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I'm a new player with 500 points of orks and 600 points of space wolves. I'm going to start building up an army and the most important thing is what the models look like. Orks are probably my favorite, but I want to see what other people like.

Orks for sure. It helps that if you like anything another faction has, you can just loot it too.

Sure, if you like so much green Orks are great. Or have a thing for derelict junk and rivets. But Dark Eldar can be anything. Admittedly, you have to like sharp bits and dead heads, but some color changes and they can look great. And hey, if you hate the bikes, just get some Fantasy Cold Ones and convert them to Dino riders. Everything is better with dinosaurs.

Tau are the coolest looking army and they are very balanced against other codices, so you'll be in for a fair fight.

Adepta Sororitas alongside Tyranids gets my vote

 SharkoutofWata wrote:
Sure, if you like so much green Orks are great. Or have a thing for derelict junk and rivets. But Dark Eldar can be anything. Admittedly, you have to like sharp bits and dead heads, but some color changes and they can look great. And hey, if you hate the bikes, just get some Fantasy Cold Ones and convert them to Dino riders. Everything is better with dinosaurs.

Derelict junk is exactly why I like orks. They remind me of backwoods redneck drag racers. Slap the biggest engine you can find on some piece of junk and hold on tight because it's either going to go fast or blowup, but probably both.

Orkz, grey knights, and dark eldar are the best imo

Tau? TAU? How the HELL can anyone choose TAU as the best looking army?!

No, seriously, I don't get it - I find it one of the dullest armies, and one of those with the dullest models. I never felt like the models were good to paint or model, and some models just plain don't fit, Crisis Suits to Riptides, for example. Boxes, edges, boxes, edges, clean colours, boxes, maybe a bit of light effects, edges...

Please, can someone who like the Tau like that explain it to me?

 The Wise Dane wrote:
Tau? TAU? How the HELL can anyone choose TAU as the best looking army?!

No, seriously, I don't get it - I find it one of the dullest armies, and one of those with the dullest models. I never felt like the models were good to paint or model, and some models just plain don't fit, Crisis Suits to Riptides, for example. Boxes, edges, boxes, edges, clean colours, boxes, maybe a bit of light effects, edges...

Please, can someone who like the Tau like that explain it to me?

It's called having a personal opinion and different tastes.

 Zewrath wrote:

 The Wise Dane wrote:
Tau? TAU? How the HELL can anyone choose TAU as the best looking army?!

No, seriously, I don't get it - I find it one of the dullest armies, and one of those with the dullest models. I never felt like the models were good to paint or model, and some models just plain don't fit, Crisis Suits to Riptides, for example. Boxes, edges, boxes, edges, clean colours, boxes, maybe a bit of light effects, edges...

Please, can someone who like the Tau like that explain it to me?

It's called having a personal opinion and different tastes.

Sure, and I know some stuff is for others, but what I don't get is that the models are rather base when compared to, e.g. Tacticals or Terminators. In my opinion the models are nought but the base of a model - No extra culture like jewelry, ceremonial swords or unique armour, and on the other hand, the models aren't too hi-tech for a very hi-tech faction... It's just boxes to me.

... Am I the only one with this look on the models, or at least the Fire Warrior and Crisis Suit models?

To me, nothing beats a customised, painted and personalised Space Marine army. Once you get away from the 'I love my bolter' pose Power Armour can look so very awesome!

 The Wise Dane wrote:

 Zewrath wrote:

 The Wise Dane wrote:
Tau? TAU? How the HELL can anyone choose TAU as the best looking army?!

No, seriously, I don't get it - I find it one of the dullest armies, and one of those with the dullest models. I never felt like the models were good to paint or model, and some models just plain don't fit, Crisis Suits to Riptides, for example. Boxes, edges, boxes, edges, clean colours, boxes, maybe a bit of light effects, edges...

Please, can someone who like the Tau like that explain it to me?

It's called having a personal opinion and different tastes.

Sure, and I know some stuff is for others, but what I don't get is that the models are rather base when compared to, e.g. Tacticals or Terminators. In my opinion the models are nought but the base of a model - No extra culture like jewelry, ceremonial swords or unique armour, and on the other hand, the models aren't too hi-tech for a very hi-tech faction... It's just boxes to me.

... Am I the only one with this look on the models, or at least the Fire Warrior and Crisis Suit models?

Well, I honestly think the problem is that you are looking at it as if there's anything logical to taste or preference. I can't describe why I think the Leman Russ is an awesome looking tank. I can see the odd shapes and aesthetics that people point out to me are the things they dislike, but when I look at it I just think it looks awesome. I have no logical arguements for it, nor could I hope to prove it in some kind of mathematical manner that explains why I'm fond of the model. I just am.
Of course, there are certain aspects that provably affects the human mind. Like Red color applied in a certain way will unconsciously affect your mood or enhance certain aesthetics of the model (which is why a lot of thought and research is thrown in to what colors a new car should be designed around). For many years I was put off by the Tyranid models, simply due to the default color schemes that GW has, until I saw many great color schemes which gave a whole new look to the Tyranids and I almost instantly fell in love with them. There are a lot of ways a paint scheme can affect the aesthetics of an army, so bear in mind that when you critize the looks of the Tau, you almost certainly have a default color associated to them, so your complaints will fall on deaf ears because perhaps the person that collects and paints Tau, paint them like the picture below, which drastically alters most peoples perception of how the overall army looks with a full color scheme like that.

Loving that Tron scheme. As a personal preference, I'd have to say Dark Eldar simply because they're a very diverse faction to play with. Lots of weird and wonderful toys too.

Closely followed by SM in particular: Dark Angels, Black Templars and Blood Angels.

Voted Craftworld Eldar, painted well they make an amazing looking army.

 Zewrath wrote:

 The Wise Dane wrote:

 Zewrath wrote:

 The Wise Dane wrote:
Tau? TAU? How the HELL can anyone choose TAU as the best looking army?!

No, seriously, I don't get it - I find it one of the dullest armies, and one of those with the dullest models. I never felt like the models were good to paint or model, and some models just plain don't fit, Crisis Suits to Riptides, for example. Boxes, edges, boxes, edges, clean colours, boxes, maybe a bit of light effects, edges...

Please, can someone who like the Tau like that explain it to me?

It's called having a personal opinion and different tastes.

Sure, and I know some stuff is for others, but what I don't get is that the models are rather base when compared to, e.g. Tacticals or Terminators. In my opinion the models are nought but the base of a model - No extra culture like jewelry, ceremonial swords or unique armour, and on the other hand, the models aren't too hi-tech for a very hi-tech faction... It's just boxes to me.

... Am I the only one with this look on the models, or at least the Fire Warrior and Crisis Suit models?

Well, I honestly think the problem is that you are looking at it as if there's anything logical to taste or preference. I can't describe why I think the Leman Russ is an awesome looking tank. I can see the odd shapes and aesthetics that people point out to me are the things they dislike, but when I look at it I just think it looks awesome. I have no logical arguements for it, nor could I hope to prove it in some kind of mathematical manner that explains why I'm fond of the model. I just am.
Of course, there are certain aspects that provably affects the human mind. Like Red color applied in a certain way will unconsciously affect your mood or enhance certain aesthetics of the model (which is why a lot of thought and research is thrown in to what colors a new car should be designed around). For many years I was put off by the Tyranid models, simply due to the default color schemes that GW has, until I saw many great color schemes which gave a whole new look to the Tyranids and I almost instantly fell in love with them. There are a lot of ways a paint scheme can affect the aesthetics of an army, so bear in mind that when you critize the looks of the Tau, you almost certainly have a default color associated to them, so your complaints will fall on deaf ears because perhaps the person that collects and paints Tau, paint them like the picture below, which drastically alters most peoples perception of how the overall army looks with a full color scheme like that.

Spoiler:

Yeah I guess it's just me then... I like the ornate, the rugged, the hi-tech and what-else, but if there's something I cannot stand, it's simple clean line. SOMETHING gotta break the model a bit, and I don't feel the Tau has that.

But then again, that was why I stopped playing Tau and started Orks, and soon Grey Knights

So far the Grey Knights have been the only army that have drawn me in from the miniatures' cool factor.

 Sir Arun wrote:
So far the Grey Knights have been the only army that have drawn me in from the miniatures' cool factor.

Aaw, this is my jaaaaam.

I'm starting a Grey Knights army solely because of this.

 The Wise Dane wrote:
Sure, and I know some stuff is for others, but what I don't get is that the models are rather base when compared to, e.g. Tacticals or Terminators. In my opinion the models are nought but the base of a model - No extra culture like jewelry, ceremonial swords or unique armour, and on the other hand, the models aren't too hi-tech for a very hi-tech faction... It's just boxes to me.

... Am I the only one with this look on the models, or at least the Fire Warrior and Crisis Suit models?

Sometimes less is more. I'm assembling a BA tactical squad right now and I have to say, all this jewelry, ceremonial and unique stuff is just too god-damned much sometimes. Most Space Marine models I've seen are so over-the-top in decoration it actually achieves the opposite of the desired effect, in my opinion. The models just look too busy to me, and look like a nightmare to paint to boot. In fact I'll probably never actually paint this squad because of the idea of having to paint every little bit of rope, every tiny little blood drop, etc. Ain't nobody got time for dat.

Fun fact; when I was clipping pairs of legs off the sprue, I noticed this one pair had an attachment point right on top of a little dangly blood drop on the side of the right leg, which oddly enough wasn't molded directly to the leg like on some of the others. In between loudly asking myself why the FETH would anyone put an attachment point right there, I tried to carefully clip it off and go about cleaning the blemish the best I could. Eventually I just moved on fearing I would break the thing clean off, then when I went to glue it to a base I accidentally brushed up against that bit and did nearly break it off completely. At that point I just said screw it and clipped it off myself, since I was inevitably going to have to do it at some point anyway. It's cases like that in particular that make me think "Why bother?" All these extra, fiddly details are awful impractical considering that the models are meant to be used for gaming, and ultimately pointless when you have to get rid of them because of the inevitability of losing that detail during the rigors of play.

And as far as hi-tech goes, maybe all you see are boxes, but when I look at Space Marines all I see are cylinders and giant bowls on their shoulders. Not to mention Space Marines literally drive around in boxes; the rhino is pretty much just a box shape with tracks stuck on, and it's a look that carries over to many of their other vehicles, too...even the ones supposedly capable of flight. If we were to judge tech level based on the appearance of the models alone I'd say Tau and Space Marines are about equal, neither one seems to have anything that the other doesn't have. Of course that's just based on appearance, personal teleporters alone are far beyond what the Tau are currently capable of producing but that's not something you can see so it doesn't really count.

Another thing you fail to realize is that the two kits you're criticizing so heavily, the fire warriors and crisis suits, are really fething old. It's been a good 13-14 years I think since they were first released and they haven't changed. I'm pretty sure if you compared a squad of tactical Marines from that period to what you can buy now you'd probably notice a difference in the amount and quality of the detail present, too. But with these two kits in particular, I personally rather like fire warriors and they're one of the reasons I went with Tau in the first place. The main reason was the design of their grav tanks, the hammerhead in particular is still my favorite sci-fi tank design. But anyway, the fire warriors and crisis suits I feel both suffer more from age than anything else. The fire warrior kit, like many others still lingering from over a decade (or more) ago, is really damn bare compared to "modern" GW kits where there is almost literally no empty space left on a sprue. Looking at the pathfinder kit that just came out last year, I'd say if GW were to redo it today you'd see a lot more stuff to adorn the models with; ceremonial knives, lots of pouches, ammo, grenades, bionics, etc. It may not be much, because obviously the Tau don't really emphasize individuality that much, so you won't be seeing many Tau running around with tattoos or weird hairstyles or stuff scrawled all over their armor, but there's a couple bits in that kit to give your models more character, and if GW wanted to they could easily do that with the fire warriors (or you could mix the pathfinder bits in here and there).

The crisis suits definitely haven't aged well, though. Not only do they still lack poseability and options like they always have, but they just don't look so great anymore compared to some of the newer models, like the FW variants, the XV9 suits (which are based on one of Roberto Cirillo's awesome concepts for a new XV8 kit which clearly weren't used, Google them if you're curious and you can see some of the ideas he had for a new design), and personally I think Farsight's suit looks really cool, despite being an awful Finecast model. I've definitely seen better-looking mecha, I'll admit that, but I still think they have some charm to them even with all of their flaws. I was really hoping we'd see a new crisis suit kit drop with the codex last year...I can't tell you how disappointed I am that we got the riptide instead. Flies in the face of established fluff and looks like trash to boot.

And lastly, as mentioned, I think paint has a lot to do with it. The bright yellow T'au Sept scheme doesn't really do it for everyone, and that's the one you most often see because that's how the studio Tau army is painted. I don't mind it because it just looks like a desert scheme to me, though albeit not a very "realistic" one, but I can understand why others don't. Yellow doesn't seem to be everyone's favorite color in the first place, and it only really looks good in certain cases. Tau models definitely seem to have more of an impact when painted in darker colors like blue or green, or just going grey with them and doing an urban camouflage theme. Even brown works well.

Personally though I don't think it really needs explaining, I just like how they look. The riptide and sun shark models being exceptions to that, just not at all impressed with either kit. In any case, don't question my love for Tau and I won't question yours for Space Marines, which as I said earlier, is a love I find very hard to understand. And I like to think I'm pretty careful with my models, too.

And guess who I voted for, lol...though to be perfectly honest I probably should have voted for Dark Eldar instead, because thinking back now I honestly don't know if I could find a stinker in the entire product range. I like pretty much all of the Dark Eldar models. Even wyches, I'm not particularly fond of wyches but the kit isn't so awful that I just hate it or anything. Obviously I can't say that for Tau anymore.

I went with Dark Eldar but it was tough between them, Tau and Necron. I really hate Space Marines for the most part, since FW started releasing the pre heresy armour I realised how much I don't like the plastic MkVII armour. Dark Eldar look incredible, I love the clean look to the Tau (not everything needs to be festooned in decoration, especially not in a war situation), and apart from the old Necron Warriors (even they are okay apart from the stupidly wide stance), the whole Necron range in my eyes is awesome.

I like Tyranids most (as of late).

I think Tyranid vs. most Space Marine variants (I like Dark Angels Deathwing and Grey Knights the best) is one of the best-looking matches on the table.

SGTPozy wrote:
Tau are the coolest looking army and they are very balanced against other codices, so you'll be in for a fair fight.

9/10 would rage again.

I do like some of their models though. Farsight looks amazing at least. Most
of the suits just look clunky and Macross-ish.

Mordian Iron Guard.

The rest of you are wrong.

Flat out wrong.

Inquisitorial teams have been dispatched to adjust your views.

Dark Eldar. If the CW Eldar model range got a decent update then they might well be the best.

I also just wanted to pop back in and say that I noticed the irony in starting off my post with "less is more" and then proceeding to type out a giant wall of text.

Anyway, I dunno, I kinda like that "clunkiness" the Tau suits sorta have to them. It really badly needs to be updated but I don't want to see that go away completely, to be honest.

Wow- Dark Eldar is coming out pretty strongly at the moment!

Eldar and then some of the daemon models (mostly 3rd party as GW's are not all that great) are, IMO, generally the most beautiful; especially a well done Slaanesh army.

Orks generally can have the most fun conversion-wise however, unless you are good with green stuff in which case daemons can again come out on top

I'm really torn on this one...

Dark Eldar, all loaded up in their skimmers, like evil pirates on land triremes, is just plain cool...

But, columns of Romanized Ultramarines all decked out in their ranks is so evocative that I can't help be drawn to them too...

Yet dark ranks of Raven wing bikes or their alabaster Mongol cousins' tearing across the map is tough to pass on...

As is a thundering Warhound supporting an Armored Corps of IG with a few platoons of crack troopers...

But then there is the coolness of a red wave of Khornate Chaos Marines and their brutal allies from the immaterium, breathing fire and ash as they turn the battlefield into a ghastly floor of remains...

Not to be outdone by the deep glow of green on metal as the juggernaut of Necron Warriors grinds your front lines down as curved blades of aerial death sweep in from above...

and I could go on and on....

Today, at this moment, I would say here are my top six:

Luna Wolves, done up right, pre-Heresy
Grey Knights, with their dreadknights and engraved TDAs
Ravenwing with Deathwing support, the coal and bone look awesome together
An Eldar craftworld force, all done up with unified scheme... I'm partial to Saim-Hann
Character heavy UM force, with banners, standards, and red capes abounding
DE force with ravagers, raiders, and a sweet, edgy color palate to them.

Ask me tomorrow and I could pick an entirely different mix

Every SM army for me (CSM excluded, they need new models in line with the DV chosen).

I love my Dark Angels. The Ravenwing Black Knights in particular are very nice models. All the death angel iconography with the robes is awesome.

I love a few things in other codexes as well. Eldar tanks, IG Vendettas, Dark Eldar troops, the general aesthetic of Nids, and the awesome conversion potential for Orcs. At the end of the day angry death angels marines driven by paranoia and guilt win out. Probably because we don't have the big russian nesting marines and the brick with wings Space Marine flyers.

Don't be afraid to bring in stuff from other lines to spice up your army's look either. I have a number of WHFB conversions in my 40k army. Some of the GW fantasy kits are amazing and make me super jealous that i don't have any interest in playing it.

Personally, based on official models, I like the Dark Eldar sculpts the most.