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I strongly suspect this will be a personal choice! I think the redesigned Dark Eldar take some beating.

Death Guard are clearly the most beautiful faction!

Based on their entire range, I would choose Ynnari, because the triumvirate look beautiful.

For a proper faction, it would have to be be Drukhari, Asuryani stuff on the other hand just looks like it's been excreted from a jelly mould.

Death Korps of Krieg. Love every aspect of their design and look. I would run an entire army of them were it not for the fact they are resin only and incredibly expensive.

Beautiful vs aesthetically pleasing?

I think a better question would be: What in 40k do you find aesthetically ugly? Might put it in perspective.


I find all eldar to have a really nice, aesthetically elegant and beautiful design. IMO Jes Goodwin did his best work on them.

Marines look great, but I don't feel that they have a lot of character. The armour is not particularly original or exciting.

I love space wolves, but 90% of their aesthetic is just viking stereotypes painted over the top of the generic marine armour.

I think the tyranid aesthetic is also really good. The modern design is beautifully cohesive.

I think modern necrons are all over the shop when it comes to design.

I think modern tau are pretty good, not as messy as necrons, but not as cohesive or elegant as the eldar.


My favourite guard regiment was the Tallarn back in 2nd ed when they splurged releasing half a dozen different regimental squads all representing the same unit.

AdMech and eldar vehicles. The triaros transport and voidraven are both just amazing. It really saddens me that 30k AdMech stuff is probably all going to be abandoned.

I'm surprised that AdMech has only been mentioned here once. It's a modern model range that is perhaps the most conceptually coherent of all of the armies released at the moment. Yes, Electro-Priests are a bit smelly (although nowhere near as bad as people make out, provided you avoid the silly GW skin colour scheme), but besides that even a basic Ranger is immensely detailed, intricate, and interesting.

A lovely interpretation of a Brazil-like, cyborg-curse grim future.

Another favorite: Juan Diaz chaos daemons. In particular, the metal daemon prince, daemonettes, and horrors of Tzeentch.

My favourites are Ulthwe, Blood Angels, Inquisition and Night Lords. All of them have impacted me enough to make me collect them for their aesthetic.

I think that as far as terminators Grey Knight ones look the best.
Over all I would probably say Blood Angel kit bash primaris stuff.

Karol wrote:
I think that as far as terminators Grey Knight ones look the best.
Over all I would probably say Blood Angel kit bash primaris stuff.

As far as Space Marines are concerned, in my opinion, Grey Knights are by far the best looking. Too bad GW decided to stop investing in their model line and put their energy to Custodians and Primaris Marines instead. The Deathwatch also suffered from the same issue.

 Justycar wrote:
My favourites are Ulthwe, Blood Angels, Inquisition and Night Lords. All of them have impacted me enough to make me collect them for their aesthetic.

You seem to have a very similar aesthetic preference to me!

I think aesthetics is one of the strongest suits of the 40K universe. The core of every faction is gorgeously designed.

I think probably the weakest two factions are Guard and Marines, with Marines having some stuff that is really nice mixed with some poor stuff.
Orks do technobarbarian better than anything else I have seen.
Eldar Aspect Warriors and Grav Tanks are gorgeous, as well as their leader miniatures.
Dark Eldar are bad ass since their redesign.
Tyranids are the best they have ever been, wonderfully cohesive and really impressive as the range is all plastic but believably organic.
Tau have a very nice aesthetic of hard sci fi mixed with just enough 40K style to make them fit in.
Mechanicus are gorgeous, probably the best of the new stuff that GW has done and sorely tempting.
Chaos has some absolutely bonkers stuff, as is appropriate, and is probably the most 40K thing in the setting.
Necrons are the coolest "all robot" faction I have seen in any game.

So I would say 40K has incredibly strong aesthetics in the core of the game. Where it falls down with me is the 28mm scale flyers and titans, because I just don't think they fit in with the rest of it.

Tyranids, but none of the 40k stuff holds a candle to the level of quality coming out for AOS

For me it has to be Craftworld Eldar. The new Howling Banshees have helped to reinforce this for me. Jes Goodwin's designs are still looking fantastic 30 years later. It is only now that the plastic technology has finally caught up with his ideas.

Primaris, AdMech, Knights, New Sisters, Death Guard, Dark Eldar, GSC

Costodes. Every model is replete with ornate heraldry and interesting design options.

BrianDavion wrote:
Death Guard are clearly the most beautiful faction!

Lately my gut has been telling me the same thing

I'm seeing very little love for the Chaos side here. I personally love the Chaos Space Marines, more specifically Black Legion colours. Also the models for Rubrics and Plague Marines done in black legion colours always look awesome. My goal is to have a bunch of Rubrics, Plagues, the new CSM models and some converted berzerkers all done in Black Legion colours standing together. That's gonna be so aesthetically pleasing to me.

Sisters of Silence are wonderful.

I'd say dark eldar even though I don't play them. Having pretty much your entire model range rebooted at the same time in modern plastic leads to a nice coherency that a lot of other model lines lack.

 Darian Aarush wrote:
I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in your opinion is the most aesthetically pleasing army/faction in 40k?

Unsurprisingly, I like the Blood Angels aesthetic but I have always considered Craftworld Ulthwe the most beautiful, in terms of colour and iconography.

Sisters of Battle.

Adeptus Custodes and the Eldar of all flavors.

Night lords. Their dark, violent, and lightning streaked aesthetic proves that some of the old gw designers listened to a lot of metal. My night lords look right at home next to my Cannibal Corpse and Watain posters.

All Eldar Flyers, most of the Tau line (i don't like the Ghostkeel) and of course DKoK!

Top forme are Eldar, specificaly Wraith Constructs of any colours. This is why me plays eldarz.

Second place is DA/BT. The robes on power armour and stuff is beatiful 40k. The new FW preator and dread for DA specificaly are amazing.

I have to go for Custodes and Dark Angels (classic marine versions ofc).

 Vyrullax wrote:
I'm seeing very little love for the Chaos side here. I personally love the Chaos Space Marines, more specifically Black Legion colours. Also the models for Rubrics and Plague Marines done in black legion colours always look awesome. My goal is to have a bunch of Rubrics, Plagues, the new CSM models and some converted berzerkers all done in Black Legion colours standing together. That's gonna be so aesthetically pleasing to me.

My death guard joke aside, I think the reason why you don't see chaos mentioned much is because chaos has a lot of jagged edges and the like. it looks great but it's not what we typically associate as "aestheticly beautiful". just the oppisite really.

meanwhile factions that pop up, Custodes, Eldar etc, have rounded edges, ornate detail etc.

Orks..

I have to go with Harlies.

The grittyness mixed with the sleek playfulness of them makes them awesome to paint and just stare at !

I only wish they had more models and varients on craftworld stuff.

something about deadly rainbows comming at you on a battlefield is just intriguing to me XD.