Big Autumn Warhammer Preview - Friday 18th 7pm BST

[redmapa]

Just now, Jukkiz said:

Knowing how vanguard vets were done, these new Lotd might be as bland as boring as those. GW is so hellbent making 40k primarinades only and i am doubting even ltod ain´t escaping that, as horrible as it is. 

 

I have high hopes for these models, the horus heresy infantry are amazing and what they did with the Red Corsair units was just top notch so if they can channel those ideas and sprinkle some undead flair then Im in, they have proven that they can make some beautiful minis with an older aesthetic and the Specialist designers have rarely made a blunder compared to the main sculptors.

 

We will see soon enough, a bit more than 24hrs to go.

[LSM]

1 hour ago, redmapa said:

... and the Specialist designers have rarely made a blunder compared to the main sculptors...

 

IIRC, Kill Team is under the main studio (not Specialist). 

 

I think the Warhammer Design Studio did: WH40k+Kill Team // AoS+Warcry+Underworlds 

[ZeroWolf]

Best thing to do with the LotD is to set your hopes as low to the ground as possible. Then if they come out exactly as you want them (or close enough not to be a problem), then brilliant! Otherwise your expectations were set low enough that the opposite shouldn't upset you.

[Grand Master Laertes]

1 hour ago, LSM said:

 

IIRC, Kill Team is under the main studio (not Specialist). 

 

I think the Warhammer Design Studio did: WH40k+Kill Team // AoS+Warcry+Underworlds 

 

40K and AOS are under the same main studio, but are different teams altogether

[Robbienw]

Yes hopefully they go the designer who did the Red Corsairs to do the LotD!!!

[The Praetorian of Inwit]

I hope the Legion of the Damned are not just an upgrade sprue to a regular Intercessor Squad.

 

Saying that the upgrade sprue they did for Night Lords to make the Nemesis Kill Team was very good.

 

Primaris stuff seems to be really hit and miss. As long as they don't turn out like Desolators!

[DeadFingers]

29 minutes ago, The Praetorian of Inwit said:

I hope the Legion of the Damned are not just an upgrade sprue to a regular Intercessor Squad.

 

Saying that the upgrade sprue they did for Night Lords to make the Nemesis Kill Team was very good.

 

Primaris stuff seems to be really hit and miss. As long as they don't turn out like Desolators!

Kill Team releases have not had upgrade sprues for a while now. I wanna say since the Vespids and Scions release? Oddities aside like Terror on Devlan or Exodite where it's one team against a non-team bunch of enemies, all the actual teams have been whole new kits.

Edited September 17 by DeadFingers

[HeadlessCross]

14 hours ago, MoriyaSchism said:

I don't think they should be over the top at all. I don't want awful sculpted smoke and flame effects on them. They could include some exposed bone and skull faces like the old set, I just don't want to deal with GW's awful effects like those grenades that float in mid air on a puff of smoke. That stuff really sucks and always looks like a cotton swab no matter how well it is painted. 

 

The moulded flames here like they're part of the armor is BAD though. Not all the smoke effects are bad, so I have a bit of faith in the sculpting team. 

[phandaal]

51 minutes ago, HeadlessCross said:

The moulded flames here like they're part of the armor is BAD though. Not all the smoke effects are bad, so I have a bit of faith in the sculpting team. 

 

The moulded flames on the armor are so people can paint them without having to freehand the pattern.

 

That's very different than 3D flames coming off of the model.

[MoriyaSchism]

51 minutes ago, HeadlessCross said:

The moulded flames here like they're part of the armor is BAD though. Not all the smoke effects are bad, so I have a bit of faith in the sculpting team. 

The great thing about flames like these is that you could easily remove them and paint them on instead. I don't really care for the flanderized idea of them being Ghost Rider or people drawing a flaming halo over them. I have my doubts about the sculpting team because they are the same people who end up with clipping mistakes in their model kits. You're better off using your imagination for the flames or green stuff it onto the models. I would prefer to see these models as they were and not "Back then we didn't have the technology to festoon them with sculpted on flames that just look like intertwined spirals" nonsense. Black armour with some bone and flame detailing would be my preference. 

[LSM]

16 hours ago, HeadlessCross said:

The moulded flames here like they're part of the armor is BAD though...

 

Classically the flames were decoration, painted on their armour.

 

//

 

"Within days of the transition to normal space it became obvious that the chapter had been exposed to some form of dangerous mutation or disease. It took many years to navigate a way back into the Imperium, during which time more than half of the brethren succumbed to the malady. Those who remained were no longer sane. Pain and despair had driven their hardened minds beyond the point of rationality. Doomed to agonising deaths, they gradually became obsessed with their fate. Now they only wanted to die. But they were still marines, still loyal to the Emperor and humanity. They would not die without purpose.

 

"So began the unstoppable war of the Legion of the Damned! The marines elected to remove all insignia from their armour. Instead their armour would be black, decorated by each brother with whatever emblems of death he chose (the accompanying illustrations show some typical variations)... The disease had robbed them of their sanity, but not their loyalty! And their condition gave them powers - powers that endow them with incredible fighting abilities." Index Astartes: The Legion of the Damned, WD 99 (1988)

 

 

"The Legion of the Damned is a legend amongst the Adeptus Astartes. Appearing as ghostly apparitions to aid beleaguered Space Marines, this mysterious force has intervened in desperate battles on numerous occasions. The legionnaires reportedly wear power armour painted black and adorned with symbols of death, skeletons writhing in the flames of purgatory being a dominant theme. Eyewitnesses report the visible areas of the Space Marines' flesh are in a state of decay, lending the legionnaires a horrific, charnel aspect." -Chapter Approved 2004

 

 

 

//

 

The "ghost rider" version changed this to be on fire. But the old models weren't trying to portray marines on fire; they were portraying marines who painted their armour with rad flames.

 

Edited September 18 by LSM

[ThaneOfTas]

I know that I'm in the minority here with this opinion, but personally I vastly prefer the "flanderised" Ghost Rider marines version of the LotD rather than the original weird goth kid marines version. Undead Marines covered in spectral flames is just more interesting to me personally than crazy marines with bones and flames painted on their armour.

 

So yeah, I would personally prefer if we do get a new kit that they be a bit more out-there, however I 100000% want the to be firstborn, like maybe have one of them with MKX features if you absolutely must, but otherwise keep them old-school like the Red Corsairs.

[NothingHere]

For once i kind of do agree they should be more like their classic counter parts. I am very much in the camp of marines being blinged out espesically veterans but since i love pre primaris blood angels, 100% ok with some blinged out infantry too. Though LotD would go way harder as they used to look with modern tech to make them really look good. 

 

Maybe some flames at their feet would be neat, but other wise i would love to see some truely firstborn looking LotD in their classic stylings. (Maybe part of me just wants to be able to steal them for some death company converting) 

[ThaneOfTas]

13 minutes ago, NothingHere said:

(Maybe part of me just wants to be able to steal them for some death company converting) 

I think that you've just made it click for me why I didn't find the old-school style LotD that interesting, because for me that niche was already occupied better by the Death Company. However you've now brought me around to the old school style as I would 1000% do the same in that case, so basically either way now I'll be happy.

 

Watch GW half-:cuss: it and manage to do neither...

[Antarius]

I guess they're also one of those examples of GW taking some cultural reference and just running with it (in this case the Angels of Mons/Ghost archers story of WWI). At that point in time, it often worked out quite well that they did just enough, but not too much, with it (either by happy accident or actual genius - doesn't really matter which of those you believe) that it could sort of have its own life in your head and not have a big impact on the setting as a whole.
So the flames could kinda-sorta be real or not, depending on what your preference was; that's probably an impossible needle to thread today.

 

In any case, I'm mildly curious about them. If I find them super awesome, great. If not, I have plenty of miniatures already and I can probably live with these particular minis not being for me.

[Indy Techwisp]

I think the "literally on fire" Skeleton Marines version is more likely simply for the fact that if they just have black armour and bone detailing they'd look like a unit of Chaplains (or, as people have mentioned, BA Death Company).

[Antarius]

You're probably right. Personally I feel that takes away from them a little bit, but we'll see. They might be cool.

[MoriyaSchism]

2 hours ago, Indy Techwisp said:

I think the "literally on fire" Skeleton Marines version is more likely simply for the fact that if they just have black armour and bone detailing they'd look like a unit of Chaplains (or, as people have mentioned, BA Death Company).

Death Company and Chaplains existing didn't stop Games Workshop from marketing Reivers in Raven Guard and Deathwatch colours. 

 

[Blindhamster]

On 9/14/2026 at 5:37 PM, phandaal said:

 

I'm curious about this one too. Will they stick to the previous kits with just an upscale? Will they include some Mk X? Will Cawl invent a way to have ghosts cross the Rubicon? 

id like to see it be our first legitimate mix of firstborn and primaris, have the firstborn be scaled to the red corsairs and obviously the primaris to well... the primaris.

[Indy Techwisp]

1 hour ago, MoriyaSchism said:

Death Company and Chaplains existing didn't stop Games Workshop from marketing Reivers in Raven Guard and Deathwatch colours. 

 

Reivers have a skull mask.

The Chaplains have bones all over the place.

And quite a few of the LotD depictions give them bones all over.

[Matcap86]

Another random wildcard: Plastic Valdor model for Horus Heresy? He was in the intro for the new edition and they usually base that on model releases. 

[MoriyaSchism]

40 minutes ago, Indy Techwisp said:

The Chaplains have bones all over the place.

A couple of chaplain sculpts had a stylized ribcage on their chest, but those were never the majority of the sculpts. The skull helmet and black armour are the main parts of the Chaplain design. I don't see why this means an established design needs to change into something it never was to "avoid confusion". 

You can go see for yourself. 
https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/sipva676/chaplains-through-the-ages/

[Indy Techwisp]

10 minutes ago, MoriyaSchism said:

A couple of chaplain sculpts had a stylized ribcage on their chest, but those were never the majority of the sculpts. The skull helmet and black armour are the main parts of the Chaplain design. I don't see why this means an established design needs to change into something it never was to "avoid confusion". 

You can go see for yourself. 
https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/sipva676/chaplains-through-the-ages/

 

The currently available Chaplains favour a ribcage like pattern in addition to the skull helmet.

Assuming that the LotD end up being based on Primaris (it's GW, they probably will be), they could end up with some similar visual theming with the bone motifs.

 

Also, consider that there are quite a few people playing warhammer now who only know of the LotD as the "Flaming Skeleton Ghost Rider Marines" because they didn't exist when the LotD were just Black Armoured Marines with Flame Decals.

[MoriyaSchism]

 

3 minutes ago, Indy Techwisp said:

The currently available Chaplains favour a ribcage like pattern in addition to the skull helmet.

Assuming that the LotD end up being based on Primaris (it's GW, they probably will be), they could end up with some similar visual theming with the bone motifs.

Look again, only 2 out of the 10 available plastic Chaplain models (Wolf Priest and Interrogator Chaplain included) have actual bone coloured ribs on their chest. 

[Indy Techwisp]

4 minutes ago, MoriyaSchism said:

Look again, only 2 out of the 10 available plastic Chaplain models (Wolf Priest and Interrogator Chaplain included) have actual bone coloured ribs on their chest. 

 

There is a reason I said "ribcage like pattern".

You are correct that only 2 have the Rib pattern coloured like ribs on the official colour scheme, but I've seen plenty of Chaplain models used in games where that rib design on the Armour was painted like ribs official colour scheme be damned.

 

So having an entire unit of Marines with skull faces and ribs on their torsos could potentially obscure the presence of a Chaplain hiding in the middle of the blob.