These are the first three pieces I ever painted. Obvious, huh? They were from a boxed set of 10 called Wizards & Warriors and 3 of us chipped in to buy it. We were starving college kids at the time just getting into D&D (circa 1977-8).
Galadriel (at least in my mind). This piece was also from the first boxed set. I walked away with four of the 10 because I painted eveyone else's pieces for them. I don't know if any of those pieces still exist and would probably keel over in shock if I ever came across one of them again.
Still in the same period I bought a blister pack of wizards. I don't recall where or when but you can see they are unshaded, simple color, gloss enamel finish. Very primitive stuff indeed.
Saruman. This guy is also from the wizards pack. I started calling him Saruman much later. He's actually better finished than the others and you can see that I'm getting a clue.
Gandalf. This guy was a single I picked up (cheap) which was obviously intended to be Gandalf. Still no talent here.
Storm Giant. Still gloss enamel, but I have discovered dry-brushing and managed some decent detail in the belt. The gravel base was added later after the gaming table accident which wounded his elbow.
Elric. This piece and a number of others was found in a fire-sale for next-to-nothing prices. I'm not sure why but I took this to be Michael Moorcock's character, Elric. Look! Details! Runes on the sword, streaks in the beard. Still very amateur, but I'm slowly getting it.
Les Grognards. I have always been a historical gamer. Long before I got into Fantasy Role-playing in fact. I purchased a couple packs of Napoleon's Old Guard in the hopes of getting into 15mm Napoleonics. Aside from the insane cost of buying and painting a French army there was the small issue of finding someone else to do the same for the Austrians or Prussians or some such. End of attempt. These are my only Napoleonics.
I painted one set in campaign dress and the other in (I believe) parade dress. I did all the research but have since forgotten the details. These were done circa 1981.
Red Dragon. This guy was my first real attempt to do shading. Rather ambitious for a young twit, but I had read some magazines and thought hard about it and spent a fair chunk of cash on this hunk of lead. He came out a lot darker than I had anticipated and I finally came to the conclusion that enamels were too hard for me to deal with.
Centaur. Another fire-sale special, this poor guy lost his tail in the fire. Oh, well, at least he got a decent paint job. He got done some years after the others and I think this is my first piece done in acrylics.
Knight with Great-sword. Here I am learning how to cope with chain-mail. My dry-brushing technique still needs some work.
These two pieces are from different eras but they seem to fit together so I always display them like this. The sorceress comes from the wizards pack and my early one-coat works. The djinni came from the fire-sale.
Djinni. The djinni is one of my favorite castings. He's heavy, he's a bit comic and he's quite unique.
Satyr. This is another marvelous casting, also a bit comic. Is it possible for a satyr casting to be called anatomically correct?
At this point, I've realized that I enjoy painting, period. I buy figures for their uniqueness and entertainment value. I still do it today.
Jabberwock. This is, of course, the Jabberwock from the Lewis Carroll poem. Another quite unique piece. Ah, I am getting clever now. Real shading, real technique. Still a lot to learn.
Samurai army. OK so I hadn't fully learned my lesson on army building. These are the first 3 pieces I painted of about 40 samurai that I picked up from the fire-sale. The price barrier was overcome but the gumption barrier was not. I still haven't painted the rest of these twenty years on.
Samurai warriors. More of the samurai. I painted up one of each type of piece and these 3 were unique. The guy on the right was modelled from a plate in the book Samurai Armies 1550-1615 from the Osprey Men-at-arma Series. These books are great for researching uniforms to get your miniatures historically accurate.
Citadel Samurai. At the Michicon Gamefest in 1984 I took first in a tournament (Empire Builder) and came away with a certificate for merchandise. I found a wonderful box of 12 samurai by Citadel Miniatures. I snapped it up since I was into playing Bushido at the time. These are some of my best pieces so far.
Mountain Lizard and Samurai. This monster piece of lead also came from the fire-sale. Yes, he is solid. He came with two dorky looking riders (note the gaps in his dorsal spines). They were so horrendously ugly that they never got painted, while this guy got loving attention. Again the picture is a bit too fuzzy to do him justice. The samurai is from the Citadel box.
Lunch. One of the nastiest critters to run up against in Bushido was the mountain lizard. Hence the name I've given this piece. I also tend to display him with the samurai.
Troll. This is one of my more recent pieces (circa 2004). I snarfed this guy, and a few of his buddies, off an eBay auction. I couldn't resist, he was too cute.
Uruk-hai war-band. These were given to me at Christmas 2003 by my kids. I now have all of them done. This isn't the whole lot. They are, of course, official LotR merchandise from the movie franchise. While painting groups (there's 20 of 'em!) is not my style I do like these guys. Painting the White Hand on the shields was amusing...
White horse. A simple white horse. Maybe not so terribly simple. He was also a victim of the fire... note the nub for a tail. It goes further than that, he was demoted from Pegasus status. His wings were lost in the fire and I used putty to cover the notch in his back. He was done in April 2005.
Cave Troll. I'm sure you recognize this guy from the Fellowship of the Rings. The big ol' cave troll from Moria who almost had hobbit-kabob for lunch.
Mr Troll was given to me for Christmas by my kids. Well, they gave me the gift certificate and I knew exactly what I wanted. This is one hefty chunk of metal. A top-notch casting with tons of texture to work on.
Mr. T probably took 8 hours including trimming, priming, assembling, and color mixing to get just the right skin tone for a troll. I finished him 19 April 2005.
Troll, revisited. These are the companions to the troll above... with a better paint job.
Heads galore in this shot. According to Leviathan (the maker) these are orcs. They look a might trolly to me.
Eowyn, Theoden and Gamling the Old. From the Heroes of Helm's Deep (Citadel Miniatures). The camera sees more than my eye... Eowyn seems to be sporting a unibrow.
Back sides as well.
Aw, just one more...
Da Boyz. Of course, I get sucked into the Warhammer 40K thing, since my boys are into it. Thanks to my old friend Steve Gratton for giving me a decent Ork starter army. I have repainted a few of the pieces which got dinged up from years of play.
Mora da Boyz.
Bunker (by Ronco). This is a truly cheap build. It's cobbled together from cast-off packing polystyrene, corrugated cardboard, a touch of spackle, sawdust, sand and glue.
The basic bunker pattern comes from the Warhammer 40K rulebook. The rest is improvised.
It ain't gonna win no awards, but it's a fair first try.
Beastmen. Since starting my Ork Army I have put all my effort there, but recently (Dec 2006) I painted this unit of Bestigor for a guy in a painting for minis deal.
