Review: Imperial Knight Questoris Defender

Towering war machines, bristling with weapons and heraldry, Imperial Knights embody both the splendour and brutality of the far future. Now, over a decade since the original Questoris kit marched onto tabletops, Games Workshop have refreshed the model with a new release and a brand-new Knight Defender variant. In this review, we’ll unbox the new Questoris Knight, take a close look at the sprues, and see what makes the Defender stand apart from its predecessors.

The new Imperial Knight Questoris will be available for pre-order starting Saturday, 6 September 2025. The pre-order period lasts two weeks, with the official release date set for 20 September 2025.

With the arrival of the Knight Defender, the Questoris Knight kit will be split into two separate boxes:

• The refreshed Knight Questoris box contains a new, additional sprue with which to build the Knight Defender.
• The Knight Preceptor box builds a Preceptor or the mighty Canis Rex instead.
• Both updated Knight boxes will have all the parts necessary to build the Knights Paladin, Errant, Warden, Gallant and Crusader.

Knight Defender unboxing & review

The new Knight Questoris box contains a total of 5 sprues, a 170 mm oval base, and the familiar A5 transfer sheet featuring iconography for House Terryn, Hawkshroud, Cadmus, Taranis, Raven, and the Canis Rex Freeblade. The RRP is £115 / 150 € / $194.

Here’s what you get:

The 3 original sprues, allowing you to build a Knight Crusader, Paladin, or Errant. Weapon options include a Reaper chainsword, thermal cannon and rapid-fire battlecannon arms, plus a hull-mounted heavy stubber.

Patreon bonus content: Ultra high-res, uncompressed versions of these sprue images (and backsides of the sprues) can be downloaded here.

1 expansion sprue with the weapon options for a Knight Warden or Gallant: thunderstrike gauntlet and avenger gatling cannon arms, a hull-mounted meltagun, as well as Icarus autocannons, or an Ironstorm or Stormspear rocket pod for the carapace.

Patreon bonus content: Ultra high-res, uncompressed versions of these sprue images (and backsides of the sprues) can be downloaded here.

New to the set is a half-sized Knight Defender sprue, which adds the conversion beam obliterator with pyre blasters and plasma executor arms, along with a hull-mounted stubber and a top-mounted void shield generator. You also get a new head and two new faceplates.

Together with the Defender sprue, you also get the following cosmetic options in addition to the arsenal of weapons:

• 2 “faces” (which can also be used without a faceplate for a more Mechanicum look), plus 8 faceplates (2 of which are new on the Defender sprue)
• 2 Mechanicus icons, 2 Imperial icons, and a laurel wreath for Freeblades, all designed to sit above the head
• 6 eagle heads or 6 Mechanicus cog-skulls that can be attached to the exoskeleton as decoration
• An optional banner that hangs between the legs

Few kits in Warhammer 40,000 capture the sheer majesty of the setting quite like the Imperial Knight. When the Imperial Knight was first released many years ago, it was a real milestone. Even today it’s still enjoyable to build, though the mould lines on the three older sprues have become a bit more pronounced over time. The legs are designed in a predetermined pose, but you can clip off the locating pegs to achieve more posability, just as I did with my Knight Errant. The hip joint, arms, wrists, and to some extent the head are all engineered to be fully poseable, which is genius. It gives the model almost action figure like poseability.

Where to get

You can find the latest GW releases at our 🇬🇧/🇪🇺 partner stores Wayland Games, Element Games, and Firestorm Games, at 🇩🇪 Taschengelddieb and PK-Pro, and at 🇺🇸 Noble Knight Games with a welcome discount of up to 20% over RRP. Using our links helps to support Tale of Painters at no additional cost to you, so thank you very much for using them!

I hope you found this review helpful, feel free to leave a reaction or comment below, or post your questions here or discuss on our Discord channel.