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

Descent of Angels

I'm going to be redecorating over the next few days, so don't expect any more posts from me for a while - here's something good to hold the frontpage till I'm back:

This will be the front/back cover of the next Horus Heresy novel, from the Black Library. It's called Descent of Angels and focuses on the Dark Angels prior to the Heresy itself. It should be fantastic, all the other books in the series have been so far.

If you haven't read the Horus Heresy series yet, read it NOW.

-Gavin

Pre-Heresy Dark Angel

I converted this guy up from the standard Space Marine sprue, mixed with plastic Dark Angel pieces, for a laugh really. He's only WiP, but I might finish him.... one day.

He represents a Pre-Heresy Dark Angel, wearing one of the suits of Mark 6 Corvus armour that was only available towards the very end of the heresy. I think I may convert up 5 of these babies, and use them as Fallen in my Chaos Marine army (a unit of veterans rules wise).

For Pre-Heresy rules, check THIS out.

Enjoy...




EDIT - As BowieFan on Golden Throne rightly pointed out, Mark VI armour was not around pre-heresy, so this guy represents a Dark Angel during or straight after the heresy.

- Gavin