The Ultramarines are probably the most iconic Space Marine chapters, and often are what people think of when you first say “Warhammer”. Today they get a whole host of reinforcements with 4 brand new Ultramarine kits added to the range! In this full review and unboxing we’re going to take a look at all these new kits, see how they go together and paint them up to see what they look like in the flesh!

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us early review copies to check out on the site! If you would like to support the site then why not pick up your Ultramarines kits through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We’ve also filmed a full unboxing of these kits which you can see just below or over on YouTube.

This isn’t the only Space Marines release today as we also have done a full unboxing of the new Crux Terminatus box too

But without further ado, let’s take a look at the new kits for the Ultramarines!

Ultramarines Unboxing and Review

First up we have the new Ultramarines upgrades and Transfers set. This is a pretty nice upgrade pack which contains a whole stack of bits for your Ultramarine army

There’s a whole stack of bits here from shoulder pads, weapons, helmets and even some icons to put on the side door of vehicles. The transfer sheet itself is also ace, particularly if you want some bigger “U”‘s to put on the side of a Land Raider for example.

What’s really nice about this set is that the instruction manual goes through a number of different units and suggests what parts to use on them, though the bits here can easily be kitbashed with a lot of kits.

In the above image you can see the bits used on a Terminator from the Crux Terminatus box – I’ve used quite a few bits here including the chest plate, head, sword, tilting shield and shoulder pad. They look really good in the flesh and I’m looking forward to using more of the other parts on other kits.

I think one of the stand out kits for a lot of people will be the new Marneus Calgar. Now before anyone gets worried, this doesn’t replace the previous kit – this just gives you the option of fielding him in his other armour.

Warhammer Community have shared his rules, and he looks really good – especially as he can be taken in multiple different units now! His unit can fall back and shoot and charge, and if he is the warlord he gains 1cp in the command phase which is nice. He also has an amazing combat profile with his Ap3 damage 3 fists able to smash most targets to dust!

I really enjoyed painting him up and he’s a surprisingly imposing model on the battlefield!

It’s worth noting here that you can easily keep the cloak off to make painting him easier – it simply snaps into place once painted!

Next up we have Cato Sicarius, and I wasn’t expecting to but I actually found him much more interesting to paint than Calgar himself!

The kit is beautiful, from the sculpted back banner to the ace helmet carried under his arm. He was however probably the fiddliest out of this batch of Ultramarines miniatures to build. In the instructions the way it has you build the arm holding the helmet is really weird – what I’d do is ignore that section and instead find all the pieces that build up the helmet and hand, and then use that to locate it against the body. The instructions have a tiny and specific contact point if you do it the “proper” way, by building the helmet you just make it a little easier for yourself. The kit also has two different heads, a shouty head and the standard one – this is cool but I’d have loved for the option of him wearing his helmet too rather than the alt head in the box.

Again, his rules are really good – he can join Victrix Guard, and interestingly can do so even if Calgar has joined them too! His unit can make a move of 6″ when a unit gets within 9 of him, and can heroically intervene for free too, which is really nice combined with the free move to slingshot them into combat. His Tempest Blade is also really good, with a few different modes to switch between too!

I loved painting this model, and with my 2nd edition nostalgia I wish more marines had back banners – they look so good and I really hope that this is something in the unit if we ever get a retro tactical squad themed Primaris unit at some point.

The last kit in this release is another amazing one – the Victrix Honour Guard! These used to be just part of Calgar’s squad, but they are now their own unit that can be taken in any Ultramarines army. There are a lot of options in this kit, with enough unique parts to make 6 different looking models if you pick up two boxes. You can even take multiple units, though only one unit in your army can take the champion and the banner bearer.

Again, the rules for these are on Warhammer Community and they look really interesting. Packing 4 wounds each and a 2+ save they are really resilient and can join units that can join Company Heroes. Both the new Calgar and Cato can both join the unit at the same time, which makes a deathstar of 6 of them with both characters really tempting! Making this combo even better, it’s also minus 1 to wound the unit while they have a Captain or Chapter Master in the unit!

The banner has an ace one use rule, it can be popped in the combat phase and it increases the strength and attacks of all models in the unit by 1!

The models are absolutely jaw dropping in the flesh, with the banner in particular standing two space marines high! All of the detail here is sculpted, so it’s really easy to just “colour in” the areas and have something that looks really good! It would have been nice to have an alternate smooth banner for people who want to go to town with freehand, but most people will be happy to the raised details anyway! I’m absolutely going to have to pick up another box so that I can run a whole unit of 6!

I hadn’t expected such a massive wave of Ultramarines, but it does make me wonder if we will get a Codex Ultramarines in the future. There is precedent for this, back in 2nd edition we had an Ultramarine Codex, and Games Workshop are doing a lot of things to scratch that nostalgia factor at the moment. I think with the recent Combat Patrols for various Space Marine Chapters recently it also feels that perhaps we will be moving back to a world where the choice of chapter makes a difference and adds some more flavour to your army.

If you are looking to collect an Ultramarines army, then the Crux Terminatus box, also up for pre order today is another good choice! You can check out our review of it here!

The Ultramarines releases are up for pre order today and are released Saturday 8th November

Games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews with free copies for review purposes.

Published by Matt Crowther

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