Back to Basics - OOC does Ultramarines

[OutOfContext]

'Lo again everyone!
A month or so ago, I started the slow and tiresome process of clearing out and selling some GW stuff, as I was beginning to get a bit tired of the hobby. I was very close to packing everything in and selling the lot. However, that lasted about a week or two and I thought I'd get some enthusiasm back by going back to every 40k players' love - Space Marines!
It's been a few years since I've done a Marine army. I did have a big DIY chapter army but sold that a while ago so there's been a power armour-shaped hole in my hobby heart for a while now.
Anyway, I've always wanted to do a proper Heresy era army. I did a Pre-Heresy Death Guard army about 6/7 years ago I think which was a lot of fun, if a bit distant from the fluff. And this was before Forge World did their lovely armour kits.
So I decided to do Ultramarines. They're quite basic and have a lot of potential to be something other than Smurfs. I liked the idea of them being a force created just after the Horus Heresy, but before the Codex Astartes is fully introduced, who've been tasked with hunting down traitor commanders whilst the other Ultramarines consolidate the Imperium after the Heresy. So a Scouring era Ultramarines army, I guess.
Enough talk, here's some PiP pics of the first half of a tactical squad.





Went for a mix between retro and modern Ultramarines schemes, as you can see with the red bolters. Tried yellow instead of gold but it looked a bit dated so I switched to gold. I'm just waiting on some painting supplies so I can do final touch-ups and decals.
The force will mainly have MkIV/V armour, with MkII/III for sergeants and veterans and maybe a few beaky bits here and there. But that's nothing to worry about now.
Hope you enjoy!

EDIT: Adding a contents section here as I finish stuff for people's convenience:
Captain (and Command Squad)
Librarian
Command Squad
Tactical Squad I (and rhinos I and II)
Tactical Squad II
Assault Squad VII
Contemptor Dreadnought
Dreadnought
Drop Pod 1
Sternguard
Drop Pod 2
Land Raider (interior/details)
Deimos Rhino
Mortis Contemptor
Deimos Predator
Rapier Laser
Stormeagle
Cataphractii Terminators
Legion Tactical Squad IV

[Shadow Fall]

aha, a new log to spam!

glad that your back in my part of the hobby lol... your stint in vampirism meant i dare not pass into the realms of fantasy and such couldnt spam you lol

joking aside, these are looking good mate, got an idea for the captain yet or a primarch? may be a bit early lol but yeh, these are looking nice,

give me MORE!!!

SF

[Vulkan454]

Great work on those marines. I nay start liking the ultras a little more after these.
Keep up the great work.

Vulkan

[R3DM0H4WK]

Wow now this is strange, i'm in the midst of creating an Ultramarines army based in the same era, who're you having lead this force? i'm using an orar model i made as he died later after the heresy in battle!, so far though i'm enjoying looking at these guys, i'm making all my guys from conversions of the mk7 kit so mixing some mk5 torso's mk4 heads and some chaos bits in there as most of their armour was pre heresy mks too, so well done i'm subbed and would like to see where this log goes :P

[OutOfContext]

Thanks a lot, chaps!
Nice to see you posting again, SF I think they'll be led by either a blinged out captain or a librarian, seeing as they're a post-Heresy force. I imagine librarians were bought back in after the Heresy, but before the Codex Astartes. We'll see.
Anyway, finshed these guys yesterday using FW transfers. Really impressed with the quality. They're attached using Vallejo Decal Fix and Medium, using the guide on their website.






Once I have more dollars, I'll flesh out this squad with MkV marines and a sergeant in MkIII. Stupid expensive but amazing FW...

[IGoblinego]

I wonder Shadow Fall, did you have anything "proper" to say in that comment?

anyways, good job mate, I love your Boltguns, keep making them that way.

[OutOfContext]

Thanks mate

Putting in another order soon for these guys. Decided I liked the combat squad enough to attempt the full army. I'll be ordering some MkIII and V armour and possibly some more MkIV to complete this tactical squad and then another for two troops. I'm also going to pick up the Librarian and Honour Guard kit, mainly for bits but also because it's just a great kit. I'll probably get more boltguns, some brass etch and the character conversion set too for a bit of variety. Phew, lots of stuff.

The plan is to create some visual differences by using certain marks of armour for different squads. So the tactical squads will be mostly MkIV and V and the veterans will be MkIII with some MkV thrown in for their replacement armour due to their numerous engagements.
The force will mostly focus around tactical squads and sternguard with some dreadnoughts thrown in as well. I want to make it an all drop pod lis too, hopefully.

Anywho, should have more real updates within a week or so. Sit tight

[OutOfContext]

Excuse the double post, but I have actual updates!






Got a parcel from FW today so I've started finishing off the tactical squad. As great as these kits are, they're a pain in the backside to build. I've done loads of FW stuff over the years and these are the biggest sod to build ever. The flamer marine took me 3 hours to build, and it's not even finished! The just don't want to hold together and none of the special weapons seem to fit any arms. But we're getting there...
The guy with no arms has a missle launcher which will be left off for painting. The sergeant is based off some artwork on P. 157 of Collected Visions to some extent. I've been dying to convert that helmet for ages. Plumes are too cool.

Next on the list is a few minor parts swaps on the FW Librarian to tone him down a bit. Then I'll see if I can make a start on the second tactical squad from the bits I've got. If not, I'll just wait until I do my next order. I need to pick up some brass etch too at some point.

Cheers

[Alsharoth]

Nice to see some more of the boys in blue however I doubt they would mix armour varients!

Semper Fidelis ut Puteulanus !

[OutOfContext]

Nice to see some more of the boys in blue however I doubt they would mix armour varients!

Semper Fidelis ut Puteulanus !

Thanks
On the contrary, I'm pretty sure they would mix them. Necessity requires it.
I assume the faux-Latin means something like 'Your plog is awesome. You are king of Warseer', in which case, thanks again.

In other news, I've built a Librarian *waits for fluff nuts to go mad*
There's not much to take pictures of at the moment, but once I get some more paint, I'll post something. I could post tonight, but it's dark and I accidently got drunk and watched Eurovision. Ooops.

Until next time, TTFN

[Horus Aximand]

Beautiful stuff so far

"Ever faithful as.... something?"

[Alsharoth]

The translation I got was
"Ever faithful when blue" but I've not been able to verify it.

[OutOfContext]

Thanks again for the comments
Speaking of Latin, I thought I'd go into more detail about some fluff for the force in the form of some character descriptions. Using my recently found knowledge of Roman military titles (cheers Wikipedia), I'll attempt to do a bit of fluff.

Centurian Caius - Commander of the Ultramarines Strike Force tasked by Gulliman to seek out and destroy numerous traitor commanders and units that still survive after the Heresy, whilst Gulliman rebuilds the Imperium from Ultramar.
Codicier Servius - Librarian attached to Strike Force Caius by Gulliman as a trial for reintroducing Librarians across the Space Marine legions. Previously served in a veteran squad post-Council of Nikea.
Praetorian Squad Potitus - Led by Optio Potitus, the squad serves as Caius' bodyguard and command squad. Potitus has acted as Caius' second-in-command since the early days of the Heresy.
Veteran Squad Marcellus - Led by Decanus Evocatus Marcellus, who previously had a key role in re-taking lost Imperial worlds but was chosen by Caius to serve in his Stike Force.
Tactical Squad Gallus - Led by Decanus Gallus who has many victories to his name since before the Heresy. Lost his arm on Calth after leading a charge against traitor artillery.
Tactical Squad Secundus - Led by Decanus Secundus. The squad was formed from the remnants of three squads who were partially destroyed towards the end of the Heresy. Secundus carries the remnants of the squad's vexillum on his left pauldron.

Just some basic fluff for units I know I want to include. The sergeant I previously posted is Secundus, in case you were wondering.
Enjoy!

[Alsharoth]

Cool, a gulliman era task force, can't wait to see more !

[Funky01chef]

Loving the blue you've got going on for these Glad you got your love for the hobby back, this looks like it's going to be a very good plog

I'm liking the mixed mark armour's, I've got some of the forge world sets, but haven't been brave enought to try mixing them up so far, but after this I just might. Do the special weapons fit in the cupped left hands you get? or are they bigger than a bolter grip?

Looking forward to see what comes next

[Gonders]

Finally a decent UM army that's not built by kids, and that looks like it fits in to how dark 40k has become since the 90's. well done that man.

Gonders

[OutOfContext]

Thanks very much everyone!

@Funky01chef: All the FW weapons I've used for these guys aren't perfect fits. The bolters are a tiny bit thinner than normal plastic bolters, so don't fit snugly in the cupped hands, but it's hard to notice.
As for special weapons, I haven't used the melta gun yet, but it looks like it's as wide as a bolter so should be fine. The flamer is a right pain in the **** to fit in the cupped hands. I resculpted the hand to hold the flamer properly, but with some playing about you can get the left hand through the handle at the top or get it to hold the flamer at the bottom.
I'll edit this post to show you how I've done my flamer dude tomorrow so you can see what I mean as that probably doesn't make much sense

Thanks again all!

[R3DM0H4WK]

Semper Fidelis ut Puteulanus

Ever Faithful to Royal blue, according to google LOL

These are some epic Pre heresy ultra's man i gotta get to work on my own, i'm currently in the Rivetting everything stage, soooo frustrating.

[OutOfContext]

Thanks man
I hate rivets myself. Had enough of them from doing an ork army a few years ago. Toooo fiddley for my fat fingers

Anywho, just a quick snap of that flamer dude. I've just turned the hand over as you can see, and bent the thumb inwards (not visible) so it holds it a bit more convincingly. The hand looks a little askew but it's fine in real life.


And a pointless shot of the Librarian...


The base is plasticard with lines scored on it to look like flagstones, which you can't see, but will see once painted.
Thanks again for the comments. Really appreciate it (unlike the 3 star rating...)

[Jihad_Ragsta]

I would like to say that I'm pleased to see you're enjoying working on these chaps. Loss of enthusiasm is totally understandable (I am more interested in gently bumping my head off the desk than painting what's on it right now).

However, I would have been sorry to see you go - you're one of my favourite weirdoes. Okay, this is getting weird now...

The crisp blue is great and I love where you're going with the different armour marques! You have just the right level of detailing and battle damage too - the eyes are really good in particular.

Forget the rating, people are frequently drunk or on drugs - I should know.