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Redacted

Ah! A tricky question.

You are correct in that only the 1st company have access to Terminator armour, but only very chapters can muster a companies worth of terminator suits.
3rd company aren't specialist xeno fighters as such. It's just that their company standard commemorates the role they played during the 1st Tyranic war, where they helped take Macragge back from the Tyranids.

To be honest, I wouldn't go with the 2nd company. Just about everyone who paints Ultramarines uses the 2nd company and I'm pretty certain all the Ultramarines artwork depicts 2nd company.. Choosing a company other then 2nd is a really easy way of making your Ultramarines standout.
I'd personally choose 4th company, as I like the look of the green trim (And I like Uriel Ventris too). But the red trim of 3rd company is also pretty good.
Alternatively, if you do choose 2nd company, you could always go old school and paint their trim bright yellow like it was in 2nd/3rd edition. That always looks good!

Fourth company for life!

Well the time has come. I'm leaning towards the 1st company because I want my whole force to be the same company and I want to play terminators which I cant with any of the others. This means white helmets and shoulder pad trim! Every troop has to be a veteran also (technically vets have white helmets anyway.) I'm a little bit worried that these guys are going to look small on the battlefield amongst a lot of the newer space marines models so I might use my other models to make a different chapter and keep this company oldschool models only.

Thanks for your help and inspiration.

It needn't be even be a Company banner. The current studio Ultramarine army has at least three standard bearers with non-Company banners (2nd & 3rd Company Primaris Ancients, 3rd Company Command Squad)