Quick Ultramarines and strong OSL

Hi fellow Wizards and Necromancers 🧙‍♂️

Hope everyone is enjoying their week so far. If not - I hope, that this will make it better 😊 Today I have a very fun tutorial for you. We will have a look at painting Ultramarines quickly and applying OSL (this will also be super easy to do). This tutorial is very similar to the Salamanders guide, with the main difference being the paints used.

Let’s dive into it:

1. Basecoat with a 2:1 mix of Macragge Blue and Abaddon Black. Now, as always, add this in 2-3 thin coats, making sure that the surface has a even finish and there is no plastic showing though.

2. Next, we will add a coat of Macragge Blue. We want to add it from two sides, to have two highlights on each side of every detail. This will create a nice contrast with the darker tone in the middle. I’ve used an airbrush to do it and honestly, everything that you can do with an airbrush can be done with a traditional brush. Yes, it will take more time, but it can be done. I use a $30 airbrush from Amazon, so it’s not a big investment that you have to do, if you don’t own an airbrush. I rarely use the airbrush but sometimes it’s really helpful.

3. Follow the last highlight with a coat of Macragge Blue mixed 1:2 with Fenrisian Grey. These colors probably look familiar, as we are using the classic GW paints that Eavy Metal uses for their boxarts.

4. Next up, outline all of the details and crevasses in the armor with Abaddon Black. It’s crucial to remove the excess of the paint from your brush before you do it so it does not create a spillage and ruin the armor. For this step, I recommend using a 1:1 ratio between the paint and water.

5. Next up, we will edge highlight all of the armor panels with a 3:1 : mix of Fenrisian Grey and a Macragge Blue. You can just use Fenrisian Grey, without mixing in the Macragge Blue, but in my opinion, that would be too much of a jump between the color of the armor and the edges.

6. Now onto the black parts - edge highlight them with Thunderhawk Blue.

7. Finish the black parts by adding an edge highlight of Fenrisian Grey but only on the top edges of the surfaces, as they would be the closest point from the source of light that presumably is coming from the top.

8. Now onto the OSL. This will be super easy to do! Airbrush Evil Sunz Scarlet from the bottom. Yes, just tilt your model backwards and spray the paint as if there is a red glow on the floor (some heretic being burned, maybe? 😂). Take your time with this, don’t rush it! Less is more and you can always add more paint if you wish. The OSL results you can achieve using an airbrush when you know how to apply the glow are truly remarkable.

9. And, finally, the last step will be adding Troll Slayer Orange or Orange Pigment from Hera Models (also through an airbrush, just mixed with the thinner). It has to cover slightly less area than the last coat of paint. Also, remember, that the OSL should be brighter towards the source of light. In this case, the red/orange glow is coming from the source of light on the base, so the OSL should be brighter towards the bottom of the model.

And on white background:

And this is all! I know that this tutorial relied heavily on an airbrush, so I will do more tutorials about traditional brush OSL in the future 😊Stay tuned!

I really hope you like it. Please share the results with me if you try it out. You can do it by tagging me on social media or by using the #MamikonsWizards hashtag. Alternatively, you can join the Necromancer tier here and then become a member of my Discord Server, where Patrons share their work and I provide feedback.

Thank you so much for motivating me to do this and supporting me. Massive thank you to every single one of you. This REALLY means the world to me.

Keep casting those spells!

Mamikon