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Like sfPanzer said, practice is key. Build a deck of tactic cards that apply to your roster (for example if you don't have a Scout specialist, leave out any Scout-related cards). Play every game on a big table so that you can lay out all your cards next to your rulebook, close to the gaming area. Have a glance at all the cards before every game and try to memorize situations where they can be useful (e.g. Death Denied comes in handy only when one of your Astartes dies). With each game you will find you remember one or two more. BTW that's coming from someone who still forgets to play the scouting phase.

VI Intercessor Squad Tullius How about some old school marines? :) Models: Sergeant Secundus along with the whole unit comes from second edition if I'm not mistaken (way before my time as a 40k hobbyist). What also sets this unit apart is that it was painted with the Ultramarine Blue contrast paint applied over the Wraithbone primer. Overall I'm not very happy with Ultramarine Blue. After applying a Fenrisian Blue drybrush over the model and glazing everything with Guilliman Blue I managed to make the armor not stand out when put aside other models from this army. Also not very impressed with GW's decision to discontinue glazes. Not much to see here, just a 2ed squatting marine... ...and here... ...also here... ...and here. The flamer comes from the Betrayal at Calth box as I didn't have any era-specific special weapons. But this one is close enough. The other half of the unit is all metal bodies, plastic arms and backpacks. It was hard to come up with varying poses. Yup. Wow, a different pose. :) This missile launcher comes from RTB01 I think. Could be wrong. Replies: Captain Idaho - Thank you. I don't do much/any weathering on my Ultramarines. Maybe because they're never dirty in box art. Joukernaut - The speed of my posting might be impressive, but that is only because I have a large backlog of pictures. :) And thanks. Ishagu - Thank you, that is the goal. Make sure every single model is unique in some way. Brother Lunkhead - The bucket is deep and full of plastic. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to pick some really good bits out of it. :) Thanks. Black Blow Fly - Thank you, I'm glad to hear that! I got loads of inspiration from B&C, so it feels really good to give back in a way.

VI Intercessor Squad Tullius Brother Joukernaut, you never fail to motivate me. I appreciate it. :D Models: These models used to be a hot mess. Basically a pile of random bits in various conditions, most of them really, really bad. I had bought them as part of a larger bits collection in an online auction some five years ago. Now the Sergeant isn't that bad. He's one of the Dark Angel bikers (from Dark Vengeance possibly?) plus some extra stuff found here and there including a combi-melta. This model is mostly default. However all of my bikers have one arm magnetized to make sure I can field them as three separate 3-man squads, all with combi/special weapons if needed. By default they're just bolt pistol arms. Same as above. By now I'm sure you've noticed that all my units feature at least one beakie marine. While this may not be the most optimal choice in 8ed, I still associate bikers with melta guns. Besides, it's magnetized anyway. Either this or the next one was the worst to assemble. One half of the bike was regular GW plastic, while the other one was a resin cast and it must have been some kind of rock-hard resin. I built more muscle removing those mould lines than I did carrying my baby daughter around. Found an old metal upper body of this melta-wielding marine, had to use it. This is the only exception to being magnetized in this unit. You may have noticed that some bolters are repurposed 2ed bolters because simply I didn't have enough bike ones. And finally the attack bike. Plastic + metal. Went with a multi-melta to match the type of weapon the rest of the squad uses. More stuff to come soon.

VI Intercessor Squad Tullius Wow, it's been a minute since I last updated this thread. Meanwhile I'm closing in on 6k points of painted Ultramarines. Models: Sergeant Tullius is the First Strike/Easy-To-Build Intercessor Sergeant plus a few extra bits. What follows is a few standard Intercessors from First Strike and Dark Imperium. Yup nothing fancy here, just troops being troops. And here as well. However... This model used to be one of the Sergeants from Dark Imperium. Works as a regular dude as well. Judging by his pose, he's slightly taken aback by the heresy he is apparently witnessing. This is where things got interesting. I decided to convert the second half of the squad to serve as specialists in Kill Team games. The one above is obviously a Comms specialist with an auspex. This one's a Sniper specialist with all the extra bolter shells and purity seals. A Demolitions specialist should carry a lot of grenades. This Veteran specialist looks more senior than the Sergeant, but hey. It could happen. And a Scout specialist. The cape is from the old SM Commander box. Posts with all the other painted units will follow shortly, if God-Emperor allows. Captain Idaho, Brother Lunkhead, Joukernaut - Thank you Brothers.

I Tactical Squad Sevastus These models from the Space Marine Heroes line (and two regular dudes) bring the infantry portion of my 2nd Company to the conclusion. Models: Brother Castor comes first, because I'm going to use the order from the Space Marine Heroes website. I tried to emulate the paint scheme and details as seen in the official source. The only difference is I went all helmets for now, possibly going to paint bare heads in the future. They're sitting safely in the bits box. Brother Gaiun has a very dynamic pose, as well as an aquila on the base. I really like him. Brother Garus is clearly the sniper and to such an extent that even his bolt pistol has a scope lol. I like the inclusion of a relic Heresy-era bolter on this model. Brother Titus is reloading his bolter, with the spent mag on the base. I didn't think of that when making a similar model for the 5th Tactical Squad. Brother Promethor rolled a 1 at least once when supercharging his plasma gun, but thankfully that didn't discourage him. The bionic arm only makes him angrier. I wasn't really sure about Brother Remus' missile coming out of the launcher trailing smoke, simply because I suck at painting smoke and fire (see my Guilliman's sword a few pages back). But ultimately I decided not to chop the model up and give it a try. Could be better, but also could be much worse, so there it is. Brother-Sergeant Sevastus' pose clearly marks him out as the leader. Onwards, to victory! Brother Vanial is the resident grenadier. The grenades on his chest make just about as much sense as in the case of one of my Reivers. Well, the Emperor protects. This marine was assembled from some old bits, including Devastator legs (you get 6 pairs in a box including the kneeling ones, so having two boxes I had two extra pairs). I used the scenic base from the snapfit Intercessor that comes with the intro brochure. And finally the mandatory beakie which all of my squads have at least one of. Again, Devastator legs and some pieces of the old Imperial Sector terrain chopped up on the base. All I can say those have a been a pure joy to paint, much more so than Inceptors. Which, if you read my note about them in the previous post, somebody recently enlightened me about them having two Heavy Assault Bolters each as opposed to one (well duh!), so basically I was using half of their firepower in that Narrative game instead of full 6 shots per dude. I stand corrected and I will definitely run them again soon. As well as Squad Sevastus just to show them off. The important thing is, a goal that I set out to fuilfill back in 2016 is closer to completion than ever, and that is completing the full 2nd Company of Ultramarines. I've got all the infantry finished as well as a Dreadnought and 5 or 6 Rhinos/Razorbacks. The only stuff left to do is an Ironclad Dreadnought and a Repulsor, and at that point I'm going to call the company 100% done. Which should happen within the next few months, although currently I'm distracted by some old LotR minis from early 2000s. As always thank you for stopping by.

Legion Sky Hunter Squadron ‍ᠩ‍ (Ang) Models: I had finished this unit back in October 2018, but only recently managed to take some pictures. In 2019 I'm going to add a Cataphractii squad as well as a Cataphractii captain to this army. @Charlo: sorry for the late reply. They're in the middle of the calf. @b1soul: thank you.

Back in 2017 I bought the Dark Imperium box and swapped the DG for my friend's marines. Other stuff like ETB Reivers, the First Strike box, and such came along. Now I have: Painted: 25 Intercessors 6 Inceptors 10 Reivers 10 Hellblasters Gravis Captain Ancient 2 Lieutenants Unpainted: 5 Intercessors Gravis Captain (which will most likely be a gift for a friend) Repulsor I'm still going through my backlog of old marines as well, never going to let them go and still clinging to the hope that they will remain in the setting in some form or another. Maybe it's denial. ;) Right now I'm having a lot of fun painting the Space Marine Heroes minis.

No, that's freehand. I do the grid first, then fill up squares with yellow, and touch up the blue ones to make sure they're not much smaller than the yellow ones.

VIII Inceptor Squad Gloccus This is another unit that I managed to finish in 2018, varnishing the final model just a few hours before midnight on 31/12. :) Models: Sergeant Gloccus is mentioned in the 8ed codex as leading the Inceptor squad assigned to the 2nd Company. The squad number is different, but at some point there has to be a separation between the codex and my dudes, unless I want to go back and re-apply decals on older squads. Anyway, the Sergeant is the stock pose from Dark Imperium with some extra bits added. This is the second default pose. And the third one. At this point I was experimenting with reposing them, as much as the Dark Imperium kit allows that. I'm moderately satisfied with the end result, as the pose is quite aggressive. It isn't very visible, but there are purity seals on the large engine cowlings of the jump pack. I'll explain why after showing the last model. Didn't do much here other than changing the angle of one of the arms and turning the head slightly more to the side. No extra stuff on the jump pack. This dude has some small aquilas on the jump pack. Now if you go back and browse through the models again, you'll see that three of them have unadorned packs (including the squad's second-in-command) and three have some extra stuff there (including the Sergeant). That's for the rare occassion where I will run them as two 3-man squads to be able to tell the difference quite easily. On a side not, I ran them in a Narrative game recently against Evil Sunz Orks and they were... underwhelming to say the least. A lot of Power Levels for mediocre firepower, no CC ability whatsoever, and some extra mobility. But I have to admit the models are pretty cool, even with the fiddly flight stands. Joukernaut - Thanks, it's good to be back! Ishagu - Thank you!

VII Reiver Squad Aulus I do apologize for the lack of updates. However I have been busy throughout 2018 painting models for AoS/Shadespire, Horus Heresy, LotR, and also 40k, which includes my Ultramarines army. But only recently I managed to take some decent pictures and over time I am going to post them here. Models: As you can see, this squad belongs to the 4th Company. Sergeant Aulus is a converted Intercessor with some modifications. Now the rest of the squad are variations (and conversions) of the 3-man Easy-To-Build set. I had three (well, two boxes and one from the First Striker starter). That explains why I had to do some weird stuff to come up with the Sergeant above. Four dudes have bare heads, while six (including the Sergeant) have helmets. If I want to run them as two 5-man squads, it's gonna be the Sergeant with bare heads as one squad, and all helmets as the second. How am I going to tell who the Sergeant is in the latter? Well, keep on reading. Interestingly, this unit came to be over a period of over 8 months. Lots of stuff came in between. Using the Citadel Paint app I gave dark skin a try. Turned out pretty well. Some of these poses are a bit awkward, but it was important for me (as always) to make sure that no two dudes are the same. Even if it means a strange turn of the torso. This Reiver is clearly descended from Guilliman, with the blonde hair and all. At this stage I was going to experiment with a pure Reiver Kill Team (had been using the Reiver Sergeant in KT games to moderate success), so things started to get funny. This Reiver, as you can probably tell, is a Demolitions Specialist. My friend's comment was "there's some space left on the forehead". Binoculars can only mean one thing: Scout Specialist. In line with the White Dwarf article suggesting how to convert your KT dudes. And finally this is the squad's Second, also Sergeant if running two squads, also Veteran Specialist in KT. Which brings the unit to the conclusion. Redrandy93 - Thanks! Joukernaut - No problem at all, I hope it was useful.

Legion Reconnaissance Squad ᠢ‍ (U) Models: This model and the next two actually used to be Alpha Legion a few years ago. The old thread is still there. Basically they're tallscale (as opposed to truescale), converted using Veteran Sergeant's recipe. You just add a piece of plasticard (or in my case an old bank card) to lengthen the legs (two pieces per leg) and another piece in the torso. That way the proportions become much more realistic and the model is almost as tall as a Primaris. These dudes are all Mark VI, using 40k bolters. I justify that by saying that they are from the siege of Terra period. Removing the aquila from the bolter does make it work though, doesn't it? The sergeant has a topknot of course. Next up: a Sky Hunter Jetbike squad in late September/early October. Until then I'm focusing on AoS/Shadespire models and probably some Kill Teams for the new skirmish game. I've also managed to finish 6 buildings from the old Cities of Death line (Imperial Sector and an extra Basilica Administratum). I'm sad to see those become OOP, but also happy about the new ones, they look really well. Replies: Charlo - Thanks! I'm always kinda afraid of overdoing the sponge weathering, but so far I guess I've managed not to apply too much. Son of Carnelian - Thank you! I don't mix them nearly as much as I could, mainly due to the fact that in some cases armor mark is the thing that differentiates my units; for example I have a Mk4 tactical squad and another one that is purely Mk3. However in the case of veterans it is very appropriate to mix and match.

Thank you b1soul and Brother Lunkhead. Legion Veteran Tactical Squad ‍ᠣ (O) Models: I went for a different helmet this time, giving him a Roman-style crested one to indicate his status as a veteran and most likely a Terran. Other than that there's Sternguard legs (the same as used on my Praetor, just painted differently), the FW WS chest, the combi-flamer from BaC, and the curved blade from Chaos Berzerkers, in this case sculpted to be just the blade as opposed to a scabbarded one. Just a BaC marine plus the scabbard. I'm not a huge fan of the Rogue Trader-style missile launcher, but I really needed a heavy weapon dude. Again just regular BaC bits here. When running out of bits, interesting combinations are created. Here's a mostly Mk4 dude with a Mk3 helmet and Mk2 legs. Technically that's Mk5, right? ;) And the last one is a purely FW Mk4 marine. When compared to a BaC one, you can tell their proportions are really different. Thanks to the uniform paintjob he doesn't look out of place though.

Legion Rhino ᠢ (I) Not much of an update, the 2nd tactical squad got their dedicated transport. Replies: Son of Carnelian - Thank you! Super robot gangster #1 - I don't mind at all, the recipe is almost the same as the one suggested by GW in all their painting guides in recent years. The only difference is, I use Nuln Oil instead of Agrax Earthshade. 1. Prime with Corax White spray (this is a life saver) 2. Wash recesses with Nuln Oil 3. Clean up any imperfections with Ulthuan Grey (matches the undercoat almost perfectly) 4. Edge highlight with White Scar 5. (optional) Apply Rhinox Hide weathering with a small sponge Lord Commander Eidolon - Yeah I'm still very confused with FW's policy. Not sure what they're trying achieve, not believing their copy-paste cover stories for a second. Oh well, not much that I can do other than sit and wait. All's good as long as fun is being had from painting and playing the game, right? ;)

Congrats mate!

I'm slowly leaning towards this approach. Power glaives are pretty similar to power axes (minus the unwieldy part) anyway. And like you said, come Malevolence they might get this option. It is the middle part of a Chaos possessed backpack (the one with huge wings) and dragon heads from the Chaos Rhino sprue. And thank you. The white is a bit painstaking I'll admit but it's nowhere near as bad as yellow, at least for me. I painted the Shadespire Ork warband a few months ago and it was a really long process. Thank you! An army shot is coming. I'm itching to use the Moon Base Klaisus board and some GW buildings I painted earlier this year as the background. Thing is, to complete this army (for the time being) I'm missing a third scimitar jetbike. And I made a vow not to buy any new models in 2018 (actually my last purchase was on December 6th 2017). However that vow does not include being given models as gifts and my birthday is in September. My wife is already aware and I'm probably getting that jetbike. That said, I want the army shot to include the jetbike squad so I'll probably do it in early October.