Is anyone else finding new sculpts less inspiring?

[NovemberIX]

At the risk of sounding like a hypocrite in two different threads, on the one hand I think that the design and scaling of the LoTD base armor and some of the details are good, especially compared to the aesthetics of primaris, but the truth is they fall far short of the older Resin/Metal models. There's that old standby of they lack soul, but it's deeper than that. You can see the short cuts, the mirrored posing, the repetition of elements. Still though, it's leagues better than the most recent terminator chaplain, that thing is such a dud compared to the old ones.

 

I admit to preferring painted/embossed/engraved flames of the old kit to the new 3d "real" flames, but like I said in the other thread, I do see it as a plus for tabletop readability, and a trade of character as opposed to a loss. 

[Scribe]

Its the CAD design, it sucks the soul out of the model. That's it.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

2 hours ago, Scribe said:

Its the CAD design, it sucks the soul out of the model. That's it.

Do they not use CAD for AoS?

[N1SB]

11 hours ago, kabaakaba said:

They could make armor heavily damaged with bones and flame inside, bare skulls aflame instead of another mk7 or corvus helmet. 

 

You're right, and that just gives us space to do conversions.  Helmet swapped with skulls, etc., drill holes in the armour with a dremel.

 

Remember how back when Master of Mankind came out we were speculating if the mass casualties of Salamanders, Iron Hands and Raven Guard were the original Legion of the Dead.  I was just looking at the Beakie helmet and was just reminded of that.

 

Ironically, it's because rather despite me agreeing with what you all are saying, that I actually see something I could DO with these.  As is, I'm with you guys that these really are kinda boring...but they're almost perfect lite-touch conversion material.  That's so weird.

 

Speaking of lite-touch conversion materials, I saw those Inquisitor models, too, same thinking.

[darkhorse0607]

16 hours ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

Do they not use CAD for AoS?

 

Yeah, I don't really buy the whole "it's CAD, therefore it's bad" argument. AoS uses CAD and they continually put out bangers (even though I don't love the setting I can still appreciate them), Heresy uses it now as well, with Jenetia Krole being the last hand-sculpted model iirc and they still have decent models

 

I think the issue is more that GW has set 40k on such a breakneck release schedule now, where unless you have someone like Darren Latham with over a decade of experience in the sculpting team, it's easy for designers to slap some detail on the model with CAD, and move on to the next project to meet the deadlines, rather than having to slow down to sculpt by hand which resulted in designs that had a bit more thought into detail placement and everything. 

[Scribe]

On 9/19/2026 at 6:32 PM, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

Do they not use CAD for AoS?

 

Probably, but I dont look at AoS all that much.

 

I dont know, but the Marines of late have been some of the most dull models I've seen in a long time, maybe ever, and I believe that is down to CAD.

[Antarius]

On 9/19/2026 at 10:39 PM, NovemberIX said:

You can see the short cuts, the mirrored posing, the repetition of elements.

To be fair, they used to do that quite a lot back when they were sculpting with green stuff too.

[sitnam]

32 minutes ago, Scribe said:

 

Probably, but I dont look at AoS all that much.

 

I dont know, but the Marines of late have been some of the most dull models I've seen in a long time, maybe ever, and I believe that is down to CAD.

 

I'm curious what you define as "of late". The 11th edition release? I know it's all subjective, but the majority of people really liked the DA/SW release of 10th, even if I despise those factions. Unless your talking vanilla Marines, of course.

[Lathe Biosas]

I'm just sad the Custodes had their legs stolen and replaced with AoS Stormcast Eternal legs.

[Evil Eye]

I think CAD itself isn't the issue; you can absolutely use digital sculpting to produce models that almost look like they were sculpted in putty. Warp Miniatures make some excellent models that have the hand-sculpted vibe despite being STLs. The problem is, the sheer ease with which you can saturate a sculpt with tiny, precise details and large amounts of trinkets, greebles and doohickeys by simply copy-and-pasting them rather than having to sculpt each one by hand (or make casts/stamps of them) means that it's incredibly difficult not to go overboard with it. It's a bit like with CGI in movies; theoretically you can make excellent things with it just as with practical effects but the lack of limitations ironically enough lead to worse, less convincing visuals because the FX guys go completely overboard with visual noise.

[Grand Master Laertes]

9 hours ago, Scribe said:

 

Probably, but I dont look at AoS all that much.

 

I dont know, but the Marines of late have been some of the most dull models I've seen in a long time, maybe ever, and I believe that is down to CAD.

 

GW has been sculpting with CAD for 20 years now, so I would not consider it the source of all evil. I just think that they consider 40K "safe", as it outsells every other system, and thus they moved all the best sculptors to other systems to try and improve their sales. Or, else, all the best sculptors decided to move to systems where they can risk creating something new and more interesting than 40K, which is a bit static because it is a victim of its own success (i.e. GW prefers to play safe with it).

Edited September 21 by Grand Master Laertes
typo

[N1SB]

18 hours ago, darkhorse0607 said:

AoS uses CAD and they continually put out bangers (even though I don't love the setting I can still appreciate them), Heresy uses it now as well, with Jenetia Krole being the last hand-sculpted model iirc and they still have decent models

 

On that note, what do you think of the new Inquisitor models that accidentally got put on the AoS side:

 

 

I legit thought the bottom figure was carrying some fancy wooden stock lasgun at 1st glance, before I saw his portrait.

 

2 hours ago, Grand Master Laertes said:

Or, else, all the bet sculptors decided to move to systems where they can risk creating something new and more interesting than 40K, which is a bit static because it is a victim of its own success (i.e. GW prefers to play safe with it).

 

I hear that.  It's not even "maximise profits," it's "look, we got a good thing going here, Space Marines are a cushy gig, do NOT rock the boat."

 

And that's exactly how 40k Inquisitors are showing up in AoS games.  Wild, man, I absolutely think you're right, Brother Laertes.

[Scribe]

18 hours ago, Grand Master Laertes said:

 

GW has been sculpting with CAD for 20 years now, so I would not consider it the source of all evil. I just think that they consider 40K "safe", as it outsells every other system, and thus they moved all the best sculptors to other systems to try and improve their sales. Or, else, all the best sculptors decided to move to systems where they can risk creating something new and more interesting than 40K, which is a bit static because it is a victim of its own success (i.e. GW prefers to play safe with it).

 

I don't know, I soured pretty hard with the Berzerker kit, it just looks like someone cracked open the CAD file, added some trim, some bunny helmets, and called it a day.

 

Don't mind me I suppose, it's pretty much dead to me and I'm bitter about it.

[NovemberIX]

On 9/20/2026 at 11:31 PM, Antarius said:

To be fair, they used to do that quite a lot back when they were sculpting with green stuff too.

True, the AoBR and the Combi-Grav Captains are pretty much the same pose. Broadly a copy paste job, though at least the details are different.  

 

Which in a way brings me to my point, one of the things I'm disappointed by is the the skull knees and the beakie helms, in the old release both details were different between the two models they were on each. In the new they're just copy and paste jobs, and the beakie helm has already been confused for a Raven Guard one I can understand standardization, but these aren't line troops, they're supposed to be these otherworldly one off guys.

 

[SvenIronhand]

I think the 'sheer workload and pace of releases' explanation is the best one, considering pretty much everyone else in the industry CAD-sculpts nowadays, too.

[Jukkiz]

2 hours ago, SvenIronhand said:

I think the 'sheer workload and pace of releases' explanation is the best one, considering pretty much everyone else in the industry CAD-sculpts nowadays, too.

Oversaturation is good on something like MTG and pokémon cardgame side, but not on something that GW asks for price of silver

[Tawnis]

A lot of good points in the discussion so far. 

 

For me, what I like most about kits is the variation in possibility with as little extra work required as possible. In that regards, it varies from kit to kit for me. There are a fair few kits out there that look nice the first time you build them, but then might as well be a push fit kit if you try to swap out any parts (Sisters of Battle, the old "new" Ork boyz before the got redone this edition, ect...) On the other hand, there have been some very well designed kits that work interchangeably with others in their range just like the good old days (Kroot have done quite well in this regard, the Farstalker kit is amazingly customizable, and the Carnivore kit is quite good as well.) 

 

The second as a few people have already stated is the over the top flashyness of a lot of the designs now a days. I don't mind dynamic posing in some situations, especially on characters, but in some cases, they push it too far into silly territory. (See Mugan Ra trying to do the splits between two tactical rocks while holding a big heavy weapon.) There's not really an easy way to categorize this, mostly just the taste of the people playing the army and that's going to vary from person to person.  

[Marshal Rohr]

New Orks are sick, AoS is almost always 70/30 cool to trash models. Heresy is always 100/100 beautiful and perfect. Exodites were awesome. The inquisitor sucked. 

[Lathe Biosas]

The Red Corsairs are the best marines for customizing in the last decade.

 

There are so many extra bits and options, I wish I'd bought more to build my Dark Angels force with.

[sarabando]

when people refer to CAD sculpting i dont think they are referring to the software being used. But instead more to the style of sculpting it encourages. Which is using established assets just dragging and dropping bits onto minis without thinking about how they physically interact with the rest of the character etc. Mirroring the mini in software and just using softer detailing, i noticed this on on the new mk4 minis where a lot of the plates are softer edged and all kind of blend into each other unlike the previous mk4s. 

[Robbienw]

That is just the style they are going for.  It’s not caused by CAD.

 

There is nothing you can’t do designing miniatures digitally that you could do hand sculpting.

 

They used to reuse body frames and parts on 40k models back in the hand sculpting days as well, so that isn’t a new thing either.

[roryokane]

On 10/2/2026 at 10:05 PM, Robbienw said:

That is just the style they are going for.  It’s not caused by CAD.

 

There is nothing you can’t do designing miniatures digitally that you could do hand sculpting.

 

They used to reuse body frames and parts on 40k models back in the hand sculpting days as well, so that isn’t a new thing either.

Yeah, just look at the metal space marine bodies from 2nd ed, and the variations - they clearly re-used some sculpts and slapped extra detail on them for blood angels/space wolves/LOTD in a lot of cases!

I think some of the aesthetics have been all right, but there are a few things - first, no bayonets for your standard Cadian lasguns?
Second - the picatinny style rails on the new bolt weapons for Primaris really do drive me up the wall. Far too "tacticool", not enough "this weapon is a holy relic."
I don't think it's all bad (Primaris broadly notwithstanding, and it's nice to see the pendulum swinging back a bit with the new intercessors and of course LotD), but there is a significant loss of the GrimDark/Knights Templar aesthetic that Space Marines had in the glory days (looking at you, Firstborn Sternguard kit)!