How To Paint Ultramarines

This is my step by step painting guide for how I paint my Ultramarines.

The Guide for the Sector Imperials bases, can be found Here.








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The first steps is to give the tactical marine two thin coats of Magragge Blue, I normally thin my paints down with water, about 2 parts water to one part paint. It normally requires two goats for a smooth coverage, but this will leave no brush strokes, and keep the details clear.

Once the base layer of blue has completely dried, a thin coat of Drakenhoff nightshade was applied across all of the blue armour plates, this will run into the recesses and the details, helping to more visible.


It is very important that you allow the shade to fully dry, before you move on to the next layers, otherwise the paints can mix and leave details not showing clearly.










After this, I have given very section of the armour a fresh layer of Macragge Blue, trying to leave the deepest corners and details appearing darker then the main armour colour. this will help to define the details and contrast against the highlights in the next stages.

The next stage is to add in the main highlights across the blue armour sections, for this I have used Calgar blue, and a fine tipped brush. I have added a thin line of paint across every raised edge and sharp detail, in this step thinning the paint with water will help to keep the paint flowing smoothly from the brush.

I have added a second highlight to the very edges and the sharpest corners of the armour using Etherium Blue, and a fine detail brush.

This is an optional step that I would defiantly recommend adding to characters and larger models, such as tanks. Once this highlight has been finished that is the armour for the Ultramarine completed.

The next stage is to start working of the weapon and metallic areas, the first areas I started working on was the Blowgun, the joints and the vents in the backpack.
Using thinned down leadbealcher, each area was filled in, some areas like the gun needed to coats to leave a smooth finish.














To add the detailing to the metal areas I used another shade, Nuln Oil, following the same method as the armour, s thin coat was applied to all of the ares that needed detailing.

Once the shade had dried, I highlighted the edges and some of the flatter areas of the metal with Ironbreaker. The final result should be the look of well oiled and used steel.

For the first steps of the golden details, all the areas that would look best picked out (the trim on the shoulder pads and the rivets), were painted with a thinned down coat of Balthazar Gold.

To add the shadow, but keep most of the bright colour, a thin shade of Reikland Fleshshade was applier over all of the golden detailing.

The gold was the finished with a thin edge highlight of Ghennas Gold.
After this step I have started to add the first highlights to the bolt gun's casing, this was done with Eshin Grey.

I have also giving the uncasing a second highlight on  the corners with Dawnstone.

the final step for the Tactical marine is to paint the lenses in his helmet.
First fill them in with Mepheston Red, once this has dried the front half of the lens is highlighted with Wild Rider Red, and then lastly a very small dot of White Scar, is added to the furthest corner. This will give the look of light slightly reflecting from the glass.

The last details that I have added to my marine, is to pain on some free hand details, such as company and chapter markings.
for this I have thinned down White Scar, with lots of water, with a fine detail brush, marked where I want all of the details to be, then once the first layers has completely dried, added a second layer to fill in the details.
With the Ultra Marine symbol, a third layer was needed to keep the bright colour smooth.