When I started a Heresy Era Ultramarines army, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. What started as a way to help justify buying the Forge World tanks for my 40k Ultramarines became an even greater project, an army that I have been working on for years.
Welcome to Project Ultramar, a multi-phase plan to create an army with many ways to play.
About Time for A Restart
Way back, in what feels like the age of myth, I started Project Ultramar, setting out to build up a complete Heresy army of Ultramarines with multiple ways to play fully fleshed out. Phase one was successfully finished with a 1k Zone Moratalis force and capped off with painting Roboute Guilliman. I already had to adjust my plans for Phase Two and crafted a Land Raider Rush army, composed of terminators and breachers riding in Land Raiders and a spartan. This became my Beachhead army, designed to breach and hold any objective and was crafted for an event. Then, I unceremoniously abandoned working on the Ultramarines.
The painted collection of Ultramarines was used plenty. I played at narrative events, against friends and versus my wife and her dastardly Word Bearers recreating some of that nasty Calth business. The Land Raider Rush turned out to be good fun, if not a little limited on model count. But, I’ll tell you what, looking at a Spartan and two or three Proteus Land Raiders can be a bit intimidating. Sure, any army has a way to pop a raider, maybe even two, but four heavily armored vehicles transporting terminators, and elite marines with shields and melee weapons is no easy army to counter: every marine that jumps out of one of those tanks to get into a scuffle has an invuln to crack. And thanks to a command squad and the Ultramarine unique units having both shields and scoring, they can take objectives with ease.
As far as painting goes, though, I just kinda moved on. There isn’t enough space here to go over the models I have painted since then. Needless to say several armies for several games have been added to the collection. With the change in my headspace and my hobby intention, I decided it was time to find my way back to Project Ultramar and all those royal blue marines.
I found myself in a different place, both mentally and in spacetime, since I worked on any Ultramarine models for Heresy. A lot has changed. I am not even writing this article on the same website. Many books and digital additions have been added to Horus Heresy 2nd edition since then. Project Ultramar had to change. Too bad I didn’t know what the fuck to do…
Onward, to the Pile of Shame Awesome
What the shit was I going to do next with my boys in blue? Taking stock of what I had painted, it was mostly heavy infantry and armored transports. I had both standard and Praetorian breachers painted, as well as the super elite Suzerains, all defended by shields. I had cataphractii terminators painted up as a command squad, a full ten-man squad and some legion specific missile-launcher terminators. Plus, a small pile of tactical marines, various small support squads and a random bunch of characters, mostly in artificer armor.
To the project bins I went. I had models built and primed waiting around. I dug through the shame in my closet and that Pile of Awesome revealed many options, in both plastic and resin. What I needed was an idea for an army, preferably based around a Rite of War, that I could fashion with models I had painted already, then flesh out and finish it, thereby setting up Phase Three of Project Ultramar.
When I set out to build my Heresy Ultramarines army, the goal was to be able to play with many Rites of War. I wanted to be able to play drastically different lists with the collection: I had a pile of fun ideas. Many of those plans had only been realized by collecting one or two units to fit those options. This resulted in me having, well, many undercooked ideas. That didn’t even take into account that I had models built and primed for other legions that could easily visit the airbrush booth to become blue instead of whatever color they were currently.
Fuck me I have too many models.
In the end I settled on a plan: Terminator assault. I would make a Pride of the Legion army list consisting entirely of infantry and characters in terminator armor, their dedicated transports and a few dreads to accompany them. That could be tasty indeed.7
Terminator Assault in Progress
One of the keys to the success of this phase of the project was that I had a significant amount of it completed, while giving me enough units to paint up that it would absorb some of my pile of shame. Three Land Raiders and a Spartan were already painted, although one of those Raiders needs a set of 3D printed doors or a nice transfer instead maybe. Aside from one Deredeo recently purchased, every Dreadnought I own for the Ultramarines were also painted up.
Lastly, I had a bunch of terminator units already painted, including both HQ and squads. They had been instrumental in the Land Raider Rush.
For starters, I painted the first Betrayal at Calth boxset as indicated by the rules to play the board game, and such I had a fairly boring Ultramarines Cataphractii HQ that I decided can be a Warmonger. I have already shown off my Cataphractii Praetor, and his well-armed Command Squad.
As for Infantry Squads, I had a 10-man Cataphractii Squads ready to go for a drive in the Spartan. I had made a squad of Fulmentarus Terminators that I kitbashed from a plastic squad and some Seige Tyrant shoulder missiles that I got from Robert. While the Crux Terminatus on their left shoulder was inaccurate, I had 40k Indomitus Terminators I had painted recently. They were a little too tall but I don’t care so much, they wouldn’t see a lot of use in my Heresy army. But, they were painted terminators.
Phase Three Units
There was already a pretty decent amount of completed models, but on the other side, there was a goodly sum to get painted. That’s the thing: there are always more models to paint. So, here we go again with the painting and the gnashing of teeth. When it’s all over, hopefully there will be more army painted up and ready for the Galleries.
First, I needed some new characters.
I found a Primus Medicae on eBay some time back and finally built up enough nerve to build the damned thing: I didn’t care for the weird lookin needle rifle thing. So I used some parts from the plastic cataphractii kit. With a lightning claw and his medical equipment he was dubbed the Harmacist. Cute, right?
The plan was for zero power armor. That also meant that I would have no native scoring units. Fearing that the army of terminators would have a tough time with scoring units, I built a Herard in Tartaros armor. I used a broken Ultramarine standard that I had eBayed many years ago, even before the Medicae actually. The herald could also be swapped into a Tartaros Terminator unit and act as the legion standard for an additional command squad.
The opportunity arose for me to paint up a few Kitbash units made by Connor. The first was a Forge Lord HQ unit in Cataphractii plate. Along with him, I painted up a unit of six Thallax that could be included in any army the Forge Lord was in. One shoulder on the character was red to represent the Mechanicum and a shoulder on each of the robots was painted blue for the Ultramarines. Much like the Herald, the Thallax that accompany the Forge Lord have Line, allowing an additional scoring unit.
The other Kitbashed unit was a Nullificator Prime and the squad of Nullificators to accompany him. These guys would give me a little anti-daemon power. Take that Word Bearers. Fuckin Gal Vorbak. I talked about why they are painted black in the last Project Ultramar post.
The best part about the project is this: No Power Armor in Sight. Often have I spoken about how much I love Space Marines and power armor. I have literal hundred of Space Marine models and nearly a dozen armies composed of them. But, damn if it isn’t something to work a whole army project of Space Marines with no standard armor. Here we are, squad after squad of the elite of the elite.
The first squad, well, actually, the second, considering that the Nullificators were mentioned above, would be built from the other half of the kit that was given to Connor to build those Nullficators. With the other five Cataphractii, I made myself a five-man squad armed with dual lightning claws. I had a ten-man squad all painted up, and wanted another to sit and be tough on an objective, as they would gain scoring if I took them as a compulsory troop choice with the Rite of War.
After that, I realized that all the Cataphractii armored Terminators. They couldn’t sweep a unit off the board, nor could they run, thereby leaving them stranded if their armored transport went boom. Kera has a propensity for blowing up tanks: she doesn’t even care if she loses her own marines in the process as long as I get blowed up! The obvious answer: Tartaros Terminators.
I got a ten-man box and built it to work as either two five-man squads, or field them all together. The first of the minimum sized squads was built with dual claws, like the preceding Cataphractii squad. The second half of the box was built fairly standard, with combi bolters, one plasma blastgun and a mix of power fist and chainfists. A versatile assortment. The two squads together as one large squad would also work well, especially with an attached Herald to make a tough and fearless block of faster moving terminators.
As a fun final entry in an army of tactical dreadnought armor, AKA Terminators, and actual dreadnoughts, I determined that I would paint another heavy support option, even though I could only field one with a Pride of the Legion list. The army was joined by the first Deredeo dreadnought that I had painted, although, I can assure you, it would not be the last.
There we go. I spent a few weeks getting blue paint on my hands again. It was good to get back to the Ultramarines. I have played a Pride list in Zone Mortalis quite a few times, but now I had another army option for a full table game. All Terminators, All the time! Or something like that…
On the Next Episode of Project Ultramar
I was finally finished with the Third Phase of Project Ultramar.
Of course, Connor pointed out that I needed more weapons with the brutal trait from my terminators. Damn. He’s probably right. I will get some thunder hammer Tartaros built at some point soon. Maybe GW will release plastic terminator weapon upgrades…
Paint some units that can maximize the Ultramarines legion rule. Bolters, both standard and of the Nemesis variety. Lascannons. Mostly infantry. A few tanks. No real plan other than to finish some models I have been sitting on for years.
After that, probably work on a few units of Ultramarines destroyers representing the Nemesis chapter, not to be confused with nemesis bolters referenced in the previous paragraph, plus some transports and maybe a dread or two to accompany them.
Tyson
Obsessive and neurotic collector of little plastic men, novels about the same little plastic men and paints to make the little plastic men pretty. Married to Kera, who puts up with him and pretends that she doesn’t hear him speaking to the little plastic men in between making pew pew noises in the hobby room. Requires adult supervision. A menace to himself but rarely to others. More beard than man
