I'm curious to hear your impressions of the fiction. The only Exorcists story I've read was The Empty Place.

I look forward to seeing whatever you come up with for minis. I've been working on an Exorcists kill team at a glacial pace (i.e., for years) and haven't gotten beyond the planning stages (okay, I've been working on bespoke datacards, but they keep changing the formats on me when they transition to new editions).

I was never a fan of the Grey Knights gene-seed theory, and was very disappointed when it was in the official story. While I would have preferred that their gene-seed remain unknown, I'm okay with the VIIth Legion being their progenitor.

Your painting idea sounds very interesting. I'd love to see that realized on models (mostly to see if I can steal it if I ever actually get to painting my own Exorcists ).

IMHO they are not Grey Knights geneseed (which I also do not believe to be the Emperor’s but actually Malcador’s) but I’m good with Exorcists being Sons of Dorn. 
They are too divergent form GKs and the fact they work with radical inquisitors and non radical inquisitors. Plus they have Primaris which the GKs don’t. 
 

Within These Walls was ok to weak as an Exorcist story. As a Sister Dialogus story it was good, since she was the focus of the story. Exorcists as a whole had little to due with story and kinda were background.  The Empty Place is next. 
 

KT wise it would be the scout squad only cause I love scout squads. And Terminators!

my test model is on my desk waiting to be cleaned and see how much I can get done this week 

I didn't get the chance to read any of the recently released Exorcist themed Black Library short stories or novels, but what I heard doesn't really fill me with confidence. I have my own vision as to what the Exorcists are and I thought the White Dwarf treatment they got was weak and an example of GW messing with the balance of what is known and unknown in the setting. The White Dwarf article and the "sons of Dorn" revelation is something I will be ignoring in my current Exorcists project, because it's just so weak and derivative of other chapters. If you read the article you will find things crowbared in to sell the latest models like the change to the extra scout companies also being a 200 man strong unit of the hot new Phobos armour Vanguard Marines and the new chapter master with a silly name who just happens to be the same as the new Captain in Gravis armour. Captain Silas Alberec was described as next in line to be Chapter Master and to have someone as remarkable as him just dropped in favour of some nobody with a silly name whose description amounts to "Yeah, he's like a Captain in Gravis armour" is unforgivable for me. What happened to Silas Alberec? Did he die off screen? Did he die during the silly rubicon surgery?

The other problem I have is how the "sons of Dorn" stuff was introduced and presented. It's really derivative of how other chapters work and I think them being related to the Imperial Fists is kind of lame. Having some secret that only the 1st Company veterans know and it being "Oh yeah, Dorn's your gene-father" is like a diet version of the Dark Angels inner circle stuff. Another diet Dark Angels element is the Swords of Epiphany warband being their Fallen that they have to keep secret and hunt down to not get found out. The selection of degraded gene-seed like that of the Imperial Fists with missing implants is uncharacteristic for a Space Marine founding of such importance, you'd imagine they'd go for something far purer and more stable to reduce the risk of mutation when dealing with things like possession. It's also weird that all subsequent Codex releases and even Space Marine 2's skin selection still refer to the Exorcists as unknown successors.

The founding is also weaker in the White Dwarf rewrite, because it further sanitizes the Imperium's agencies like the Ordo Malleus. I think the Plutionians are stupid group with a stupid name that makes me think of the Doom WAD The Plutonia Experiment. Instead of it being the Imperium trying something new and unethical just to get a fighting edge in their ongoing wars, it's just a bunch of radicals I guess and a body like the Ordo Malleus can simply wash its hands clean of any involvement. I think changes like this make the setting smaller and less mysterious. Just more crappy modern fluff I have to ignore and supplant with my own imagination. Do yourself a favour and hunt down the old Imperial Armour chapter entry from the Badab War on them and the 3rd War for Armageddon after-action report on their first combat test. It blows the White Dwarf article out of the water, it's short but it's good.

https://games-workshop.com/w40k/ia/w40k_ia_exorcists.html

EDIT:
I'm firmly in the camp of the Exorcists still being classified as unknown. If I was GW and wanted to troll I would say their gene-seed is derived from the Red Hunters, another ancient chapter with ties to the Inquisition and an unknown primogenitor.

 

IMHO they are not Grey Knights geneseed (which I also do not believe to be the Emperor’s but actually Malcador’s)

I like the implication in the HH and Siege Series that the GKs actually use stabilised Thousand Sons geneseed. This was further supported in 9th edition when GKs and 1KSons had basically the same special rules.

The paintjob idea sounds fantastic. Metallic red with hexagrammic wards sounds really cool. Some of the Imperial Armour images have them with slightly faded checkerboard patterns and I think one of the beakies had the Eye of Providence on the forehead of his helmet. Looking forward to seeing your Exorcists.

 

 

I like the implication in the HH and Siege Series that the GKs actually use stabilised Thousand Sons geneseed. This was further supported in 9th edition when GKs and 1KSons had basically the same special rules.

That makes sense too as Janus was a Thousand Son. Im just not a fan of the whole Emperor Geneseed idea. 

 

The paintjob idea sounds fantastic. Metallic red with hexagrammic wards sounds really cool. Some of the Imperial Armour images have them with slightly faded checkerboard patterns and I think one of the beakies had the Eye of Providence on the forehead of his helmet. Looking forward to seeing your Exorcists.

I tried it out last night....Lessons were learned.