Ultramarines First Squad WIP

I received a lot of good advice on my test model which really helped me tweak my painting into something I liked. It was amazing how big a difference changing the pouches to brown, adding deeper reds, and very targeted purple washes helped. I am really grateful for the advice provided by the community.

I'd love to keep the base dusty, but I think a mars like base would add a lot of interest to the models. I painted up an Ultramarine years ago that I put on a mars-esque base, and while the mini was over-weathered, the red-blue contrast was great.  For now the models will remain un-based. I just don't know what to do with the LR Promethes, 2 predators, 5 rhinos, 1 razorback, and 1 vindicator I've already painted. (the aircraft are dust free)

Just to make things exciting, rather than use the recipe from my test mini, I changed it up incorporating some of the new GW paints. I also decided to paint up an entire squad. I usually batch paint, so any method needs to be easy from  that perspective. So with a squad made up of previously painted rag-tag models, I changed my blue formula to:

• Black primer
• Kantor Blue (not maccrage blue as one might think!)
• Ultramarines Blue (old range--just love the color)
• Calgar Blue 

I chose Kantor blue as the base because it was darker and would make more interesting shadows. Basically it added a little bit of purple tint the model.

So a squad with a meltagun and a multi-melts. I had a lot of meltaguns so I added one to the unit. The multi-melta was added because I had a partially painted one from my BA force. I've never used one as part of a tac squad, but I think it could be kind of fun.  I purchased two plasma cannons and three heavy bolters from one of those bits sites, so I'll eventually have a few options.