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I recently got a collectors edition terminater captain as a gift from a family member. I see it as an opportunity to start somthing. I have never thought I would play space marines, I have never read they're codex or fluff. All i know about ultramarines is that they are heavily inspired (model wise) by ancient rome's military and that is what I want to run with.

I paint a lot more than I play so the way an army looks is ultimatly more important than how competitve the army is to me. The problem is that space marines have so many really good looking models that i dont know where to start or what to look at. I would like to make this army scream roman legion (even with space planes and drop pods).

Lastly I am on the fence with primaris marines. I think they look good but I am not sure about how they look next to normal marines.

Please throw me sime ideas on what units/models scream roman to you and tell me what kind of ways they can be loaded out and what they can work well with.

This is an army that I always wanted to do. A Roman-Marine army, maybe not ultramarines but using many of their bits.

The best kits? The Ultramarine Upgrade pack (The classic one, not the Primaris one, that doesn't have any kind of "roman" feel to it). Sternguard are basically Roman too, perfect for an Ultramarine-Roman army.
Beautifull fella, the Sternguard sargeant personally looks better as a Captain for me.




Then you have the Marneus Calgar retinue. You should find this guys in metal on Ebay for next to no price:


Then Cataphractii terminators, they are literally "Roman terminators"


And this two fellas:


In fact, just buy the Betrayal at Calth set. The MK IV marines with their sargeant with the Centurion crest is perfect. The MKIII of Burning of Prospero scream "roman" too.



All in all, this wil be a very fun conversion project, posts pics here when you have some work done!

We need more Space Marine-Roman armies!

As long as i can remember, ultramarines had 'roman' as their aesthetic 'thing'. With that in mind, it was generally only characters. But to give you some inspiration:



Fluff-wise, they were also roman. They have have their own little domain in the imperium (multiple star systems) that are controlled solely by them, and it's pretty much a utopian society as far as the imperium goes.
And on top of that, rules-wise, now they get bobby g. A bit of bobby g makes everything good (much like cocaine).

As said above, the Betrayal of Calth is a great kit for roman space marines. One of those boxes will give you a solid core. Doubling down on two of those boxes will get you a fantastic looking parade of Romanesque power armor and elite support.

I'd recommend building a 30k if you want to build a heavily roman-esque Ultramarine army.

You can have a core of infantry made out of space marine legionnaries with this upgrade set.

https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-GB/Ultramarines-Praetorian-Breacher-Shields

The Praetorian upgrade kit also has a pretty roman vibe to it. The invictarii helmets are good as well.