My first encounter with a fantasy miniature was around 1985. A friend had inherited his older brother’s broken Dungeons & Dragons Computer Labyrinth Game and I recall being fascinated by the metal pieces (two warriors, a treasure chest and a dragon) as much as the promise of the unplayable game. If I recall correctly, he also had a few of the plastic figures from the original Dark Tower board game. He stored these all, as well as some random LJN D&D toys and similar monsters, in the cavernous, empty Dark Tower box. The first miniature I owned is an indistinctly sculpted On Foot Wraith from Der Kriegspielers Fantastiques, purchased in the gift shop at Medieval Times in Kissimmee, Florida, circa 1986. A close second is a Norman knight from a Kinder Surprise that I got from the kid across the street in a trade for some M.U.S.C.L.E.S. (which are rather miniature-esque themselves, now that I think about it).

From that point until the early ’90s, I my interest waned because I didn’t have a local game shop that reliably stocked miniatures (nor the money to buy them even if I did). That changed when RAFM produced their Call of Cthulhu miniature line and Infinity Comics, my local shop, could order them through whatever the distro du jour was. A Byakhee, Chthonian, Dark Young, three Deep Ones, a Lesser Servitor of the Outer Gods and a Nightgaunt were the first victims of my painting, while snowed in during the Storm of the Century in March, 1993. No examples of this butchery, carried out with Testors enamel paints, are currently extant, but the results were a decisive demonstration that miniature painting was not a hobby for me.

At least for thirty years. In August of 2022, while twiddling my thumbs waiting for Derek and Kyle to make Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground look pretty, I started painting again. I don’t honestly recall the impetus. I think maybe I finally went through all the old lead I had accumulated over the years and something shifted. I got the correct paint and got going. I pretty immediately learned that Stu (v. 1993) was an idiot, that painting miniatures is indeed a satisfying hobby.

I’ve found the results difficult to share, though. Every photo I’ve taken with phone’s camera seems wrong in a variety of ways, so I have finally taken out my DSLR with its 100mm macro lens made of real glass in order to properly document my work with still photos (video using the same equipment, for the moment, remains elusive). Below you’ll find everything I painted in 2022, my first year at it (except my orc army, they’re going to get their own post). More than anything else on this site, this collection of photos is primarily for me and my own reference and reflection, but also you can’t really go wrong with photos of little painted monster guys.  

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Iron Golem (532), Fantasy Lords, Grenadier

In typical fashion, I dove into this one chaotically and didn’t really follow any established methods. It’s giant-sized, so that probably made it easier to work on. The main color is a metallic silver mixed with an olive green, which resulted in a pleasing patina, actually, which is pure luck. The rust effects were ambitious. I wouldn’t approach them the same way now and they are unevenly applied, but they don’t look bad, which is probably the primary lesson I took from this one: you have to actually work hard to make a painted miniature look bad.

Undead Warrior (917 b), Fantasy Warriors, Grenadier
Unknown (Witch King?)

My second miniature was Grenadier’s Undead Champion, but I repainted him, so you’ll have to wait until year three to see him. Undead Warrior here was my first experiment with Speedpaint and he looks fine. The metal bits are a normal metallic; I think the sword blade came out rather nice. His neighbor is a ringwraith of unknown origin (late ’70s, if I had to guess, based on its lumpiness). I didn’t follow any particular methodology for this one, but I am honestly not sure one would help this sculpt much.

Ochre Jelly (5002 j), Dungeons & Dragons, Monsters, Grenadier
Wraith (01-030), Personalities, Ral Partha

That Ochre Jelly is one of the silliest miniatures I own. Not much more I could do with it then, or now, probably. The Wraith is Speedpaint which I embellished with some additional highlights using regular paint. This is a great example of magic paint giving amazing results in optimal conditions, though, and it is kind of wild to see the gap in quality between this and the unknown ringwraith above, which mostly comes down to the quality of the sculpt. Additionally, this guy was associated with the Lost Worlds combat game.

Yeti (5002 t), Dungeons & Dragons, Monsters, Grenadier
Barbarian Warrior (922 b), Fantasy Warriors, Grenadier

The Yeti is pretty much a single pass of Speedpaint (nose and claws are normal paint). Good enough for a 1980 sculpt. The Barbarian is also Speedpaint, but heavily “corrected” with regular paint. I got him to a point where I no longer think about fixing him (though some day I have to go back and paint the eyes).

Lizzard Man (2010 i), Fantasy Lords, Horrors of the Marsh, Grenadier
Dragon Skull (2010 h), Fantasy Lords, Horrors of the Marsh, Grenadier
Troll (2010 b), Fantasy Lords, Horrors of the Marsh, Grenadier
Giant Barbarian (02-934), All Things Dark and Dangerous, Ral Partha

All the above four miniatures are some combination of Speedpaint and regular paint. I was getting somewhat frustrated at this point. For starters, Army Speedpaint has the same basic pigment intensity no matter the hue and I wasn’t smart enough to water it down with medium yet (though not sure that would really help). I was getting interesting things to happen, though, because they were 1.0 paints that would reactivate if I used my regular stuff on it – there is some nice gradient green (Speedpaint) to buff (Vallejo) on the troll. But I was hamstringing my learning to highlight (which I still suck at) and there just isn’t the right range of intensity in these. The Giant was particularly frustrating. I first painted him with bronze skintone and it was a mess. The blue works better even if something about his sculpt undercuts the idea of him being a Frost Giant. But even then, the Speedpaint just wasn’t working properly and needed lots of triage. The result is something that looks both over-painted and unfinished to me. Ugh.

Fire Giant (713), Julie Guthrie’s Personalities, Grenadier

For the fire giant, I went back to using regular paints in the traditional method (base coat, wash, highlight) and I just love him. Part of that is Guthrie’s sculpt, this is one of my favorite miniatures of all time, he has so much personality in his posture! The paint’s not perfect, but he also isn’t a giant compilation of mistakes I want to fix. Rather, I look at him and see the best paint job I was able to muster at the time. If I did it again, it would be better, no doubt, but probably lacking some charm. The plates probably need dark wash to bring out the edges, and the arm hair is weird (which might be a casting issue) but I am pleased with the dragonskin armor and the toe nails and the eyes. The decision to make the axe black is something that has become a standard for my orc army, too.

Undead Warrior (917 c), Fantasy Warriors, Grenadier
Wraith (5002 d), Dungeons & Dragons, Monsters, Grenadier
Henchman 2 (1215b), Dungeon Dwellers, Heritage
Wererat (5002 q), Dungeons & Dragons, Monsters, Grenadier
Werewolf (5002 r), Dungeons & Dragons, Monsters, Grenadier
Giant Bog Rat (2010 a), Fantasy Lords, Horrors of the Marsh, Grenadier

More examples of painting using the old-school three-step method with normal paint (though my highlight game is weak). I think the blue tabard on the skeleton is Speedpaint, maybe. It’s kind of like starting from scratch, honestly. Of these, the Henchman I think is maybe the most successful, but more because of the personality of the sculpt than my paint job, I think. I owe him eyes at some point.

The giant rat came a little later, the penultimate paint job of the year (he just doesn’t fit the layout here to be in proper chronological order). Never did figure out what I’m meant to do with the teeth, but otherwise, a surprisingly fun miniature for a rat. The multi-colored scabies makes me laugh.

Blue Dragon (01-139), Personalities, Ral Partha

First dragon. This is the second or third attempt at painting him. The first was definitely a disaster of Speedpaint. Like the Fire Giant, I can see stuff I could do better, but I also think that this represents good work for where I was at skill-wise. I was beginning to get a handle on controlling washes around now, and that comes through in the scales and the spines, I think. The miniature itself had been kicking around the house forever; I got it sometime in the ’90s at the pewter shop in Rockport, Massachusetts.

Skeletal Dragon (9904), Julie Guthie’s Dragons, Grenadier

My big exercise in washes. This is one of only a few times I airbrushed a base coat (Bone White). The brown is a sepia wash painstakingly applied then touched up as necessary with base coat. Highlights are a mix of White and Bone White. The highlights aren’t all in the right place (the back of the jaw, come on, what were you doing?) but I’m still pleased with this one. It’s my most methodical job yet.

Beholder, company unknown

I bought this idiot on eBay because he was the best depiction of an old-school Beholder that I have come across. I’ve not been able to figure out who made it or when, though. It was my most ambitious project to date, I think every eye stalk broke off at some point and the need to free-hand the pupils was challenging. The color scheme is deliberately weird, something I’ve tried to lean into since. All of this was complicated by the fact that I was coming down with a brutal case of Covid as I started painting.

That was just before the holidays, if I recall correctly, so these photos represent about four months of progress. Not bad!

To be continued!