I’ve had a few other topics about miniatures, but I feel like the minis games themselves are separate from the artistic side of things. Expect these sorts of posts to be a lot more picture-heavy, with some thoughts attached. I have never been an artist, and I greatly appreciate well-painted minis, so a goodly portion of my personal collection has been painted on commission. I like to collect commissioned minis from friends of mine, as it gives me a great way to remember them.

I also greatly enjoy modifying my minis, to better achieve some look or aesthetic goal. I’m a much better modifier than painter.

Here are a few things I’ve worked on recently:

I have always struggled to paint big models. Something about the sheer amount of surface area to cover intimidates me, and I have issues getting started and getting an idea of how to paint. One painter friend of mine suggested I simply try a bigger brush, and otherwise paint it as I would a smaller model. The above is the result. As the colors took shape with the larger brush, I found myself less worried about an even coat (because the larger brush makes that easier) and I could start focusing on the details. I’m quite happy with the end result. The bright yellow of the swan logo was an enormous pain.

A friend of mine did a very large commission for me, taking the army that this Ravagore comes from and doing it in red and black. After seeing his work up close, I tried my hand at imitating it, getting a sense for how he accomplished the appearance so that as my collection of that particular faction grows, I can keep them painted in the same style. There’ll certainly be a marked quality difference but I can live with that.

This paint job isn’t mine– a good friend of mine painted it, but the model itself is a heavily modified one. The original is on the right, mine is on the left. The character is supposed to be a very earthy, solid sort of character. Another incarnation of his mini has a hood with a beard showing through underneath. I didn’t like the bald, “raging warrior” theme of the original mini, so I swapped the head out for one with a hood, altered his arm to have an open hand instead of a fist, set his sword to rest rather than being ready, and sculpted a giant, epic beard for him. My friend’s paint job really brought the altered mini to life.