Monday 1 June 2009

Ultramarines (Pre-Heresy-ish!)

The Ultramarines aren't a chapter I've ever considered colecting, and I never thought I'd be posting any of them to this blog - but that's exactly what I'm about to do.


Before reading any further, may I direct you to this blog, where there are some excellent Pre-Heresy World Eaters. Ahem, now you've had a look, I'll continue.

One of the books I'm currently reading is Battle for the Abyss, a Horus Heresy novel by Ben Coulter which sees a small force of Space Wolves, Thousand Sons, World Eaters and Ultramarines chasing an immense Word Bearer battleship through the warp, in an attempt to save the Ultramarines chapter itself. The story itself is pretty good, although it's not up there with the Eissenhorn trilogy and Fulgrim, it's one of the better BL book's I've read in a while.

The image that struck me is the World Eaters, Ultramarines and Space Wolves working together to assault the Furious Abyss as it gathers supplies - I've always wanted to model a small pre-heresy army, and what would be more interesting to paint than a force that includes several different legions? Sure, they wouldn't look too cohesive on the table, but it's something I'd love to do.

Inspired by this, I took brush to pewter for the first time in a week, and started on a test Ultramarine. I'm using an old metal veteran sarge from the metal command squad who seems to be wearing Corvus armour - as this is what the Ultramarines are equiped with during the Heresy, it's a pre-heresy model with no conversion needed! This is certainly looking better than my last pre-heresy attempt, which should teach me a lesson about not cluttering up a model with useless ornament.

It's still very WiP, but the blue armour and the face are finished:

This is actually my first use of the new GW inks, and I must say that I'm extremely impressed by them. The armour is Mordian Blue, New Blue Ink, Ultramarines Blue, Highlight. The face uses Ogryn Flesh and also some Badab Black to give it the apperance of stubble. Certainly coming along much better than the last Ultramarine I attempted:

This is my painting "skills" from 7 years ago, after around 2 1/2 years of painting. Oh dear.

- Gavin

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