When I made a trip to Warhammer World in June 2025 I was pleased to see the then new models for the Army of Grand Cathay for Warhammer Old World on display.
I really liked the Cathayan Sentinel especially the paint job which made it look like it was terracotta.
Though one model does not make an army, and the other Cathay forces would need painting.
However… I was intrigued by a recent posting on the Warhammer Community where Lewis from the Warhammer Studio had painted some Jade Warriors as terracotta warriors.
I decided to do something different and paint a unit of terracotta Jade Warriors to match my Cathayan Sentinel. They were painted mainly with drybrushes, which I intentionally left quite dusty and textured to give the illusion of the hard terracotta. This was followed by washes to provide some deeper shadows, then static grass and foliage were added to give them an ancient feel, as if they’ve just been awoken in Grand Cathay’s time of need.
Lewis went on to say:
This is a great way to get a unit painted quickly. I even contemplated painting a whole army in this style, but I prefer the idea of having a unit or two done like this, given context by the surrounding army of living, breathing warriors.
I started thinking about creating and painting a whole army in this style. I think the use of grass and foliage would enhance and break up the muddy look of a terracotta force, which would otherwise could be quite bland.
Thinking about it.
There are some guides out there from the community on how to paint terracotta, so useful help there.
