The best Warhammer miniatures of 2025 were chosen by you on Warhammer Community. Here on Tale of Painters we were also busy last year and painted quite a few of the chosen miniatures, putting our own unique stamp on them. We’re presenting you which ones in this showcase post.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar – miniatures of the year
Two models from the Age of Sigmar top 10 found their way onto our paint stations:
1st place – Prince Vhordrai, Lord of the Crimson Keep by Garfy
Garfy had the right instinct and painted the beautiful (and menacing) model of Prince Vhordrai on his Revenant Draconith. Vhordrai has rightly been voted into first place. More pictures of Garfy’s version (including a painting guide) can be found here, and we reviewed the kit itself here.
2nd place – Urkhan, the Dark Warden by Stahly
Surprisingly, second place didn’t go to a large model, but to Urkhan, the Dark Warden. This miniature was released at the end of the year for Warhammer Day and sold out relatively quickly. A shame, as it’s a truly archetypal Chaos Lord that Stahly has brought to life. Click here for more pictures and a list of all paints used.
Warhammer 40.000 – miniatures of the year 2025
Somehow 2025 wasn’t the year for Warhammer 40,000 on Tale of Painters. Unfortunately, we didn’t paint a single model from your chosen top 10. Infinity’s Lament, the Warhammer+ miniature of year 5, is still on Stahly’s wish list and is already assembled. He’s just missing an idea for a colour scheme or Craftworld.
Best of the rest – miniatures of the year 2025
Grand Cathay and Horus Heresy: Saturnine dominated the Specialist Games top 10, and we also managed to paint a few models from Saturnine:
4th place – Saturnine Dreadnought by Stahly & Garfy
The Saturnine Dreadnought from the Saturnine box was probably THE centrepiece model for The Horus Heresy this year. Garfy painted his version to match his Legions Imperialis Iron Warriors collection, with really smart muzzle burn effects and large warning stripes on the right shoulder pad. More pictures plus the painting guide here.
For Stahly too, the Saturnine Dreadnought was the highlight of the year. He painted his model with the Chiron configuration for his Sons of Horus collection. However, not in green, but in the black and red of Abaddon’s 1st Company. Particularly much time went into the glow effects on the weapon arms. Take a look at the detail photos here.
The 2025 verdict
Only three (or four) models that made it into the 30 miniatures of the year you chose have we painted here on Tale of Painters. We can do better this year, right? With the announced 500 Worlds and Maelstrom campaigns and their associated models, 2026 promises to be exciting. Perhaps this year can raise the bar even higher when it comes to the quality of Warhammer sculpts?
You can find Stahly’s personal review of 2025 with a gallery of all his painted models here. And Dunk has also done a review of his hobby year 2025.
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