grow league Primaris UMs and decided I should do an army like that. I love how he painted his UMs, the older brighter UM blue from 3rd/4th edition. I still have a few of my old UMs left over from a 4th ed escalation league, although my painting style has changed drastically from back then and a lot of the models dissappeared into other projects over the years, only the Tactical and Devastators are left and the Primaris models are so much better that I'd never use a normal marine again if that is an option. 

 

So I picked up a few more units to round out the force, buying off ebay resellers for the most part and have been getting them assembled over the last couple months. I wanted to get everything pretty much assembled and primed before doing any painting, but I cheated and painted up Bobby G a few weeks ago, he was too cool to wait. Amazing model, I knew I'd own one the moment I saw it and was able to pick it up for a good price on ebay. Most of the army is starter set and fast-build stuff, I wanted to wait for the easy-build Redemptors to release and bought them with the Repulsor just before Xmas. That repulsor is one OBNOXIOUS model to assemble. I'm still not super keen on the design, the amount of weapons it has is just ridiculous. But the sheer amount of dice it throws out is impressive enough so I built it with as low a profile as I could, no gunner in the hatch and moved the onslought to a rear pintle-mount which helps keep the turret from looking too busy. All of my Primaris have MK7 heads, the MKX is nice but I adore the basic MK7. The exception is the Reivers, who will have Puppets War resin Elite Force heads, should be arriving shortly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Pounder]

You’re off to a great start!

I like the blue and gold you’ve used.

Everything you’ve done is neat and crisp, keep ‘em coming!

[Prot]

Awesome.... and that Primaris Libby helmet made me do a double take.

 

Also are you playing these guys? if so how do you find the Libby vs. just using Tiggy?

 

I agree on the Repulsor.... it was Repulsive to assemble. I sold mine,,,, and considered doing a new one, but the assembly alone makes me cringe. Great job though. I love the work.

[Kalamadea]

I've yet to play with them at all, I'd like to get them fully painted before I throw them on the table. Not that anybody else at my FLGS plays fully painted, but I just dislike playing with unpainted models. Tigurius is a beast, but for now I'd like to keep it pure Primaris, once I get in a few games if I need to abandon that and bring in regular SM models. I know one of the local guys plays Magnus a lot, so I may need some additional psykers, but I may just go with a Calexus Assassin or Sisters of Silence or something if I need to.

 

In the meantime I've got the first 10 Intercessors and 3 Aggressors on my table, got the gold blocked in last night and started on the silver. Hopefully finish blocking in the other colors tonight to get them ready for enamel wash. Blocking colors is my least favorite and most time-consuming part of painting, but a necessary evil.

Edited January 15, 2018 by Kalamadea

[Kalamadea]

First 2 squads of Intercessors and the Aggressors basecoated and colors blocked in, ready for enamel wash

[Kalamadea]

Took a couple extra days, but Intercessor squad III and IV are complete, as well as the Inceptors. I may hit them with a glaze to tone down the edge highlights, they're a bit brighter than I'd intended. Moving on to the last Intercessors, hopefully done by the weekend then on to the Reivers, saving the other heroes from the starter box set for last. Would love to have everything done by next thursdays game night, but more likely will be a couple weeks out

 

 

 

 

 

And the army so far

 

[The Pounder]

You’ve painted more models recently than I managed in the whole of 2017!

They’re looking good too.

[Vaughn]

Man, I love your painting style. It’s simple but super clean and gives a fantastic finish. Any tips to paint like that?

[Kalamadea]

Thanks guys. Best tip I can give is even panel lines and thin edge highlights, but really it's the panel lines that do it. They serve to block-in and separate the shapes, they literally outline the different elements on a model. The edge highlights then reinforce those outlines and make the shapes pop out at you. You can panel line with a micron pen or very carefully with a brush (gloss Nuln Oil over a gloss varnish makes that much easier to do with a brush) which is called a pin wash, or you can do the basecoat-wash-rebasecoat method like in the Warhammer Community videos. I've done all of those over the years as my technique developedm but by far my favorite method has become oil and enamel washes. Enamel washes like AK Interactive or Humbrol washes are pre-mixed whereas oil washes you make yourself out of oil paint (like from the squeeze tubes) thinned down with white spirit. Because they don't dry completely you can do an all-over wash, let the white spirit dry and then go back with a Q-tip soaked in white spirits and wipe away virtually all of the wash, leaving it just in the recesses. It works for any color, but the brighter the basecoat the better. I've found oil washes are better for skin and cloth and enamel are better for mechanical bits with hard edges and crisp segmented plates.

 

For these figures I prime them grey and airbrushed them with Vallejo Ultramarine blue, then did a zenithal spray from the top of 3:1 mix Ultramarine Blue and Andrea Blue. All the figures on the metal tray in my first post are at that stage. Then I block in all the colors as appropriate and apply the decals, Vallejo Metal Color Gold for the eagles and shoulder trim, Dark Aluminum for the weapons and joints, Heavy Charcoal for the black bolter casings and grips, Beasty Brown for the pouches, then white for the chapter badge and purity seals and red for the wax. The charcoal gets washed with Armypainter Dark Tone (similar to Nuln Oil) and the purity seals get washed with Soft Tone (Seraphim Sepia) to stain them the final color. This gives you a very dark grey with some shadows instead of a pure black. You can either wash then edge highlight or edge first, I switch it up depending on how I feel at the time. Edge highlights for the blue are done with Wolf Grey, black gets Cold Grey edge highlights. Then comes the magic, at this point the figures look like the Intercessors and Aggressors that I posted, but they get a heavy all-over wash of AK Interactive Nuetral Grey enamel wash with some humbrol Black mixed in to darken it to a dark charcoal grey wash. Once the wash dries for a few minutes i grab a q-tip, dip it in some white spirits and rub the wash away. If you use oil wash there will usually be some paint residue left behind which you can play with to get super smooth blends wheras the premixed enamel wash dissolves away almost completely, leaving almost PERFECT panel lines behind. It feels like cheating, and it completely transforms the model to it's finished state. Then they're based using Vallejo Brown Earth tecture paste, drybrushed with some craft paint tan and washed with Pro-Modeller Brown weathering wash (basically a pre-mixed pigment wash), paint the rims black and done. They'll get some flock and grass tufts once the army is complete, but for now they look fine with as just brown dirt. Because the bulk of the work is done with an airbrush and the enamel washes they paint up pretty quickly, I'd estimate about an hour and a half per model. Without the airbrush and using traditional wash techniques, they'd probably be more like 3 to 4 hours per model to get the same end result. You don't need either an airbrush or the specific washes I mentioned, but they save a LOT of time and I find myself much more motivated to paint when I can finish a squad in a couple of paint sessions rather than just a single figure.

 

Speaking of which: 3rd squad of intercessors is finished and the Hellblasters are up next

 

[Kalamadea]

Took some quick pics while I was working on the Hellblasters tonight to show off the enamel wash, got them edited together while the texture paint is drying on the bases. What I love about this step of the process is it's where all the magic happens, all the annoying work is done and you just get to play with the wash, wiping it away ot reveal these great figures underneath, it's immensely satisfying. I spoilered the "washed" image below, it's literally just 30 seconds of slathering on a heavy coat of wash all over the model and letting it dry. This is the before and after, takes about 3 minutes per figure to clean up the wash, so the only difference between these models pictured is about 4 minutes of rubbing them down with a q-tip

 

 

 

 

Colors blocked in, decals applied and edge highlights done, ready for wash

 

Heavy wash applied, maybe 20 seconds of work from step 1

 

Wash removed, figures done except for basing. Takes about 3 minutes per figure from stage 2 to here.

Edited January 25, 2018 by Kalamadea

[Kalamadea]

And last update before bed, got the Hellblasters based up and ready for war. Just leaves the 10 man Reiver squad and the characters left for the initial batch, hopefully by 40K night next week but maybe the week after, I've been slowing down just a bit

 

[Ishagu]

Love the yellow on those Plasma Rifles.

Any reason you chose to use the old style helmets for your Primaris?

[Kalamadea]

Thanks. They're both from 20 years of early impressions. When I started a lot of the 2nd ed paintjobs were still in White Dwarf and codexes, so for me all plasma weapons should have bright yellow (or bright red) muzzles. I realize EVERYTHING was bright yellow or red back then, but for some reason it's the plasma weapons that really stick in my mind. Same for the MK VII helmet, I know the beakies came first, but when I started almost every Space Marine in metal or plastic had a MK VII, so I think of marines having that style helmet. Nothing wrong with the MK X, but I kinda wanted a classic SM look to my figs. Similar reason I went with the lighter blue for Ultras (although I draw the line at yellow trim and aquilas, the gold is far superior on that point)

[The Pounder]

Yeah, I remember the days when everything was yellow or red!

The Hellblasters look good.

[Kalamadea]

10 Reivers done. While I do like the regular Reiver helmets, these are all easy-build ones and I don't like the mask with the hair showing so I picked up some PuppetsWars resin heads that I'm rather keen on. Doesn't show well at all in the photos, but the left eyes are covered with a green lens done up in Waystone Green technical paint, I may go back and do them a brighter green just to make them show up a litle clearer.

 

Very close to the initial 2k army complete. Saved the Captain, the Ancient and both Lieutenants for last. I do also have a box of Aggressors, a box of hellblasters and a non-Gravis Captain to build and paint but I want these done in time for game night on thursday. 

 

 

 

 

And the comparison shot for all the infantry, now so very close to done :)

[Brother Lunkhead]

Love what you are doing with your Primaris brother Your clean, simple painting style really works.... those thin edge highlights bring out the details of your models quite nicely. I'm looking forward to updates.

[Kalamadea]

And that's the base army done. Took a few weeks to get everything bought and built, but got everything assembled and primed on the 9th. Last mini based just now, 19 days later. Still got a few bits and bobs to fill out some options, but the main force is now complete, ready for game night on thursday where I'm sure I'll fight some Imperial Guard player with 20 unpainted, half-built Leman Russ' :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Firepower]

Lord how I loathe that level of productivity.  I'll never understand how people crank out quality models so quickly :P

 

That's my version of "Well done!" by the by. :teehee:

[Kalamadea]

Thanks 

 

I'm normally not nearly so prolific, but I've made a concerted effort the last few years to increase my painting speed to be able to actually complete projects while maintaining a fairly high table-top level of quality. My Gamer-ADD kicks in after a few weeks and I always used to move on to another project and then another, never finishing anything. Carefully layering shadows and highlights and painstakingly going over every deal made for some fantastic looking miniatures, but even when spending 6+ hours on a figure I was never quite at Golden Deamon level, and that was years ago when I worked for an FLGS and could afford to spend all day painting a single figure. These guys are more like an hour and a half per figure and are plenty good enough in my mind compard to where I was when spending 4~6+ hours per figure

[Joukernaut]

Very nice looking army you've got there, and all painted in an amazing timeframe.

Congratulations. Have fun playing them!

[Sagentus]

Amazing how you painted all these to such a great standard in a short space of time. I think the mk vii helmets look better on these, than the mk x

[Kalamadea]

Added a few more to the pile. Captain was already painted, I just decided to switch the head to a terminator head. 

 

 

 

 

I know there's a Magnus player at my shop, took some preliminary steps. I figure Guilliman doesn't need help, but he won't turn it down

 

[Kalamadea]

A coule of WIPs of my Chaplain. Not really that fond of the actual Primaris Chaplain model, converted one out of a Lieutenant, one of the spare Reiver heads (possibly the best Chaplain head ever created), a Space Wolf axe haft and a banner pole from some SM set or another as the crozius. Basing putty is still drying, probably finish it tomorrow. Not very happy with the picture, it's a bit overexposed and it's causing the edge highlights to be a bit more stark than it appears and it's washing out a bit of detail on the chest & leg eagle, might need to play around in photoshop when I take the final of him

 

 

[Prot]

nice simple conversion... it definitely works.

[Kalamadea]

finished the Chaplain and added a bit of bling to the army. There's no rules for the Sagittarum Guard in 8th ed as far as I know, hopefully FW comes out with some rules for them beyond 30K, but they are awesome models and I just had to do a squad of them, even if I have to counts-as regular Custodes. Frustratingly, the regular Custodes squads are out of stock everywhere, but I got a unit of the terminators and also Valoris in the meantime. All were great fun to paint, airbrushed Vallejo Metal Color, edged in silver then given a dark brown oil wash to pick out the details and darken them down. I debated leaving the lion pelt off valoris and cutting down the feather plume on the shoulderplate, but decided in the end to do them both as they add a lot of frill to the character. I decided to keep the halberds silver instead of the turquoise to keep the attention on the models themselves, I didn't want a splash of color off to one side