Warhammer 40K: Primaris Chaplain Review

When I first saw the Primaris Chaplain, I wasn't terribly impressed. As others noted here and there around the Internet, the skull-faced, duster-coated miniature looked suspiciously like the Overwatch character Reaper. But here I am after building and painting this figure and I am ready to declare it my favorite sculpt out of the entire Primaris Space Marine line.

I love this model, and I especially enjoyed my hobby time with it. The build is pretty simple and there is no customization (which some may find bothersome), but I liked the sort of meat-and-potatoes process. After painting an Ultramarines force from what seemed like a never-ending pot of Macragge Blue, I decided right after putting the Chaplain together to move him to the front of the line. The notion of painting a model that is mostly black and brown was appealing.

This is your humble Editor-in-Chief's actual, painted model. I'm proud of it!

After a black brush prime I found putting down the base colors to be really easy but here's a protip- don't glue the Chaplain to the base until after you paint under the coat. A couple of shades of dark brown (Rhinox Hide and Dryad Bark), some Mephiston Red on the accessories, and some metallics and he was looking decent after a Nuln Oil wash. A little highlighting and a Macragge Blue pauldron to tie him visually to the rest of the army and he was looking great. I totally went for it on the finishing work, sponging some Gorthor Brown on the coat to get the cool, faded and worn look like you see on the box photos. I even went bananas and did some freehand script on his scrolls- something I am usually terrified of doing.

So I was very happy with the model, and I like very much that he's a change of pace from the usual Space Marine models. But of course, the big question was how he fits into a force on the field. The answer to that is "brutally". He costs just 4 power points using the casual scale and he really doesn't appear to be that spectacular with ho-hum statline and weapons. But when you use the Chaplain as a frontline melee cheerleader, his value becomes apparent.

Litanies of Hate allow him to buff your Marines within 6", giving them a failed hit reroll during the fight phase. This is pretty great for close encounters. His Crozius Arcanum is a very good melee weapon with+1 strength, -1 armor penetration, and 2 damage aided and abetted by a weapon skill of 2. So he's a capable assailant in his own right, with a +4 invulnerable save thanks to his Rosarius. And you can allow any Marines within 6" to use his high leadership of 9.

Sending the Chaplain to the fight along with CC units such as Reivers is fun, and I like the visual of this death-dealing, death-looking dude striding the battlefield with your frontline guys. He looks distinctive and dangerous, and he makes for a great HQ add to an army. But there is again, just like with the Primaris Captain and Librarian, the price issue. $35 retail for a single sprue, basic figure is a bitter pill to swallow.