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… in a recent blog post I noted a 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.
I started thinking about creating and painting a whole army in this style.
The first box for that army arrived, and it was the huge Cathayan Sentinel. The next box was the Grand Cathay Battalion Box.
In this box you get:
2x Cathayan Grand Cannons or Fire Rain Rocket Batteries
10x Jade Lancers
30x Jade Warriors
Good value compared to buying miniatures separately.
I will be painting the Jade Warriors and Jade Lancers as terracotta.
The Jade Warriors can be assembled as one large unit, two units of 15 warriors, or three units of 10 warriors – each with their own optional champion, standard bearer, and musician. Likewise the Jade Lancers can be assembled as one large unit or two units of five warriors.
I am thinking large units at this time.
As for the Cathayan Grand Cannons I am thinking that the crews should be terracotta in appearance, but not sure about the cannons. Something to think about.