Captain Cassius (counts as Vulkan), still WIP!

I decided to change miniature, just to add a bit more movement and this is what i got for now. The paintwork is not finished yet. Much more juicy details soon! Praise the multipart modular plastic Space Marines!

Old school Ultramarine meltagunner!

Did i ever tell you that i love early 90s Space Marines range?
I find these miniatures amazing even if they look kind of goofy and dolly somehow. Yes, i know: in a world where everyone is looking for true scale Space Marines this may sound silly. Anyway that's how it is, i consider them quite a rarity.

+++ If you own some and want to get rid of them, please contact me +++

This Ultramarine has been built combining all the old stuff (metal body, plastic arms and backpack) with the 1999 slim looking metal meltagun. I was afraid that the overdeformed hands could look awkward with it but on the opposite it seems they quite fit.
Above, the Ultramarine symbol has been painted by hand.

The Tactical designation has been painted by hand as well. the roman numeral is the only decal on this miniature.
The whole model has been painted the usual way, with Vallejo colours plus Citadel's Ultramarines Blue. They fit very well for my personal taste: i love the way 'Eavy Metal studio painted space marines in the 90s and i'm painting every miniature this way. I don't like that much the new Citadel's paint ranges.

Do you like it? Suggestions?

Tigurius WIP

Still WIP but i simply couldn't resist to post this awesome old school miniature! I hope to make this my very best masterpiece!

Counts as Vulkan (WIP)

I'm afraid many will turn up their noses, anyway...
In the fifth edition Space Marines codex there are some options to make quite competitive army lists: I found that Vulkan of the Salamanders is the most funny and suitable to my way of playing so, since there are no restrictions about the use of special characters in other chapters different from their own, I chose to make Vulkan join my Ultramarines army.
I don't like at all the GW miniature of this Salamanders' hero and even if I liked it I wouldn't buy it because I didn't want to use a Salamander with my Ultramarines, even if it is possible to do that.
So I chose to make a conversion. His name is captain Cassius, my historic Ultramarine commander.
I started from an old metal Space Marine body (precisely mark 7 armour 6, from 1990 range) and then i added stuff in order to reflect Vulkan wargear. After all I like to stick to WYSIWYG rule. I think that this body has lots of personality, seemslike he's looking for enemies to slain.
The Spear of Vulkan, which is a master crafted Relic Blade, became a two handed sword taken from Grey Knights bits. GK weapons are amazing stuff, before them there were no two handed weapons for Space Marines, except some previously released metal stuff.
Gauntlet of the Forge is sort of heavy flamer built in an armour gauntlet so I converted it starting from GK forearm storm bolter. Quite easy.
Kesare's Mantle has been represented with the old Space Marine commander metal cloak. This is going to be painted in some fancy way.
Artificier armour is yet to be represented (as well as Digital Weapons). I'm thinking about some milliput sculpts.

I added some detail in order to show his "veteran" status like a Crux Terminator and some Purity Seals. I also used Space Marine captain sculpted shoulder pads and a Ultramarines banner icon.

What do you think? If you have any suggestion please let me know!

UPDATE: I just saw GW miniature. In comparison mine looks silly! I've got to load my version with more detail so I hope to post it back soon!

More Ironclad progress!

i simply love the warning chevrons!

Ironclad progress!

just a quickie: i made the extra armour and the ranged weapons of the ironclad. the armour has been made with some plasticard strips and some rivets. the heavy flamer is from dreadnought kit and the "meltagun" is simply a storm bolter with a different nozzle, made from a plasticard rod, drilled

Ironclad is coming!

just got back from Swiss and already at work: i put on my old plastic dreadnought the ironclad's right arm, nice isn't it? i tryied to give him a shooty pose, like he's flaming some enemies of mankind... maybe a bit overdeformed but in the grim darkness of the far future everything is possible! yeah, i know that: gotta model the extra armour, maybe someday...
by the way: have a nice holiday!

i'm not (yet) dead!

it's been a while since the last update, sorry guys!
in these 9 days of no news i'm working on my last 10 men tactical squad, Scipio. above there is a member of that squad: squad commander Quintus! obviously there are many little details to be done, like the highlight on the laurel... as many may have seen the head is a little kitbash: it is taken from WHFB empire cavalry (thank you Orlando). the bolter scheme reminds me Necromunda... or a bee, but i don't care :-) do you like it? the picture is pretty sh*tty i know, that's not my fault but weather's

Librarian's banner

the old metal terminators were pretty static but the good thing about them was that they had a big banner pole so, as i like to paint banners, i'm pretty happy about that. my librarian, blessed with terminator armours, is kinda veteran so i painted a banner in order to show this. his name is Commodus, so i wrote it on the book and combined the tipical heraldry of librarians with the chapter's icon. in order to show his supernatural power i painted upside down flames and lightning bolts that is a nonsense as is never present in nature. pretty silly, i know :-) but the important thing is that this banner must look old school!

Oldschool terminator librarian (aka how to enhance an ugly miniature)

do you remember the dear old librarian in terminator armour? well, let's say this: it sucks. but i have to field him and i don't want to waste money in the new miniature (that, by the way, is marvellous). so i've got to make him a little nicer for the upcoming tournament.

first of all, since back in the days it was sold with the 20mm slottabase, i made for him a scenic 40mm base, urban themed. i just glued a small pipe, a bit of polystyrene that represents a broken block of concrete with some tiled plasticard and some skeletons bits. then i glued the guy over the base and made for him the mandatory piece of wargear you really can't go without:
the storm shield. i used a piece of 1mm thick plasticard (cut with random dimension) and filed it trying to model a nose cone shape, then, with the help of a round pen i pushed it on the cylindrical shape of the pen in order to achieve the typical rounded shape of the shield (dunno if i made it to explain myself), as you know a flat shield would be really ugly-looking. then i added some bits and the usual rivets and this is the result, do you like it? i think it has a believable pose, he simply walks keeping guard up, ready to smash the axe over the enemy's head.
yeah, i know, today my english is worst then ever.

PS: the shield arm is interchangeable, i think i'll magnetize it

Tactical squad Traianus

another tactical squad from my Ultramarines army: armed with plasma weapons, Traianus tactical squad usually clears the way for the other, more mobile, battle brothers. other times, when a hard resistance is required, searches the battlefield for heavy armoured enemies and obliterate them.it is the 4th squadron from the 2nd Ultramarines company.

this is Traianus, the sergeant, classic 1999 miniature: veteran sergeant from the command squad box, one of the first new space marines metal miniatures.

every marine that wears not the helmet bears it instead at the belt, i swear!

just take a look!

three marines: they are all equipped with the standard bolter, the one on left shows on his left kneepad the company designation, the center one was kitbashed with the sergeant bare head from devastators kit. every marine is codex-respectful, i mean: they all bear combat knife, grenades and bolt pistol.

battle brother with plasma cannon: metal model back from 3rd edition range. this guy boasts an impressive killcount! head from captain sprue.

squad commander and plasma gunner (from armour through ages). we already talked about this guys here. i added an extra chapter marking on squad commander kneepad.

more guys, not that much to say about them.

i hate how decals get curled when they get dry so i paint chapter heraldry by myself. yeah, it is a little difficult but i think it is worth the effort.

so, as i said, i paint every U on every shoulderpad if it isn't already sculpted. neat, isn't it?

of course i paint also the tactical designation, the only decal i use is the roman numeral.

do you like them? what about the golden yellow trim? do you prefere the shining gold instead? personally, it makes me puke.

land speeder mkIII

this is the 2nd land speeder of my squadron, armed in the same way as the previous. plain classic plastic land speeder, bought just when it came out in 1998, my very first vehicle. as you can imagine i removed the old paint and repainted in a decent way.

dunno why i got this ugly yellowish light. ah, the checker pattern on the flaps is hand made, no crappy decals.

things to be proud part II (above): the targeting gems
only one thing: it is too plain for my, have you got any suggestion?

PS: oh, gosh i just realized i forgot to paint the rail of the cannon and the gem on the top rear flap! i'll get rid of this mistake asap!

old school land speeder mkII

this is an old model that i bought used. pretty nice but a real pain in the ass to build up and paint (oh gosh, can i write ass on my own blog?) since it is a whole metal kit so it needs a lot of green stuff to stick together and you gotta paint every piece separately if you want a decent result.
ultramarine blue was painted in the usual way (over a black basecoat):
1) regal blue basecoat
2) heavy drybrush with ultramarines blue
3) light drybrush with shadow grey (1st highlight)
4) light drybrush with space wolves grey, only on edges (2nd highlight)


then i painted the pilot like the sergeant of the squadron, his name's Lucius, and i gave him a shield, just to display the army badge. there's not that much to say about the gunner... just a plain space marine manning an heavy flamer.


above, the targeting gem: things to be proud of. any suggestion on how to enhance this model?
what about you? do you like old school models? do you prefere metal or plastic?

last land raider update!

maybe you all guys have already grown tired about my land raider... so, hoping you liked it, here is the last pic of the last freehand... the motto is the latin translation of "our presence remakes the past" that appears on the Ultramarines' chapter banner. i hope the translation is correct because when i was in the high school i always stolen any good mark in latin :-)

even more land raider freehands

i saw you guys like my land raider freehands so i guess you're gonna enjoy this new one

more land raider freehands!

if you liked the last one then you're gonna love this, i guess... these are the names of various Ultramarines commanders that led my army in battle (including captains, chaplains and even the brand new lord of the forge)... i wrote them here like a "hall of heroes" you know... too bad i had to cut names like Prometheus or Spartacus... but there was simply no more room.
sorry for the crappy light but i couldn't wait morning to take this pic since i wanted to show you right now! if you like it i'll provide a better one, so please give me some feedback, thank you.

land raider freehand heraldry

hi guys, please check out my last effort... do you like it? now i'll draw something ASAP for the "roof" and the right side of the tank so stay tuned. ah, i accept every form of advice!

Land raider reporting!

HERE IT COMES!
well, after endless months it is finally ready to face a tournament! please enjoy my brand new land raider... well, not exactly brand new: i bought it in 1999, when the model finally came out, i painted badly the first time but now it looks much better after a radical restyling! what do you think? in reality it is not yet finished, i gotta paint some freehands in order to make it really unique.
well, what about my 1st company tank crew?do you like the banner?

space marine banner

i always hated paper banners until now because i've finally understood how to paint them well. this banner has been made to celebrate the alliance between my Ultramarines and Teo's Black Templars that will fight side by side in a 40k 2vs2 tournament on 20th september, so please wish us good luck! do you like it?

some notes on detailing

what do you do when it comes to detail your 40k squaddies? when i say "detail" i don't mean the highlighting process but a more complex issue like making soldiers look as veterans or "somehow real", not a mere plastic toy.
in my opinion it's not so simple, so i'd like to have your advice. these pictures are about a tactical squad of my army:
1) above you can see my veteran sergeant, Traianus. i painted his banner in a simple but different way than the standard Ultramarines' tactical banner (i think you all know which one): a winged U with some Roman lightnings... very old rome-legion-looking. here's a closeup: it isn't very precise nor clean but seen from a certain distance i'd say it's kinda good.
2) the next guy is the squad commander Marinus. in order to make him look like that i painted a sort of iron halo on the chapter heraldry and i added a pair of seals.
in addition, as i think he must look like a sort of "old one", i gave him a weathered old bolter (the 2nd edition one, with a very "square" look and "open magazine) instead of a new one, paited with a checker pattern; it can be meant like a killcount or whatever... it looks very Ultra.
3) last but not least: Alexander the plasmagunner! since he bears the mk4 maximus pattern power armour i modelled him like a pre-heresy marine: checker pattern on the left leg (killcount?)...
trimless right shoulder pad, horizontal arrows instead of vertical, of course with roman numeral...
a pair of laurels next to the chapter heraldry, they mean he accomplished some mission...what do you think? what about your detailing works?

so, that's all for now. today i'm gonna leave italy for some time (this year i really deserve holiday)... but stay tuned and please spread the URL of my blog and support it if you like. see you soon, have a nice summer!