40K Series - Primaris Ultramarine

Warhammer 40K Series - Primaris Intercessor - Ultramarine

Ultramarines are the Space Marine Legion and later Chapter synonymous with Games Workshop's 40K range.

Primaris Marines are the new range of super-soldiers the Imperium is sporting. They stand much taller than their regular space marine counter-parts, and boast more advanced weaponry.

One of TTME's very own mascots is based on a Primaris Intercessor Sergeant from the Ultrmarines. Battle Brother Ultramar.

This particular model was part of the Conquest subscription magazine recently released by GW (Autumn 2018) however, this frame of easy-to-build marines is available here.

Primaris marines are believed to be much better true-to-scale to the size which Marines are fabled to be in the fluff. This has made the Primaris marine base frames to be good starting places for building true-scale marines for non-Primaris based models.

Sticking with the Primaris marine though with this one, this tutorial builds and paints the easy-to-build marine sergeant which comes as that set.

Before we start with the guide though, there are a couple of points to detail below, which are important to take into account for painting this figure - detailed guides can be found in the 'Painting Guides' tab at the top.

Things like - Basing - Drybrushing - Detailing - Washing - Weathering

If you're unfamiliar with any of these painting techniques, or you are and you think that you could do with a refresher, please follow the links above, or where they're inbeded in the body of the text.

Model parts laid out and cleaned up

Stage 1 - Assembly

Probably as important as the paint job itself is the preparation of the model and the assembly.

Most plastic models are made from injecting hot liquid plastic into a 2-sided mould... so you'll have mould lines. Resin has flashing, which is a similar thing. This all needs to be removed before you paint - because if you don't - it will come out in the detailing and it will look rubbish.

Infantry figures need to be build with careful consideration - Think about where and how accessible your model is when built for a paint brush. As a rule, I always build the model either without the arms, or without the weapon for painting the main bit. You'll see that below. On this model, I'm going to keep the head separate for now.

Stage 2 - Priming and Base Coat

Priming models is the key to making your paint stick to your models, and stay stuck to your models. To get a good clean finish all over - Use an airbrush or a rattle-can primer.

Before painting the model, I set it up in a Citadel Painting Handle, these are very useful for painting models on a stable platform

I used Chaos Black Primer on this model. With spraying anything, hold the can 4 inches away from the model and dust in the model in light thin coats - Too much and the paint will pool in the detail and make it so that the detail isn't as pronounced - which spoils the model.

Wait the recommended time from the paint manufacturer to dry, and the move onto basing.

Once the Chaos Black primer has dried, I painted the Blue armour panels with the pot of Macragge Blue which came as part of the Conquest blister.

Whilst doing the blue armour panels, be sure to keep the paint very thin, using 2-3 thin coats to cover where possible. This will prevent the detail from being lost as we layer up the paint.

An idea whilst doing the blue, is the leave the parts black which you didn't want to be blue - like the helmet on the Marine's hip, the Golden Imperium crest on the chest-plate and the bolt gun. Places which would likely be black too, like the under-suit which is visible at the elbows, backs of the knee.

Chaos Black is applied all over the model

Macragge Blue is applied over the armour panels

Calgar Blue drybrushing highlights

Stage 3 - Drybrushing / Highlighting

Drybrushing is an easy way of creating highlights on a model, without needing the skill/time necessary to do what the pro-painters do - and layer up several different shades of highlights over the top of one another.

That being said, there's a bit of an art associated with drybrushing, and all it needs is a bit of planning.

In this model's instance, it is being dimly lit from a star/sun directly above it's head. Therefore, the direction of the drybrusing was from top to bottom.

I used Games Workshop's Citadel Calgar Blue paint to drybrush this model. It is the standard highlight colour for Macragge Blue, but applied via dry-brushing, it gives a much softer edge highlight.

Using downward light strokes (see the drybrushing detail page above for how to load the brush), pass your brush over the model, making the brush leave paint on the edges of corners, and lighting leaving strokes on the flatter parts of the armour. Continue this in lots of light passes, until you're happy with the level of highlighting required.

Stage 4 - Armour Wash #1

Now comes the messy/fun bit! Washing the model is a great way of making all of the sunken detail (panel lines, mouths, eye sockets etc) sink back into the model and create the illusion of ambient occlusion.

Giving it a good shake before hand, I used GW's Citadel Drakenhof Nightshade to cover the blue armour panel areas.

Be sure to cover all of the model; however be careful that the wash doesn't pool on any of the open panel surfaces - use your brush to keep working the wash gently into the recesses, but don't remove the wash completely from the armour panels.

Note: Wash goes on very shiny, but usually dries matt.

Give it a long time to fully dry - you may want to batch-do these models, so by the time you have done one or two more, the first one is dry.

Drakenhof Nightshade applied to the armour

Detailing paintwork being applied to the model

Stage 5 - Detailing

When the wash is fully dry - we're now going to tackle the detailing on this model.

Golden Trims - Pauldron trims, Imperium Chest-plate, armour iconography

We'll be using the Retributor Amour paint pot which came with the Conquest issue 1 pack.

Red - Helmet

We'll be using Memphiston Red for the helmet

Gunmetal - Powerpack exhausts, boltrifle parts, The handheld data-link device.

We'll be using Leadbelcher for these parts

Once you have all the parts painted up, allow to dry before moving onto the next point

Stage 6 - Armour Wash #2

Now that all the detailing paint work is dry, we need to liberally apply Nuln Oil wash all over the model.

This will shade all of the detail paintwork, but also darken down the armour model to a deep blue. Make sure you get some nuln oil into the armour panel lines.

You may wish to do another light Calgar Blue drybrush if it goes too dark - I have with mine, and another drybrush of the helmet with the Memphiston Red.

when the wash was dry, I also drybrushed the black elements of the boltrifle with Scale Colour's Graphite

Now that the body is completed, we're going to move onto the head

Nuln oil wash all over the model

Head being painted prior to washing

Stage 7 - Head Detailing & Finishing Touches

Now we're going to crack on with the head.

Obviously if your model is wearing his helmet, this stage will be redundant.

For the skin we're going to use GW Citadel Cadian Fleshtone

For the hair, we're going to be using Tamiya Desert Yellow

Chin-strap we're using the Macragge Blue, back of the headpiece, Leadbelcher

Once that is all painted, and dry, I applied a Seraphin Sepia wash to the face, and then nuln oil wash to the Blue and the Leadbelcher. Once the sepia wash was dry, I enhanced the wash in the eye sockets, lips and hair line with the nuln oil.

That's it, I then glued the head to the body and the mini was then ready for basing and transfers.

If you like what you've seen, please give us a comment below.