Not only has John Warhammer himself, Demetrian Titus, gotten a promotion from Lieutenant to Captain after Space Marine 2, he's got a new model to boot. Joining him are his video game squadmate and newly appointed Ancient Gadriel, Secret Level addition Sergeant Metaurus, and a group of human attendants in their new kit: Captain Titus and the Wardens of Ultramar.

We'd like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with preview copies of these models for review purposes.

Titus and the Wardens

Construction

Titus and the Wardens of Ultramar WIP. Credit: SRM

If you've built a Marine model before, you'll likely do well with Titus, Gadriel, and Metaurus. Of all the Marines out there, they're certainly some of the most Ultra, with big, chunky pieces that go together relatively easily. Most of the seams are also well hidden, usually falling along the lines of the armor or folds of cloaks and the like. The only option between them is a helmeted head for Metaurus, one which I'll happily save for a sergeant or character down the line. You could swap heads and backpacks with any other Marine models in the range without much issue, and even change out some of the pauldrons in the set like on Gadriel, but some of these pieces are integral to the construction of the model's arm and can't really be changed out without significant carving work. They're also so laden with Ultramarines iconography that putting on a different shoulder pad won't really move the needle away from that Ultramarine flavor. Gadriel's banner is one of the few flags in all of my years with decent construction, as the banner itself attaches to the pole with a sort of LEGO-brick-style connector that actually gives it some support. I wish it also connected to his hand or something for further stability, but it feels decent. I was thinking about subassemblies for these guys, but Metaurus holds his shield out far enough that getting around it isn't much of a challenge, and you can't really leave a lot of the models off their bases in this kit. It's common for either bits of masonry to be attached to their feet, or for their feet to be sculpted onto the base to begin with. If you don't like the Greco-Roman ruins, you're gonna need to bust out the knives, clippers, and files.

Titus and the Wardens of Ultramar Sprue. Credit: SRM

While the power armored contingent in this set are pretty consistent with other Marines out there, the mortals in the Wardens of Ultramar are some of the fiddlier models I've assembled. Even compared to other humans in the Astra Militarum range, they're lithe and require some real dexterity to put together. There's a fun little option for the Astropath to have a separate head with a closed visor, but otherwise you don't have any alternatives in how you build these guys. Fiddly nature notwithstanding, the only issue I ran into was on Commodore Silva, the guy holding a dinner plate with a 3D map on it. His knife needs to be forced into its spot if you follow the instructions, and that's a tiny piece to put that much pressure on. I think you should try to put it on before putting pieces 14 and 15 together. Building Titus and his pack o' pals took me about an hour and a half all told, with minimal mold line scraping or cleanup required.

Painting

Captain Titus and the Wardens of Ultramar. Credit: SRM

Getting behind the capes on some of these models was a bit of a pain. Their modeled bases overhang a bit, and since subassemblies weren't something I really wanted to deal with due to their construction, that meant early on I was just kinda ramming a paintbrush up there to at least pass at covering the primer and grey plastic with my cloak's base colors. Batch painting this crew is also an interesting exercise. The three Marines are likely going to be familiar territory for any Ultramarine player, but their human running crew present a new painting challenge. Unless you've been painting an Ultramar-flavored Guard army this whole time, these are new models with new details and new textures to work out. There's also the notion that you'll want these to tie in with your Marines, so finding the colors and materials you want to repeat across these guys and your other models is going to be the next challenge. You can obviously copy the studio scheme, but I went with a new recipe for their coats, using distinct blues from my power armor for a rich velvet look. Their capes were largely in the same reds as my existing Marine characters, save for a green cape on the Astropath. For their body armor, I went with either gold (if these guys aren't ready for the parade ground, I don't know who is) or white, echoing my 1st Company Ultramarines scheme. Leather and cloth were the same as I'd paint for the leather pouches and tabards on my Marines, further tying them to the power armored bunch. Mapping out the textures you want to do ahead of time helps with something like this, where it might at first seem daunting or confusing to get started.

Captain Titus, Ancient Gadriel, and Sergeant Metaurus. Credit: SRM

The Marines aren't too surprising if you've painted a Marine before. If you've painted an Ancient and a Bladeguard Veteran, you now know how to paint Gadriel and Metaurus. Gadriel's boots took a while to paint since they're so hard to reach what with his tabard, and the details are actually a little muddy, probably due to how the molds were cut. He's also got a tilting plate that's all but completely obscured by the banner, which is kind of a shame. If I had a smidge more foresight, I would have painted Gadriel's head separately, as it can be hard to reach his face behind the banner. Metaurus and Titus both have sculpted Roman numeral II's on their kneepads to represent the Second Company, so I took that as an opportunity to add more color by painting those yellow. Titus' chainsword is a spot-on recreation of the one he's got in the games, and his fur cloak is a fun detail you don't see on loyalist Marines too often.

The Mortal Wardens of Ultramar. Credit: SRM

I echoed the same white fur across the mortals in the squad for consistency's sake. Ultramarines only have so many colors in their color scheme, so finding ways to utilize different tones and different shades of those is going to be important if you don't want these guys to look clownish. Or you can paint all their fur coats to look like the one in Macklemore's Thrift Shop video, I'm not your dad. One detail you will want to look out for is all the embroidery on their capes. You could paint it in a metallic color or go hog wild and laboriously attempt non-metallic metals like I did. Either way, factor that into your time budget for this crew.

Final Thoughts, Parting Shots, and What Have You

Ultramarines Captain Titus. Credit: SRM

While there's certainly a factor of "painting the guys from the video game I like!" to this set, it's also a painting exercise with a bit more to it. The weirdos who live on the margins of 40k stories are where I find Warhammer truly lives - for every Big Damn Hero, there's gotta be a million wretches, rat-catchers, spoiled nobles, or regular joes trying to get through another day in the most hellish universe imaginable. The mortal Wardens of Ultramar absolutely capture the rosier side of that common humanity, as Ultramar isn't too bad a place to live compared to the sundry Hellworlds in the setting, and are a healthy contrast in scale to the Marine models in the set. It's also fun to paint something different without it being a random model from another range. Painting some Necromunda weirdo or board game mini is always a fun change of pace, but it's rare that they'll actually be usable in any of my main projects. If you're a Marine lifer, give this set a try and see how you like painting something that isn't in power armor - you just might like it.

Nekrosor Ammentar

Nekrosor Ammentar. Credit: Rockfish

While the big damn heroes got themselves another muscle bound Ultramarine and his entourage, the Necrons managed to dig themselves up a decidedly muscle-less counterpart in the form of a new floating Destroyer character! This guy is a wonderfully sharp collection of flensing implements and hate, everything you could look for in a Necron Destroyer!

Construction

That broken off bit is a sign for this model's future I am afraid. Credit: Rockfish

Rockfish: Soooo, gotta open with the first thing you might notice in the sprue picture, that's a bit of a tentacle that's gone to the breeze. Well, it's not going to get any better once the model is built as this guy is a forest of little delicate bits all over the place that you'll need to develop a specific protection strategy for when transporting the model.

As for the build? Honestly for for how many fiddly little bits there were it was pretty decent, everything has a nice fitment and it's usually no mystery as to if something belongs in a spot. I would consider leaving the model off the base but that's definitely higher risk with how spindly the model is, the contact points on the base do a lot towards making the whole thing more structurally sound. Overall, pretty good showing from GW on this model with maybe a few niggling regrets from me as to durability.

Wings: I did, in fact, leave the Nekrosor off the base while painting, having made carefully sure that I could wiggle the claw into place over the piece of ruin. There is a lot of scenic base, and getting a brush to it with the model in the way would be extremely annoying. Otherwise I agree that the build is solid - I didn't have any breakages on mine, and it's all well designed to go together consistently despite how chaotic he appears. The only bit I found a bit odd was the positioning on the claw arm - the joins are shaped to try and make it clear how this should go, but I somehow managed to get this very out of line the first time I attached it. It was pretty immediately obvious I'd messed it up and was able to re-arrange it, and I will say there's a positive that the base has some (quite cleverly integrated) slots for his tail to go into, so very clear guidance for lining up the attachment on a second attempt.

Painting

Rockfish: While in any other faction a collection of knives and details like this would be a nightmare but thankfully Necrons and easy to paint metal go hand in hand, even more then most characters for this faction there's very few parts of this model that don't look great with a simple wash and drybrush over a metal basecoat. With most of the actual details being easily accessible painting is pretty smooth overall, but I will call out the blades on this guys guns as being kind of annoying with the undersides being interfered with by a variety of limbs.

Wings: I did my standard Destroyer scheme on this, and he came together very quickly. While he is an intimidating centrepiece, a lot of the size comes from the base, and the actual model is basically just a Skorpekh Lord and Ophydian Destroyer mashed together. That meant I could just use standard Necron steel and gold recipes, Stormhost > Tesseract Glow > Ork Flesh for the gunblades, and Runelord Brass > Agrax > spatter with Blood for the Blood God on the claws/blades. My only complaint is that if you're painting him off the base he's quite "springy", so keeping the model steady for painting was sometimes a challenge. Very happy with the result though, and ready to unleash him on lots of foes.

Nekrosor Ammentar. Credit: Wings

Ammentar Final Thoughts

Rockfish: Necrons are a very interesting faction in that they are one of the very few where the characters can be remarkably simple and quick to paint, it leads to really interesting releases like Ammentar in that it's a great model but not really something you'll spend that long on. Whether that's a positive or negative to you depends a bit on your wallet and how quickly you want stuff on the table, if you're a hard core painter trying to be a bit frugal you might find yourself a little disappointed there isn't more to play around with on this model but for everyone else it's a pleasant little experience.

Wings: As someone more focused on the game than painting - a speedy job on such a powerful unit is all upside!

Nekrosor Ammentar. Credit: Rockfish

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