Jarod's Miniatures

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What the heck..?
(Glossary of terminology...)

These attractive little creatures are a Troll Mother and two Rat People, all three belonging to Nathan. The Troll Mother was the most difficult to paint because A) the green/black/brown acrylic mix I had in the pallate kept drying up and B) I had to paint each individual wart on the Mother's body with brown paint on a 10/0 brush. That's the smallest brush available. Anything smaller is an individual hair.

Since the picture was taken with a Logitech Quick Cam, the resolution does not allow you to see the minor details such as the Troll Mother's warts or the ingeniously hidded Golden Snitch that the leftmost rat has in his sling. It also does not show that the Troll child on the mother's back has bright red eyes while the rats have black eyes (hard to see on a dark brown surface)

These three charming little devils from Nathan's collection, I have dubbed "Deep Trolls." Their purplish skin allows them to blend into crowds of Drow and Duergar when they are exploring the Underdark.

Seriously though, I've painted a lot of green miniatures, and I was ready for some more colorful skin tones. While you can't really see the detail in the lead Troll, his armor was painted brown, then washed with a darker shade which made the armor stand out much better. This is the first washing I've done that actually worked. All previous attempts were done with too little water, and subsequently looked like they were just painted over with a darker shade.

Finally, I abandoned the idea of painting all the Trolls' armor and shields and swords straight silver, and instead came up with a nice gunmetal-silver by mixing 2 parts silver to 1 part black. This gives their shields and weapons a "dirty" silver appearance.

Lastly, on the two background Trolls, both wearing head=bands, I painted said headbands red with embossed ivory skulls. It gives them a festively dangerous appearance.

Now behold the slightly-out-of-focus might of three titanic tree ents! Er, uh... Okay, they'd actually be classified as "small" creatures.

While appearing slightly like kobolds, these three little fellows were quite easy to paint since they didn't have any discernable weapons, clothing, eyes, jewelry or legal papers to deal with.

I first painted them in Autumn Brown, then created a wash consisting of 2pts Burnt Umber to 1pt Black, then mixed in some water. The result, although you can't really see it in such a low-res image, are bark-colored... things.

These arboreal little monsters are, as are many of these, from Nathan's collection.

And here's a work in progress. Reaper Mini #2575, "Cleo Goldpaws, Weretigress."

There's two of her, actually. This is the second. Reaper Catalog #2140 is a crouching Cleo (which has been primed and is currently drying.)

Really, all that's left to do on this young lady is striping, which I'm a bit hesitant to do. I have a couple of pictures, but I certainly don't want to mess up the paint job.

I'd like to point out that this picture came out fabulously. If you want to see what it looked like before the camera's internal iris adjusted to the lamp I was using, click here.

At any rate, back to the painting.

And the finished product! Weretigress with stripes!

Front and back pictures to detail the striping. I'm actually impressed with myself on this one, but it's still not perfect. Click here to see shots of both of these after being painted and sealed.

Mind flayer! These guys are really nasty. They eat brains. They have squiddy-like heads and according to rumor, they don't use toilet paper. Never shake hands with an illithid.

This particular mind flayer was painted black, then lined with red and washed with a darker shade of red. His skin is a deep purple and his staff is a wooden-colored thingy with a silver, gold and ivory top which isn't well detailed in this photo.

Mind flayers should be avoided if possible, although if you should happen to encounter one while wandering aimlessly in the Underdark, remember that they're kind of sensitive about their similarity in appearance to Cthulu. Some might not mind being equated with H.P. Lovecraft's Ultimate Destroyer, although many of them might not take kindly to the idea of an average man going insane upon a single glance in their direction.

Asinarathi Greycloak, AKA "Rathi." This is Nathan's character in the Shadowend campaign... Not very easy to see the subtle use of gray and blue, but still one of my best works to date in my humble opinion. I actually managed to paint her eyes.

If you're interested in seeing what she looks to a thief attempting to sneak attack her, or to the vaporous fog that's about to descend upon her from behind, click here. Otherwise, don't.

Incidentally, I made more use of washing and drybrushing on this miniature than on previous ones. If you look real close, you might even see that there's a silver chain around her neck with a gold medallion on the end of it.

Newest acquisition: Nachtlufte. Painted him as a white dragon, then drybrushed him with Gold, gave him silver eyes and black horns and claws.

This is one of my new pursuits. To find, buy and paint as many dragons and with as many different colors as I can. Never seen a pink dragon? Wait. I'll figure out how to make it look good.

Aside from this one, I've been on hiatus. Discovered Neverwinter Nights. I'll get back into the painting soon. I just need a break from it.

Pirate.

Unlike former scans, this one came out perfectly. Why? Blame my dad. He bought me an HP scanjet 2300c for my birthday, and it scans better and more accurately than the quickcam.

The most astounding features of this miniature are the darker skin tone (a mix of caucasian flesh-tone and burnt umber), the purplish bandana (Josh says I use too many primary colors, so I tried something new) and the silvery-blue sword. Why a silvery-blue sword? I don't know. Call it a cobalt sword of swashbuckling goodness.

I painted the base with coral reef blue, then washed it with burnt umber, mainly to try for a kind of sea-going color scheme. There's also a red stripe down his right leg, though you can't see it in this scan.

This is the first miniature I've painted in several weeks. There will be others later...

This is one of Nathan's miniatures. I wanted a great deal of contrast, and I think I got more than I intended.

I have not yet laquered the miniature, and thus I may put in some added drybrushing/washing or highlighting, though I don't want further contrast to the wide range of colors I used here.

One thing that did come out really well, at least in my opinion, is the lute. I painted the face of the instrument in a mix of tan and burnt umber, then washed it with black. The back was painted in burnt umber and also washed. The strings however, were painted silver, then washed with black to make them look separate from the neck of the lute. Upon close examination, it looks really good.

The bard's bag is also fairly detailed, though all I really did was highlight its texture with coral reef blue.

The Skeleton King is a miniature that Nathan handed me to paint quite some time ago. I was unable to resolve my apprehensions about painting this miniature as the amount of detail was unbelievable. I attempted to wash the miniature in black, although it came out worse than it looked before washing. I then tried washing with writing ink, and it came out better than with the black paint wash, but still not to my satisfaction.

I've been told by several people already that it was a very well done miniature, though I am still not satisfied with the outcome. I've put it up here because it did catch a few friends' eyes, and thus cannot be a complete failure.

Incidentally, the back of the throne was painted in Quaker Grey, then washed with black to give it a granite appearance. This also did not come out the way I wanted it, and I've come to the conclusion that either I'm washing wrong or using bad wash. I'm therefore going to stop by at a few places on my daily routine to see if I can talk to people who know what they're doing to determine whether or not it's my washing or the wash I'm using.

I also have to pick up some more matte sealer at some point... Blah blah blah...

Here's one I am proud of to some extent. A kind of wandering wizard/monk type thingy with a crossbow and quarterstaff. Another one of Nathan's miniatures. I used a lot of color on this one, and I think it turned out well. Washing didn't work as well as I thought it would, and I'm thinking it was because I need to use a better quality wash.

I tried using darker colors for her pants and leggings and lighter colors for her shawl and shirt with a light blue vest. Her boots were painted with a combination of autumn brown and tompte red, and then washed heavily with black. I also tried using a new approach to painting her eyes. Instead of painting her eyeballs as I normally do, I simply washed her eyes with very light blue. It came out making her look a little like a fremen from Dune, but the overall effect was what I was looking for: An eerie, blank eyed expression.

I also painted the rocks around her feet with Quaker Grey so they at least look like rocks. Due to the lack of detail on miniatures which have these square plastic bases, I can't really do much with their surroundings, but I think this came out better than some of my previous attempts.

Most of the gamers in the group have seen this one. A dwarven cleric of indeterminate faith. He's been around for a while, and I don't fully remember what I did with him to make him look so good, but he's one of the few that I'm really satisfied with. I also managed to paint the Japanese words for "faith" and "healing" in his book, though it came out looking rather sloppy.

This miniature has been used to represent Rubic, the stealthy-agile-charismatic-flying-stoned-dwarf from John's 16th level Sunday game. Unfortunately -- or fortunately if you're Rubic -- he's lost the "stoned" adjective since he was cured of his igneous indisposition. In case you're wondering how he got all these abilites, they were cast on him by Steven's character Ellendria using the persistent metamagic feat. They therefore last 24 to 36 hours... Hence all the adjectives.

This is also one of the few miniatures on which I was able to paint eyes. Using a tiny brush, I dotted this guy's eyes with green, though I didn't have the juevos to try to give him pupils as well...

Halfling. Like Mitkin. 'Nuff said.

I was fairly pleased at how this one came out, though I think it could have been better. The scan doesn't quite show all the detail mainly because I've been sticking these things in the flatbed scanner to scan them in, and the plastic bases don't quite fit right, causing bizarre reflections inside the scanner. Hence her skin came out looking paler than it was painted.

The swords were painted with the same kind of cobalt-blue that I used for the pirate sword (above) and I tried a new mix of green for her pants. Other than that, she's fairly ordinary, though if she's anything like Mitkin (Amanda's halfling character from a while back), she's probably pretty dangerous.

Incidentally, this is one of the few miniatures that I had the presence of mind to remove from the plastic base before priming. I wish I had thought to spray her with sealant before returning her to her base, but unfortunately, the whole thing got sealed. Still, it came out exceedingly well anyway.

And a sorceress. Not too compelling, but interesting none-the-less. Her dress looks dirty because I washed it badly, though the highlights on the blue portions came out well. There was little I could do to make her face look better, but I gave her eyebrows and eyeballs, then tried to emphasize her staff to distract the viewer from her hideous visage.

Not a whole lot of detail on this one, but it was fun to paint. I also managed to get the cat's-eye staff looking somewhat good, although I might have done better to have washed it heavily with black rather than attmempt to paint the slitted pupil in.

Still, looks good. She might make a good alternate for Steven to use since he's been using the same miniature for both Ellendria in the Sunday game and Aiselle in the Monday game. Makes it kind of confusing...

This elven bow-woman (miniature by S. Garrity) is a copy of the first miniature I ever painted -- that one broke. Painting this one allowed me to go over the whole idea again and decide how I wanted to improve on the original.

The hair is blonde, and I highlighted it with a lighter color yellow. Her outfit is a melange of blues and greens, the most notable being the blue/green combination I used for her pants. I didn't mix a lot of paints on this one, and aside from the burnt sienna I used to paint the bow and the blue/green pants, all of the paints were the cheap Delta Ceramcoat paints.

The washing job on her wasn't as good as I normally do, and I think it's because I didn't pay attention to the drybrushing job afterward. I should have taken greater care in drybrushing her hands and face, and in the future, I will try to do better. d

Here's a spider familiar. Very small -- this picture is close to actual size.

I painted it blue since black spiders are kind of boring, and drybrushed it with silver to highlight its individual hairs. The drybrushing came out really well, and I may pick up more spiders at some point and use the same method on them.

Frog. Nothing special since most of the detail was lost in the scan. I painted the frog and ground green (different types of green of course) and dotted his warts with black. I also gave him red eyes to suggest a kind of fiendish frog, though his intimidation score is still negative.

I think this was the first miniature I used the new Liquitex paints on. They work very well, and aside from being much less watery than the other paints, I like them a lot. They're difficult to water down, but easy to mix, especially with other Liquitex paints. Most of the other miniatures were painted with Delta Ceramcoat, the cheapo Wal-mart paints. (Which work well enough anyway).

Another familiar, this one a badger.

I remembered the character that another gamer named Brad once played. It was a druid who was constantly followed by a pair of badgers who attempted to fight the beasts we ran into. They weren't really effective, but they did manage to distract the monsters long enough for the rest of the party to hit them a few times.

He was interesting to paint. I had to find a picture of a badger online, and even then, I didn't do a great job of emulating the colors. Still, this guy's one of my better minis. I painted the rocks grey and the ground brown, then used black to highlight the badger's details and around his snarling mouth which you can't quite see here.

Though personally, I'm satisfied with the job.

Deidre Darkwillow by Bobby Jackson. Reaper mini #2643. I painted this one with earthen colors to give her an almost ranger-ish look. I also discovered that Mr. Jackson did a phenomenal job on her chest. No, seriously; you don't see many miniatures which feature actual cleavage. Had I painted the face a little better, she might actually be really attractive.

An interesting feature of this miniature (paint-wise) is the ground. I painted the cracks between the rocks brown, then drybrushed the rocks themselves with two different shades of grey. It came out very well, in my biased opinion.

I've got more to put up, but little time to do so. Keep an eye out for updates.

Here's one of Nathan's miniatures -- A fire-brandishing wizard whom I painted with a variety of grey-blue tones.

The fire came out really well, in my opinion. I looked at a Dragon Magazine that Josh gave me a while back and used it as a template for the fire, painting it yellow, then drybrushing it heavily with fire red. The sash, also yellow, was inspired by our martial arts lessons and the blue hat with black border and red feather was a spur-of-the-moment deviation from what was going to be a single-color outfit. I used black for his shirt and pants because I didn't want his clothes to distract from the robe and flames. Though now that I think about it, the flames are most likely going to be the cynosure of this particular piece.

Also, I painted his beard and hair a kind of rusty brown, then drybrushed it with quaker grey. It came out alright, but it almost looks as though the paint is flaking off of his face.

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Most miniatures displayed here are Reaper Miniatures although some are D&D minis. Most come from either my own collection or Nathan's.
Questions, comments, insults and stuff can be sent to Jarod at This Address. Spam will be read for a $50 reading fee per email. Porn spammers agree to give the webmaster their souls and firstborn children.