SHOWCASE: Ultramarine tactical squad space marine

Warhammer 40,000: Ultramarine tactical marine

I'd like to introduce this as 'something different', but I don't know that I can. Okay, it's a different army, but it's still a space marine. After showing you Blood Angels, Space Wolves and Imperial Fists this year, I can't very well claim another space marine is something different. This one, however, is an Ultramarine and, at least within the context of this blog (so far) and still very definitely within the somewhat narrower 'space marine' category, it's something different.

Left side

When I first got into Warhammer 40,000 in the early 1990s, I started by collecting Ultramarines. My first models were a squad of five space marines from the Warhammer 40,000 second edition boxed set. It was actually my friend's boxed set. He didn't want them all so I bought five of the bolter-armed models from him for a few pounds. I got my own copy of the boxed game for my birthday a little later. I painted those first models blue, along with all of the ones that followed, which given the era included a box of the original RTB01 'beaky' space marines before they disappeared forever. At one point I probably had more than half of a battle company—around sixty models of various types. All of them were very badly painted and, sadly, have since been disposed of.

Rear view

This model is the first Ultramarine I've painted in at least ten years, if not longer. I don't have any models to show you by way of comparison, but let's just say my painting has improved in that time. The bulk of the armour was painted using an airbrush, including the basecoat and some initial zenithal shading and highlighting (where you spray a colour so that it catches only the surfaces that face a particular direction: in this case from below with a darker colour for shading and from above with a brighter colour for highlighting). I then used a recess shade and two edge highlights to finish. I've also tried some point-of-light highlighting to emphasise areas where light would reflect on smooth, metallic surfaces, but my technique is still a little rough. This is something I need to work on! The rest of the details were then picked out as usual.

Right side

This is a standalone piece, more as an experiment than anything. My days of building Ultramarines armies are very much behind me. I admit it has rekindled a little flame though. This might not be the last Ultramarine I paint after all...