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Depends on the armies, I tolerate some in my Krieg army, but I prefer to go full Scifi or even tacticool in my Stormtrooper army. The IG has the most variety with looks, however, so you can go from full Fantasy with laser guns to modern tacticool operators operating operationally in operations, in space.

since we're comparing, I think maybe the most suitable comparison is with his immediate predecessor, the Lord Solar Macharius:
Leontus


Macharius:



Somehow, Leontus is plainer and more boring a sculpt than a model that didn't make it out of 2nd edition. I think that's the ultimate issue.

Plus Macharius had the greatest rule ever. "I go first."

He was my favorite model for years.


Whoever believes that there is no fantasy in 40k had missed out on a lot of the fun.

That's what I love in 40k is the wacky comic book fantasy lore that really doesn't exist anywhere else.

From hunting Daemons with Orks on Motorcycles, to religious Cyborgs on robotic horses charging across rad zones to engage with super post-human armoured pirates!

 Lathe Biosas wrote:


From hunting Daemons with Orks on Motorcycles, to religious Cyborgs on robotic horses charging across rad zones to engage with super post-human armoured pirates!

Yes. Yes pretty much that

 Geifer wrote:


I find that the below statement...

 Magos Nintendus wrote:
But imo its not about fantasy limit, it's more about minis being less and less grimdark.

... reflects how I've come to think of a fair few things that were added to 40k in the recent past. Some newer sculpts, possibly because of the preferences of newer sculptors, have moved a good bit away from the messy, cluttered Blanche look. That look has almost always been toned down on the models to begin with, so moving away even further has a detrimental effect to the visual appeal and identity of 40k. At least to me.

I think lot of people feels like that.

Also, If fantasy in grimdark was bad, Custodes and Grey Knights wouldn't be that popular. I can think also about Dark Angels,but there is LOT of factions that are purly fantasy stuff. The thing is we just like grimdark, and we wanna see grimdark, no matter is that fantasy influenced or not

I also liked a bit of 40K in my fantasy.

I miss the days of chaos champions being able to get technology as a mutation / chaos gift. I legit rolled a lord of Khorne with a missile launcher. Never got to field him though - or even build him for that matter. I was only in the early stages of building that army when my group grew out of it and we stopped... :(

Crispy78 wrote:
I also liked a bit of 40K in my fantasy.

I miss the days of chaos champions being able to get technology as a mutation / chaos gift. I legit rolled a lord of Khorne with a missile launcher. Never got to field him though - or even build him for that matter. I was only in the early stages of building that army when my group grew out of it and we stopped... :(

My Chaos Lord who took the “breathes fire” gift had a flamer strapped to the saddle of his steed. This was circe 5th WHFB where they had already pulled almost all the tech out.

Can’t stop the kitbash…

The problem is that he's supposed to have a robot-horse but from a distance it just looks like a normal horse. That combined with no gun and medieval armor makes him look like an AoS model that's being used as a proxy. It isn't that he's too much Fantasy in 40k it's that he has no 40k in 40k.

If his horse was an unambiguous robot painted metallic, and he had a bolter slung over his shoulder, and was wearing stylized carapace armor I don't think he would be subject to nearly so much criticism.

 ProfSrlojohn wrote:


Somehow, Leontus is plainer and more boring a sculpt than a model that didn't make it out of 2nd edition. I think that's the ultimate issue.

The general rule is that two main heraldic colours like gold[yellow] and silver[white] should not be mixed. And if they somehow do, for political reasons the results are that either the effect is hard to notice or worse it just looks bad. In the case of Macharius the white+ gold works, because the gold is made almost bronze like and the whole thing is made really dark, to contrast with the white uniform. Pure white horse and a golden warrior just blend in to one amorphous thing, happens to a lot of Lumineth things too in AoS.

 RustyNumber wrote:

Also I don't know if it's a national bias (myself being in a commonwealth country who educates more than others on WW1) but an officer being mounted on a horse is absolutely in vibe with a WW1 setting.

The American mindset definitely tends to emphasize WW2 and gloss over its predecessor. Our commanders didn't exactly ship their horses over either to my knowledge, so it's not a common way to present either war.

 LunarSol wrote:

 RustyNumber wrote:

Also I don't know if it's a national bias (myself being in a commonwealth country who educates more than others on WW1) but an officer being mounted on a horse is absolutely in vibe with a WW1 setting.

The American mindset definitely tends to emphasize WW2 and gloss over its predecessor. Our commanders didn't exactly ship their horses over either to my knowledge, so it's not a common way to present either war.

One certain American General (Patton) wanted to do a German Beach Landing with Cavalry.

Thankfully, he didn't get his way and the rest of our military went to North Africa first... and our horses ended up being eaten in the Philippines by their riders before the end of the war.

Leontus is I think an example of how hard it is to do subtle in 40k and miniature design specifically.

I don't love or hate the model, but I infer a few things from its design.

I believe they were trying to go for a character that was a classical portrait come to life, a romance character propaganda poster come to life.

So I infer they were going for a character that was making efforts to LOOK like it wasn't a grimdark 40k character as a propaganda choice. that the aesthetic of the horse was a deliberate choice to herald a golden age vibe.

As in, his appearance was an in-universe choice for cultural and aesthetic subtlety and sophistication to project a certain feeling to his troops and the people of the imperium.


What is also true, is that 40k uses its larger than life brash aesthetic very well to paint strong thematic silhouettes of characters and units which is particularly useful for miniatures that are often viewed at a distance. They need a strong silhouette to identify themselves.


Loentus reads to me like character from text more than design - like someone that Eisenhorn might meet (like that rogue trader with the sculpted servitors), where the aesthetic is highlighted in the description, harking to a golden age, deliberately sculpted horse to hide its robo bits, choice of apparel to appear like a myth walking in life etc.

Which makes it harder to translate into miniature form.