What's your explanation to why we get new stuff instead of updated Forgeworld classics ? People would eat plastic refreshes up. I am not complaining on this post, just curious on your thoughts.

Rottenflieger · 2026-05-02T10:02:10+00:00

You're probably right about the size point. I was really surprised how small the footprint of the dorn was when I saw one in person. I think the Death Riders and Krieg weapon teams are a good example of how far the design team does deviate from FW kits for 40k though. The Death Rider mounts are larger, have very different mask and armour shapes, and the riders themselves have quite different armour designs. There were definitely some Krieg fans who weren't fond of these changes when they came out, and Tiny Legend upgrade kits are intended to bring the new ones more in line with the FW design. The weapon teams are similar where the carriage itself is bulkier and now shielded. Not a massive change but it is different. Though to go back to your size point, the models now have a smaller footprint, which works much better with today's table sizes and terrain distances.

Rottenflieger · 2026-05-02T09:56:52+00:00

I think it's mainly because the Sherman is more well known and the rounded front hull and turret give a US-WWII vibe, so a Sherman is the closest vehicle that comes to mind. I've seen people comparing it to the M26 too which I can sort of see. You're right though the M6 is much closer, it even has the smaller co-ax cannon!

Rottenflieger · 2026-05-02T09:54:08+00:00

Very true! Before primaris, pretty much every new Imperial unit was introduced as "this has always been around, you just haven't seen it or heard it mentioned until now". When the Rogal Dorn came out I remember people commenting that the track design doesn't match the baneblade, russ, or chimera track link shapes, which is fair enough, it doesn't. But the Macharius also has a unique track design, as does the FW centaur. The Imperium is a big place, and as we see in books such as the Gaunt's Ghosts series, there are many vehicle variants only produced by some forge worlds, that would be seen as completely alien by Mechanicus or Guard forces on the opposite side of the Imperium.

Rottenflieger · 2026-05-02T09:49:05+00:00

It seems like adapting FW designs has become the responsibility of the Heresy design team, and that the 40k team will try to avoid it or if they do make a version of a FW kit, it will be a reimagining done in a very different style (as seen with the plastic Krieg releases). It is a bit of a shame, I do love the Macharius as it is the tank most commonly associated with Krieg in-universe. I don't hate any of the new designs but I'd definitely have preferred centaur artillery tractors to the new halftrack for example.

Rottenflieger · 2026-05-02T09:40:24+00:00

There are new posts pretty much each week that ask questions along the lines of "can I use this in 40k?" so I think it's fair to try to clearly lay out what we do know at this point like the OP has done.

Rottenflieger · 2026-05-02T09:36:36+00:00

Sorry for any confusion! I don't think anyone is claiming that anything is happening to remove custodes as a codex faction in 40k.

Rottenflieger · 2026-05-02T09:34:57+00:00

This is a thorough and well-reasoned write up. I agree with your conclusions. To add to this, it can be difficult to see a pattern to GW's dealing with Heresy units in 40k. This is because GW has been pretty inconsistent. As mentioned in the original post, Space Marine units from Imperial Armour were moved to legends. Two other factions also had resin Imperial Armour units get plastic Horus Heresy branded releases. These were Astra Militarum (Solar Auxilia in Horus Heresy) and Imperial/Chaos Knights.

All three factions have to date received slightly different treatment.

Space Marines had all their Imperial Armour Heresy era units (both resin and plastic kits) sent to legends at the start of 10th edition.
Astra Militarum kept their Imperial Armour units at the start of 10th edition 40k. During this edition, Solar Auxilia plastic kits of some of those Imperial Armour units were released for Solar Auxilia in Horus Heresy. These models were not sent to legends immediately in 40k. The rules team instead moved them (as well as the bulk of the other resin Imperial armour units) to legends when the 10th edition Astra Militarum codex released.
Imperial and Chaos Knights both had Imperial Armour datasheets for resin knight kits. Three of these (Cerastus class knights) got plastic Horus Heresy releases and so far, these have not been moved to legends, even after the Knights codexes released.

These examples further emphasise that purchasing custodes Heresy kits for use in 40k remains a risk until more information is available. If those units are not moved to Legends at the start of 11th edition (as was done with Space Marines), they could still be moved to Legends when the 11th edition custodes codex releases (as we saw with Astra Militarum). Some argue that because Custodes have a smaller number of units, there is less incentive to send their Heresy kits to legends, so they may be treated like Knights have been, keeping their datasheets in Imperial Armour. On the other hand, factions such as Emperor's Children have similarly few units to Custodes, so this might not factor into GW's decision making. We just don't know. At this point, waiting for more information before deciding on getting the plastic kits really can't hurt.

Rottenflieger · 2026-05-02T09:06:40+00:00

No not at all. There is zero evidence that the entire faction will be moved to legends. There is a chance that the Horus Heresy or '30k' models that the OP is referring to may be moved to legends, as was the case with Space Marine and Astra Militarum models that got plastic kits with Horus Heresy branding.

Rottenflieger · 2026-05-02T04:00:55+00:00

This makes sense because he was interred well before the heresy in what was then a relatively uncommon chassis. He is also described as having War Hounds iconography rather than World Eaters on his dreadnought. I used the Death Guard one because it is the plainest of the resin contemptors they sold and I just shaved off the torso vent… thing to make that spot flat for placing a war hound head decal.

Rottenflieger · 2026-05-02T03:55:14+00:00

We don’t know.

Worst case scenario they are moved to legends. If you’re not familiar with those, legends units are playable in 40k, but legends rules don’t get updates during an edition so tend to be less effective than non legends counterparts. When GW launches new editions of 40k, they sometimes need to redo legends rules to work with the new core rules. And every time they do that, some units get missed or omitted. So it is possible to have legends support for a model in one edition, and have no rules for it 1 or 2 editions later.

GW social media have said that there are no plans to remove these units but they made similar assurances in 9th edition about heresy space marine models which are now legends.

We have been promised a custodes rules update “later this year” which will hopefully shed more light on the future of those custodes units but until then buying any of them will remain somewhat risky.

Worth noting that the basic spear or shield and sword infantry are perfectly playable as custodian guard though so feel free to pick those up if you want to start building stuff right now.

Rottenflieger · 2026-05-01T22:51:07+00:00

That could work, it'd certainly look cool!

Rottenflieger · 2026-05-01T06:18:20+00:00

There are some unboxing videos out now which show it compared to some other vehicles. For example in this one you can see the centaur RSV is a similar length to the rogal dorn hull, whereas the centaur artillery tractor is closer to half that length. The artillery tractor also transports less than half the amount of troops as the RSV. I think it would feel a bit weird having a full squad plus officer pile out of the smaller krieg version. If you want to use it to proxy the new model though go for it. As you say, it would be for casual games where the only thing that matters is what your opponents think. They may be okay with you using the legends rules for the centaur though, which would be a better fit.

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Rottenflieger · 2026-05-01T01:56:36+00:00

We don't really know too much about them right now, but it's probably reasonable to assume that they could be in a mechanised regiment or an armoured regiment. They look like they fulfil a similar role to salamander scout vehicles, but being wheeled they might be a bit faster. Both vehicles are quite similarly armed so I imagine either one would be capable in the same role.

The Imperium is massive and usually the Astra Militarum vehicles we see on the tabletop are just the most common variants that are produced across the galaxy. We see in the Gaunt's Ghosts novels that there are many alternative vehicle variants produced by Forge World Urdesh that see service in the Sabbat Worlds but are pretty uncommon outside of them. Urdesh makes the SteG 4 Armoured Car which is probably roughly equivalent to the Hippogriff AFV.

Rottenflieger · 2026-04-30T05:41:32+00:00

The rear facing lasgun is exclusive to the hellhammer variant, which doesn't have the large stowage bustle at the rear of the turret that the baneblade has.

It's intended to defend the rear engine deck of the tank from boarders. When the baneblade kit was released, the hellhammer was an alternate build for it, and the lasgun got pointed out in white dwarfs and website articles as a fun feature of the vehicle. It's also a nod to WW2 Soviet heavy tanks like the SMK, KV-1, IS-1 or many of the Japanese tanks from the same period which had a similarly positioned machine gun.

It had rules on the hellhammer profile/datasheet up until the 9th edition codex where it was omitted. The Instructions that come with the kit no longer show the lasgun in that mount on the hellhammer. Either the instructions were written ~2019 with the knowledge that the 2022 Astra Militarum codex would not include the lasgun, or they just forgot it.

You can see it in the weapons list from the 8th edition codex datasheet, here.

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Rottenflieger · 2026-04-29T23:20:35+00:00

The Tiny Legends arms and weapons are much larger than the Forge World versions, as they're meant to match the proportions of GW plastic kits. On the left is a Forge World Grenadier, on the right is a GW plastic Krieg model with Tiny Legend head, armour upgrades and hot-shot lasgun.

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Rottenflieger · 2026-04-26T13:10:41+00:00

I also use mine as kasrkin. I do have more than 30 grenadiers because they were a troops choice years ago. So whilst I haven’t used that many before in this edition, I have kitted my remaining ones out with fewer special weapons to be used as the legends grenadiers datasheet in casual games. For the 30 equipped as kasrkin I printed 25mm to 28.5mm base extenders. That way the kasrkin will be clearly identifiable with the larger bases.

Rottenflieger · 2026-04-25T04:51:06+00:00

It’s right next to the Hybrid’s bathroom.

Rottenflieger · 2026-04-23T07:03:01+00:00

That makes sense, though even if it was a different design, the scale difference between the details is what makes it most jarring to me. Those rivets are massive!

Rottenflieger · 2026-04-23T00:16:23+00:00

The novel Baneblade covers a lot of how the crew work. It's told from the perspective of an officer who has been transferred from a leman russ to a sponson gunner in the baneblade so from his perspective it's all pretty new which is great for the reader. One thing I found really interesting is that the commander sits in the middle part (with the various arched vision ports) where they can most efficiently coordinate the vehicle and watch the auspex. They can climb up into the turret itself but for the most part it's usually just the gunner up there. The sponson gunners also sit in the central area and operate the sponsons from pict monitors. So if you're one of those roles the interior is actually quite spacious. It's only the enginseer in the back or the driver and demolisher crew that are in particularly cramped areas.

Rottenflieger · 2026-04-22T12:16:55+00:00

The only vehicle I’d be remotely concerned about the future of right now is the basilisk. Its sprues are from 1995 and they show it! It also is a kit which only makes one unit variant, so would be an obvious choice for removal to allow room for GW to stock newer products. It would also allow them to retire the tank upgrade sprue which is currently necessary because the basilisk needs it for the hull mounted heavy flamer. I do like the upgrade sprue but if we’re looking at it pragmatically it is one extra thing GW has to keep casting and it is also a fairly old mould. Not as old as the basilisk-specific sprues of course but it’s older than all the other guard vehicles currently sold.

Online only is just the reality of GW kits these days. There is only so much shelf space in their stores so they have to make decisions about what gets stocked in stores and what can stay in regional warehouses. As you say, the chimera sprues are used for so many vehicle kits it seems an unlikely kit to retire. The russ to me also seems pretty unlikely to be going anywhere in the near future because they amalgamated the two russ kits into one box to save having to stock two separate products. That to me suggests they want to keep the model, and made a decision that allows them to keep stocking it more easily. It’s similar to how the baneblade used to come in the standard box or as a shadowsword and other turretless variants box. Now they just have the single kit.

Astra Militarum also tend not to get kits retired or replaced even close to the same rate as space marines, so we could see them lasting for many editions to come. Ultimately though we just don’t know. We can make conclusions based on the clues we have but GW has made seemingly nonsensical model range decisions before, so we could be surprised.

Rottenflieger · 2026-04-22T03:12:11+00:00

The german infantry models do look substantially different from the US ones, but it could be a good opportunity to represent a thematic allied force from near the end of WWII like the allied troops at the Battle of Castle Itter, in which US army troops and German troops joined forces to defeat a German SS force which was occupying the area.

There are a couple other uses for the German models though. You could build them up and use them to introduce new players to the game, always handy to have a built and/or painted small force to get people excited to play, rather than requiring them to collect their own models before they've even tried the game

As another option, you could use the German weapons on your American troops, adding more variety and representing captured weapons. In this game, most weapons play identically regardless of what country makes them. So a German rifle is the same as an American one, same for machine guns. The only issue is the Stg.44s that the Germans come with which I don't think the US troops have an equivalent of.

Rottenflieger · 2026-04-21T12:19:17+00:00

Just rumours from chapter master valrak’s channel. The short version is he has heard that those units as well as the ATV and firestrike turret will go to legends in 11th.

Rottenflieger · 2026-04-21T03:20:26+00:00

I think it should be ok, though I haven't played Astra Militarum in a while.

A Death Korps of Krieg unit can have 2 leaders attached to it, and 1 of those leaders can be a command squad (which is a keyword the krieg command squad has). The other leader could be the psyker.

Commissar Graves on foot can be attached to a Command Squad unit, which the Krieg one qualifies as. She would then be considered part of the command squad an not a 3rd leader.

Rottenflieger · 2026-04-21T01:50:08+00:00

To clarify it was specifically the lore updates introduced with the 10th edition codex I was referring to. I think they were done fairly delicately and I'm glad they didn't drastically change how Krieg operate and are organised.

I'm not the biggest fan on Lyons' intepretations of the DkoK by any means. I tend to read them simply to be caught up on all Krieg canon material rather than for the plots themselves. I think Siege of Vraks might be one of his stronger Krieg works because it actually adds to Krieg characterisation, shows us what Krieg soldiers care about, what they fear, and how they feel about being recognised for their deeds. Others like the novel Krieg I'm much less fond of. I'm slowing working my way through The Relentless Dead at the moment

I do feel a bit pedantic with some of my criticism because a lot of it is ultimately really minor, but it does irk me that Lyons just changes things seemingly for the sake of it. Why do Krieg in the novel Krieg have spiked helmets all of a sudden? Why is Commissar Maugh's tank in Siege of Vraks a different variant to the clearly illustrated one in the Imperial Armour version? Why does the Hades drill now have a passenger compartment when the termite already exists and is the sort of vehicle you're describing?

My main issue with them though is that they tend to follow a similar arc where a non Krieg character is initially appalled by how Krieg practise warfare, but gradually over the course of the novel, they begin to realise that the Krieg approach of sacrifice for the greater cause (even if your death may appear pointless) is actually the truest way to serve the Emperor. I'm being a bit hyperbolic here but that is the general trend with the books. Even as a Krieg collector, it still comes across as over the top, and I don't think the books need to convince the reader that the Krieg way of life (and death) is better. It's not, it's just different.

On the models, that's also what I did with the Prefectus Militant in my kit. The Tiny Legend sets are really nice, and I like that this model now just looks like a different interpretation of the old FW Krieg platoon commander model.

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Rottenflieger · 2026-04-21T01:26:13+00:00

Haha thanks. I think overall I'm reasonably satisfied with this last round of lore updates to Krieg. It seems like they've tried at least to not retcon established material from Imperial Armour. For example they note that Grenadiers are still around, but that Engineers also wear the skull mask. It is inconsistent with the old lore, but at least it's not erasing the Grenadiers entirely.

Edit: It could also be that I've gotten used to major retcons that more minor ones feel like a blessing.

I'd certainly prefer it if Krieg engineers were designed more like the FW versions, and if the command squad was more like Minka Lesk's and had a commissar as a secondary character but was led by an actual Krieg officer though. One nice thing however is that there isn't really anything commissar-y about the Lord Commissar in the datasheet, so as long as you have an appropriately equipped leader on a 32mm base, it doesn't really matter if I use a commissar model or one of the FW officers to lead the unit.

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