How to paint ultramarines

How to paint ultramarines

How to paint ultramarines space marines? If Space Marines are the poster boys of Warhammer 40k, Ultramarines are the poster boys of Space Marines. The defenders of Macragge, the sons of Roboute Guilliman are easily recognisable in their blue power armor. In this guide we shall show you some tips to make painting them easy.

Table of Contents

HOW TO PAINT ULTRAMARINES: GETTING STARTED

So starting at the beginning, I assembled the miniature. For this guide I used an Assault Intercessor model, and constructed it using the box instructions and a good clippers like the RGG Precision Nippers. I added the reliquary and ammo pouch on his back as nice optional details found in the kit. As a plastic kit, I used a plastic cement rather than superglue. I also scraped off some of the most visible mould lines with a blade, and drilled the barrel of the pistol. You can of course prime and basecoat your models with a brush, and if you do I would recommend one with a large belly and a good tip like the RGG brush size 2. However, wherever possible I would recommend spray priming your miniatures for speed and ease. I used a white primer, because I wanted the blue layer going on top of the primer to be really bold.

WHAT DO I WANT TO ACHIEVE WITH THIS MINIATURE?

When painting any miniature, it is important to decide ahead of time what you would like to focus on. Try to set achievable goals. Here, I wanted to replicate the ‘boxart’ standard of Ultramarine Space Marines found on the shelves of your local Warhammer 40,000 seller. Many miniature painters start with painting space marines, Ultramarines particularly. I wanted to see if I could meet the standard of ‘Eavy Metal painters, but with a more novice set of experiences & resources.

What is going to be the thing that draws the viewer’s eye? Here, I think it would be the distinctive blue armor he is wearing. So I decided that the power armor was going to be the feature I wanted to focus on when painting. As this should be replicable across a squad or army, I wanted techniques that would be relatively speedy. They should also help the scheme look effective across a whole range of Ultramarines on the battlefield. Burnout and fatigue are real issues with batch painting, so be sensible and manage your goals!

HOW TO PAINT ULTRAMARINES: ARMOR & WASHES

Next, I painted the iconic blue armor. You can actually get a good blue bascoat spray, which is ideal for painting lots of Ultramarines at once. Here however I just used a normal paint from the pot. Make sure it is a good ‘midtone’ blue- not too dark nor too light. This will help making contrast with your washes and highlights later.

Thin the paint with a little water or glaze medium before applying to your mini. You may need a couple of coats for a smooth and consistent coverage. I use a Redgrass Games wet palette because it is invaluable to keep that acrylic paint workable whilst out of the pot! You should avoid applying paint straight from the pot. Once dry, I put a dark blue ‘wash’ across all the armor surfaces. It is quick and really helps define the recesses and grooves of the sculpt. Allow this to fully dry (30+ minutes) and apply another wash if necessary.

HOW TO PAINT ULTRAMARINES: BLOCKING IN BASECOATS

Ask yourself ‘what colours are appropriate?’ I chose a charcoal gray for the black panels and weapon cases, and a gold for decorative elements like the chestplate aquila. The ‘bare’ metal I painted with a dark steel, whilst the helmet lenses got a dark red basecoat. Finally, the pistol holster and ammo pouch on his back were painted with a red-brown.

The addition of these other colors helps break up the preponderance of blue armor. Mostly I used the Size 2, but for smaller parts like the small details I used the Redgrass size 00, which is great for detail work. Once again I was sure to ‘wash’ these new colors to stop them looking flat and lacking in definition. For the eyes and gold I used a red-brown wash, and for the bare metal on the chainsword and bolt pistol for instance, I used a black wash. I matted the blue armor down with matte varnish, as the wash gave it an undesirable glossy finish to me.

I was sure to ‘wash’ these new colors to stop them looking flat and lacking in definition. For the eyes and gold I used a red-brown wash, and for the bare metal on the chainsword and bolt pistol for instance, I used a black wash.

HOW TO PAINT ULTRAMARINES: EDGE HIGHLIGHTS

Recess shading often gives you a ‘quick win’ and you can quickly see a big difference before and after. However, it works best when coupled with some edge highlights- at least on Ultramarine Space Marines! All those thick and sharp armor panels really benefit from thin, stark highlights on the outermost edges.

I first made a 50/50 mix of the midtone blue with a sky blue on my wet palette. Then I thinned this with a little water- I want it thin and easy to control for such fine edging work. I used the side of my 00 brush wherever possible in applying this edge highlight, as it offers more consistent control. Initially the contrast may seem too subtle, but as you go over the lines repeatedly, increasing the ratio of sky blue to your midtone blue, it will really ‘pop’! On places like the helmet grill, kneepads, and gauntlets, I finished with a ‘spot highlight’ of pure sky blue for maximum definition effect.

FINAL DETAILS

Lastly we mustn’t forget other key details that need highlights, too. It helps the overall effect if every element is ‘popping’ to the same standard we have achieved with our armor highlights.

For the eye lenses, I used a dot of hot orange toward the front, and a smaller dot of pure white toward the back. This suggests depth and reflectivity. The black parts I edge highlighted with a pale gray, using the same 00 brush side-on approach I used for the armor edging. The bare metal was highlighted with a bright silver, which I feel contrasts really well with the steel, post-black wash. Finally, the leathers were all lined with a tan highlight, to give the impression of wear and tear as they age.

For the eye lenses, I used a dot of hot orange toward the front, and a smaller dot of pure white toward the back. This suggests depth and reflectivity.

HOW TO PAINT ULTRAMARINES: COMPLETED PIECE!

The Ultramarine Assault Intercessor is done! I hope I have shown a simple but effective way to replicate the same scheme used by the boxart. It is a simple scheme but can be difficult to get right without some key experiences many new painters lack. The right tools – and their application – for the job will help a lot. For next steps, you could consider how to boost the basing, perhaps with rubble or static grass depending on the environment. The kit also comes with transfers for squad markings, if you like to use decals in your miniature painting. The choice is yours! – James.

How Easy to Paint Primaris Ultramarine

Some time ago I bought “WH 40k Know No Fear starter set”, unfortunately, all primaris space marine intercessors from this set look almost the same, so I decided to diversify their party by this guy from “Easy to built: Space marines primaris intercessors” set.

Here I’ll show how easy to paint primaris ultramarine space marine intercessor step-by-step using an only usual brush.

Step 01

Army Painter primers:

As you can see I’m trying to make shades using black and white primers. Hard to say how good it works with ultramarines because their base color Macragge Blue is pretty dark so even thin layers of base paint overlap this shading effect.

However, most of my miniatures are primed like this one.

Step 02

Citadel base paint:

On this step we have to paint only armor, skipping those parts which will be metallic, golden or black. At this stage there is no problem if you stain any other part of the miniature. The main thing is to dilute the paint with water and apply it in several thin layers.

Step 03

Citadel base paint:

Paint by Leadbelcher those parts of the miniature that you think should be metal. Leadbelcher is good for some parts of backpack, it’s necessary for some parts of the rifle.

As you can see I use Leadbelcher even for such parts as on the back of the knees. That’s not the common way, more often these parts are painted in black. But I think that such painted space marine looks better, especially after shading.

Step 04

Citadel base paint:

I use Abaddon Black only for ultramarines rifle, belt and belt bags. Easy and fast. Just be careful when painting a belt, do not stain armor.

Step 05

Citadel base paint:

One more easy and fast step. Paint aquila, shoulder pads border and don’t forget about another one aquila on the rifle (sorry, it doesn’t see on this photo, it’s on the other side of the rifle).

Step 06

Citadel base paint:

Mephiston Red is only for space marines helmet lenses. Please do not rush at this step!
Helpful advice! Using a palette, make sure that the paint is only at the tip of the brush. Do not hurry to apply paint, rotate the figure in your hands until you get a comfortable angle for painting lenses. Begin from the corners of the lenses. It’s not as difficult as it may seem, because lenses deepened in the helmet.

Step 07

Citadel base paint:

Citadel layer paint:

For painting purity seals I use Rakarth Flesh and Pink Horror. In my opinion, it looks good. After shading, it’ll look even better.

Step 08

Citadel shade paint:

Ok, let’s start to shade our miniature. I use Nuln Oil as the main shade paint for ultramarines. Using Nuln Oil we have to shade metallic parts of the miniature, deepenings on space marine’s armor, I also shade lenses a little. Apply shade paints in small quantities. Firstly check the amount of paint on the brush using the palette.

Another way to shade ultramarine’s armor is to use Drakenhof Nightshade. In this case, it’s possible to shade not only deepenings but all blue armor parts.

Step 09

Citadel shade paint:

Well, just paint purity seal Agrax Earthshade, that’s it. By the way, I didn’t shade golden parts of the figure. Games Workshop recommends us to shade golden details using Reikland Fleshshade, I’ve tried, I did not like the result. If you’ll try, don’t forget to highlight golden parts after shading. For highlighting use Retributor Armour again, or try Auric Armour Gold.

Step 10

Citadel layer paint:

On this step use Calgar Blue for highlighting Macragge Blue painted details. Highlight the top edges of these details. If you want to make them lighter, highlight them again using Fenrisian Grey paint.

Step 11

Citadel base paint:

Let’s highlight black parts – top edges of rifle, belt and belt bags. For highlighting black parts of figures people often use Dark Reaper, but for ultramarines, I prefer Mechanicus Standard Grey. This color is warmer than Dark Reaper.

Step 12

Citadel layer paint:

For highlighting metallic parts GW recommends us Stormhost Silver, I haven’t ever used this paint and can’t say anything about it. I always used Ironbreaker for highlighting metallic parts and it worked well!

Step 13

Citadel base paint:

For the device display, I used Caledor Sky as a base color. Right now I’m looking at this photo and thinking that it was better to stop here. But I didn’t, so I’ll show the result of the next steps.

Step 14

Citadel edge paint:

Yeah, I’ve tried to imitate light from the display, but “these aren’t the droids I was looking for”…

Step 15

Citadel layer paint:

And these are the continue of the saga about the failed imitation of devise display’s light. Scene 2. White Scar paint starring.

Step 16

Citadel base paint:

Finally! The step that will correct the situation. The painted base always make figure look much better! Here we just paint base Steel Legion Drab. As you see near from figure’s left foot there is a hole in the base. I filled in this hole by a piece of plastic and glued it.

Step 17

Citadel texture paint:

Agrellan Earth is very good for base decoring. By the way, I finally fix this hole in the base using this texture paint.

Result

I think this result is good enough for playing. It’s easy to paint space marines this way and it doesn’t take a lot of time.

Your game table will look much better with such painted ultramarines than with unpainted grey or blue plastic.

Paint your miniatures, guys, don’t afraid to spoil them. You will succeed, just have a little practice!

How to Paint Ultramarines PDF Painting Guide

High quality detailed PDF guide showing how to paint an Ultramarines space marine in 10 steps.

Each step shows high resolution images of the model from multiple angles. All paints and materials are listed for ease of reference and descriptions of techniques are clearly explained in detail.

An airbrush is required for some steps.

Note: This guide will be updated with FAQs / Errata. Customers will always have access to the latest version.

See below for more information about this product.

This guide is designed for beginner to intermediate level painters. The aim is to achieve a good quality paint job in a way that can be replicated relatively quickly across an army. Some of the later steps are optional, so the method can be ‘scaled’ from rank and file to more special models such as commanders and characters.

A certain level of experience and understanding is assumed of basic painting techniques such as basecoating, layering, using shading washes and edge highlighting, but more ‘advanced’ techniques such as freehand or NMM are avoided to ensure maximum accessibility.

Format: PDF
File size: 28mb
No. of pages: 15
Current version: 1.1

4 reviews for How to Paint Ultramarines PDF Painting Guide

Gareth Prosser – July 16, 2019

This is the second guide I have Purchased from The Mighty Brush and once again the results are brilliant. Just follow the steps carefully and you’ll likely get the same results shown in the photos. The tips on glossing / pin washing have been particularly helpful and help to save a tonne of painting time. Once again well worth the money!

jaeseok lee (verified owner) – August 1, 2019

hi guys.
my name is jaeseok from south korea. (so my english is very sucks.)
This is awesome guid ever.
but i have a one question.
Did you separate the parts from body when you use airbrush step?
please let me know. thank you.

Noel James (verified owner) – August 29, 2019

I have just purchased the amazing PDF tutorial for this model and I was so very impressed with it.
The photography is stunning, the quality of the layout is superb and is so easy to follow.
If anyone is thinking about purchasing one of Luther’s PDF tutorials…. don’t think about it, just get it. Game changer.

Alan (verified owner) – May 31, 2020

This pdf is whatni have been looking for has helped me a lot

How to paint ultramarines

Ultramarines are the iconic Space Marine chapter out there. Like most other colors and armies, there are a million different formulas for painting them as well. Fortunately, blue is one of those colors that is fairly easy to get nice results with. In this case, I wanted somethign dark and fast. Very fast. I wanted this guy to be done in no time at all and still look decent in the end. This is what I came up with.

The idea for this technique comes from my previous post where I went over painting Eldar Dire Avengers. And that’s about where the similarities end. When it came to this guy, I wanted to do even less work on the model.

Painting the armour
The model started out primed black. I gave it a quick spray. If I were doing it a better, I would have gone back and touched up the areas that needed it with black paint from a pot. In this case, I didn’t because this is more of a test model to see if the idea would even work.

Once I had him primed black, I figured it was simply too much work to paint his armour blue. I decided to spray paint it on. Then I realized if I spray painted the blue on, I’d need to go back in and add the shading. Not wanting to do that, I thought I’d try a zenithal approach to spray painting the base color.

I’d spray from the top down with a couple of short bursts and call it a day.

I tried it on two models before getting something I figured would work. The model on the right has too much blue for my liking. I fixed that on the model on the left by not spraying as much. This leaves me some more black on the lower portions of the model. Now we’re talking, instant basecoat with shading and highlighting.
Total time: 35 seconds.

After I had him basecoated, I gave him two quick, undiluted washes of GW Asurmen Blue to tone down my blue basecolor, blend it into the black areas and add some shading to the recessed areas where the wash collected.
And I’m done.

Adding the details
From this point on, I cut in with black paint on the areas that were going to be metallic or black in the end. The metal areas were given a coat of GW Boltgun Metal and then washed with GW Badab Black.

The most work went into his helmet and chest eagle. I did them quick here to get the contrast. On a real model, I’d tighten up my brush work and use a layering approach so it was cleaner in the end. As far as painting goes though, it’s just three laters of dark grey, light grey and then white for effect.

The Weathering adds the life to the model
Here’s where he comes to life. Between the brown and red powders to tie him to his base, I added some metallic powder along with a pencil and scrubbed along the prominent edges of his armour to add some wear and tear. I’ve talked about pencil weathering and metallic powder weathering before.

They’re (powders and a pencil) fast and terribly effective in getting the look I enjoy on my models. As far as fixing weathering powders, that’s another whole issue if you’ll be using this approach you’ll need to work through.

So what colors did I use to paint the model?
As far as exact colors of spray paint, I went with the cheapest black I could find (Flat Black by ColorPlace) and then the blue is Oxford Blue by Krylon. I got them both from Walmart. The blue is a satin color, but that’s not an issue since the model is washed twice with Asurmen Blue and is flat by the time both washes dry.

You could use other colors and get the same effect. It wil take some testing on a model to make sure you like the colors you have and that you get the correct amount of color over the black primer. Understanding the basics behind zenithal highlighting is important too.

In the end, I think the biggest thing to take from this is that you don’t have to invest hundreds of hours into a model to get it good looking or tabletop quality.

Here’s another way to paint Ultramarines. It produces a much cleaner look in the end, but still doesn’t take a ton of time to do. The trick is keeping at it until you find the method you like that gets the results you want. The you keep at it until you refine it down to it’s basics and make it your own.

If you’ve got any questions about something in this post, shoot me a comment and I’ll be glad to answer. Make sure to share your hobby tips and thoughts in the comments below!

The Fastest Way to Paint Ultramarines: 5 Steps

Bobby G is a force to be reckoned with on the tabletop, and you want in on the action? Here’s how to paint an Ultramarines army over the weekend.

I sold my ATC Ultramarines army a couple of weeks back to Spikey Bits’ own Rob Bear, the man, the myth, the catdaddy, the legend himself.

He’s since then been pestering me to tell him how I painted them ( so he can paint some more I assume ). So rather than suffer through another round of questions, here’s the whole thing.

Editor’s Note: I resemble that remark.

I painted the store’s Dark imperium and my ATC army with this method. The store’s Primaris took 5 hours total, the 2,000 points army took me little over 15 hours. This really is about getting the best bang for your buck, or in this case, best bang for your time.

OVERNIGHT ARMY: ULTRAMARINES

Prep: Have all your models assembled fully and on placeholder bases (Placeholder bases are an important part of this method, do not use your “final” bases). The only part I would consider leaving unassembled is tank tracks and guns and cannons.

I didn’t have any tanks to paint this way, but if you do, you razorback-loving-maniac, don’t worry, I got you covered and have included how I would do vehicles.

Step 1 –

The Army Painter Ultramarine Spray Primer. Go over everything with 2 thin coats of the shaker can. If you opted for partial assembly of shooty and tracky stuff, spray them with silver.

Go over any part not covered by the primer with the matching color from The Army Painter. This is the main reason we are using that brand, the exact match of primer and paint. If there were hands on the guns, paint them at this time.

*At this point, assemble the crap out of your models. No excuses, no compromising, all the pieces on there. *

Step 2 –

At this point, we are looking to do every surface that’s not going to be blue with the right color in one smooth opaque coat of color. The color choice I included are my favorite because of the way they cover and because of how well they look paired with the quickshade later.

Grab a suitable dark silver color ( I like Citadel Leadbelcher, if you sprayed parts silver, use the same silver) and paint every gun, grenade, sword, knife and stud on all of your dudes. All the guns? All the guns! You don’t need to have red parts and black parts on there, just go ham.

Step 3 –

Gold. I like Citadel’s Balthazar Gold for this, it looks rich and dark and it covers like nobody’s business. Not having to do more than one coat is a big deal when you are trying to save time. All the trims, skull insignas, chest plates and whatever you fancy is gold.

Step 4, 5…

Red, White, Tan, Brown, Skin and Black. There’s not a lot more to be said here or different from each step, so they are combined here. I wrote which colors I used, and except for the black, just pick your favorite.

Red: Cloaks, Top of purity Seals, Sarge Helmets. Citadel Mephiston Red
White: Veteran/Capt. Helmets, Ultramarin Signs, cloak details, squad markings. Citadel Ulthuan Grey ( this color is amazing)

Tan: Purity seals, scrolls and whatnots. Citadel Zandri Dust

Brown: All the pouches, belts holsters and slings. Citadel Skrag Brown – This will look weird, but it totally works, I swear.

Skin: Faces. Citadel Bugman’s Glow – but really whatever, there’s not enough of it to make a big deal.

Black: Tubes and joints. We’re using off-black for this because straight black will look lame with the quickshade. P3 Coal Black is awesome for this, but you can also use pretty much anything like Citadel Dark Reaper, Incubi Darkness or whatever the darkest grey is called.

These are the same steps for tanks, there shouldn’t be anything much different color-wise.

Step 8:

Quickshade Strong Tone and a large Dollar-store Brush. I don’t really like to actually dip the models in that stuff, but brushing on a good coat on there with a large disposable brush works really fine.

You need to factor in a solid 10 hours for this to dry. If you are on a tight deadline, pace your self accordingly. It’s worth it to push yourself an extra hour or to to finish this step to leave it overnight to dry.

Now would be a good time to do the bases. For readability/simplicity’s sake I’ll finish the steps for the models, but if you’re following along, go straight to the bases and knock yourself out.

Step 9:

Make sure the Quickshade is dry before starting! Otherwise, it can damage your models and you don’t want that

The Army Painter Anti-Shine Varnish. Long time readers know how I love this varnish, so it’s no surprise it’s what goes on here. This step will take all the gloss out of your models and make them near indestructible should you knock them over during games.

If you are doing tanks, I would advise against quickshading them. I would either edge highlight or drybrush lightly the tanks or do an oil paint wash on them. Oil paints take pretty much the same time to dry as the quickshade, so bonus.

Step 10:

Making it pop! Thought we were done? No-sir! This is where you go the extra mile and make your models stand out and pop on the battlefield.

Citadel Moot Green and Flashgits Yellow are used to paint the lenses, lights, gems and plasma and power weapons. Follow this with a wash of Waywatcher Green and you are good to go.

If you have tanks, you can spray black and dark brown along the exhaust ports to give them a good weathered look.

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