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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.

No votes for Marine armies here please.
The tin cans are far from being aesthetic.
My vote goes to Biel-Tan.

Hard for me to pick a favorite. They're all really good. GW has really great art direction in general. These days I've been really into the look of Mk3 power armor. Especially heresy-era Dark Angels.

Also the aesthetic of HH Mechanicum is sublime.

Sororitas from Order Of Our Martyred Lady.

 wuestenfux wrote:
No votes for Marine armies here please.
The tin cans are far from being aesthetic.
My vote goes to Biel-Tan.

Good choice, and in general I don't disagree regarding SM - although Blood Angels are different with their sculpted armour, haloes, wings, grails and blood drops.


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 Sim-Life wrote:
Sororitas from Order Of Our Martyred Lady.

I do like the angelic look!


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 slave.entity wrote:
Hard for me to pick a favorite. They're all really good. GW has really great art direction in general. These days I've been really into the look of Mk3 power armor. Especially heresy-era Dark Angels.

Also the aesthetic of HH Mechanicum is sublime.

Interesting. Very different from the kind of stuff I like, but that's the whole point of this post!

The problem is that they are all pretty distinct. Really you say no marines but they are the only ones that can really compete against each other as they at least aim for a similar aesthetic style and focus.
Tyranid VS Eldar - well they are both so different and aiming for such different things that they both "win" based on their own criteria. And its the same for many of the others, they are aiming for very distinct aesthetic themes and they achieve them really well.

Marines VS Marines might be the only way to win this!

I would say Craftworld Eldars, Orks and Sisters of Battle are the most aesthetically beautiful faction in that order I would say (Sisters of Battle might rise depending on their new models). The worst looking faction from an Aesthetic point of view is probably the Imperial Guard, but its models are ancient and basically simple army-dudes. Vanilla Space Marines are following them rather closely, especially after their recent releases.

Orks??? Each to their own!

Take your point about the IG. I'd like to see new IG kits and the return of miniatures for Valhallans, Tallarns and Vostroyans.

 Darian Aarush wrote:
Orks??? Each to their own!

They have a solid futuristic junker style. A lot of their units like Stomboyz, Nobz, Flash Gitz and even Gretchins have a wide array of customisation and unique individual look. They are made to look ugly, savage and dirty but attractively so in my opinion. It's easy for an Ork army to stand out and catch the eye and remain thematically consistent all the while allowing its various units to be easily differentiable within their own faction.

PS: The Tallarn and Valhallans are also extremely boring in my opinion being soldiers in WWII Russia and Taliban during the Russian invasion. The Vostroyan are pretty much the only ones who tried to look like some sort of unique archaic yet futuristic soldiers that coul be said to be more representative of the Imperium look in general.

Indeed. That's what I mean. I certainly think they're cool. For me they're not 'beautiful', but that doesn't mean they wouldn't be for others. It's like daemons or Death Guard units - artistically great. Really cool. I personally wouldn't consider them beautiful, but everyone's entitled to their opinion!


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Think Tallarn were more WWI Arab revolt inspired. My point is at least there was some aesthetic variation. It would be nice just to have a bigger range of Imperial Guard models.

Slaanesh Daemons. Easily and without question.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
Slaanesh Daemons. Easily and without question.

I can see where you're coming from with that one. Keeper of Secrets in particular has a good aesthetic.

Old inquisition/sisters, captured the grim imperial aesthetic really well. Krieg also but more stylized.

Chaos Space Marines. Really... all of them. They're Marines, but with style. Any Legion but Emperor's Children looks great, and in HH even Emperor's Children look pretty cool.

I've seen great paintjobs on Eldar, but overall I don't like their models. Similar to CSM and SM, Dark Eldar are the better looking Version of Eldar (aside from the Haemunculi-stuff).

HH Mechanicum I like, too, but not their vehicles. Thallax, Castellax, Thanatar are outstanding, too bad nothing in 40K mechanicus can compete with these.

Fluff- and conceptwize I like Orks, but there are just too many different styles in the army. i guess that's their thing, but no Klan is really expanded upon, or maybe only Evil Sunz, however I dislike most Ork vehicles so...
If there was a proper Snakebites-Army with every Warhammer Fantasy greenskin model with tacked on Guns and additionaly Squiggoths, that would be awesome.

Blood Angels and Space Wolves have their own style, but I take your point.

The Thousand Sons Rubric Marines certainly have a unique and distinctive aesthetic.

Biel-Tan. The vines really grow on you.

pm713 wrote:
Biel-Tan. The vines really grow on you.

Got to be Drukhari in my books.

Best models GW ever put out imho.

Not sure about beauty exactly but for me it's the Tau. Fire Warriors have one of the coolest sets of infantry armor that looks inspired by feudal japan ashigaru. Their tanks and traditional suits (pre riptide) has this alien, sci fi, and reasonably practical look to it that doesn't look out of place on the battlefield. Sadly GW seems to have lost that inspiration with things like the codex flyers, stormsurge, and the tidewall. (I like and yet dislike the Riptide and Ghostkeel).

Death Korps

I quite like the Tau stuff as well

Elysians with their full kits and masked heads were pretty cool, I regret not getting some.

GSC. Beautiful models and a really unified aesthetic. Top notch all round.

Craftworld Eldar has the most beautiful models, imo.

Everything else is up to paint job though. Any army can be beautiful.

GSC by far.


The mix of weird abominations and rebel freedom fighters, unique design and details everywhere as well as an awesome overall feel, especially in a nice, weird alien colour scheme. It's peak 40K.

Harlequins, the prismatic array of colors and techniques to get them to average yet alone immaculate is pretty high.

Craftworlds with the nebula style paint jobs for me, just stunning...if only I had the skills.

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/469570698629034984/

 Insectum7 wrote:
Craftworld Eldar has the most beautiful models, imo.

Everything else is up to paint job though. Any army can be beautiful.

I think you made a good point here.

Biased but personally: baseline csm, baroque and overindulgant in a perfect blend torwards their ideology of gaining immortality as individuals.

Dark eldar imo need to be done well but if so look amazing.

Eldar to me are too gaudy personally.

But the cake goes imo to dkok.

I think tau vehicles have the best aesthetics of any vehicle in 40k.
This doesn't cover crisis suits.

Eldar have beautiful figures by and large.

Tyranids.

Grotesque is a misunderstood form of beauty.

I would say Harlequins, Orks, & FW Cerastus Knights.

Harlequins look the most "elf" like with the masks and vibrant patterns. The have the best looking HQ's of the 3(4) elf factions.

Ork=insanity=form following function, just in a cunningly butal/brutally cunning way.

Cerastus Knights just ooze acreotech mixed with a more humanoid stance and look like they can actually move "fast"(advancing light tank) as opposed to the "hunchback" Questoris.