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Let’s talk about D&D and miniatures, as it’s what I’ve mostly been painting for the last month or so since I started a new campaign (which is why content production has been steadily declining).

D&D is definitely my favourite game to paint for (it’s also my favourite game period). Instead of having to paint up a whole faction like for wargames where everything is basically the same, when you’re painting for D&D you will most likely be painting a gigantic variety of things, and rarely more then a few of any one of them. It’s great fun.

For me, when I paint for D&D, I most paint up to a mid level standard. Everything gets highlighted and such, but I still use lazy techniques like washes instead of glazing or blending shadows, drybrushing wherever possible, etc. I do proper good paint jobs on character minis, but the majority of monsters and NPCs get that sort of “decent” paint job.

For D&D minis, I tend to use both minis from the D&D board games (Castle Ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon, Legend of Drizzt, etc) and Reaper, as well as a few Warhammer Fantasy/Old World (they’re the only GW minis that scale with D&D stuff) and occasionally stuff from random board games and wargames like Journeys in Middle Earth or Kings of War. I don’t use the Nolzur’s unpainted miniatures by Wizkids, as they’re absolute trash and definitely the worst miniatures on the market. Their many issues include models being massively overdetailed to the point the mold can’t even produce the details and instead leaves a sort of weird texture or lumps where there should be details, utterly ridiculous poses and designs that make them nearly impossible to paint, and the fact they clearly do not have a single painter on the design team as most of the models are nearly impossible to paint due to the aforementioned reasons and were clearly designed to “look cool” (they don’t) rather then be easy to paint. Their scale design is also a complete trainwreck, models range from the classic heroic scale sculpts with oversized heads and hands to realistic scale with everything being tiny and impossible to paint. As a result, they do not look like a cohesive miniature line at all. I have nothing against Wizkids, but man they have the most incompetent designers I’ve ever seen. Their unpainted models are useless except as great frustration and a resource to make you want to quit painting minis. DO NOT BUY, THEY WILL ACTIVELY GIVE YOU A TERRIBLE TIME. REAPER ARE JUST AS CHEAP AND A THOUSAND TIMES BETTER.

Their larger monster minis are actually fine though, nothing special and the Vallejo white primer sucks ass but they’re ok. Also, I should clarify: This rant is about the Wizkids unpainted line OVERALL. There are still a (very) few ok normal sized miniatures in there; They tend to be the more simplistic (and often more heroic scale) sculpts, as those don’t have the overdetailing, stupid posing, and general unpaintability issues. I still prefer basically any other line though.

Anyway, let’s talk about the minis I do like. I kind of love the D&D board game miniatures cause they’re from my favourite age of miniatures (2000-2012), where sculpts are advanced enough that they don’t look as goofy and cartoonish as old school minis but still retain some of that character that’s just lacking in modern minis, and detail is on a nice medium where they’re not overdetailed (like modern minis) or overly simplistic (like old school minis). I also love the sculpt style: It’s on the realistic end of heroic scale that is my favourite kind of sculpt (GW minis have it down to a science).

I like Reaper for the same reasons, though some of their models (particularly older ones) are on the goofier end of heroic scale which I don’t love but still prefer over realistic scale. True realistic scale simply doesn’t work for gaming minis, as the details will just be invisible from the distance the minis will be viewed, and that’s why nearly all wargames minis and gaming minis in general are done in heroic scale. Except for half of Wizkids stuff, because no one in there seems to know the basics of how to make gaming miniatures.

Ok, Here’s What I’ve Been Painting Recently.

Lately, I’ve been touching up a lot of D&D minis I painted a while (sometimes years) ago, adding highlights and similar to spruce them up to closer to my current standard. Don’t be afraid to do this; You don’t always have to strip off a mini and start from scratch cause you’re not happy with it.

Colour saturation is weird on this one.

My first touch ups job was on this dwarf (Bruenor Battlehammer) mini, who appeared several weeks ago in Hobby Blog #2: Vallejo Inks Mini-Review, D&D Dwarf Paint Recipes, and Waffling. He is being used as a temporary PC mini (until I get my hands on a Reaper or GW one to replace it), so I had to spruce him up a bit. I highlighted all the silver armour with VMA Steel, and the gold with Liberator Gold before glazing it with VGC Brown Ink to give it a reddish, more bronzed look that the photo completely fails to capture. I also highlighted up the beard, loincloth, and face more, and painted his gloves as the leather that they are (before I left them silver out of laziness).

Man that is one horrible angle.

My latest touch ups here are some ghouls. I’ve highlighted all of their pants and layered the skin on the one on the right. Still gotta layer the skin on the other two.

What I’m currently working on:

Picture is blurry, I know.

I’m currently working on these orc archers (from the D&D Wrath of Ashardalon board game). As I mentioned above, most of my preferred D&D minis are from the 3e/4e era. D&D’s monsters colour schemes and designs haven’t really changed much (if at all) over the years, so these all match 5e art exactly (probably why WOTC still produces them and their board games). Orcs and goblins are one of the few who have seen a colour change, even though it’s minor: In 3e and 4e, orc skin ranged from grey to dull green, while now it’s exclusively grey (presumably for IP purposes). But since I use minis from many games with green orcs, and I just love green orcs in general, I paint mine in the old 3e colour schemes. With these three, you can see a grey one on the left, a green one in the middle, and a grey-green in between one on the left. The grey-green one bridging the gap is important, as it keeps the grey and green orcs from looking like two different races. The one on the right is finished, and the other two are about half finished. Once they’re done I’ll probably post the paint recipes for them.

Insert caption here.

Lastly, here’s a mini a quickly painted as a temporary ranger player character mini (like the dwarf, these are just placeholder minis until I find ones that suit the characters better). It’s just a fairly quick paint job. Here’s the colour recipes:

Green Cloak – Basecoat VGC Heavy Green, glaze recesses 1:1 Heavy Green and Black, work up highlights by adding Loren Forest to the Heavy Green.
Leather Armour – Basecoat P3 Battlefield Brown, wash Agrax Earthshade, layer Battlefield Brown, highlight P3 Bootstrap Leather.
Red Sash Thing – Basecoat Khorne Red, wash Agrax Earthshade, layer Khorne Red, highlight Wazdakka Red.
Yellow Leather Pants – Basecoat VGC Leather Brown (it sucks, use XV88 instead), wash Agrax Earthshade, layer Tallarn Sand, highlight 2:1 Tallarn Sand/P3 Menoth White Base.
Skin – Basecoat P3 Midlund Flesh, wash Reikland Fleshshade, layer P3 Midlund Flesh, highlight P3 Ryn Flesh.
Silver – Basecoat VMA Gunmetal, wash Agrax Earthshade, layer VMA Gunmetal.

The hair was picked out with Zandri Dust, and the straps with Black.

There we go, a nice long blog with lots of good information to make up for the dwindling content of the last few weeks. I contemplated splitting this up into multiple blogs but cause I’m feeling generous, you get it all at once. Go join the Discord https://discord.gg/Gm6JUgPs, there will be more content next week, BYE.