I started painting miniatures in 2022. To my eye, 2023 is when I started to stop sucking at it, at least consistently. And there’s no need for further preamble, lets get to the little weirdos!

Earth Elemental (MM21), Monster Manuscript, Grenadier
Foot Knight (1406d), Fantasy Warriors, Grenadier

It took forever to recover from Covid and have the wherewithal to paint again. The Earth Elemental was a good way back in, with lots of easy detail and no real choice in terms of color. I enjoy how he seems to be suffering from a back ailment. The foot knight has similar appeal. Sometimes simple is good.

Iron Golem (532), Fantasy Lords, Grenadier

I then proceeded to not have time to paint again until the summer. It wasn’t quite the one-year anniversary, but I felt like I had painted enough minis that it would be fun to bring my new skillz to another Iron Golem. It’s funny: I think in just about every way this is a better paint job. Highlights in the right spots for the most part, the rust is subtle and convincing. Yet, he’s a bit less exciting, don’t you think? Compare, and let me know which you think is more alive.

Demogorgon (102), Fantasy Lords, Grenadier

Even before this showed up in the first episode of Stranger Things, Demogorgon here was a pretty iconic miniature. Even relative the the already weird illustration in the Monster Manual, this is a bizarre design, but I love it. My son and his friends insist that I painted it all wrong, but what do they know? It spins right out of my color choices for the Beholder (see the 2022 essay) and I think it works well (this is regular paint on black primer). The orange proved a bit more difficult to work with (all of my orange paints are watery for some reason, so they requite a billion coats) but I really like some of the highlighting on the green plates and the eyes.

Barbarian Warrior (922 a), Fantasy Warriors, Grenadier
Mummy (5002 c), Dungeons & Dragons, Monsters, Grenadier

For these, I shifted back to Speedpaint, still trying to figure out where it works best and how to work with it beyond a single coat. The mummy is fine if unexciting. The skin tones on the barbarian are way better than the 2022 job, but I think overall this is a great example of how the Speedpaint all registers at the same basic intensity, and thus winds up looking kind of flat.

Pig Orc Champion (DF10), Dragon Bait
Floating Lich, Dragon Bait

Now these guys, boy, what a difference. They’re done in the old three-phase method on black primer and I’m still pleased with how they came out. Even though that Champion is kind of sloppy as hell, he holds together nicely as a whole. And see how so much of his palette is similar pigments but they all are differently legible?

The Lich is a wonderful sculpt (I have generally had some of the most fun painting Dragon Bait minis) and really made a lot of choices for me. This is the first time colored washes really clicked for me as a way to achieve unusual effects; the Lich’s robe is really just basecoat purple with blue wash and no real highlights and the change of hue is was makes it pop.

Bugbear with Melee Weapons Set B, Dragon Bait
Bugbear Chieftain with Melee Weapon

Finally, we have the Dragon Bait Bugbears. When I bought them, the photos on the site were censored, so I had no idea they had their dicks out and, well, I guess every miniature presents its own puzzles to solve. The leftmost two are based on Sutherland’s illustrations for the Monster Manual (he neglected to draw the penises, naturally), the central one from the entry itself, the left from the full-page illustration in the back of the book. The sculpts capture a really great sense of personality and movement, I think? The central guy’s smirk is so good, he verges on being a Muppet or a Froud drawing (or maybe a Froud Muppet?). I also love that quilted studded vest, it clarifies Sutherland’s original design in an interesting way.

I can’t think of an illustrated precedent for the Chieftain, though he doesn’t look completely unfamiliar (maybe a lesser known Trampier drawing?). As much as I like the brown and yellow combo in the pants-free bugbears, I am a bit annoyed I didn’t think of orange fur until this guy.

To be continued!