The Legion of the Damned have just returned to 40K in plastic, and after comparing the new Kill Team with the old range, there's a rather nice 3rd Edition connection hiding in plain sight.

GW revealed the new Legion of the Damned on 18 September for Kill Team: Armageddon. Community reaction has been enormous – the main reveal thread passed 4,000 upvotes – but one hobbyist spotted something particularly interesting:

Several of the new Legionnaires aren't simply inspired by the old aesthetic. They appear to be deliberate modern reinterpretations of individual classic models.

The clearest example is the Sergeant.

Put him beside the old metal Sergeant and the lineage is immediately obvious: skull-faced helmet, skeletal chest decoration, sword and the same wonderfully excessive heavy-metal attitude. Other members of the new squad similarly echo poses, weapons and details from earlier Legionnaires rather than redesigning the faction from scratch.

For 3rd Edition players, that's particularly appropriate.

The familiar metal Legion of the Damned range was already appearing in WD223 in July 1998, immediately before 3rd Edition arrived. Then, in WD228 (December 1998), Andy Chambers gave the Legion official Chapter Approved rules for the new Codex: Space Marines.

And GW wasn't finished with them.

In March 2003, WD279 returned to the Legion in "The Cursed Founding", alongside the Black Dragons, Minotaurs, Lamenters, Flame Falcons and Sons of Antaeus. These were trial rules by Andy Hoare, Graham McNeill and Phil Kelly which let players construct armies from some of the Imperium's strangest Astartes Chapters.

That article is a brilliant example of something I miss about 3rd Edition White Dwarf.

An unusual corner of the background didn't necessarily require a £35 hardback Codex and a complete miniature range.

Sometimes the Studio simply printed a few pages of rules and effectively said: go build it.

Which makes the 2026 return rather satisfying.

Nearly three decades after those metal Legionnaires appeared, GW hasn't reinvented them into something unrecognisable. The skulls, bones, black armour and flames are still there – and some of the actual miniature designs have apparently survived the journey too.

The community has already started discussing conversions, Salamanders projects and alternative Chapters using the new kit.

So the cycle begins again:

GW releases some extremely strange Space Marines.

Hobbyists immediately start cutting them apart.

Very 3rd Edition.

Now that the models are coming back, I'd love to see somebody field the new plastics using the original WD228 rules.

Bonus points for recreating the entire Cursed Founding article.

Sources / further reading:

GW's 18 September 2026 Legion of the Damned / Kill Team: Armageddon reveal:  
https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/ltbqrokb/the-big-autumn-preview-the-legion-of-the-damned-enter-the-killzone/

Current community comparison showing the new Sergeant beside his original miniature:  
https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/1wl0nyn/lotd\_model\_inspiration/

The main reveal discussion – 4,000+ upvotes and plenty of hobby reaction:  
https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/1wjzhrv/big\_autumn\_preview\_kill\_team\_armageddon\_plastic/

Catalogue of the 1998-99 Legion of the Damned miniatures:  
https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Miniatures:\_Legion\_of\_the\_Damned

Chapter Approved index – WD228 Legion of the Damned rules and WD279 Cursed Founding trial rules:  
https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Chapter\_Approved

The Legion of the Damned are back – and the new models are remarkably faithful to their early Edition ancestors