Look folks, we made it. It’s 2025 and the year is looking bright(?) with plenty to look forwards to! As we usher in the new we have a few things to look back on at last year before we’re through with it. These past weeks your timelines and social media accounts become bombarded by all sorts of “looking back on the year” posts and far too many Spotify Wrapped screenshots. Games Workshop does a yearly vote for their Model of the Year which mostly makes you say “that came out THIS YEAR?” and then vote for a space marine anyway. 

Outside of Games Workshop’s dense release schedule is a plethora of companies also releasing minis every year so Goonhammer Staff talk about some of their favourites of 2024. Buckle in and see what we liked about this year. Or at least which new models we liked about it. You’re sure to see some historicals, some Conquest, and a number of other companies models. If you disagree with nay of our opinions or want to make yours heard, that’s what the comment section is for.

Bair

For a second year in a row mine is going to have to be a Para Bellum model. If you aren’t familiar, this is from Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings (which we cover extensively here on Goonhammer) a larger-scale rank-and-file fantasy game in its own setting. By larger scale I mean the models themselves which sit around the 38-40mm mark, as opposed to the traditional 28-32mm scale. In simple terms the Dweghom are kind of like chaos dwarfs: they use elemental magic, ride drakes, and are basically dwarfs. Incredibly cool faction that received an incredibly cool model in 2024: the Stoneforged. This thing is massive and just a fantastic kit to both build and paint; exceptionally posable if you’re into that sort of thing with a Steelshaper Sorcerer sitting on its throne commanding it. One of the things I’ve found lacking or wanting in fantasy armies for dwarfs is some sort of stone golem thing and this delivers in a very satisfying way. I decided to paint it up in a very literal way using about a dozen different greys and off-white tones to try and get the best stone effect I could.

I mean hell, just look at it! How cool is that?! Rocking this up alongside a couple drakes and a couple dozen heavy infantry? Hell yeah.

Rob

To follow on from Bair with a further Conquest: the Last Argument of Kings model, my pick of the year is the Spires Leonine Avatara. These centaurine cat-women just ooze lethal grace and power, and I knew I wanted a unit the moment we saw the renders. One of the modelling techniques Para Bellum have gotten very good at over the last few years and which is on full display here is the sculpted texture of the muscles, which make great use of Conquest’s slightly larger scale to really sell rippling strength without looking cartoonish. Sculpting skin and musculature this way is not something everyone in the industry does, and while I might have overcommitted myself on the metals a bit, the muscles and skin virtually painted themselves. I’m really happy with the result.

Sam Isaacson (not Josh)

When I first got into Conquest it felt like every game was defined by the time the first – at that time only – monster arrived. The Abomination is the fastest unit on the field, capable of stealing virtually every objective zone. It also has glorious lore behind it. A living, moving torture chamber that transports prisoners of war into the battlefield to destroy their former comrades? What’s not to love?

But the original model was not without its criticism. Every connecting point a ball-and-socket joint, it’s not surprising some fans of the game weren’t fans of the model, and in spite of the potential for creativity it didn’t always appear to be quite as menacing as the lore would suggest it ought to be.

So my selection for this year has to be the fifth anniversary remake of the Abomination, with its threatening claws, streaming pheromones and spider-like stance. The spiked limbs that reach over its shoulders as if in a Marvel movie reach out from the base making it attention-grabbingly awkward to getting into combat and finish off the package.

Eric

Lest our readers think this is a Conquest article in disguise (which it may very well be), I’m going to pick something in a decidedly different vein. My pick is the “They Also Serve” pack, released by Bloody Miniatures as part of “Release 9” in July 2024, consisting of a wave of Thirty Years War/ECW mounted models dripping with character. I talked a little bit about this set when we had a roundtable about whether the age of the metal mini had come to an end (TLDR: No). It was an example of the sort of weird, one off, “no this doesn’t have a specific battlefield purpose” models that you can get with metal minis that the economics of injection molding just doesn’t allow.

Anyone who knows how poorly my hobby productivity has been this year could argue that this is my favorite because it’s probably the only model made this year I painted this year, but for me, it’s a little more than that – because it’s actually the model I painted this year because it’s my favorite. It’s not a spectacular monster, or a gargantuan tank. It’s just a man and three horses, in a field. There’s something serene about that that was welcome during the Year of Our Lord 2025 and all that entails. Just a man and three horses, with a war somewhere nearby, but not here. I love that there’s room in our hobby for figures like that.

Cronch

Back to Conquest we go! Para Bellum’s release schedule is truly blistering, and amongst all of the cool releases for other factions we’ve already seen, this year they managed to release an entirely new army: the Sorcerer Kings.

The Sorcerer Kings draw upon their mastery of elemental magic to wage war, and to ensnare beings from other planes. Amongst these are the Efreet Flamecasters, which are my pick for the standout models in a range truly stuffed with incredible options. The Sorcerer Kings really lean on central Asian and Indian themes for their design language, which is a refreshing approach to faction design and leads to quite a broad variety of novel options between the more grounded foot troops of the Rajakur and the truly wild Elementals.

I’ve picked the Flamecasters as a real embodiment of powerful, intelligent beings who have a mastery of their craft. The muscles and clothes are sculpted with great detail, and the face sculpts convey a sense of smug confidence in the power they command. Really though, we’ve got to talk about that fire. I’ve never really seen flames sculpted like this before, with the amount of peaks and troughs really conveying the feel of a raging torrent of magical fire rather than just a flickering torch or glowing brazier. They painted up like a dream, and I can’t wait to get them on the table!

Lenoon

I’ve painted somewhere in the region of a dozen new multi part plastic kits this year for various Historical and sci-fi ranges. It’s been very difficult to narrow those down to a single best one – do I go all the way back to the start of the year and look at the Grognard Cavalry, or think about how much fun the Crusader Knights were to paint?

In the end, and with the dangers of recency bias in mind, I had to go with the Victrix Islamic Infantry. Recent Victrix kits have gone from strength to strength – well researched, beautifully sculpted, a joy to paint and incredibly well put together. The standouts have to be the faces (I don’t know how 28mm faces get better than this, to be honest), and beautifully creased and ruffled light fabric, exactly capturing the linen, silk and blended fabrics of the period. They are, for a basic infantry kit – just the city levy! – stunning, and the pinnacle of what Victrix have managed so far.

Neon

2024 has really been the year where I’ve started to properly dip my toes outside of the Games Workshop sphere in earnest, thanks in large part of finally having an LGS that actually stocks and supports in-store play for non-Warhammer stuff, with an honourable mention going to my 3d Printer for churning out all kinds of esoterically neat stuff found while idly browsing MyMiniFactory with the credit card dangerously close at hand.

But if there’s one company that’s really impressed me with their offerings this year, it’s had to be Modiphius’ Fallout wargames line, with the new multi-part plastics they’ve been rolling out alongside the release of Fallout: Factions. Its been hard to pick just one, as any of the Nuka World Raider gangs would be fierce contenders thanks to the sheer amount of options and detail packed into those frames, but if I had to pick just one of their 2024 releases it would be the X-01 Power Armor kit.

I don’t have anything really analytical or poetic to say about how much joy this kit sparked in me. I picked it up on the first day of NOVA 2024 and ended up spending so much time playing around with the different built options and marvelling at the game-accurate modelling on this trio of walking tanks that it actually made me late to my games that day, sprinting down the length of the hotel as fast as I could.

I haven’t actually gotten any paint on my X-01s yet I must admit, intimidated that I’ll ruin the sculpts with my cack-handed painting, but a new year is a chance for a new outlook on things, and I’m gonna soldier through my anxious tendencies and get them looking shiny and new… as much as anything can be shiny and new out in the Wastelands.

Michael O “Mugginns”

I actually have two favorite minis that were released in 2024. It’s tough to remember what was actually released because historical minis aren’t so focused on release schedules, meta, etc. – but I managed to find two, and they’re great ones.

I’m currently really heavy into The Silver Bayonet, as it crosses over my love of historical wargames with classic horror. It’s also a warband style game, with each player needing at-most eight figures, making it easy to pick up and paint. The Italy campaign book just came out, so of course a huge wave of minis were released by North Star Military Figures. The standout figure was this Champion of Faith – a nun laying about with a club for the Calabresi unit. Just awe inspiring the confidence she has.

The other mini I chose is a bit of a preview – my big project for 2025 is a Second Seminole War Sharp Practice game. The Seminole people fought off invading US Government forces three times – and are referred to as ‘The Unconquered People’ because they never surrendered and never signed a peace treaty. The fighting took place in Florida in marshland and swampy areas with tree cover everywhere. Phalanx Games & Sundry have released a line of figures for this period – super highly detailed minis with lots of definition and clean sculpts. I’m very excited to get these guys going for Sharp Practice. This mini is going to be the leader of my Seminole force.

Another Year in the Bag

And that’s it! Some of our favourite minis released in 2024 from other miniature companies. There’s loads more that came out this year, so let us know if there’s another manufacturer or kit that made your top spot.

Roll on 2025 and more new minis!

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