Highlight to white - Mammoths oldschool ultramarine project

[Mammoth miniatures]

When I got into 40k via MESBG, My first army was ultramarines. I got into the grim darkness towards the closing days of third edition, when the space marine range was in a transition period and many of the older kits were still sat on shelves next to their updated replacements. I remember buying a MK1 whirlwind with its metal missiles about 3 days before it was replaced with the current plastic kit. Since much of my early 40k experience came from charity shops, I always wanted the kinds of armies I saw in out of date army books and dog eared white dwarfs.

Now I'm an adult and someone has decided to trust me with money, I've decided to build that army.


I actually started this project a while ago as a way to break my painting funk - I have been painting in a more realistic, grimdark style for a long time (I've never finished an army because I always start kitbashing about halfway through any given project) but I found it was getting a bit boring, So I started trying out a more minimal, crosshatchy style on some 2nd edition marines I had. I liked it and went to ebay to get more.







The combat squad (minus one member still on the paint table)



The first of the veterans (using the slightly more dynamic warriors of the imperium marines)

The new paintstyle on the veteran vs the test scheme on the sergeant. Originally I was using a blue paint from the spray workshop at work that is a dead ringer for ultramarine blue, but I found montana gold cobalt blue spray is closer to the light blue of old white dwarf images so I'm going with this sprayed zenithally over the darker blue from now on.



The captain - nothing fancy but I love a power fist.


And the dreadnought. This is a plastic assault on black reach dreadnought - they're cheap and match the old metal quite well, and since the metal one is now quite pricey I figured this was a fair concession.
I tried to keep his power fist in line with the captains. He's not fully finished yet, I may add more chipping, and his barrels need drilling.





My rules for this project are simple - keep it roughly 90's ish (unless that proves impossible) and don't sweat the paintjob. no single item should cost too much (although I did spend about £80 to get myself a mk1 land raider that's now sat in the paint queue.) and if something proves prohibitively expensive, find an alternative (hence the black reach dreadnought as opposed to a proper metal dread.)

[Hobgoblin]

They look great - really effective and striking paint scheme

[BeneathALeadMountain]

Looking great! How big’s your overall force? I may have some bits and bobs that may interest you….

Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain

[Mammoth miniatures]

Looking great! How big’s your overall force? I may have some bits and bobs that may interest you….

Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain

The goal is to play a game of 3rd edition combat patrol, so 10 marines, a captain, and a dreadnought minimum. Then I have another 15 marines ready to paint alongside a land raider and a rhino. After that, I'll add characters and any old units I can get at a reasonable cost - so really there's no concrete plan or size limit on the force.

[BeneathALeadMountain]

Ooh snap! I’m currently trying to refresh some Orks and finish my endless Squat conversions for some 4th Ed combat patrol. If it’s any help 4th is just a refined 3rd and all the previous ed codexes (3 & 3.5) still work for it. I think the fluid collection approach is probably best in terms satisfaction and bank account 

Andrew
BeneathALeadMountain

[LouieN]

Very old school. Nicely done

[HerbertTarkel]

Love the old school marines!

[pixelgeek]

That is a very interesting paint style.

What is the source of the texture on the dread?

[hubbabubba]

Nice, shiney 

[Battle Brush Sigur]

 Lovely figures. Two years ago I had the honour to work on one of them 'early 3rd edition' (ie mostly 2nd edition figures really) armies, as it happened an Ultramarines army as well. It was a lovely experience. Putting these guys together is a breeze. The same year I made an all new Primaris Blood Angels army, and those are a bleeding bother to put together now. The old marines have a clear, clean design, a sensible size, just every single shape on them is iconic and feels so engrained in my head. Just a joy to work with. Sure, it's also because these are the marines of my youth and all, when I was enthusaistic about it and GW was that supercool little company that supplies me with the cool stuff. But I can not overstate how great it is to work with these marines.

Your figures here shine due to freehand painting, and what especially got me is something I don't think I've ever seen before, and I have no idea why: The triangles that make the checkerboard stripe on the banner look spikey. Cool stuff.

[Daeothar]

Great work! I especially like the freehanded iconography 

And I have to echo the sentiments about those 2nd and 3rd ed sculpts; they are iconic, and not overladen with superfluous detail.

I've started a 2nd ed project myself; painting the entire 2nd ed starter box (20 Marines, 20 Orks, 40 Gretchin), with already planned out additions. Mine are being painted to be Blood Angels, and I really enjoy not only the clean lines of the sculpts, but the nineties layering style of painting as well

Please share your progress beyond this force!

[Mammoth miniatures]

That is a very interesting paint style.

What is the source of the texture on the dread?

It's just speckling from the second blue spray - up close it looks a bit off but at table distance is gives a bit of tonal variation without over flat surfaces and gives it texture as you say.

[Storm Wolf]

I likes em'

There is something pleasing about those 2nd/3rd edition mono-pose push-fit Marines, it may well be the simplicity (not too much unnecessary faff all over them) and the fact that when used in game they just look like a disciplined well trained bunch of marines, who are not busting into heroic pose at any given opportunity 

I have a similar small unit that I have dubbed the "Vorpal Blades", and I do have a soft spot for them as they were rescued from Oxfam undercoat oblivion 3 or 4 years ago.
Keep up the good work, definitely the most interesting Smurfs that I have seen for awhile 

[Mammoth miniatures]

Started work on the rhino. I bagged a chaos battle force on eBay that was from that lovely 4th edition transition period where imperial vehicles were getting updated and chaos ones weren't. The marines are...well let's just say that era of chaos sculpts isn't well remembered... BUT the box had an unbuilt on sprue mk1 rhino, and as I collect these little metal boxes, I couldn't pass up the chance to add a pure one to my army.

The spray is an ultramarine blue with cobalt zenithal, and black on the tracks. I've started by blacklining with contrast paint and fine liners, and so far I've just gone in with a white posca pen to add highlights. Where I want thin chips and scars I'm just using a thin brush to pull wet paint from the edge into the body, not actually loading the brush up at all.
The nice thing about posca pens is that the paint isn't very adhesive over shiny surfaces like sprayed plastic, so you can chip the white by scraping it gently - this makes it perfect for adding heraldry.