Battle Masters Project - 1991 Warhammer Old World (COMPLTED! August 2025)

[Neldoreth]

Thanks for this! I will definitely post some pictures of the armies all together as they come together...

That’s very impressive painting, really brings out the best in the old critters! It will be very cool to see your whole Battle Masters set painted and deployed for battle.

(And, I agree that Elbows’ “sacrificial” armies of BM figures are far better than merely adequate. They alway look good in the pics of the demo games…)

[Neldoreth]

Thanks, appreciated! I definitely try to mix up the faces in all my figs, but these ones were really me trying to figure out how to do beastmen faces.... it worked out pretty well I think!

The shields on the other hand were me trying to switch from my usual perfectionism to just having fun and doing something that looked pretty good for beastmen... thanks for noticing!

Whoah - those beastmen look terrific! I love the different colour patterns on the faces, and the shields are great!

[Neldoreth]

More Chaos warriors for Battle Masters.

This is all I need for the actual Battle Masters army, but of course now I'm angling to create a Warhammer the Old World army out of these old, much maligned plastics. I know they lack pose diversity, and that is kinda boring, but I really love the crisp lines and the clean surfaces... so much fewer unnecessary contrast-medium-friendly details!

I also painted up some newer figs just to compare, and to point out just how similar the newer figures are to the old ones. They're basically the same miniatures, just bigger and with more detail! Also my plan is to use the Hero Quest Chaos warriors - totally of the same design era - as champions for the Battle Masters and Old World armies.

[Pattus Magnus]

They look awesome, as always! Clearly followers of Cucurbitos, one of the lesser known chaos deities.

[Mellal]

What did these with these plastic warriors is relaly impressive 

Absolutely stunning.

[Neldoreth]

Cucurbitos, I love that! Totally going to run with it, thanks!

They were definitely fun to paint for sure, and around Halloween, so a lot of inspiration!

[Pattus Magnus]

Cucurbitos is also known as The Great Pumpkin. Is a source of chaos in the Charlie Brown franchise.

[Elbows]

Excellent work.  Nice seeing the new model slotted in there.

[SgtSlag]

I took several of the knights from BattleMasters, painting them up as Ultra-Heavy Cavalry for my 2e BattleSystem games:

Original, unpainted plastic rider and mount;

Finished Riders atop their Mounts.

Simple block painting, with craft paints, un-thinned, followed by The Dip Technique, brushed on, then matte'd.  These GW figures paint up really well, even for us hack, army painters.  Cheers!

[Neldoreth]

Finished the first unit of orcs for Battle Masters!

I know that a lot of people love the GW-style orcs, but I was never one of those people. That being said, they do have a certain charm and really do represent a part of GW so it was fun to paint these up... but I won't be painting an army of GW orcs!

Also it gave me a chance to play around with some rust effects. Clean or really rusty metal is what I figured out... I'm not sure even the orcs would keep their metals in such disrepair, so I'm still finding a balance!

[Pattus Magnus]

They turned out great! I know what you mean about the rust - there are arguments both ways where orcs are concerned. I tend towards using some rust/ discoloration on things like blades, but with cleaner metal along places where it counts for combat performance, like cutting edges. My rationale is that orcs are sloppy but quite interested in maintaining the business end of their equipment.

[Elbows]

Great lookin' orcs.  I actually enjoyed painting those the most of the bad guys, I think.  Really simple, fun models to paint.

[steders]

They are stunning. Got some of them floating around somewhere
My friend recently found his old copy of this in the attic, going to try and have a game at some point.

[Frugalmax]

Lovely Orcs and Chaos Warriors! I've done a good number of BattleMasters minis for various armies, but they usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to "painting attention." You've really made them look great!

[Freddy]

I really like this project, I am not an old figure lover, but with a great paintjob they surely could look cool.