We march for Macragge!
Ultramarine chapter battlecry
Today we’re looking at Brother Orpheus, my #MarchForMacragge project for this year. If you’re on the ‘hobby’ parts of social media then you may have seen the #MarchForMacragge hashtag being used a lot in the last few weeks. The premise is simple – paint something Ultramarine-related at some point during March and then share the results.
Modelling
I’ll always have a soft spot for the Ultramarines, as I learnt to play 40K back in the day borrowing a friend’s Ultramarine army. For previous years #MarchForMacragge I’ve completed the Ultramarine ‘Imperial Space Marine’, Ultramarines Primaris Lieutenant, and Ultramarine Veteran Sergeant. Two of these are based on classic artwork, so I also looked to artwork for inspiration this time around.
I soon settled on the above image as the basis for this project. It’s such a cool vista with lots of exciting things happening and interesting details. This artwork appeared as a full page spread in one of the second edition 40K rulebooks, and I’ve always found it a source of inspiration (it has previously inspired the heraldry on Brother Dunn) . Rather than try to recreate Brother Orpheus exactly, I decided to bring him up-to-date with a Primaris version.
Brother Orpheus was built from spares found in my ‘bits box’, mostly left-over components from one of the 40K partworks magazines. I believe the legs and torso are originally from a Hellblaster marine.
To create the helmet eye lenses and muzzle flare, I used the techniques exactly as described in my LED Muzzle Flare tutorial.
Painting
I’ve shared my recipes for some of the key colours on this miniature below. As this is a display piece rather than a gaming piece I added a few more stages to the armour recipe. All paints listed are Citadel unless stated otherwise. The miniature was spray undercoated Chaos Black.
- Ultramarine Armour
- Macragge Blue basecoat (two thin coats)
- 50:50 Kantor Blue:Abaddon Black shade
- Altdorf Blue highlight
- Calgar Blue fine highlight
- Fenrisian Grey fine highlight on top edges and corners
- Blue Horror dot highlight
- White Armour
- Ulthuan Grey basecoat (two thin coats)
- Apothecary White Contrast shade
- Ulthuan Grey layer (one thin coat)
- Corax White highlight
- Skull White fine highlight
For the animal pelt on the pauldron, I used the same technique as used on Brother Nikko of the Flesh Eaters.
- Animal Pelt
- Zandri Dust base coat
- Seraphim Sepia shade
- Karak Stone highlight
- Screaming skull fine highlight
- Tuskgor Fur small dots
- 50:50 Abaddon Black:Rhinox Hide irregular circles around the dots
When painting freehand I use the ‘iterative’ method. I start by ‘sketching’ in the shape in a dull colour, and then slowly build up in layers to the brighter final colours, correcting mistakes as I go. If you’d like to read more about this technique, and how it can be applied to freehand checker patterns, then check out this post.
That’s all for today, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my #MarchForMacragge 2024 project. I’ll be back again soon with more on my regular projects. Thanks very much for reading, and please remember you can also find me sharing my work on Instagram, Threads, Twitter/X, Bluesky and Mastodon.