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Another of the right-hand-raised undead from the Monsters box set. White, black, and red are probably the hardest colors to paint well. The shading is so sensitive; white is had to avoid making muddy, black is hard to make not look gray, and red is hard not to make orange or pink. So this guy took some work, and obviously I still need practice.

Nearly done with the undead from the Grenadier Monsters box set. Right hand raised? Check.

It took three tries to get this guy done. I originally had him black but didn’t like it so stripped him back down and tried red. I didn’t like that, either, so I stripped him down again. Then, my friend Mike over at Swords and Dorkery, painted this mini in purple, which looked great, so I did likewise. Hopefully Mike will remember that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…

Another undead from the Grenadier Monsters box set. This guy is the only undead of the set that doesn’t have the right-hand-raised feature.

I cut off the original broccoli base and put him hovering over a marble-like floor. He’s supposed to be glowing from inside his hood and sleeves. I think I should have pushed the glowing effect a little more, as in these photos it comes of too dim.

This is yet another of the undead from the Grenadier Monsters box set.

I attempted to do something a little more interesting than the usual plain pale tan or sand colors for the bone. I’m not sure if the various colors come through in the finished piece. This mini continues the theme of the undead in the set having their right hands raised, though with the sword, it makes a little more sense for this guy. I put this guy in some soggy wet mud, which I kinda like.

Also from the Grenadier Monsters box set, here is a wight that I used Army Painter’s Strong Tone with. I only highlighted his hair and the bumps on his forehead. For future minis, I will definitely do more highlighting. Instead of using Vallejo Model Color’s Dead Flesh like I used with the zombie, I used a pale gray for the skin. I’m not very happy with the combination of that with the Stong Tone. Sorastro used Citadel’s Palid Wych Flesh as the skin base color, which I don’t have, so I tried to approximate it.

I added the bone that he’s licking. All the undead in this set have a similar pose in which the right arm is held up for no apparent reason. I feel compelled to add a reason. I probably should have put a headstone behind him or something, too.

Edit: Mike Monaco (from mikemonaco.wordpress.com) pointed out that this is the ghoul from the monsters set, not a wight. Thanks Mike! If you like what you see on this site, you should definitely check out Mike’s site. He’s a painting MACHINE!

This zombie comes from the Grenadier Monsters large box set. I didn’t spend as much time on this mini as I usually do. The only highlighting I did was on his hair. I was mainly interested to see how the Army Painter Strong Tone looked in real life after seeing Sorastro’s Zombicide miniatures painting guides.

Because zombies are usually best when encountered in huge hordes, and I take so long to complete even the simplest minis, I probably will never have a proper zombie mini army.

This zombie and his base reminds me of the opening credits of The Walking Dead where they show the lone zombie shambling across the field.

I’m in the middle of painting the wight from the same Grenadier set, and will post him next.

This mummy looked a little strange with his arm outstretched and one hand near his chin. So added the big hunk of meat to try to make sense of his pose. It’s gratuitous, I know, but he is much more interesting now.

Part of the Barkan-Seesholtz collection, this is an Enchanted Fountain from Grandier’s box set “Encounter at the Forest of Elvenwold.” Seesholtz had already painted the rest of the set, this fountain was the last piece to be finished, so I felt compelled to get it done.

I picked a few earth tones for the pavers around the base, and added a neutral gray to each color to tone them down and give them similar hues. The stonework of the fountain got some khaki, again toned down with the same neutral gray. The water was the challenge with this one. I was not confident I could pull off convincing water, but it was the quickest part of the mini. The coins in the lower pool don’t show up very well, perhaps I should have made them bigger. There’s nothing obviously “enchanted” about the sculpt, so to indicate that there was indeed something magical about it, I made the runes around the base glow with some OSL effects.

This group is from the Grenadier “Fighting Men” box set, circa 1980. These, along with the Wizards box set, are the minis I started playing D&D with at age 8. My brother was DM for a game in which the characters were all Knights of the Round Table, but set in Greyhawke instead of Camelot. They let me play Sir Perceval, who had a Girdle of Storm Giant Strength. Lancelot, Galahad, Arthur, and Merlin were all represented at the table as well. I don’t remember doing much other than rolling dice, but the impression it had on me has been life-long. I think that all of us geeky D&D players are now the lawyers, engineers, programmers, physicists, and entrepreneurs that are now running the world. The jocks and burnouts who teased us way back then have fared far worse over the years, I’d wager.

My original plan was to divide these minis into two five-man groups, each with its own color scheme: the trees against the fleur-de-lis. In the end I made them all one army with matching color schemes.

I remember this mini from when I was very young. I played D&D with my brother and his high school friends (I would have been about 10-12). One of his friends had the Grenadier Specialists box set of minis. This cleric always caught my eye. It has an unusual pose, a snapshot of a warrior priest at a penitent moment. I always thought it was a female until a couple months ago when I was inherited the Specialists box set from a dear friend.

I used this as an opportunity to work on my NMM (Non-Metallic Metals) skills. I’m pretty happy with the breastplate. I’m ok with the helm and holy talisman, though I acknowledge that they could both be better.

Because I’m colorblind, the red robes were the most frustrating part. I knew how the colors ought to be mixed, and where they should be placed as I was layering them on. But because there isn’t any significant distinction between the red shades for me, I had no idea if I was getting them in the right places. I had no idea if I was glopping anything where it shouldn’t go, etc.

I wanted to keep the focus on the gold breastplate, so made a very simple base; a dark stone slab with edge highlighting as if to indicate the cleric’s space was holy or hallowed.