Ultramarines: Movie Review.

Well, I've posted enough clips in anticipation of this film, I guess I ought to do a review of the final product too.

First a little disclaimer: I'm a professional. I work in animation, so I am both sympathetic to the (financial) obstacles this production faced, and unsympathetic to the poor decision-making.

REVIEW: The movie is painfully dull.

VOICES: I prefer professional voice actors in animation over live-action screen actors coming in to do a voice gig, but I admit that I was excited by the casting of John Hurt & Terence Stamp. Unfortunately, their performances were bland and 1-note. Sadly, their bland performances matched the rest of the film.

MUSIC/SCORE: Music can be such a powerful tool to enhance events on the screen, create tension or build momentum... but not here. This film was mostly without a score, and when it does pop-up, it's generic and forgettable.

WRITING: I've read other reviews of the film, and fans all expected Dan Abnett to write something sooo amazing that it wouldn't matter what the film looked like; it doesn't work that way. Mr. Abnett wrote a simple, but clever screenplay with a small number of characters and locations, he did his job. My only criticism of the writing was the lame attempts at humour, which just fall flat. In all honesty, these moments felt tacked-on, and were probably re-writes added last-minute at the urging of producers, and probably not Mr. Abnett's fault.

DIRECTING: The reason the film is so incredibly dull is director Martyn Pick. It feels like half this movie is just padding; long walking sequences and lots of smoke. The director's job is to get the best film out of the components he has to work with... clearly Martyn Pick failed to do this.

The reason I was willing to look past the low-budgetness of this movie, was because I was looking forward to seeing the 40K universe come alive! At no point did this film come close to making me suspend my disbelief, and I wanted to! Martyn Pick failed to evoke any of the feelings the GW artwork stirs in fans. Where were the legions of marines, shoulder to shoulder, holding the line, last defense against the Warp and Xenos encroaching from all sides?

This movie should have felt dense with detail and character, dripping with ambiance... instead it felt like watching a couple of guys playing a game of half-court basketball in a big empty gym.

Ultra Marines clip: Chaplain Carnak

Admittedly, the animation looks kinda dodgy, but the voices are great. I'm looking forward to seeing a living, moving 40K film, should be fun.

Rememberance Day

On 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month... we remember.


"In Flanders Fields"
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army








R.I.P.

LXIII: My 1st Nurgling (completed)

"Nurglings are tiny, mischievous daemons, resembling a chubby miniaturized version of a Great Unclean One. They normally appear in large numbers."

7.) I added the horn, filled-out the back side a little more and (not pictured) sculpted a little bone for him to hold

8.) I neglected to take a picture, but there was a step before this where I added a nub of an arm, prior to adding the hand/ bone.

9.) Bulked-up his left shoulder and elbow, also his right haunch.

And now he's pretty much done. There are 4 nurglings to a 40mm base... I may push myself and try and get 3 more done this month.

(sorry for the bad pictures, the lighting here is terrible)

LXII: My 1st Nurgling (continued)

4.) Here you can see I cut out the sides of his mouth to make him more smiley (why so serious?)

5.) Starting to plump-up his cheeks/ chins

6.) You can't see from this angle, but I've given him a little bum, and I've continued plumping him up

I thought this would go faster, but it's actually pretty tricky sculpting at this size!
Legs are coming up next. Arms are going to be a challenge.

LXI: November Nurgling Challenge begins!

My 1st Nurgling!

1.) Here I go. I'm not a green stuff master, so I'm taking it easy my first time out. I'm using scrap GW plastic bitz from my bitz box to form a base.
(bitz used: 1 SM shoulder, 1 bloodletter face--horns removed)

2.) Glue them together

3.) Bulk-up with a little green stuff. This is just to get it to sit-up properly, and to start to get our shape.
(no details yet)

that's it for part 1! Up next: time to add some details and finish him off!

LX: November Nurgling Challenge

I'm starting a November Nurgling Sculpting Challenge over at PapaNurgle

>>So, here's the idea: Everybody sculpts a little nurgling from green stuff, AND makes a mini-tutorial for how they did it. Simple! Thus we create this big pool of sculpting tips/knowledge for all of us to draw upon, and a place to give feedback/encouragement to each other, and infect each other with new ideas and techniques.

>>This is where the "challenge" phase begins; we each then sculpt a second nurgling before the end of the month, hopefully better than the 1st "testling".

The goal is to increase the number of nurglings out there (for Papa), and more importantly, improve our confidence/ skills with GS in the process.

Doesn't that sound fun? You can play along, if you like :)

Crappy Mini, or Not?

Have you seen this website? Crappy Mini, or Not takes old, neglected minis, with horrendous paint-jobs, strips them & gives them a new lease on life. I love this idea of restoring old minis with new, awesome paint-jobs! Recycling, baby!
Check-out more great examples here

LIX: Building RT Treads

I've decided to build my own Land Raider treads from scratch, rather than order the spiffy ForgeWorld Chaos Land Raider tracks. I think I'm going to go with RT style tracks, but I'm stuck on a couple measurements; I'm hoping my fellow bloggers out there can maybe help me out. If you've ever made some of these style tracks, or even if you just know the measurements, any and all tips/ advice would be appreciated.

*** EDIT ***




(thanks Mabs!)

NEW Ultramarines Trailer

This trailer is everywhere on-line, but I first saw it this morning @ the Buddy Times

LVIII: Giant Plaguespawn of Nurgle

"Many horrors too foul to name spill from the Daemon worlds of the Eye of Terror. They are the abominations of Chaos, creatures taken by the dark gods and corrupted for the god's entertainment and possessed by the spirits of ravenous daemons."


Progress Report:
You might remember, way back at the end of March/ beginning of April I picked-up a toy to proxy as a ForgeWorld GIANT SPINED CHAOS BEAST (as featured in Imperial Armour 7: the Siege of Vraks part 3) for apocalypse games. I started the project, and then almost immediately got distracted and shelved him.


The other day I saw some blurry pics from Games Day UK 2010, featuring Plague Toads, and I got all fired-up for Nurgle again. Out came the GS, and the 'Beast is back on the workbench. In the book (IA 7), they have 2 "named" monstrous creatures; Gorefeaster (Khorne), and Jibberjaw (Nurgle). Originally I was just planning to make a proxy for a generic Giant Spined Chaos Beast, and then give it the mark of Nurgle... but now that I'm more familiar with the text, I'm just going to proxy him as Jibberjaw (it's cheaper points-wise, and more "fluffy"). I'm thinking of naming my version "Slobberjaw".

Still lots to do, but this is a fun project.

LVII: Resin Prince

Over on PapaNurgle they were talking about how trench style bases are a natural fit for Death Guard, and I gotta agree. I'm going for the Siege of Vraks theme, so I had to recommended Secret Weapon's Trench Works resin bases.

Snapping this WIP shot of my DP reminded me of how long it has been since I touched my plague marines. I need to get to work on that.

Shame on Ron

"If this scene sucks; it's because YOU suck"

This is a poster by Xamie Hernandez, and it was pertaining to the music scene in SoCal, but the sentiment is just as true for your local gaming scene. Ron posted this post about how he's not going to get into Fantasy because nobody in his area paints their armies.



If Ron read the fluff for the armies, and looked at the models & said to himself "that's not for me", well then fine; I have no problem with that. To not start an army that you want to build however, and then blame it on the local scene .... is weak. I'm not trying to pick on Ron here (just the opposite), the man is in a very visible position in this hobby, and he has done a lot to stimulate creativity in this scene through fantastic painting and modeling tutorials and by providing access to a vast network of blogs for literally hundreds of hobbyists; so this post just seemed unnecessarily negative and uncharacteristically disparaging. Ron says he is jealous of the war-gaming scene here in Vancouver, but I say Ron can make his own scene as good as he wants for himself.

The job isn't painting models; it's getting excited about painting your models.

Ron frequently posts about his "Old-Timers league" and how they just mostly get together and chat about the hobby more than play games. I suggest he maybe throw the idea of an Warband Expansion rules (as suggested by John of Santa Cruz Warhammer in the comments) out there to those guys (to start), maybe get the local shop involved. A similar thought is maybe a "Tale of 4 Gamers" type project.

How we do it here is: set the bar at a 3 colour, table-top quality minimum pretty much across the board. Inevitably, people start to see more fully painted/detailed armies & the standard naturally raises itself.

All I'm saying is, everybody has the power to improve their gaming scene, and with all the thousands of eyeballs out there reading his blog, Ron has more influence on that than maybe he realizes. He says "I would love to see a fully painted Fantasy army outside of pictures on the internet or at Games Day", but I would argue the The Storm Wardens project should have taught us all that pictures on the internet CAN lead to painted armies in real life.

I'm not trying to bully anybody into starting a new army, my intention is to hopefully just empower people who might be on the fence. You aren't alone, there IS hope.

LVI: Someday my Prince will come (continued)

A few of you may remember this post from back in Febuary... progress has been glacial (at best). Now that his wings are finally assembled, my Prince is nearly ready to lead my army to the tabletop.

I apologize for the lack of posts; I've been distracted by Fantasy lately. I'm, at long last, on the cusp of finishing my 1500 point 40K army... and what do I do? I start a Lizardmen army. I'm sure some of you can relate. I've never played Warhammer Fantasy before, but I'm pretty excited about 8th edition... I've even started a new blog about it: Son of Slann (stop on by & say hello).

LV: Muddy Basses

I just got my Instant Scenery Kit: Mud & Water from Secret Weapon in the mail, and the picture above is my first attempt (after drying overnight). I have to say... it looks better on camera than in real life right now. I will eventually base my whole army with this stuff (I'm going for a Siege of Vraks theme) but I'm gonna hafta do a couple more tests to get the hang of mixing all the ingredients (to get the results/ colours I want). It's probably easier if you mix more material at once, but I was just doing a small test batch and getting the texture to be "like cake frosting" was a bit of a struggle the 1st time out.

They have a great two part tutorial up on their blog. I only did the 1st part on this base.

It'll get easier with practice, I'm sure; It's a great kit. Two quick (obvious) things I would advise though: use a stick to mix, and whatever brush you use to apply this stuff... will not survive, so use a brush you don't mind parting with.

LIV: Champion Bolter

I took some pictures of this bolter conversion & put together super-quick & easy mini tutorial.

Step 1.) Gather the bits


Step 2.) Chop the bits


Step 3.) Clean the bits


Step 4.) Glue the bits


And now we have ourselves a bolter fit for a champion of chaos! Here is the finished arm in it's new home, getting ready to lead a squad of Chosen into battle.

Green vs Plastic

As I mentioned in a couple of earlier posts, I had GREAT success with Simple Green to strip/clean metal models. Emboldened by this easy victory, I decided to put it to the test on plastic.

I had heard some negative reviews on-line, but I wasn't too keen on the harsh chemical alternatives. My conclusion is that Simple Green works just fine on plastics, IF YOU HAVE A GOOD STIFF BRUSH. I tried scrubbing with a ratty old toothbrush, and it didn't work very well. I switched to scrubbing with a new toothbrush & it made my life soooo much easier; but still I wanted for something with stiffer bristles. I've heard that some people use brushes with metal bristles, but having never tried them myself, I'm a little nervous they may be too harsh and damage my minis. Has anybody tried this with a metal brush? Does anybody know of some sort of middle-ground? What kinda brush would Goldilocks use?

The results you see above are going to work well enough for Nurgle, but I have a friend with some Tau he'd like to repaint, so I still want to improve my plastic mini stripping technique.

Spearhead: Super Heavy

I like the idea of bringing Apoc sized Super Heavies into the regular 40K game. With Nurgle (as far as I know) the options are: Plaguereaper, Contagion & the Plague Tower.



As much as I fancy making a big ol' tanky Plague Tower (and I will one day, I've done sketches)... I'm intrigued by the possibilities of scratch-building a proper 40K looking Contagion (maybe using the Skaven Screaming Bell/ Bretonnian Field Trebuchet kits as a guides for scale).

But... what are the rules for this thing?

LIII: Recommissioned Chaos Warrior

Here's a WIP shot of one of my refurbished OOP metal chaos guys. I think he's going to look quite dashing in his new role as a flamer Plague Marine.

I wasn't looking for this figure specifically, he just came to me via a bits swap, but now that he's mine... he's gonna have to earn his keep! I like the idea of an army growing organically though, especially with Nurgle; the last thing I want is an standard-issue looking army...these are renegades!

Going Green: Results

Simple Green worked great on these old metal models! I had read on-line that it had a really strong smell, but I didn't mind it, (just smelled like Jaggermeister to me). I prefer it by far to some other harsh chemical scent. I kept it on the balcony overnight, so smell wouldn't have been an issue regardless. Brought them in this morning & with just the slightest scrubbing from a ratty ol' toothbrush... the paint just peeled-off like fried chicken skin.

Later this morning I stumbled across this post over on Dark Future Games and in the comments section there's an interesting variety of opinions about weather or not this stuff works on plastic figures. I had a 2nd hand plastic biker laying around, so I'm soaking him in the same jar of Simple Green. I'll leave him in there for two days & see how it comes out.

Going Green

I got some old chaos figures in a bits swap ages ago, figuring "I can always strip 'em later". Well now it's later & this will be my first time trying something like this, but everybody says Simple Green is the best stuff for the job.



I dropped the figures into an old jar, and poured in the Simple Green (undiluted). Now I wait patiently, with my old tooth brush while the 'green does it's magic. I'll check back in on them in the morning & I'll post some pictures after they've had a good scrub. Wish me luck!

LII: If I had a Rocket Launcher...

I'm just 1 rocket launcher shy of completing my Havoc Squad (might have to try the Barter Bucket). I really like how these guys came out, for the most part. The Rocket Launcher guys looked a little crowded with chaos backpacks, so used loyalist equivalents & tarted them up a little with some chaos iconography. The rest of my army isn't really this flashy, but I figured since these guys aren't technically Plague Marines, fluff-wise it makes sense that they be slightly more flamboyant than the rest of my 'rotters.

ULTRAMARINES: The Movie

The director is relative unknown Martyn Pick, this is his first feature length directorial effort.

The writer for Ultramarines has been announced as none other than Dan Abnett, the best-selling author who has written dozens of Warhammer 40,000 novels and graphic novels which have sold over a million copies worldwide. He was an obvious choice due to his background with Games Workshop, his extensive knowledge of Warhammer 40K, and his writing ability.











New teaser is up: ULTRAMARINES The Movie.com
I can't wait for this to come out!

Spearhead!

I got the new Spearhead issue of White Dwarf yesterday. First time I've bought this magazine since I was a little kid. These rules look fun! Anybody else pick this up? Got any favorite formations?

New Header

Today we say "hello!" to a new, more Nurgley header, and "goodbye" to the old Enter the Dragon style one.

LI: Icon of Nurgle

left arm is from the Bloodletters box
legs are from the Possessed CSM box
backpack is from the Berserkers box
everything else is from the Chaos Space Marines box

I modified the horn into an antler on the nurgle CSM head, this is something I'm doing across my whole army. Bull horns are too Khorne, multiple horns are Tzeentch, and those ribbed looking gazelle horns are Slaanesh; antlers are for Nurgle.

This is the first icon bearer in my army, he'll be attached to my new Havoc squad. I've got a champion in a WIP biker squad with another icon, but I think I'll represent it differently for him (something with less drag).

L: Cry Havoc

I have been swayed by a discussion over on Papa Nurgle about Havocs ~vs~ Preds or Vindies. I got excited & put this guy together... I'm thinking maybe a squad of 7, maybe 3 or 4 launchers.


Also, this blog turns 1 year old this month, marking the anniversary of me getting into this plastic crack hobby. I think I've made some progress, but I need something to show for it, not just WIP pics. So by the end of the month I'll have my first 7 man Plague Marine squad PAINTED, I swear it.

Pay It Forward Winner Anounced!

Aaaaaaaannnnddd the winner is: Nobody.
Nobody entered. I couldn't GIVE figures away. Is it my haircut? I'm probably just doing it wrong, I'll have a better contest next time.

Pay it Forward Blog Giveaway

Contest opens today, Closes May 1st.

PRIZE: Choice of 2

RED PRIZE
1 pot (un-used/new) of Red Gore Citadel Colour paint, bits for 5 Khorne Berzerkers (on sprue) + Khorne Icon.

or

GREEN PRIZE
1 pot (un-used/new) of Dark Angels Green Citadel Colour paint, bits for 5 Dark Angels Veterans (on sprue) + DA Icon.

What you have to do to win:

1. Post a comment with the name of your blog
2. Have a "pay it forward" giveaway of your own.
3. Follow my Blog
4. Leave a contact email, with your prize choice so I can alert the winner.

Simple as that.

Good luck!!

XLIX: Painting at Last

Here's a WIP pic of my first Lords of Decay Plague Marine Squad. 7 PMs, 2 Plasma guns + a Rhino Tank = 226 points.


I still need to add a couple backpacks, and take care of a couple mold lines (that I just noticed); but they're getting there. C+C welcome.

XLVIII: How to Nurglise your Dragon

In my last post, Part 47: GIANT SPINED CHAOS BEAST, I stated my intentions. Today I'm sharing a little progress. I'm a total newb when it comes to GS, so I'm taking my time with this. I just do a little bit of work on him here and there, just before bed. It's a really fun project for me, though.

I haven't actually laid eyes on the ForgeWorld version of this creature, but if anyone reading has seen it can you tell me if I'm in the right ballpark for scale? Thanks!

XVII: GIANT SPINED CHAOS BEAST

The Purchase:


The Inspiration:


This is my latest kit-bash. 5 bucks vs. $74 (+shipping & handling). I'll get him all Nurgled-up & painted eventually, should be fun. I actually went to 2 shops looking for a Chaos Defiler today, but both places were sold out.

XLVI: Free Basing

I've fallen victim to having too many projects on the go at once. In an effort to tie up some loose ends (and to get me painting) I'm going back to bases.



On the Left, we have my first technique, using the Gale Force 9 materials. this is how it was painted:
1. Primed Black
2. Scorched Brown (2 coats)
3. Heavy dry-brush of 50/50 Snakebite Leather/ Graveyard Earth
4. Light Dry-brush of Graveyard Earth
5. Devlin Mud wash

the rock was painted with Adeptus Battlegrey, drybrushed with Fortress Grey, and then a Gryphone Sepia wash.

Dead grass was added last using a small blob of white glue.



On the Right I used the Winter Basing Kit very generously donated by Santa Cruz Warhammer using their Broken Ground technique.





It think the SC Warhammer technique was far superior, for sure, but I'm going to keep playing with these materials & see what else I can come up with that'll be more in-line with the "Siege of Vraks" theme I want to do. Any and all comments & critiques welcome.

A special thank you, again to the guys at SC Warhammer; you guys Rule!

XLV: Someday my Prince will come

This is my new (tacked-together) UltraForge model which'll soon count as my army's HQ choice (Daemon Prince with wings). A little nervous, as this will be my first time working with resin, and the wings I got for him are on the big side (but made of light plastic). I'm excited to finally own this part of my list, but conversions on him will have to wait until I get a few other half-finished projects out of the way.

2 other bits of hobby related news; I've added a Barter Bucket link to this blog (over there, on the left), and I got some great new Basing Materials from Santa Cruz Warhammer the other day (pictures & review to follow soon).

XLIV: Project Chaos Dreadclaw

"Drop Pod like transports used by the Space Marine Legions of old, and still used by the Traitor Marine Legions. Its design has been heavily corrupted from thousands of years exposed to Chaos and they are now used for a variety of roles from boarding ships, to planetary assault."

Here's a WIP shot, with a couple of my Legion of (the Lost and) the Damned figures for scale. Still waiting on bits in the mail, but I did find a hobby shop that sells plastic card/ tubing/ stripping... so I can do some detailing on this bad-boy in the meantime. This'll be my first scratch-build, and by far my largest project to date wish me luck!

XLIII: Blight Grenadier

Remember those legs I repositioned at the end of November? They were in kinda a weird pose, and it took me a second to think of something that would work for the torso... but finally he is mostly done (just a little more battle damage & some more sand on the base). Presenting my first Blight Grenadier!



I learned alot putting this guy together, and I also added another tool to my belt: sandpaper!