Topic: Artcore's Army Diary - Ultramarines

[Algavinn of the Many Paths]

Looking very nice so far!  Definitely jealous of the amount you have done.  As I ran out of paint and havent had an opportunity to order more I'm only done with one tac squad, predator, whirlwind, one dread, and a few of my sternguard.

A question, why is there a melta gun on your assault squad?

[Artcore]

A question, why is there a melta gun on your assault squad?

Uhmmm... I don't know... thought it was a flamer.

Anyways... finished painting a SM with plasma gun and the AoBR sergeant. Also, I read the short Assault on Black Reach novel... very nice to get into the fluff a bit. Next, I want to read the ultramarines omnibus.

Here are the marines:







Am working on the drop pod but it takes a lot of time... hopefully I'll play some games this week.

[Artcore]

Started to paint my Chaplain w/ Jump Pack. I chose to do the armour in a 90/10 mix of black and boltgun metal. This way it's still black but with a bit metallic look. Highlights will be done with boltgun metal and silver.



And I started on a Landspeeder. Though I plan to use the MM/HF variant mostly I magnetized all the weapons so I can choose which to use. The missile launchers are too expensive for me and don't fit the role I'll give them. For ML's I have a dev squad with 4 ML.

[Artcore]

Hey guys, didn't post any pics for a long time, partly due to the fact that my phone/camera is wrecked. But I have been painting! So here some pictures 

Space Hulk Terminators
I've pinned & magnetized the bases of the termies so I can use them in both SH and 40K. These guys took me a lot of time to paint, there's so much detail...






WIP:


Off topic: also painted about 8 SH Genestealers:


Then the Landspeeder with magnetized weapons:





Cockpit detail:


I didn't have a marine with a meltagun yet, so I made one:



Last week I bought myself a Thunder Fire Cannon. Man, since GW is making almost everything plastic these days, I had forgotten how difficult it is to assemble these models. I'm still busy pinning the techmarine; this guy is bound to be getting out of your miniature case with all his servo harnass parts broken off.
But I managed to paint the cannon in a week:



Other stuff I'm working on now:
-Predator: magnetized the HB's so it can also be used as my 3rd rhino.
-Assault Terminators: 3 with hammers, 2 with claws. Together with the ones from SH I've got a 7 man squad; nice for in the Landraider
-Chappy with terminator armour. Together with the termies he'll lead the attack from the Landraider Assault Ramp!

Also played some games these last months but I tend to lose them LOL Especially when it comes down to objectives I make stupid moves but I'll learn and I enjoy to see my guys in action.

Hope you like the painting, C&C welcome!

[DeadDuck1015]

Very nice work! Certainly better than I can do, it almost makes me want to set aside my Guardsmen and get some Marines...almost.

[Artcore]

So, I've been painting some more stuff and just took some pictures of finished and WIP models. Hope you like 'em:

Predator with magnetized sponsons so I can use it as a rhino as well.






Sarg with PF & Marine with HB:








Two marines for my 3rd tactical squad:




Two AoBR termies:




WIP Assault Terminators


I really like the pose on this one:


My 3rd dreadnought standing on some Khorne vehicle wreckage:


Hope you like the painting and if you have tips please let me know!

[Artcore]

With some heavy weapons, plasticard and greenstuff I just made some arms for my dreadnoughts.

I used 2 autocannons from the IG heavy weapon teams:


And an assault cannon from a Landspeeder:


And here the final (basecoated) result:

[Artcore]

Another update, this time I finished a Razorback with TL-HB.

The first 3 pics are with flash and the last one without.

[Raktra (So long, I guess)]

Ah, if only you came to my GW. That army would be an absolute joy to play against. Bravo

[Dunedain]

Very nice terminators, particularly the space hulk ones!

[Artcore]

Ah, if only you came to my GW. That army would be an absolute joy to play against. Bravo

Thanks It's nice to play with and against decent painted armies he? Not so many guys with a painted army in your GW? I'd love to come by but changes are your GW is not in the Netherlands 

Very nice terminators, particularly the space hulk ones!

Yeah the models are very nice; but they take forever to get finished. Like you're painting squads of HQ.

[Sheepz]

I'm sure we'd all appreciate an update, Artcore. Just been reading back and looking at your amazing work. Is an army shot possible to get us all up to speed?

My only criticism is that your dreadnoughts are too awesome for stratchbuilt arms. Bitz order the parts or Forgeworld the spares. That's what I think.

[Algavinn of the Many Paths]

They actually look pretty damn good for being scratch built, and I'm sure they wont look too bad once painted, not as distractingly different that is, but I don't think we can deny that they would look better with authentic GW/forgeworld arms.  The dreads themselves certainly look smashing.  I've been meaning to revamp mine (first 40k vehicle I think that I 'completely' finished).

[Artcore]

I'm sure we'd all appreciate an update, Artcore. Just been reading back and looking at your amazing work. Is an army shot possible to get us all up to speed?

Nice to know you're interested! I didn't update for a while, you're right. I haven't painted so much lately because music school has taken a lot of attention. But I painted some more tactical terminators and the dread arms. I'll try to make some pictures of my complete army soon. But remind me if I don't

Tomorrow I'm playing in a Doubles Tournament at the GW Frenzy in Amsterdam! I'll be playing with a tacsquad in a rhino, one in a razorback with captain and a dreadnought with assaultcannon/HF in a pod (total 750 points). My team mate is playing IG. We both like painting and both our forces are completely painted (except my DP which is at 70%). So that's gonna be nice on the table. Hope to play against some interesting armies.

Also, there's a FW stand on the Frenzy so I'll check out the dreadnought arms for sure. I know those scratch build ones are inferior to the official ones... but it was a nice try I guess...

[Algavinn of the Many Paths]

As I said Art, the scratch arms look very good, forgeworld would just likely look better.  More streamlined, more details, perfect size, etc.

[Artcore]

So, here's the major update of my Army Diary! Had to fix my camera and pose everything on the table. Actually I painted and modeled a lot since my last update but I didn't really finish a lot...

In the meanwhile I played a Doubles Tournament at the GW Frenzy in Amsterdam. It was my first tournament and I liked it very much. We didn't do bad in the games actually: one draw, one solid victory and one massacre! We had a lot of fun and we didn't screw up In a couple of weeks there's a 1500p tournament at my LGS in which I'll participate. Will be fun!

OK, let's start with my new purchases:


At the Frenzy I bought these at the Forge World stand: a left arm Autocannon and the Ultramarines Brass Etch symbols. The Brass Etch stuff is amazing; so detailed and so beautiful. In a while I'll pimp up my vehicles and Terminators with these.

I tried them on a Razorback:


Also I bought a box of DA Veterans. I love these models and would like to have them in my army. Probably I'll paint them Ultramarines and use them as Sternguard Veterans.
Another DA model I bought is the SC Librarian. I was looking for a power armored SM Librarian but I liked this the best. I did my best to model the base in a nice way:


I still have to do the banner. It's probably best to pin it where the backpack and the shoulderpad touch. Otherwise it will fall off on my way to the LGS. And I have to decide which one to take: the original one or the Sicarius banner. Your opinion on this please?


Here's a conversion I'm working on: the DCCW with Heavy Flamer. I've used this upgrade a lot on my dread but always had to proxy. Now for the tournament I wanna have it wysiwyg. So I chopped off the Stormbolter and took some CSM flamer and a 'lamp' part of a landspeeder:

Did this conversion yesterday so the paint job is not finished yet...



So here are the frequently requested army shots 
I only posed the painted and half painted models. What's not on the pics: TDA Chaplain, 6 Terminators, DA Vets, DA libby, LS Storm w/scouts and about 5 marines.
























Some stuff is not finished (drop pod, all IC's, Assault Terminators, one dread) and some stuff not even properly started (Landraider, TFC Techmarine).
For my next tournament I intend to use the Landraider, TFC, Drop Pod and Assault Terminators so those are the models I'll be focusing on the next 3 weeks. Wish me luck!

C&C welcome off course!

[Sheepz]

Great stuff man.

Again, got to say I really like the individualism of your army. You're very obviously Ultramarines, only not quite (with the red) which is great. You've also managed to mesh differing colourschemes together.

I couldn't quite put my finger on it at first. It looked like some good application of a handful of Veteran models and some Space Hulk Terminators. But it's more than that. Examples:

Some of your Terminators have blue fists, others have white. Some have red rims around the helmets, some have white rims.
In your Squad with Dev sarge, some Marines have white kneepads, others have red. The Marine with the studded shoulderpad has it in gold, rather than blue.
The squad with the Captain to the fore has a Sergeant with a white trimmed pad, while the heavy bolter guy next to him has gold exhaust ports.
Each of your dreadnoughts has something different - which is just tops IMO, since they're the tombs of awesome warriors they should be that way. The trims on the main sarcophogus are different, while one has a giant red fist, the other white and blue.

I really like it. The majority of your marines are the same (bolters wise), and your colour palate revolves around red, blue, white and gold. When you mix them up, it doesn't look crazy. It lends something to your army I actually registered, but didn't know what it was.

Awesome work. My one comment would be to base that Terminator Librarian on a round base. Keep the skull step thing, by all means, but I don't like square bases, and I don't think he's legal as it's smaller than a regular termie base.

All in all, it's a beautiful army. You do realize that getting another Tac Squad and five more Assault Marines = half a battle company?

[Artcore]

Thanks for the nice comments Sheepz!

Again, got to say I really like the individualism of your army. You're very obviously Ultramarines, only not quite (with the red) which is great. You've also managed to mesh differing colourschemes together.

Yeah, I really like to make exceptions to the normal color scheme. One reason is that it would bore me if I'd paint everything the same. Another reason is that I fell in love with Ultramarines when I read a battle report in an old White Dwarf (from 2004 maybe?). Unlike GW has today, the models they used had a lot of red, white and gold. So that's where I picked up the idea. But when I showed them to people everybody noticed how much white and red I used.
Especially with Dreadnoughts, sergeants, IC's and Terminators I like to paint them individually. Like you said, the Dreadnoughts are the Ancient Holy Warriors, so they don't need to be 10 in a row.

My one comment would be to base that Terminator Librarian on a round base. Keep the skull step thing, by all means, but I don't like square bases, and I don't think he's legal as it's smaller than a regular termie base.

I did a round base with him with a coin and a magnet but the magnet let loose the other day. I'll fix it soon to make him game legal.

You do realize that getting another Tac Squad and five more Assault Marines = half a battle company?

No, I never thought about that. I'm planning on adding a third Tactical Squad and I have 5 Vanguard Vets (yet unpainted) which I can use as Assault Marines.

Next additions are Sternguard (DA Vet models), a Landspeeder with ML's and maybe 2 more Drop Pods.

[Sheepz]

No, I never thought about that. I'm planning on adding a third Tactical Squad and I have 5 Vanguard Vets (yet unpainted) which I can use as Assault Marines.

Ah, I think half a company is a good number. It's a respectable amount for Apoc games, and it adds a level of interchangability without your army getting too big and portions of it become unused (like say, having 6 tactical squad you'd never field in a normal game).

Half a company is what my Dark Angels are aiming for. I don't have your talent for painting, and my scheme isn't as varied as yours, but I think it's a good level for interchangability (as I said), fluffwise it's a good number, and the staggering amount of Marine bits and kit-bashing you can do lends a certain individualism without it getting repetitive through having too many Marines.

I think something similar to your army is my ideal. I don't have access to all the cool tanks and stuff, but I'd like a 10 strong scout squad, 3 tacs, devs and assault marines with a few spare models to make weapon swaps to units ect, and a swathe of characters for different wargear/character (chaplain, librarian or Captain) options. You do make me want to flesh out more Deathwing, though, since big units of Terminators look awesome. You also make me want to get more than one dreadnought so I can personalize them.

Definately inspiring. Looking forward to your Sternguard models. Having owned several boxes of Dark Angel robed Veterans, I want to get some ideas on how to make them look individualized and heroic (my Sergeants look ok, but I have enough bitz to make a 10 strong squad). Keep us posted.

[Artcore]

So I've been busy with the hobby. Last weekend I played a tournament at our LGS for which I wanted to get my whole 1500p list painted: thing is, my list included the Land Raider and my Assault Terminators. Basically I've painted them to about 50% so have a painted force on the table.

Last week I did a lot of modelling. For my birthday I got a Landspeeder Typhoon as a present and I still had a Landspeeder Storm lying around from the holidays so I've put them together. Such nice models! I'm spending a bit more time to add some details from my bit box and the FW Etch Brass to get some more detail and character to the models.

Next I pinned some hard to glue stuff: the TFC's Techmarine's backpack and my DA Librarian's backpack. Also I bought Pedro Kantor and gave him Sicarius' backpack/banner.

I visited a friend who's really deep into the hobby and he helped me with some hard stuff. Also he had some things lying around that he had cast himself with resin: an altar and a whirlwind launcher! The launcher fits on my Predator or Razorback tank: IG here we come!
With the altar I've made an Ultramarines objective marker: I put on an extra book, some symbols, a ritualistic blade, an incense thing, some scrolls... I bought the 'Granite' Foundation paint to paint the stone and it's a really nice paint: drybrush codex grey on top of that for a good result.

Anyway, the pics are a few days old so no painting yet. I'll post some pics when stuff is finished.

Tonight I'll play my first big battle: 2000 points against IG. I'll bring about everything except my Vindicator, Landraider and Assault Terminators. Hope I'll finally beat this IG player!

Pics: