The Atrocity at Calth - True Scaled Ultramarines

[lokkorex]

Fricking beautiful conversions, I'm blown away by how awesome everything looks!

[Sagentus]

These look awesome, great conversions. I'll be keeping a keen eye on these and how the army progresses 

[Grim Dog Studios]

Thanks all for the kind comments, I've swapped out Ventanus' head for one that I feel looks closer to the artwork in the FW blackbook but have yet to take a picture of it!

 

I've been doing a little converting and mostly cleaning up and filling the gaps on the legs where I added the plasticard, so nothing really "new" to show on the building part. Currently waiting for Forge World to reopen so I can place an order for various bits such as the 3 Deimos Rhino Bundle and possibly a Land Raider. 

 

However, I've broken out the paints and started painting a test mini for my scheme, which is pretty much the same as GW's scheme. I really wanted to bust out my old Airbrush and go for a completely different scheme, but I moved house a while back and unfortunately just have no where decent to actually use it.

 

 

Not a great painter by any stretch of the imagination but I'm happy with it and my skills should improve as the Army progresses. I've been in this hobby nearly 20 years and have never finished a real army, and done very little painting in that time, so to get an army painted to this standard will be a massive achievement for me.

 

I've had to order a few paints to try out and finish this test mini off before I start progressing onto the bulk of the force, so expect another update over the coming days when that order arrives.

Comments and Criticism welcome, as painting is an aspect of the hobby I really struggle at!

 

Thanks for looking!

James

Edited May 31, 2020 by Centurion Jay

[jaxom]

Looks good! I like the colours, and I have a recommendation that may make your life easier. The broader highlights are perfect for the tabletop because of the greater distance. The highlight on the bottom of the upper part of the chest armor won't be very visible. Here's what it would like look with a thickness more like the other highlights:

 

 

I also added a highlight under the power line to show how that would improve the contrast. The BHC is how I recommend doing highlights on flatter areas like the chest. You have a base colour (B) and put down a highlight (H) thicker than needed; the point is to have one side where you want the highlight. If you want to keep it simple then use the B colour to paint over the unwanted areas of the highlight. If you want to get more complicated then instead of using the B colour over the highlight you can blend the B colour into the highlight (I don't find this to be worthwhile with line troopers).

[hushrong]

Happy to see your Ultramarines getting some color!

[War Angel]

Great looking conversions, keep it up.

[Pearson73]

Nice highlights. I know the feeling of not having finished an army, but I'm tackling that with my Iron Hands now and I'm looking forward to making that achievement.

[Grim Dog Studios]

Looks good! I like the colours, and I have a recommendation that may make your life easier. The broader highlights are perfect for the tabletop because of the greater distance. The highlight on the bottom of the upper part of the chest armor won't be very visible. Here's what it would like look with a thickness more like the other highlights:

 

Fantastic advice, thank you for taking the time to look over the miniature and find bits that I can improve, it's greatly appreciated! I'll definitely be taking your pointers on board, haven't had a chance to get any painting done tonight but I will hopefully have some progress to post up over the coming days.

 

Happy to see your Ultramarines getting some color!

 

Thank you very much! Hopefully once I'm happy with the test miniature I can start slapping paint on my actual army.

 

Great looking conversions, keep it up.

 

Cheers! Conversions and kitbashing are definitely my favourite part of the hobby.

 

Nice highlights. I know the feeling of not having finished an army, but I'm tackling that with my Iron Hands now and I'm looking forward to making that achievement.

 

Thank you! Checked over your Iron Hands log and there's some fantastic stuff in there, gave it a follow!

 

No updates currently, I've spent my evening building a few Custodes to mix it up. Thought I'd start a second project that I can swap between everytime I paint a unit, so I don't get burnt out of painting blue constantly. It's also refreshing to be able to just build miniatures straight from the box rather than chopping up legs and glueing bits from 10 different kits together for a single tactical marine haha.

 

Currently waiting for my paints to arrive in the post, estimated delivery time is Wednesday so hopefully I'll have some updates then!

[Brother Zahriel]

Heya, Excellent minis and I love your true-scaling! It looks so good and when painted looks totally seamless on the model. I am very impressed!

Can you tell me what thickness of plasticard you used when scaling up the legs? I recently got back into the hobby myself after a loooong hiatus (still kept my White Dwarf sub going to keep up with things) and am planning to make a bunch of true-scaled marines and think this is the best looking and most cost effective way of true-scaling regular marines (As cool as using Termi legs look I am not made of money haha, and Primaris are heresy).

Sorry if you have already mentioned the plasticard thickness somewhere, I have skim-read through the thread but couldn't see any measurements listed.

[Pearson73]

Thanks for the follow and comments on my Iron Hands! Looking forward to seeing how you tackle the Custodes, are you planning on a classic gold scheme, or will you mix it up? Having some alternative models to paint as a break is great for keeping motivated on the main project.

[BadgersinHills]

Great miniatures. Love them. 

[Grim Dog Studios]

Heya, Excellent minis and I love your true-scaling! It looks so good and when painted looks totally seamless on the model. I am very impressed!

Can you tell me what thickness of plasticard you used when scaling up the legs? I recently got back into the hobby myself after a loooong hiatus (still kept my White Dwarf sub going to keep up with things) and am planning to make a bunch of true-scaled marines and think this is the best looking and most cost effective way of true-scaling regular marines (As cool as using Termi legs look I am not made of money haha, and Primaris are heresy).

Sorry if you have already mentioned the plasticard thickness somewhere, I have skim-read through the thread but couldn't see any measurements listed.

 

Thanks for the kind comments, and welcome back to the hobby! On the plasticard thickness, I'm not 100% sure. I want to say its either 1mm or 1.5mm, I'd recommend maybe getting a few sheets of different thicknesses and have a go and see what you prefer, they aren't expensive and a single A4 sheet can do a ton of minis.

 

Thanks for the follow and comments on my Iron Hands! Looking forward to seeing how you tackle the Custodes, are you planning on a classic gold scheme, or will you mix it up? Having some alternative models to paint as a break is great for keeping motivated on the main project.

 

Going to be going for a gold scheme but with blue accents so they tie in with my Ultramarines! I don't want to go for the usual retributor armour gold though, going to try and find a scheme that looks quite dull and worn instead of brand new and shiny.

 

Great miniatures. Love them. 

 

Thank you!

 

Have another small update of the test miniature, trying to take on jaxom's pointers.

 

 

He still needs weathering, going to add chips to the armour, and intending on basing the army using the sector imperialis bases but with some sand/dust on them, and adding dust to the lower greaves on the marines armour and eventually tank treads.

Also can't decide how I want to paint the power weapons, its currently just painted Stormhost silver and washed with nuln oil. Not sure whether I want to go for a full colour blade, or go for a silver blade with a lightning field coming from the generators. I have a bunch of unused swords in bits box so I'm gonna have a play with them and see if I can find a scheme I'd like to use on the whole army.

 

Thanks for looking!

James 

Edited June 3, 2020 by Centurion Jay

[Brother Zahriel]

 

Heya, Excellent minis and I love your true-scaling! It looks so good and when painted looks totally seamless on the model. I am very impressed!

Can you tell me what thickness of plasticard you used when scaling up the legs? I recently got back into the hobby myself after a loooong hiatus (still kept my White Dwarf sub going to keep up with things) and am planning to make a bunch of true-scaled marines and think this is the best looking and most cost effective way of true-scaling regular marines (As cool as using Termi legs look I am not made of money haha, and Primaris are heresy).

Sorry if you have already mentioned the plasticard thickness somewhere, I have skim-read through the thread but couldn't see any measurements listed.

 

Thanks for the kind comments, and welcome back to the hobby! On the plasticard thickness, I'm not 100% sure. I want to say its either 1mm or 1.5mm, I'd recommend maybe getting a few sheets of different thicknesses and have a go and see what you prefer, they aren't expensive and a single A4 sheet can do a ton of minis.

 

Many thanks! I shall look into it and have a play around to see which works best. I have some old half finished marines who I plan to use as test subjects for conversion ideas (like true-scaling) and paint tests.

 

Looking forward to seeing how your projects continue to develop! 

[Master Issodon]

looks good. I like the muted blue you chose. Also, you did a good job scaling them up. They look much better now. Ever since Primaris were released, old marines just look like squats to me now. You made them look like marines again.

[Pearson73]

The leather pouches look cracking, as do the more pronounced highlights on the hand. That's a nice idea of using blue accents to tie the Custodes into your Ultras. Just to note, a battered and worn gold can be quickly achieved from a base of Retributor Armour by a series of washes (see the brassy gold popping up on my Iron Hands).

[hushrong]

Updated test mini is looking good, and I have to agree with Pearson as the pouches and the grenades as well look great. Going to save some mental notes to do that in the future so my guy's bags of goodies do not look so bland on them in the future.

 

Interested in seeing what you do for the power sword. I am used to silver paint, wash, drybrush, and then maybe try to paint the little 'node/power field' that is usually on the blades surface. I have been wanting to try a black blade on some future minis and try to do lightning effect across the broad surface like the lightning found on night lords.

[BadgersinHills]

Good stuff. Will Centurion Jay be getting a new model for the new style?

[Grim Dog Studios]

I think I have finished the test model to a point I'm happy with, without doing anything to the blade yet. Still undecided on that, but I'm pretty excited to get stuck into the rest of the army now that I have got this guy done (my photography skills definitely need some work):

 

 

Comments and criticism welcome, I really want to get this army looking to a standard I am proud of so I will take any advice I can get!

 

looks good. I like the muted blue you chose. Also, you did a good job scaling them up. They look much better now. Ever since Primaris were released, old marines just look like squats to me now. You made them look like marines again.

 

Many thanks! The scaling up is a pain, and I'm not 100% satisfied with the plasticard, it looks a bit scruffy on some of the marines however the more I do the better I will get at it. I have to agree with the old marines looking like squats now, I don't think I could ever not upscale marines in the future now.

 

The leather pouches look cracking, as do the more pronounced highlights on the hand. That's a nice idea of using blue accents to tie the Custodes into your Ultras. Just to note, a battered and worn gold can be quickly achieved from a base of Retributor Armour by a series of washes (see the brassy gold popping up on my Iron Hands).

 

Cheers mate, I wanted the pouches to look like worn leather, it's not great but I hope it gets the gist across! Gonna paint up some test models for the custodes to try and find a gold I like but I'll certainly keep that in mind.

 

Updated test mini is looking good, and I have to agree with Pearson as the pouches and the grenades as well look great. Going to save some mental notes to do that in the future so my guy's bags of goodies do not look so bland on them in the future.

 

Interested in seeing what you do for the power sword. I am used to silver paint, wash, drybrush, and then maybe try to paint the little 'node/power field' that is usually on the blades surface. I have been wanting to try a black blade on some future minis and try to do lightning effect across the broad surface like the lightning found on night lords.

 

Thank you! I still haven't decided on what to do with the blade, I haven't gotten around to painting a few test blades yet but it's definitely on my list to do this week hopefully.

 

Good stuff. Will Centurion Jay be getting a new model for the new style?

 

Cheers! I posted my new Centurion Jay a while back, but here he is again. I'm gonna try and find a base that gives him a bit more height to the rest of the Marines so he stands out a bit more!

 

 

Thank you all for the comments and I hope to get some more stuff done this week for you guys to look at!

 

Cheers

James

[Pearson73]

Solid work, these boys are going to look great en masse.

[BadgersinHills]

Great stuff. Edge highlighted Ultramarines are one of my favourite looking styles to portray an army. :) 

[hushrong]

Definitely looking good! Cannot wait to see you put those colors to work on your army!

[Grim Dog Studios]

Thanks guys! I’m hoping for a change in weather over the coming days so I can get outside and start spraying stuff blue, but currently the forecast doesn’t look too good. In the meantime I’m building another tactical squad because I have an obsession with them, starting to run out of pose ideas however. Gonna have to trawl the forum looking at other peoples work to see if theres anything I can borrow/replicate!

[Pearson73]

Can never have enough infantry! Could be worth looking at the Primaris, they had some fresh, dynamic poses. Would be cool to add some kneeling chaps, hopefully won't add too much more time, if you're already cutting the legs to upscale them.

[Dosjetka]

Looking good, Jay! Nice to see you working on your Ultramarines again. :tu:

 

Would you mind sharing your recipe for the blue armour you're using, please?

[Ilgoth]

Cool posts throughout!