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its something i always wanted to know

do all ultramarines have short blond hair like Roboute

do all dark angels have long blond hair like the Lion

do all Emperor's children have long white hair like Fulgrim

or is that now how it works?

Do space wolves smell like Russ?

Apparently they have a sensitive nose .

No. Skin colour is more likely to be the same, but that may also be likely to be because of the environmental conditions of their planet.

Hair colour is not changed.
Abaddon has dark hair. Loken was blond.
Ventris was dark haired. Pasanius was blond (this is apparently to do with their worlds of upbringing)
Astorath the Grim is dark haired. Sanguinus was blond.
Azrael is dark haired. Lion is blond.

In one book, a 30k emperors children had roots showing through..

Outcast dead, so no, but they changed it to fit the legions image and "perfection"

So it seems to vary.

Short vs long hair is more a function of how often you cut it rather than something genetic.

Blood angeles do not grow wings

Tsons do not end up with only 1 eye

But Sons of Horus did end up looking eerily like Horus...

I think there's probably a certain degree of biological conformity that the geneseed of each primarch results in, but it probably varies enough between Legions that there's no universal 'yes it's like this'.

doesn't the sanguinary guard have wings like Sanguinius?

LightKing wrote:
doesn't the sanguinary guard have wings like Sanguinius?

Those are not real wings, they're just modelled onto their jump packs in imitation of Sanguinius. It's not that hard to figure out.

Russ never suffered the Curse of the Wulfen and wasn't prone to facial hair.
They all shared the pointy choppers though.

As 5 minutes on lexicanum will tell you, there are several genetic lineages that produce physical traits in Astartes that are similar to their Primarch. Both Raven Guard and Night Lords grow pale as they age, their hair turns black and at least in the case of the Night Lords the eyes usually do to. The Blood Angels also asume a more patrician appearence with blond hair, fair skin and die pleasing facial structure. The Salamanders' skin is also the result of a mutation in their implants that reacts heavily with the radiation of Nocturne. Not all legions observed this pattern and neither do all chapters.

 The Observer wrote:
As 5 minutes on lexicanum will tell you, there are several genetic lineages that produce physical traits in Astartes that are similar to their Primarch. Both Raven Guard and Night Lords grow pale as they age, their hair turns black and at least in the case of the Night Lords the eyes usually do to. The Blood Angels also asume a more patrician appearence with blond hair, fair skin and die pleasing facial structure. The Salamanders' skin is also the result of a mutation in their implants that reacts heavily with the radiation of Nocturne. Not all legions observed this pattern and neither do all chapters.

The following question should be whether or not the sons are likely to follow their father's temperaments and mental traits.

It depends on the specific geneseed. At this point most geneseeds are at least partially corrupted from 10,000 years of replication and entropy.

Space wolves hair all goes gray with age. Not gray like old person grey. Grey like timber wolves. They also tend to grow sharper canines.

Salamanders all have coal black skin and (I think?) red eyes.

Depending on the geneseed the physical changes can start off drastic (like the salamanders skin tone) or change over time. Since space marines are not really supposed to age this is not the result of the normal aging process. It is a part of the geneseed changing their biological makeup.

The geneseeds are not replicas of the primarchs genes, it's just based on them. So it's not like every marine would be a mini-me clone. But they WOULD take on certain general traits. No different really than the way you sort of look like your parents but also look like you.

 The Observer wrote:
As 5 minutes on lexicanum will tell you, there are several genetic lineages that produce physical traits in Astartes that are similar to their Primarch. Both Raven Guard and Night Lords grow pale as they age, their hair turns black and at least in the case of the Night Lords the eyes usually do to. The Blood Angels also asume a more patrician appearence with blond hair, fair skin and die pleasing facial structure. The Salamanders' skin is also the result of a mutation in their implants that reacts heavily with the radiation of Nocturne. Not all legions observed this pattern and neither do all chapters.

With some of this you have to wonder. Did Curze have night vision from birth or did he acquire it on Nostromo? Do night lords have it because they have Curze's gene seed or because many of them were recruited from Nostromo?

Some of the primarchs are just too well suited to the planet they ended up landing on.

Aren't Alpha Legion all identical?
I seem to recall something about asking any Alpha Legion Marine who he is and his reply would be "I am Alpharius"

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
Aren't Alpha Legion all identical?
I seem to recall something about asking any Alpha Legion Marine who he is and his reply would be "I am Alpharius"

Through facial surgery they try to become as close to a copy of Alpharius Omegon as possible because that's the Alpha Legion's whole spiel. They are not literally all Alpharius in body but in spirit. To an outsider anyone in the legion could very well be Alpharius. A legion of smoke and mirror games if you will, that's why they introduce themselves with "I am Alpharius". They become a faceless creature that thrives upon subterfuge, espionage and manipulation.

 The Observer wrote:

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
Aren't Alpha Legion all identical?
I seem to recall something about asking any Alpha Legion Marine who he is and his reply would be "I am Alpharius"

Through facial surgery they try to become as close to a copy of Alpharius Omegon as possible because that's the Alpha Legion's whole spiel. They are not literally all Alpharius in body but in spirit. To an outsider anyone in the legion could very well be Alpharius. A legion of smoke and mirror games if you will, that's why they introduce themselves with "I am Alpharius". They become a faceless creature that thrives upon subterfuge, espionage and manipulation.

Thanks for clearing that up.
For the Emperor!

 Ketara wrote:

 The Observer wrote:
As 5 minutes on lexicanum will tell you, there are several genetic lineages that produce physical traits in Astartes that are similar to their Primarch. Both Raven Guard and Night Lords grow pale as they age, their hair turns black and at least in the case of the Night Lords the eyes usually do to. The Blood Angels also asume a more patrician appearence with blond hair, fair skin and die pleasing facial structure. The Salamanders' skin is also the result of a mutation in their implants that reacts heavily with the radiation of Nocturne. Not all legions observed this pattern and neither do all chapters.

The following question should be whether or not the sons are likely to follow their father's temperaments and mental traits.

That would surely be a by product of the environment though. Swap a world eater with an ultramarine at the scout stage and I'm sure you'll find the ultramarine conforming to the world eaters shock troop ways and the world eater conforming to the ultramarine way of efficiency over glory.

endlesswaltz123 wrote:

 Ketara wrote:

 The Observer wrote:
As 5 minutes on lexicanum will tell you, there are several genetic lineages that produce physical traits in Astartes that are similar to their Primarch. Both Raven Guard and Night Lords grow pale as they age, their hair turns black and at least in the case of the Night Lords the eyes usually do to. The Blood Angels also asume a more patrician appearence with blond hair, fair skin and die pleasing facial structure. The Salamanders' skin is also the result of a mutation in their implants that reacts heavily with the radiation of Nocturne. Not all legions observed this pattern and neither do all chapters.

The following question should be whether or not the sons are likely to follow their father's temperaments and mental traits.

That would surely be a by product of the environment though. Swap a world eater with an ultramarine at the scout stage and I'm sure you'll find the ultramarine conforming to the world eaters shock troop ways and the world eater conforming to the ultramarine way of efficiency over glory.

That is not it. Marines are indoctrinated before/as/and after they receive their geneseed. Marines go through a very thorough brain washing procedure. Part of the reason different chapters have different temperaments is because of that indoctrination. It's also why they have the "And They Shall Know No Fear" and such. That indoctrination is 1 part core elements of what it is to be a marine, 1 part the lessons passed down generationally from their Primarchs teachings and tactics, and 1 part the chapters personal followings.

Dark Angles and their successor chapters are all sullen because the indoctrination rewrites part of their personality to lean that way. Black Templars are all CRAZY religious because of that indoctrination. Red Scorpions are OBSESSED with their geneseeds purity for the same reason.

 The Observer wrote:
[…] The Salamanders' skin is also the result of a mutation in their implants that reacts heavily with the radiation of Nocturne […]

That makes me wonder if a Space Marine with Salamander Geneseed but born/raised/endoctrined not on Nocturne would still have charcoal skin and red eyes…
is there some kind of a Nocturne's radiations signature in the geneseed that can be passed to any SM, anywhere?
What are you thoughts ?

I'm actually interested in whether they do or not. The Raven Guard and Salamanders point to yes, as do the "beautiful, angelic" features of blood angels. I'll say yes unless a better explanation is found.

I would assume that the closer you are to the geneseed of your Primarch, the more you would adapt.

For example, a distant successor chapter may not even develop the same skin tone, while the original chapter may get hair color changes. Although Astorath is among the Original Blood Angels, and Sanguinius had blonde hair. Perhaps it depends on the person.