plastic table top ultra marine space marines start to finish for beginners

This article is how I prep and paint my Ultramarines at a table top quality. This article is really for beginners as I wish for new people to get the most out of painting as soon as possible.lightingFirst of all i must say its easyest to paint during the day with good weather painting durning the night with the light on will make it difficult for you to see what you are doing because bulbs make yellow light.  if you can use a helogen light as it is more natural if you plan to paint later on in the day.Step 1selecting minisI usually paint 3 minis at a time, so that as I paint each model at each stage, the paint would be dry on the first ready the the next stage of painting and so on. Cut model parts from plastic spur, try not to cut into the pieces you will want.(Do not pull pieces out as this will rip the plastic on your model especially on the shoulder pads use a sharp modeling knife to cut parts out.)(Also do not mix the arms up from each spur as there is a left and a right for each model and if mixed they do not fit together right.)Step 2 TrimmingAs you look at the parts of you mini you will see that there is a ridge on most of the parts where the mold met, take your knife hold it at a 45 degree angle and stroke it away from you across the mold line to get rid of them. (Don't press to hard or the knife jumps around and creates dents in the plastic.)  Step 3Prepping This is maybe where I do things different from other people, take a bunch of cocktail sticks cut them in half and super-glue the parts of your miniature on to them. Try to add glue to pieces of your mini where you would if you were to put it together, but do not glue the legs or anything to the legs just yet. (I do this as I can easily paint each piece from all angles and space marine minis don't really have any visible seams when they are assembled.)(Find a piece of sponge to stand you cocktail up, so that your pieces don't touch the desk or what-ever your working off this helps later when your waiting for painted parts to dry.)Any skulls and scrolls on your model should first be dry-brushed in bleached bone.(Spend about half the time painting white then you did with bleached bone.)This is all the dry-brushing I do on my models.Step 5.2 Next for painting in the details.For the next step using shining gold. (This step may have to be done twice, gold does not cover very well as it is a bit thin. Try to keep your strokes even and do not add to much paint that might glop in the details on you model.) Paint the following parts in shinning gold.Around the edges bottom and inside edge of the shoulder pads,The crest on the chest, (if there is 1,)The crest on the gun, (again if there is 1.)With brown ink, repaint over the gold parts you have just done. Make sure the gold is completely dry, go round the shoulder pads. Now with the crests, wipe off some of the ink, (don't use so much as it covers everything) wipe your brush up-wards on the crests. the ink should only settle in the ridges between the feathers on the wings, etc.3.) The eyes. (Before you start to paint out of your pots DON'T! It glops all over the place and leaves brush strokes on your models. So dip the end of your brush in your paint get a bit of paint on the end, Now dip the paint, (not the whole brush,) in some clean water and give it a quick mix by making strokes on a pallet, remembering to turn your brush so the bristles make a nice point.)Use the above technique for painting on your miniatures and the paint when dry should turn  out nice and smooth.Using scab red, paint the entire lens. Next while the paint is still wet paint about half of the eye from the inside out-wards with blood red, Again with blazing orange, paint a quarter from the inside out-wards. Finally with just a pin prick of skull white no water on this bit, put a dot at the back of the eye about a quarter the way in. Thats the eyes done.(adding more water during this step will make the previous color's blend in with the next. But as I am only painting at a table top quality I will just use blocks of colors for now)  Step 6 Main Color.The main color of Ultramarines is in fact a mix of 50% ultramarine blue and 50% regal blue. (As you would of thought you will need quite a bit of this colour, so a good idea might be to make up a pot of this mix.) Make up a mix on a tile small plate etc. now the idea is to paint the amour of your miniature leaving a thin line of the original color showing around all the edges where amour plate meet. try to be as neat as you can avoiding the details on the amour and parts you have already painted previously.(Do not forget to add a bit of water to your mix so that the paint runs smoothly on to your miniature.)The next thing to do is to repaint the case and grip type areas on your gun, using chaos black. At this point you can glue you mini together carefully putt the cocktail sticks off you model parts, you will need to cut any remaining super-glue off you parts and scrape any paint from areas that will be glued together, remembering to hold your blade the correct way as stated at the beginning of this tutorial. (I have left the back pack off on this 1 as i think it will get in the way when doing details on the shoulder pads.)Step 7Highlights. Lastly for highlights, imagine there is a light above your miniature that is creating the amour to reflect. Use ultramarine-blue and add as thin line as you can at the top of each plate of armour this will give your model a bit more definition and depth.(You can also add ultramarine blue highlights to the gun to if you wish, but i don't do this as i think it looks a bit fake.)(This is a picture to see what you are aiming for. unfortunately i have no batteries for my camera and I'm unable to get any more photos from this point. notice from the above picture the pale lines on the knee pads, round the backpack the for head etc.)Step 8Insignia and squad markings.I will be using the transfers i got with my space marines to add the squad marks of the shoulder pads and other areas.First i will be adding the U on the left shoulder, I find its best to cut the transfer as illustrated below, so that it fits around the curve of the pad. I'm going to stick this right in the middle of the pad. (The white lines are where i would cut out my transfer)Next i like to use a white colored number to fit with the theme, this transfer is not to bad to fit over the pad, i am going to place it on the right shoulder pad near the right bottom corner.  This miniature i am painting will be in a tactical squad and i want him to have the squad marking on him somewhere i will use the mark that looks like an arrow pointing up. I will be adding script to the remaining space on the shoulder pads so i think i will i will add it to the middle of his for head there for i need smaller transfers. My trick is to cut 1 of the points off the assault badges and use that instead of trying to paint it on.Now for the scriptScript is quite hard it do and needs some practice. take skull white and quite a bit of water, make sure its mixed through your paint brush, (more water then usual is required) and make sure your brush makes a nice point.I find the trick is to quickly write simple signature like words, keep some spaces between some of the script as if there was separate words and page breaks. (This is an example of the shoulder pads i have done to give you some sort of idea.)(I try to make all my miniatures insignia and markings different try looking on ebay for old transfers as there are different. Add transfers to the foreheads. There is also room for a small transfer on some of the backpacks.)(You should give it a quick spray of GW gloss or Matt varnish to protect it and if you wish to paint the side of your base that is up to you, but i like mine to show the original plastic.)I Think thats about everything. You should have a reasonably good looking table top quality ultramarine. I hope this article was helpful.CJ,N003(Updates will include bags, knives, swords and Sargent red helmet)