Warhammer the old World Empire: Griffon, Knights Panther, Archers

These classic Warhammer Empire models were finished in January 2026.

 

500 points, finally done

 

Failure on the finish line

This is the banner I used, it's quite hard to get this particular banner in colour in a good resolution, so I am posting the image here:

 

Knights Panther banner (click to enlarge)

 

The file has been created by Gemini using the original images. The banner does not look great with my paint scheme, though, so I am working on a new banner now.

Nostalgia and reality 

I have a lot of love for these sculpts and I think some of them can compete with modern plastic sculpts. According to this source, the Knights Panther were released in 1989 and 1992 respectively. So they are at least 33 years old. It's a miracle they hold up so well against newer models.

Still, the difference in production quality is stark. Seeing these models on photos is a whole other experience than actually working with them. As much as I love them, the Knights Panther are particularly bad in this context. For example, in some spots, you can't work with shades like you can on plastic models because the crevices are not sculpted well enough. So what I ended up doing was painting lines with regular black paint into these crevices to make them look dark enough. The edges on the lances are also a nightmare. They are very uneven in some spots so they can't be edge highlighted normally.

These difficulties killed my motivation so many times. This little project was started in May 2024 but had so many setbacks and I had put it off so many times that it only got finished in January 2026.

Some photos of the assembly

 Humble beginnings

 

Knights Panther assembled!

 

The Griffon is being stripped 

The rest of the crew

Nostalgia? 

Nostalgia is a stupid feeling because it clouds your judgement. I've caught myself many times looking at old army books and thinking about what a great time it had been back then.

But that's nonsense. In these moments, I forget that just about everything back then was worse than it is today (hobby-wise, only hobby-wise):

• Paints were worse and there were fewer of them.
• No online painting guides, thus everybody was a lot worse at painting. Most models were unpainted anyways. I have never encountered a painted unit of these Knights Panther, for example (in real life).
• Airbrushes were basically nonexistent. So were wet palettes.
• Very little basing options
• Balancing was bad and was rarely addressed and almost never in a timely manner (6th edition Skaven were insane, so were Vampire Counts, while Dark Elves were just bad; also: playing Dwarfs in tournaments was pointless because your most likely result was a draw)
• No gaming mats, instead we had those grass mats that made your eyes and hands itchy because the small fibers always came off.
• There is more, but I think that's enough. 

So instead of reminiscing about the past, I should go out, play some Old World and have fun. If I like the old sculpts, I should use the old ones, otherwise go for some resin prints, there are plenty of good ones. Or just play Cathay! Cheers!