Primaris Ultramarines - painting along with WH Conquest

[Marshal Reinhard]

Wow, folks, huge frustrated rant incoming:

 

I've been trying to put together the Primaris librarian and I basically am about to throw it in the bin. I just couldn't get the robes to line up properly, and for the love of god couldn't find out why. The legs were in the right positions, the front robe partjust wouldn't sit flush on the torso. There was no sprue, seam or anything in the way though. I still got it attached though, but when I tried attaching the back and front half, the robes just wouldn't come together. They'd sit flush on one side and gape on the other. Again I checked all parts to see what might be misaligned, but all sat as it was supposed to. Dryfitting had worked up to this point.

 

I've been trying to find the mistake, then just glue it all together and in the end nothing would really fit nicely. It's the first time I had this happen with a recent GW model. To make matters worse, due to increasing frustration and parts not sitting flush or coming apart again, there's now superglue all over the detailed front. What the hell? 

 

I still got a backup librarian (they were 10 euros a piece with Conquest^^), but had this happened with the 32 Euros model, I'd be screaming bloody murder!

Oh I totally know where you're coming from here. I had major problems getting the one leg and the cloak to fit in properly. Either the legs wouldn't align properly, or cracks would appear in the robes...

 

Since I was doing a conversion out of mine, I think I solved with some cutting, but I dread to think what I would've done if I was going for the stock look

[Kenzaburo]

Thanks you guys. @Reinhard yeah, that's basically what's been the problem.

 

As I mentioned, I had a second libby lying around because of the Conquest issues. So I pulled that out and started on the body again. This time I looked out for what went wrong the first time. Turns out, the robes by itself fit nice and dandy. The right leg is what's been causing the trouble. Although it comes with a peg that goes into the torse, that one has too much play, making it super easy to attach it in a slightly wrong angle. Once that happens, the whole freaking robe won't fit anymore, leaving the roughly 2mm gap.

 

I now clipped the peg off, filed the are down, then dryfit like there was no tomorrow and now I have a fully built librarian and several spare bits from the first one. It's sort of okay for this to happen with a 10 Euro model, for a full price librarian at 32 Euros though, it's not. 

 

Anyways, librarian built! Next up I'll post a bunch of pics of my finished LT Calsius some time this afternoon. It's already up on my Instagram, but I don't have the time to drop it on my laptop and upload it here. 

[Kenzaburo]

Finally got around to uploading the pics of Lieutenant Calsius online. I love that "Come at me" pose he strikes. 

 

 

I also went all in with the details, even with those you can barely see. It was great fun.

 

Now I'm wondering if I should get Indomitus. But so far, I don't see the Bladeguard and co fitting in my overall more roman aesthetic I want for my Ultras. The Indomitus veterans are way too knightly for that and would fit way better with the Fists and Templars. And I really don't care for the Eradicators. If you put heavy weapons on Gravis armour, make it look heavy. The grip for those melta rifles is weird, imho. The Assault intercessors are not such a great fit either, I'd rather go for a squad of Infiltrators and some "standard" company veterans with gladii, pteruges and stuff, maybe. 

 

The bikes, the chaplain and the Judiciar though are great. II guess, that means I really don't need the box - if just that "oooh shiny"-effect wasn't so strong.

Edited July 6, 2020 by Kenzaburo

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work.

[noigrim]

Did you shorten the gladius?

[Kenzaburo]

Did you shorten the gladius?

Shorten it? No, it's pretty short, although the angle of the pic might make it seem even shorter. But it's definitely not as tall as a marine, like most other Astartes swords in the game. :)

[Valkia the Bloody]

Oh wow, he looks amazing.

Might have to look into how you did that worn leather on the pouches.

[Pearson73]

Cracking work, as per. I particularly like the golden insignia.

[Kenzaburo]

Oh wow, he looks amazing.

Might have to look into how you did that worn leather on the pouches.

Thank you! :) The worn leather is actually pretty simple:

 

1. Basecoat Rhinox Hide

2. Edge highlights and some broader scratches in Doombull Brown

3. Finer edge highlights with Mournfang Brown and more thinner scratches

4. Highlight corners and some scratches with a mix of Mournfang Brown and Screaming Skull.

 

And that's basically it. The weathering is done by adding some dots here and there, same goes for the scratches.

 

There's also a 360 degree vid of the LT on my insta account, if you are curious to see more of the mini.

 

I also took a first group shot of my "army", which is more like a mini marine task force or larger Killteam. :)

 

 

Overall I'm happy with the little menagerie so far. I still paint way too slow so my Conquest minis start piling up. I got 4 more Intercessors, 4 Hellblasters, 3 Aggressors and a Librarian sitting on my desk. The 3 Inceptors are coming along nicely though, the Sarge is as good as done, the other 2 will follow shortly after. I'm still a bit anxious to paint the first marine vehicles - the only larger models I ever painted are a Devilfish, a Piranha and the old Venerable Ultramarine Dread from FW. But I did those ages ago. 

 

The first vehicle for my Primaris Ultramarines will be the EtB Redemptor Dread. I hope I can do that beast justice. :)

[lhg033]

Stunning work! I particularly like the gold over white you've done 

 

Your version of the lieutenant makes me almost not want to chop up my version to become a Dark Angel. Almost but not quite....

[Sagentus]

this is probably my favourite UM army i have seen to date, really nice blue and very regal looking. great work! look forward to seeing more!

[Kenzaburo]

Oh wow, thanks you guys. It's great to hear that they look regal, that's what I was going for. The Primaris might be a bit plain overall, but there's ways to bling them up here and there - and I fuly intend to do that for some of the more elite units in the army. 

[Kenzaburo]

I thought I might update this thread again. I've been painting some more boys in blue. 

 

This one is a corporal, hence the red stripe. I use him as a counts-as Sarge for my combat squads, otherwise my company will suffer from insane Sergeant inflation - which wouldn't make sense at all. We had corporals back in 2nd ed, they were the other dude with back banner in a squad and I always liked that there was a 2nd in command. Nowadays we usually play combat squads for Intercessors, so he'll be a sergeant in a combat squad. If I were to play him in a 10-man squad he'd just count as a regular then. 

 

 

 

 

 

[rookie40K]

Nice vibrant blue! Do you mind sharing the blue recipe?

[Kenzaburo]

Nice vibrant blue! Do you mind sharing the blue recipe?

Sure thing, sorry for the delay in my answer. The blue goes as follows:

• prime black
• basecoat the mini with Vallejo Model Air Blue (code 71.004) - I usually do this with an airbrush
• airbush a soft highlight with GW Temple Guard Blue
• in case I overdo the highlight, I'll spray some shadows with a mixture of the Vallejo blue and a hint of black mixed in (that step is really only for when you mess up^^)
• shade the recesses with a mix of black (really, any black works) and GW Guilliman Blue. I'll thin this down so it flows neatly into all the armor recesses, but don't let it pool anywhere. You can also use it to maybe enhance some shadows that you might have oversprayed with the airbrush
• highlighting time: do a broader edge highlight on ALL edges with a 50:50 mix of the Vallejo blue and Temple Guard Blue
• do a neater edge highlight on most edges with pure Temple Guard Blue (meaning thinned down a bit, of course, but no other colors involved^^)
• do a super-fine edge highlight on all the edges catching most of the light with a roughly 60:40 mix of Temple Guard Blue and some kind of off-white (Screaming Skull would work, I tend to use Vallejo Game Color Off-White)
• If you are feeling fancy and want the armour to really pop, you do some point highlights with a 80:20 mix of Off-White to Temple Guard Blue and just dot some of the edges, for example the two corners on that raised area on top of the helmet and other edge-corners

There's another fancy trick to make the armor look a bit more interesting in general. I thin the consensus with most hobbyists is to go for zenithal highlighting, meaning you simply highlight all areas facing upwards. It's absolutely valid and probably the easiest approach to where to place the highlights. BUT: pick a different direction of light sources. I go for another quite common, but more interesting source. One is coming from the upper left front(when you are looking straight at the mini), one is from the upper right back of the mini. Align your highlights accordingly, so they are not centered but slighty skewed to the left from the front and slightly to the from the back. :)

 

Seems long and complicated, I know, but there's no real shortcuts, I've found. Oh, yeah, there's one easy hack, though: I'm 41 and suffering from a keratoconus (a pretty complicated problem with the cornea of my eyes), which means I can't focus all that well and will have trouble seeing all the tiny details on a mini. I simply use magnifying glasses to cope with that. They were a nightmare to use at first, because I felt they were messing with how my brain parsed the information coming from my eyes. :D But after a while I got used to it, so if I really wanna enhance the details and have supertight edge highlights, I allways go for the glasses. And they are usually cheap on Amazon. Got a pair for about 15-20 Euros.

 

Now, that was a lot of talk and no pictures. So let's fix that - with more intercessors:

 

 

 

 

 

[StraightSilver]

These are looking really lovely.

 

And Intercessors do have the equivalent of corporals.

 

The little red sunburst symbol on the decal sheet denotes a corporal. Or at least, the marine that takes over if the sergeant is out of action.

 

But red stripe on helmet works just as well.

[space wolf]

These guys look great. And the way you've done them up...they look rightly intimidating! The way they should!

[Kenzaburo]

These are looking really lovely.

 

And Intercessors do have the equivalent of corporals.

 

The little red sunburst symbol on the decal sheet denotes a corporal. Or at least, the marine that takes over if the sergeant is out of action.

 

But red stripe on helmet works just as well.

 

Huh, I never knew, must have missed that. Where can I find that info, Straight Silver? Thanks for the compliment, btw. :)

 

 

These guys look great. And the way you've done them up...they look rightly intimidating! The way they should!

Thank you. :) I fiddled around with taking pictures a bit, in order to find good angles and make the pics better in general. And I'm glad the menacing vibe is conveyed, it's what I was aiming for. Because I totally agree, Astartes may be brightly coloured, but boy, should they be a bright scary sight. :D

[StraightSilver]

No worries, it was either in the latest Codex or it might have been in the Conquest magazine. I'll see if I can find it.

[Kenzaburo]

No worries, it was either in the latest Codex or it might have been in the Conquest magazine. I'll see if I can find it.

 

Thank you, I'd appreciate it, if you could find the source, but no worries if you don't. :)

[Shovellovin]

Excellent work on your Ultramarines. I like that they have wear and tear on their armor to show that they've seen action but the weathering isn't over the top. 

[Pearson73]

Smashing stuff, as per.