New Defiler

[Spo0ky]

While some parts of it are fantastic and options are always welcome...

 

The fleshy stuff really doesn't do it for me, sadly. 

[soviet1337]

I love the old Defiler and have three (assembled but currently unpainted). It's definitely showing its age and I would have liked to see a more faithful update but this is clearly an absolutely awesome model so it's hard to be too upset. I'm very tempted to get one and put it in with my Death Guard. 

 

LOL at all the people wondering if the kit that comes with four power-specific heads can be used by the armies of those powers. I would guess a large part of the reason those heads even exist is to communicate clearly on the box that everyone can take it. 

[BitsHammer]

20 minutes ago, Mogger351 said:

I sort of agree, but take that model, slap a breastplate, shoulder pads and vambraces on it and you have the new defiler in concept.

Pretty sure you'd need more than that. I mean the heads aren't even similar.

[Valkyrion]

5 minutes ago, soviet1337 said:

LOL at all the people wondering if the kit that comes with four power-specific heads can be used by the armies of those powers. I would guess a large part of the reason those heads even exist is to communicate clearly on the box that everyone can take it. 

 

Not sure your 'lol' is as nailed on as you think. You can have god worshippers from Codex CSM without them being World Eaters, Thousand Sons, Death Guard or Emperor's Children, and those codexes don't all share the same toys. 

You may well be right, but I wouldn't be scoffing at folk who think otherwise just yet. 

[Iron Lord]

The torso, armour removed, would look somewhat Soul-Grinder-ish.

 

The pincers not being attached to the "torso" but to the "spiderish lower body" seems a bit more Defiler-ish than Soul-Grinder-ish, as does the chest-mounted main gun.

 

The helmet is also a little Defiler-ish.

 

And what we can see of the abdomen, is a little Venomcrawler-ish.

 

 

So it's very much a combination of the three.

 

 

There's "scorpion-esque centauroid creatures" and "spider-esque centauroid creatures" in tabletop games - for scorpions, the Scorrow from Eberron, the Tlincalli from Forgotten Realms, the Scorpionfolk from Monster Manual 2 (D&D 3.0) for spiders, the Drider from D&D in general.

 

Start with a MM2 scorpionfolk, or an Eberron Scorrow, for the "scorpion claws at the bottom, humanoid arms at the top" look

 

 (the Scorpion King in the Mummy 2 movie comes close but has pincers at the ends of the humanoid arms for a total of 4 pincers instead of 2)

 

Replace the stinger with a spider's abdomen, add a ton of armour, and swap arms for guns, and you're getting pretty close to the new Defiler.

Edited Monday at 11:22 PM by Iron Lord

[Laurence]

I'm sure multiple Black Library novels have had machines possessed by daemons start to develop fleshy growths, as an outward sign of their corruption.  So the defiler may have started out fully metal and robotic, but over years of daemonic occupation it starts to get meaty bits developing.

[Tymell]

16 minutes ago, Laurence said:

I'm sure multiple Black Library novels have had machines possessed by daemons start to develop fleshy growths, as an outward sign of their corruption.  So the defiler may have started out fully metal and robotic, but over years of daemonic occupation it starts to get meaty bits developing.

 

For me, there's nothing wrong in the above as a way to take a Defiler model, and I would be fine if it were just an optional way to assemble it. If anyone wants their Defiler done in a more fleshy way, great, go for it. It's Chaos, after all, anything goes really. But it's not so much for me, at least with this particular engine, hence why the new style doesn't do it for me.

[Captain Coolpants]

This is absolutely positively a superior glow up model! It looks amazing. 

 

I do prefer the doofy looking old one though, but that's because I'm weird 

[The Lost Son]

Simple reaction, that's sick. Nice to see the defiler now look like a dreadnought(ISH) like the original fluffy stated not sure if that still stands though.

[Tastyfish]

3 hours ago, Lay said:

The visual concept of a daemon engine seems to have shifted from "machine animated by a spirit" to "demon turned into a cyborg a la DOOM"

 

The new fluff kind of implies the process needing an intermediate step, from what I remember of some of the recent fiction, you need to put daemons into people. Either people you've made into part of the machine or you reforge the possessed individual into part of the engine. Presumably helps anchor the daemon into the construct.

 

There's less of getting a daemon to haunt dumb matter, or trapping it in realspace. 

[01RTB01]

Thanks for those that shared the GW posts saying God legions can take it.

 

Genuinely will be grabbing two as soon as they drop. It'll be nice to play 'in house' and ditch my karnivores 

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

I’ll be posting this in both topics, but I find the ‘flesh metal’ complaints here and in the other thread ironically delicious 

[Corswain]

Nice update. Enjoying the CSM reveals and looking forward to next week.

[TheTrans]

Just doesn't read as a defiler to me, too fleshy. I think the 'moar flesh' approach we are seeing just isn't my jam for daemon engines (always hated the hellbrute's fleshiness). 

Even without the flesh, its just too 'round' or flowing. The old Defiler had very much a vibe of 'well the dark mech, heretically, while twirling their tech-stache, mooshed a bunch of STC designs together, then be bolted a demon into... here.... a defiler".

This is just such a far departure from the design cues of the old one (re legged tank, with demon bolted inside) to vat-grown..thing.

Like it'll make a great basis for a deathguard terminator armoured demon prince though, so a win there.

But as a defiler, nah. 

[Kharn13]

I love the flesh metal design language for CSM, way more grimdark. If I wanted metal boxes then I would play loyalists. 
 

The flesh parts make it easier to kitbash a greater daemon top half for it too!

 

Edited yesterday at 04:22 AM by Kharn13

[sarabando]

not a fan, if it was a different unit other than a defiler i wouldnt have an issue with it. But i like the blockyness of the defiler. This smooth flesh and metal vibe just isnt the aesthetic i like for chaos. 

[Teetengee]

15 hours ago, Nephaston said:

courtesy of gidthedestroyer on reddit, the options we know of so far

 

looking at the top shells, I wonder if they are more pieces than we might expect (I could see the trim around the head opening being a separate piece that slots in, maybe even attached to the star on the khorne model for instance, which I think would leave us with just two actual plate differences. I also assume the spine on the nurgle one is a separate bit that could be applied to the other shells), and thus both more flexible than just those 4 configurations, but also perhaps fewer shell bits themselves

I feel like if they had made an alternate build where the flesh bits are replaced by armor plating, they would have had almost 100% buy in from the community on it

*that said* I think that on a table the flesh will be less noticeable because from the higher view angle, it will be obscured by the mechanical pieces above

Edited yesterday at 09:40 AM by Teetengee

[Wispy]

On 2/9/2026 at 10:32 AM, Evil Eye said:

The line being...?

"I don't like it." - Evil Eye, on all new models.

 

having the fleshy part also means it can look deathguard without any conversion. selling nurgle with the "one size fits all" chaos kits has previously been challenging. 

[Casual Heresy]

Finally! A little 'Daemon' in the original 'Daemon Engine'!

 

As far as I'm concerned it's an excellent reinterpretation of the original. I get why many aren't sold but I think it has more to do with how big a departure it is from the original, rather than it being a bad model.

 

And so many guns! As much as I love Land Raiders, it will be nice to have another ranged shooting option in my Emperor's Children that can crack open tanks from a distance. Noise Marines and yeeting a winged Daemon Prince at the problem can only get you so far.

 

 

[Robbienw]

1 hour ago, Wispy said:

having the fleshy part also means it can look deathguard without any conversion. selling nurgle with the "one size fits all" chaos kits has previously been challenging. 

 

It looks more Emperors Children kind of fleshy than Nurgle/Deathguard fleshy though.  Would need to look bloated and infected to be suitable for Deathguard.

[Fire Golem]

I think it looks great as DG. 

[The Praetorian of Inwit]

In DG colours it does look pretty darn sick. 

[Robbienw]

Where's the decay, bloating and rot though?

[Emperor Ming]

I thought daemon souls interned into daemon engines had to be undivided and reap souls for the forge

 

I guess not

 

160mm base 

 

Wont be able to move on most boards

[lhg033]

I am really liking all the new Chaos stuff they have been releasing. 
It might be the nudge I need to start on some of the old projects I have to justify later on getting some of this stuff. That includes an unbuilt old defiler.... I wonder how easy it would be to convert it with the spare bits from the new one...?