Model updates: The Good, The Bad and The Suspiciously Absent

[Evil Eye]

Model refreshes are nothing new to 40K. Moulds break down, sculpting/casting technology improves and old models are eventually cycled out to be replaced with new versions of the same basic thing. Sometimes this is due to necessity (the current Land Raider was eagerly awaited back in the day after the mysterious, tragic demise of the RT moulds, believed destroyed by forklift mishap, leaving a landship-shaped gap in the range- a 2E era White Dwarf once featured a rather nice kitbash of a Tamiya Mk. IV tank into one!) and sometimes it's just a standard facelift.

However, as with all product updates, quality varies quite a bit- sometimes magic, sometimes tragic. So here's a good place to share your thoughts on model updates that you really like, ones you thought were worse than their predecessors, and also models that really really really need a refresh.

 

THE GOOD:

 

The Plastic Horus Heresy Vehicles (mostly)

 

For the most part, the transition from full-resin or resin and plastic hybrid kits has actually been very graceful for the HH vehicles. Generally speaking they're much the same as the resin originals but now in plastic and often with more options- which is good because the base designs are wonderful, and the original resin versions- pretty as they are- are horrific to build. Case in point, the plastic Proteus; visually it's almost indistinguishable from the resin one, but it won't cause you a brain haemmorage trying to get the tracks fitted. In fact the plastic one I've been building as a Chaos Land Raider has not only been an absolute joy to build, but makes me want a new 40K-era LR that's as much fun to build. Seriously, the thing's borderline Tamiya-levels of "falls together off the sprues", especially compared to its thoroughly ancient "present day" version, which...no, don't start again about the damn thing and its gaps and cognitohazard interior, EE. You'll give yourself a migraine.

 

But anyway, the 30K tanks are very, very good. I think my favourite designwise might be the Sicaran- aside from it being just a damn cool design, it's also borderline identical to the resin one (which is no bad thing!)

Spoiler

 

 

The plastic Tyranid Lictor

 

Ah, the Lictor. In my opinion, one of the most iconic Tyranid monsters, with a distinctive and menacing design that's actually stayed fairly similar throughout the game's lifespan. Whilst other Tyranid organisms have changed quite a lot over the years (Warriors becoming more raptorial in shape compared to the older "bipedal ant" look, Carnifexes drastically changing design 3 times before circling back to the classic with the 10E Screamer-Killer) Lictors have actually stayed much the same; mantis talons, grasping claws, tentacle mouth and stinger tail. The classic Jes Goodwin model is an all-time great IMO that's actually stood the test of time (must paint mine!); the 3rd edition one is a bit less impressive, though not awful, but the 4th edition sculpt was a massive return to form and honestly one of my favourite sculpts. In fact I was very worried the inevitable plastic Lictor would be a huge step down from that beauty, but boy was I wrong!

 

Seriously, the plastic one (which I should probably buy at some point) manages to combine basically everything I like about our spaghetti-faced friend into one terrifying pastamawed xenosaurian cheese-dream made flesh. The weird, gristly textures and details of the 2nd edition original, including its weird waist-claws and uncomfortably ribbed body, fused with the more refined, sinister look of the 4th edition update (incuding the "cobra hood" on the tail stinger). It also incorporates a lot of details from artwork, notably the spined carapace, and can be built in quite a few poses- which is nice as the older Lictor models, even with their balljointed limbs (which I do miss) were quite monopose.

 

It should also be noted that the Lictor has a very special place in my heart for basically convincing me to get into this hobby; specifically Chris Blair's incredible Golden Demon '99 winning conversion. So seeing the concept done such justice in plastic was very nice.

 

Spoiler

And here's the afforementioned Golden Demon winner- I really need to get the new plastic one and build a homage to this...

 

THE BAD:

 

Inquisitor Coteaz

 

This is a bit of a low hanging fruit, but it cannot be overstated how apocalyptically dire this is as updates go. Like, arguably the textbook example of how not to update a model.

 

The original metal Coteaz model- of 3rd edition vintage if I'm not mistaken- is a very, very nice sculpt. Good level of detail, stoic and understated pose, and an aura of "this guy means business". His hammer is large enough to look impressive but not so big as to look ridiculous, and the proportions, whilst definitely "heroic" are still good, and in general he's a model that would look right at home in a modern army. Overall it's just a really well-sculpted miniature.

 

The plastic one...well...isn't. The face looks like his latest Rejuvenat session made him part Ogryn, and the shaping of the armour makes him look incredibly awkward- particularly the legs. The sheer thickness of them combined with the weird cut of the joints and the absence of the loincloth has him looking weirdly stunted. The model is also severely lacking in finer detail compared to its metal counterpart, notably the little trinkets about his person. Overall it's just a mess of a miniature, and a tragic one given how good the original was.

Spoiler

 

The Primaris Dreadnoughts

 

I initially wasn't going to put any Primaris models on the list because a lot of them aren't updates so much as totally new things altogether. Whilst I find the Repulsor quite, ahem, repulsive, it isn't a direct update or replacement to an existing Space Marine vehicle (and thank the Emperor for that!). However, there is one (or rather, three) Primaris things I dislike enough that they had to make it to the list- not only are they just not great updates to the thing they're replacing (and they did replace something!) but the thing they replaced is one of my favourite 40K things ever, to the point where in spite of the more...subjective nature of my complaints, I feel fiercely enough about them that I wanted to voice them.

 

I am of course talking about the Castraferrum Dreadnought, and its Primaris successors.

 

The classic boxnought is something that burned itself into my mind the moment I saw it; I still remember seeing the boxart for it on shelves decades ago as an impressionable youth and thinking "That looks amazing"- then I found out what it actually was and loved it even more. And whereas some things don't quite hold up to my rose-tinted memories of grainy images on late 2000s GW's webpage, the old Dreadnought to me at least is absolutely timeless. In fact some of my favourite non-tabletop 40K things are Dreadnought related; not just art pieces but also bits from novels (the Chaos Dreadnought in the Night Lords books sticks out in particular, magnificent grumpy git he is) and that bit from the Dawn of War trailer, along with, of course, making the vending machines of death waddle across the battlefield in surprisingly menacing manner in DoW 1 and 2.

 

My nostalgia aside, there's something very unique about the Castraferrum compared to a lot of mecha/walkers in sci-fi. It's incredibly non-anthropomorphized for a bipedal robot, not even resembling a living creature or even a vehicle but with legs so much as a walking coalescence of the concept of an armoured fighting vehicle. And the Mk. V especially, despite its squat proportions, is somehow incredibly sinister with its slab-faced scarcophagus and utter lack of any humanizing elements. In addition, even with its somewhat, ahem, ungainly legs (which apparently caused Relic quite a headache to animate convincingly) it seems whilst not actually realistic surprisingly well thought out; the powerful but small arsenal of primary gun and then either melee weapon (known as the "Death Fist" in the 3E rulebook!) with attached secondary weapon or a missile launcher makes a lot of sense for what is half suit of armour and half one-man tankette. And even the small size makes quite a bit of sense given the thing being designed to be effective in confined spaces and boarding actions.

 

Unfortunately, the Primaris versions somehow manage to mess up everything that made the Castraferrum work. The legs look more functional for sure, but also completely miss the charm of the originals, looking weirdly like legs from an unrelated mecha kit that were glued to the underside of the hull. And speaking of the hull, the sarcophagus cover makes it look weirdly like the Pokemon Probopass. Even in death, I must catch 'em all! Ahem. All versions of the chassis have far too many weapons, with the Brutalis being the worst (I think the stubber turret is what pushes it over the edge, especially for what it supposed to be a melee Dreadnought!) and with the exception of the Ballistus their armaments seem to be existing Dreadnought weapons but EXTREEEEEEEEME. However, the biggest "you missed the point" part for me is the size. As mentioned prior, the Castraferrum is explicitly supposed to be small (relatively speaking; it's still huge next to a regular person) to navigate cramped spaces such as ships and large buildings, and its bigger predecessor, the Contemptor, isn't even that vast. The Redemptor-chassis Dreadnoughts meanwhile are the size of the Leviathan, a Dreadnought specifically intended as a colossal siege-breaker and noted as being something of a last-resort weapon due to the expense of creation even pre-Heresy and its impractically massive size, to say nothing of the effect it had on its "pilots"...which, incidentally, also carries over to the Redemptor, which is noted as having a habit of killing the veterans it is supposed to be preserving.

 

Maybe I'm being a bit overdramatic, but to me at least the Primaris Dreadnoughts sum up everything I dislike in an update. Missing the point of the original concept (a fairly compact vehicle intended as both an infantry support platform and an armoured life-support machine for an honoured veteran of the Chapter) in favour of making it bigger, more over the top and more, well, more. More guns, more size, more joints, more everything. Had it been a new thing that supplemented Ol' Boxy I could forgive it somewhat; the fact it's outright replaced the Castraferrum is just a damn shame. Best hope there's no low ceilings or narrow corridors in any space hulks I suppose!

 

Spoiler

Even in Death, I still serve.

 

THE SUSPICIOUSLY ABSENT:

 

The Falcon Chassis (And the Vyper)

 

The Eldar range is amazingly consistent in terms of quality. There's very few outright bad Eldar models, and even the recently retired metal Warp Spiders (which dated to Rogue Trader if my memory serves!) were still very nice models that have some details missing from the plastics! However, there are some models that really could stand a refresh. Notably, the vehicles. Whilst they're very nice designs and have aged shockingly gracefully for their age, they are still kits from late 2nd edition; the Vyper is IIRC the oldest plastic 40K kit still in production and, prior to TOW, one of the oldest GW kits in production full stop! There's a lot of empty space on the sprues that could be filled with extra goodies, the crew could use a tighten up (they better keep those jackets though) and IIRC the moulding is now quite pitted and soft from just how bloody knackered the tooling is. Given the Eldar are Jes Goodwin's baby I very much doubt they'd mess with the designs of the vehicles too much either, especially given the actual artistic designs are basically perfect already.

 

The 40K Land Raider

 

As mentioned above- the parts barely fit together, there's horrific moldines everywhere and the interior does not make any sense at all. We have faithfully-updated Terminators, now give us a faithfully-updated Land Raider model to match!

 

 

...Anyway. I'll shut up now. Over to you!

[siegfriedfr]

Not missing the Castraferrum. It looked dated and silly even before Primaris was a thing. Good riddance.

 

I mostly find the upscaling process done at breakneck speed quiet satisfying. Appart from a few misses (Blood Angels, 8th Ed Primaris minis ...), they outdo themselves on a regular basis. I'm glad that whoever was responsible for trying to cancel Terminators was silenced, and also grateful that Jes Goodwin is still around, supervising the upscaling of the range.

 

Regarding the bigger vehicles for the old factions, it's obvious they'll be refreshed after they are done upscaling infantry, which is approaching very soon.

 

Big update pending :

• Dark Eldar
• Grey Knights

 

Small update pending :

• Custodes

 

What’s left to update from the factions that already got significant attention?

 

Space Marines :

• Vanguard Vets
• Centurions
• Venerable Dread
• Ironclad Dread
• Thunderfire Cannon 

 

CSM:

• Helbrute
• Bikers
• Tanks

 

Astra Militarum:

• Catachans

   

Eldar:

• Karandras
• Vyper
• Illic Nightspear
• Falcon/Wave Serpent

 

Necrons:

• Destroyer Lord
• Obyron
• Trazyn
• Zandrekh
• Deceiver
• Immortals
• Deathmarks
• Praetorians

 

Orks:

• Warbikers
• Burna boyz
• Nobz
• Stormboyz
• Deff Dread
• Meganobz

 

Tau:

• Aun Va
• XV25 Battlesuits
• Pathfinders
• Fire Warriors

   

Tyranids:

• Warriors
• Carnifex
• Tyrant

   

Edited Tuesday at 08:09 AM by siegfriedfr

[gaurdian31]

Thousand Sons, World Eaters and the Emperor's Children would love to have the other half of their armies drop. Daemons could use a codex (I know they're not getting a codex in this edition and that sucks). 

[The Praetorian of Inwit]

I really like the Redemptor and Ballistus Dreadnoughts. Though I do miss the Castaferrum. 

 

Coatez was just nasty. 

 

I thought they did really well with all the updates they gave to Sisters when they brought them back. And to Tyranids in 10th. The updated Deathleaper is an amazing miniature.

 

The Lysander model is fantastic too. 

 

I do not like the floaty tanks though. Eldar, Necron tanks should float. Space marine tanks should not. 

[NovemberIX]

I'm a dreadhead, but it's an agreement on the redemptor scale dreads, the Boxnaught is the iconic ideal of a dreadnought, the new primaris stuff just doesn't have the same appeal. Aesthetically I guess it fits with primaris, but it, like the rest of primaris, looks like the it's from a GI Joe product line, un-ironically tacticool. 

[Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf]

Don't forget the Sanguinary Guard Primaris in the Bad ones. Awful 

 

[Jukkiz]

speaking of model updates... 

Ursula creed. Knowing what happened to Ursarkar E. Creed, i find it quite odd that surprisingly he had a daughter that just as surprisingly took command out of the blue. I don´t mind ladies as heroes in wargames at all, but this one kinda irked me since it came out of writers backside or just... "add more heroines" 

Corbulo, bless his heart, is also now lost. "replaced" by generic saguinary priest model but absent otherwise. 

Cassius got model, sure in Deathwatch years ago, by now. But him getting the primarinade sauce would made sense as Master of Sanctity of the Ultramarines. At almost four hundred years old (more by now). Man deserved renewed vigor, though knowing GW and ultras, he is getting that turkey paster.

[MoriyaSchism]

THE GOOD:
The Eldar range refresh with the exception of the skull helmets on the Dark Reapers and Asurmen's face. All the new Aspect Warrior models I've handled so far have been really great. The Warp Spiders and Howling Banshees are my favourites of the whole bunch. The inclusion of the weapon options for the Exarchs has been a real surprise from GW and it was great to see stuff like the Spinneret Rifle return. I hope they re-do the vehicles but keep their designs the same, because the Wave Serpent I'm building right needed a bit of bending at some points to fit together. 

 

Castellan Crowe.  His model is everything I'd want from a modern Space Marine and Grey Knights update. His scale is perfect and he feels like a decent synthesis of the old Grey Knights plastics and the original metal models. I hope whatever is coming in the future for the Grey Knights follows his template. 

 

The Kasrkin Kill Team. 

 

 

THE BAD:

I think the new Deathriders and Engineers are terrible. The limitation of plastic compared to resin is not an excuse to remove all the character the older kits had. They removed all the French and German flair from the Deathriders. Only the helmet and the Krieg steed remain, the rest seems like generic sci-fi to me. They even got rid of their riding boots. The combination of the Grenadiers and Engineers into a single generic carapace armour unit just ruins both.

 

The new Sentinel. I absolutely hate it. It clashes with every single vehicle currently available in the Imperial Guard range and it just has Cawl written all over it. The old Sentinel model is my favourite Imperial Guard vehicle design. Every single armour plate and angle on it was perfect. It was angular and menacing in its fully armoured variant. The new one feels like generic sci-fi and the shape of the hull just doesn't appeal to me. I don't like the increase in size either. I'm not sure why they made it wider and taller than the old one. 

 

 

THE UGLY:
The Sanguinary guard were a downgrade in every regard. The box itself is useless to me even as conversion fodder. The silly poses, the weapons that no longer reflect the established style of the old unit, the terrible masks, no alternative helmets and the lack of command squad bits like the Chapter standard in the box. It's all very terrible. 

 

The Pyrovore is probably the only thing in the new Tyranid range that I hate. It somehow manages to be ugly and generic at the same time. Instead of the old monstrous cannon beast you see in the original model we got this really boring bug thing that feels like a rejected Starcraft unit design. It feels too clean to be a Tyranid unit. It just looks neatly organized and the way the tail is supporting the "gun" part seems too graceful for a faction like Tyranids.

 

Inquisitor Coteaz. It's pretty much beating a dead horse at this point but it needs to be said. It's a horrible model. I think it's the worst GW design in recent years. 

 

 

I have to agree on the Redemptor Dreadnought. I hate it, it's just far too big for my taste and my biggest issue with it is that it overshadows the Leviathan and the Deredeo in terms of size. I really like the shape of the Ballistus Dreadnought without the armored cowl over the sarcophagus but the size still detracts from it. 

12 hours ago, siegfriedfr said:

Not missing the Castraferrum. It looked dated and silly even before Primaris was a thing. Good riddance.

I miss the Castraferrum, but I'm not super nostalgic for the old Mark V pattern. I think a plastic version of the Forgeworld Mark IV Castraferrum design would have been a fantastic compromise instead of reinventing the wheel with the massively bloated Primaris Dreadnoughts. The sheer size of them made me switch to exclusively using Contemptor Dreadnoughts. I just don't enjoy the size of the Primaris Dreadnoughts or wide stance of the Brutalis model. 

[Lexington]

41 minutes ago, Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf said:

Don't forget the Sanguinary Guard Primaris in the Bad ones. Awful 

 

I dunno, they're...fine? Nothing special. Their poses are kinda compromised by the dual-purpose assembly, and the musculature is a hair bulkier than it probably needs to be, but they're perfectly cromulent Golden Marine Bois, IMO. Solid B.

 

The old Sanguinary Guard, on the other hand...man. It's hard to find the words. Just one of the single ugliest Marine kits ever released, a comedy of errors in every millimeter. Awkward, confused, garish, indistinguishable lumps of nonsense that have been blessedly put to pasture.

[Kenzaburo]

10 hours ago, Lexington said:

 

The old Sanguinary Guard, on the other hand...man. It's hard to find the words. Just one of the single ugliest Marine kits ever released, a comedy of errors in every millimeter. Awkward, confused, garish, indistinguishable lumps of nonsense that have been blessedly put to pasture.

While I agree with the new one being solid sculpts, even though not as great as some other special chapter squads, the old one were not that hideous. They are fine and I liked them at the time. They are very much in line with the BA design aesthetic of the time up until now, following on from Tycho and Dante. Minis of the mid 2000s were cluttered in details and chapter iconography and to be perfectly honest: I liked it. It's a different style of detailing compared to the modern models like Death Guard and Chaos Marines. But I don't wanna invalidate your opinion here, Lex. :) 

[The Praetorian of Inwit]

I loved the old Sanguiniary Guard. They had that claddic grimdark look to them. The new ones...personally I would never have them. Even for free. 

 

While I do like the Redemptor it would be nice to have the option of a smaller Dreadnought again. Ahh boxnaughts. 

 

@MoriyaSchism I wonder if removing french/german elements was to prevent any legal issue or just to make them as distinct as possible for aesthetics. I quite like the new ones, though a little less in character. 

 

I think @NovemberIX hit it on the head with the gi Joe look on primaris. Whenever I look at any primaris kit I don't think gothic or medieval. I think marvel. 

[DemonGSides]

13 hours ago, Lexington said:

 

I dunno, they're...fine? Nothing special. Their poses are kinda compromised by the dual-purpose assembly, and the musculature is a hair bulkier than it probably needs to be, but they're perfectly cromulent Golden Marine Bois, IMO. Solid B.

 

The old Sanguinary Guard, on the other hand...man. It's hard to find the words. Just one of the single ugliest Marine kits ever released, a comedy of errors in every millimeter. Awkward, confused, garish, indistinguishable lumps of nonsense that have been blessedly put to pasture.

 

Nothing special for a unit that is quite literally the only troop kit that a very popular sub faction gets should be a baseline C as a grade. Factor in the embarrassment of a "standard" that they replaced the extremely cool SG guard banner with, the masks that don't even begin to imitate the former awesome helmets (Both the mask and normal space marine helmet varieties were better than the ape face versions we have now), shoulderpads that are quite literally just plain space marine shoulder pads (the old kit had a really cool double wing motif on the one shoulder), and overall a loss in interesting weaponry (Going from a mixed weapon squad including our named weaponry in the form of encarmine blades to just 3 swords or 3 spears that are all exactly the same), they are a D at best; I actually like the backpacks with the small wings, I think they should've added more of them and gone biblical angel style with them but they chickened out, like they did with almost all of the design elements for them. They are some of the most egregious of the loss of flavor people complain about with the current paradigm. 

[Sothalor]

For the "Suspiciously Absent" - nearly the entirety of the Grey Knights line.

 

Feels particularly conspicuous seeing as how Marneus Calgar is now on his second Primaris revamp...

[Jukkiz]

11 minutes ago, Sothalor said:

For the "Suspiciously Absent" - nearly the entirety of the Grey Knights line.

 

Feels particularly conspicuous seeing as how Marneus Calgar is now on his second Primaris revamp...

and gorillaman is rumoured to get new model also

[gideon stargreave]

Hard agree with the dreadnoughts. I adored the old metal dreadsock minis, but they don’t look right compared to modern space marines. My hack job was to give them contemptor legs, and I’m pretty happy with it

[marspeople]

On 9/15/2025 at 9:09 AM, siegfriedfr said:

Not missing the Castraferrum. It looked dated and silly even before Primaris was a thing. Good riddance.

 

I mostly find the upscaling process done at breakneck speed quiet satisfying. Appart from a few misses (Blood Angels, 8th Ed Primaris minis ...), they outdo themselves on a regular basis. I'm glad that whoever was responsible for trying to cancel Terminators was silenced, and also grateful that Jes Goodwin is still around, supervising the upscaling of the range.

 

Regarding the bigger vehicles for the old factions, it's obvious they'll be refreshed after they are done upscaling infantry, which is approaching very soon.

 

Big update pending :

• Dark Eldar
• Grey Knights

 

Small update pending :

• Custodes

 

What’s left to update from the factions that already got significant attention?

 

Space Marines :

• Vanguard Vets
• Centurions
• Venerable Dread
• Ironclad Dread
• Thunderfire Cannon 

 

CSM:

• Helbrute
• Bikers
• Tanks

 

Astra Militarum:

• Catachans

   

Eldar:

• Karandras
• Vyper
• Illic Nightspear
• Falcon/Wave Serpent

 

Necrons:

• Destroyer Lord
• Obyron
• Trazyn
• Zandrekh
• Deceiver
• Immortals
• Deathmarks
• Praetorians

 

Orks:

• Warbikers
• Burna boyz
• Nobz
• Stormboyz
• Deff Dread
• Meganobz

 

Tau:

• Aun Va
• XV25 Battlesuits
• Pathfinders
• Fire Warriors

   

Tyranids:

• Warriors
• Carnifex
• Tyrant

   

You forgot the Necron Destroyers. They are ancient.

 

Also Deamons need all their basic troops redoing. Even though GW doesn't really want them to be a 40k force anymore.

I would hope they'd get done in AoS.

Edited Wednesday at 06:48 AM by marspeople