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

[LouieN]

A great collection and congrats on getting done.

I did laugh at "It feels good to be done... but now I'm wondering if I should expand the army?!?"

I thought to myself "Another gamer"

[Neldoreth]

BattleMasters figures are what I started my miniatures painting career with.  They are still some of my favorite fantasy sculpts, bar none.  My painting pales in comparison to yours.

It is a real treat to see these figures painted so very well -- I can still see them in my mind's eye, as bare plastic, which I compare to your photos...  Wow!

I just finished painting (after almost 30 years) my Chaos Archers.  Mine only bear a crude resemblance to yours.     It is a real pleasure to see your version of them.  Cheers!

It's awesome to see your figures being painted up! I really learned to appreciate those Chaos Archers... originally I really didn't like them and was going to replace them with 4th edition plastic goblin archers... but when I realized that those Chaos archers were a part of the punk-rock themed Chaos concept from the 80s and early 90s before they shifted to a more Norse-inspired theme for the marauders.

Those mohawks are like a canvas of their own to create upon, and also the details of the muscles and clothes are so crisp. Fun to paint for sure, looking forward to seeing more of your work come together!

[Neldoreth]

I realize now that I didn't post pictures of the Knight General unit yet! I had to take pictures the other day!

They were painted in May 2024.

The red skull-flowers worked out okay, but the flower petals weren't as rose-themed as I wanted to get.... next time! I have a couple more of these figs that maybe I'll get closer to the vision on!





Thanks
n

[Elbows]

Great work. As someone who also did a big Battle Masters project, I applaud your results.  I didn't invest nearly the time/effort/quality into mine!  These show how good you can do with such old plastics.

[Frugalmax]

They look great!

[SgtSlag]

As requested, some additional images of my army style painting of BM figures:  Human Ultra-Heavy Cavalry Knights, and a close-up profile shot.  Crikey, even a hack army painter like me can get decent results on these sculpts!

I left their shields blank.  I play 2e BattleSystem, running battles drawn from my 2e AD&D campaigns.  I considered decorating their shields to make them Paladins, but the Paladins have a very unique shield emblem.  With that in place, these figures would always be Paladins.  This way they are easier to make into other Ultra-Heavy Cavalry Units, as needed.    Besides, I would need to either print their unique symbols on paper, and decoupage them in place (my preferred method), or I would need to hand paint each shield, one after the other...  While I've done some hand painting on shields, I am terrible at it.  Decoupage is much preferred, on all counts!

These sculpts are really spectacular.  I just apply simple block painting, assembly line style, using inexpensive craft paints.  I follow that with Minwax Polyshades Royal Walnut (no longer made -- dark brown shade), brushing it on (variant of the original Dip Technique).  Once dried, I apply a matte clear coat.  Like I said, hack army painting.  And even with that, they look fantastic on the tabletop!

These were such a joy to paint -- and I don't enjoy figure painting all that much!  Knowing that I was painting a unit of Paladins really made these fun for me...

I played in a 2e BattleSystem game, back in the 1990's, where I ran a 50 figure unit of Skeletal Cavalry against six Paladin Ultra-Heavy Cavalry.    The Skellies were not allowed to charge, but the Paladins did!  After the massive cloud of shattered bone dust settled, I had 25 skeletal cavalry figures left!    We were locked in melee thereafter, and though he chiseled away at my unit (the Undead never check Morale, for they are beyond fear...), he just could not destroy them quickly.  After 4+ Turns, he finally eliminated the last of my cavalry figures, but his up-the-center assault was so delayed, their army attack plan had pretty much fallen apart.

My skeletal unit barely managed to put a few dents into their armor the entire combat, while they ground my unit to dust.  The look of shock and dismay, upon the Paladin unit's player, was priceless.    I laugh every time I see a unit of ultra-heavy, plate barded cavalry, remembering how such a powerful unit can be held up by inferior forces in such an ironic, and wholly satisfying, way.    Cheers!

[SgtSlag]

BM Chaos Heavy Knights...  I did NOT paint these!     Back around 1995, I bought a couple sets of BattleMasters games to harvest their figures for my 2e BS games.  I hired a gamer friend, who painted professionally, to paint my BM figures for me, at what he called "tabletop quality level."  His "tabletop quality level" is still a little above my army painter level.   

After shelling out $700+ (in 1995 currency = $1,400+ in 2025 currency) to him for painting 230+ figures for me ($3/infantry figure), I realized that I could fill the trunk of my car with high quality paints and brushes, for what I had paid him...  I bit the bullet, bought some craft paint (I figured high end paints would have been a waste since I had no talent), and some artist synthetic paint brushes, and my block-style army painting career began.  I've never looked back.  Cheers!

[beefcake]

Those shields are outstanding. Great work!

[Neldoreth]

Those shields are outstanding. Great work!

Thanks!

[Bloggard]

fantastic 

you've made these figures look more enviable than many a modern range.

I really like the mono-pose look. Going ever more that way in terms of taste.

[Storm Wolf]

fantastic 

you've made these figures look more enviable than many a more modern range.

I really like the mono-pose look. Going ever more that way in terms of taste.

Most excellent  and I agree, there is a certain charm and simplicity to those now aged mono-pose figures, that I think many modern ranges lack with their heroic poses and over detail.
Sometimes the old adage of less is more, is true  Enjoy your gaming with them

[Bloggard]

I did get the beginning going of a file detailing the addition of several other races to the game. If I recall correctly, I was drawing up armies of Dwarves, Elves and Undead (there may have been more), and I also matched the units with monopose plastic miniatures from GW's ranges, to keep the game's aesthetic going.

looking through again here, I realise I hadn't quite taken in the incredible free-hand shield work, quite apart from the overall painting quality, despite everyone's comments.
Incredible.

[Neldoreth]

I've never looked back.  Cheers!

Appreciate the story, I totally relate to a lot of it. Awesome that you stuck with the hobby, and the figures are looking great!

[Neldoreth]

but looking through again here, I realise I hadn't quite taken in the incredible free-hand shield work, quite apart from the overall painting quality, despite everyone's comments.
Incredible.

Thanks for the positive feedback, it's appreciated! I really do quite like these figures for sure, and painting them was so much fun, a break from being overwhelmed in detail.

My painting style of painting the base color and then highlighting and blending really gets harder for figures with more detail, whereas more detail makes painting easier when using the the 'dip' or slapchop methods, so I fear that I'll be stuck with older figures, 3D sculpts inspired by the older figures, and other game systems, but that's fine, I don't need to chase the latest hotness anymore

[Neldoreth]

I played a couple games of Battle Masters this past weekend for the first time since 2019, and really enjoyed it.

It's not great if you want to be competitive and control everything, but it does an amazing job of spinning an entertaining narrative with a buddy who also wants to tell the story of the Chaos invasion of the Empire by Gorefist the Destroyer!

What I also found was that the mechanics for the ogre and the cannon are actually super engaging and fun. They really make the game a lot more interesting and enjoyable. Given that, I'm thinking about other options to add to the game that also employ interesting mechanics... it would be awesome to add magic to the game in a way that also had novel mechanics that required laying out a path to the target and flipping over tiles to see what happens. Starting with magic might be fun because I already have a painted Chaos sorcerer from Hero Quest as well as some old Wizards from the 90s for the empire. I haven't really put any more thought into it than that, but I do have another session in a couple weeks where we will continue through the campaign!

Thanks again all for the engagement on this thread, it's been a great six years!