The Kit
Brand: Games Workshop
Scale: Non-scale
Media: Injection Plastic
The Kit
The Ultramarines is the XIIIth Legion (out of 20) raised by The Emperor of Mankind during the Unification Wars in the 30th Century. Led by their Primarch Roboute Guilliman, the Ultramarines would grow to have an active fighting strength of a quarter a million Space Marines, the genetically engineered super soldiers who serve and execute The Emperor’s Will. After the events of the Horus Heresy, where the Space Marine Legions were split into much smaller Chapters, the Ultramarines would become the Legion that contributed the most gene-seeds to successor Chapters.
The culture of the Ultramarines is loosely based on the culture of Old Earth’s ancient Roman Empire. They also follow strictly to the codes of the Codex Astartes, which govern the behavior and structure of the Chapters, was introduced to prevent another civil war like the Horus Heresy. The Ultramarines’ colors are Lapis-blue (ie ultramarine), White and Gold.
Info from Warhammer 40,000 Wiki
The Build
This is my first figure build and I enjoyed the heck out of it. I don’t wargame but some of these miniatures sure look very cool. So I figured (heh) my first build will be a Space Marine from Games Workshop since I have a box of 10 of them. I can screw up 1 and still have 9 left to mess with. Oh, and they look bad ass too, which helps.
So before I jumped in, I watched a few Youtube videos on miniature painting. I also sought the advise of a friend of mine who’s quite good at it. Armed with enough knowledge I then assembled the figure. Assembly itself was quite straightforward although the parts are quite small. The quality aren’t as refined as Tamigawa, but the details are quite intricate and nicely done.
I primed with black and then direction highlighted with white on the areas which I think will get hit by sunlight the most. Then painting began under a magnifier. While the figure is small, it used a surprisingly large number of colors:
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I went with the Ultramarines color scheme because it’s one of the most common scheme in the game. Plus it’s almost all 1 color so that should make it easier. Because my bottle of gold color split, I had to color the Aquila (the chest eagle) and shoulder trims silver instead. It doesn’t look as striking as gold but it’ll do. I was also surprised how long it actually took to paint 1 figure. Hopefully as I get the hang of it it will go faster.
This is also the first time I did a terrain base and I had so much fun with this one. Granted it’s a really small space so it was quite and easy enough. For the base I used the following colors:
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My handpainting still needs work for sure. The paint looks thick and rough in the final pics. But I think it turned out quite OK for my first effort. I hope to improve as I go along and I for sure will do more. Figure painting is quite fun and I hope to improve enough to be able to do some convincing skintone soon. In the meantime, I have 9 other helmeted Marines I can build my skills on. Oh and I found even more very good looking miniatures from other wargames like Infinity and Warmachine. My wallet is already shuddering in fear. 😀
Number 3 of 2016
