Warhammer The Old World – Kingdom of Bretonnia Battle Standard Bearer on Royal Pegasus

And after covering the two heroes from the plastic sets, let us take a look at only new plastic hero, as the other new additions are made from Forge World resin - the Battle Standard Bearer on Royal Pegasus of the Kingdom of Bretonnia.

Initially I thought this would be built from the Duke/Baron kit, as they have the same mount. This is something that Games Workshop did in the past, have dual character sets of mounted and unmounted heroes, usually including banners, for example with the Empire General or High Elf Noble. But that was a misconception, this is just the Banner Bearer.

For 55 EUR RRP you receive a medium sized and a small sprue for the hero, a black and white instruction, a decal sheet for the Bretonnians and a 50mm square base.

The Old World decal sheet has a lot less options and is not as colour full as the old Fantasy ones. Actually, it is just black and white, and covers white axes along with a few fleur de lys. The old Bretonnians had various coats of arms, in multiple colours, and even had more options with the Grail Knights and such.

This model shares the same sprue for the mount with the Duke/Baron kit, including all the parts for the Royal Pegasus.  The Battle Standard Bearer parts are in the small sprue and offer no options or variants.

As I mentioned in the other review, I don't quite understand, why Games Workshop didn't use two medium sized sprues and have all the options in one kit. Less handling of variants, leaner from a point of logistics and data management, and a better excuse why you have clone mounts for both kits.

We grab the 50mm square base and add the base topper to it. It has a small part for an additional detail, a flower sprouting from the cup beneath the hooves. The Pegasus has only one pose, it does not levitate / fly, but rear on its back legs.

You could probably convert this into a massive horse and end up with an mounted Archaon-like pose, as you would only have to close up the base of the wings, which could be done with chain mail or barding.

The barding creates an issue on the back, as it is designed slightly open, which looks like you left a gap. Cutting the back legs from the base and pinning a flying base stand to his belly, should give you the option to make it actually fly. Still, could have been an option for this kit included in the design with minimal effort.

The hero doesn't sit right on the back but on a small elevated saddle.

Please pay attention to the next step. You DON'T want to add the small fleur de lys to the back of the saddle.

I usually build mount and character separately, especially in reviews to show you the variants and to keep them as they are for easier painting. Once you add this back part you won't be able to add the hero on top of the Pegasus. An annoying design choice.

The Pegasus mane is a bit tricky to glue, as the connection pieces are rather loosely. Make sure to properly align those pieces, as they will get in the way, once you build the reins otherwise.

We build so far, the exact, identical copy of the Pegasus as we did for the Duke/Baron, as the only option for the mount is the face. And it is the same, with the same expression of the Pegasus, just having a face plate.

If you build the saddle already, you have to build the legs on the Pegasus back, directly on the mount. These are the same angled legs as with the Duke/Baron. The pose is fixed, you would have to cut it up for alterations.

And all the other bits from here are fixed as well. This model doesn't even come with an alternate head option, it is just the bare head as shown. There isn't even a helmet as gear on this kit. Adding the reins was incredibly frustrating, as the long thin piece broke and you have a couple of pieces that have minimal connection to each other and very loose guidance from the design.

Use a minimal amount of glue, bring it in position and check the position. Please make sure that you add the swords in the right orientation, as they might interfere with the banner and reins. If you are wondering about the cut in the tabard, that is where the string of rein goes along. This might help you while assembling.

I have been building miniatures for almost 30 years, and it has been a while, that I was that annoyed by a model. It is not impossible, but simply unnecessary displeasing.

And the only parts left, are the actual banner and two shields for the sides of the back. There are no options for the banner top, something we have seen by Games Workshop with the regiments multiple times. It is just as it is.

The size comparison of the Royal Pegasus next to a Bretonnian Knight and Men-at-Arm.

Before we move on to the conclusion, here are pictures of the model painted by the 'Eavy Metal team.

Conclusion

While it certainly is well designed, this is a rather unpleasant build experience, and if you already have the core set / Duke on Royal Pegasus a bit unnecessary. The aspect that we have a clone mount, of something as impressive as a royal Pegasus is displeasing.

So much comes together in this kit, especially as I was really hyped for it due to the dynamic design, that I have trouble to understand where it went wrong. You have a very talented design team at Citadel, who creates stunning looking miniatures. But we have 2024 and this is not a resin miniatures from a Spanish resin model maker, but a kit intended to be used in a game of Warhammer. As a customer I don't want clones. I think it is already sad that a lot of models look the same due to lack of options, but this is a fixed model. It does not give you any options to begin with, with the exception of the Pegasus head. And at 55 EUR and with the aspect that it shares a lot with the other kit, I expected them to give you at least something to change the that it will look the same as the ones from other players beside the paint job, you don't have a near duplicate of two heroes on the table.

They could have added different banner toppers, at least a helmet option for the head, alterations for the wings. In all honestly, spend the 11 EURs more and go for the Battle Standard Bearer mounted and on foot by Forge World.

Warhammer The Old World is a brand by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.