The brief was simple. Paint something that is (or looks) old, and give it a puerile name.

This was the first paint challenge run in the Bedroom Battlefields Discord Server, and it was a lot of fun. There was a good level of participation, a diverse range of models, and the quality of the brushwork was superb.

Here are the photos of everyone’s completed miniatures.

By LateNightPainting

“Here is my metal squig hopper painted up with the Richard Gray paint scheme. Funny faces on these old model, but man, the metal just doesn’t hold paint as well. I think that rattle can is the way to prime metal models. My airbrush primer just rubs off.”

An ogre skeleton from Ral Partha.

By Demonsub – DemonSubMinis

Baron Årsöl of Börll’s Deep

By Mark Smith

Legend has it that the underground city once belonging to the dwarf lord Börll is guarded by a demonic knight, Baron Årsöl, who roams its empty dungeons and corridors howling in pain. Why he does this, nobody knows. But none who have ventured there have made it back alive to tell the tale.

Ligma Balz

By Space Goblin

Bombu Bellybong

By SamuelLarsson

A Games Workshop dwarf from 1985.

Ashat Ma’Sel

By Tom Heaney – TabletopChronicles.com

“He is a Citadel C31 Balgorg sculpted by Trisha Morrison. I bought it second-hand from eBay then soaked it in Dettol for about a week.”

Ashat enjoys long walks through barren ash wastelands and swimming in molten lava lakes. If he had one wish, it would be for world peace, by killing and enslaving all living things. His favourite colour is black, and favourite food is grey wizards.

Ashat is currently single and concentrating on his career. He would one day like to find the right lady demon to share his massive pile of skulls.

Shagsmak Skogbuttz

By Ryan – Adventure Built Gaming

“I painted the ork with Army Painter speed paints and starter set for the most part with one or two more paints mixed in. But with a zenithal priming base. As for where the miniature came from, it was made by Games Workshop and released in 97 for the Gorkamorka game.”

Neil Warlock

By the Author

“I bought this guy from Knightmare. He bears a striking resemblance to football manager Neil Warnock.”

Hild Michbieber von Mordheim

By Idle Doodler – There Could Have Been Snakes

“An old handgunner gifted by a friend some 20 years ago, and I kept his original colour scheme. Experimented with acrylic inks and highlights on the clothing, and kept to more familiar layered highlights and washes on the skin. A flocked green base in honour of Goblin Green battlefields everywhere.”

Zhug Ma’Dheek

By CoveringFire (Ted) – OddGitsHut

“I got this miniature in a lot with some 4th edition hobgoblins, and it took quite a while until I was able to identify it as a Hobgoblin rocket launcher crewman. I never intended to use it with my army, so I thought it would be fun to paint it up for this challenge. I found a photo of the original paintjob, so I tried to emulate that using my Nostalgia ’88 paints. I mainly used Orc Brown for the skin.”

When the hobgoblin artillery positions were surrounded during the battle of Scheissdorf in 2478, Zhug was ‘elected’ to negotiate with the humans. As he approached the enemy lines and was called upon to identify himself, Zhug promptly yelled “Zhug Ma’Dheek!” Unfortunately, the Imperial cavalry took this as an outrageous insult and charged…

Do you think we could kickstart a card game featuring these characters in time for Christmas?

Thanks for taking a look. And thanks to everyone who took part, too. It was a lot of fun.

We’ll be running the next painting challenge in December 2022, so be sure to join the discord if you’d like to get involved!

A long-awaited game of Blood Moon, the Rangers of Shadow Deep expansion is still on the cards.

One of the many things that have been holding us up has been a lack of the miniatures recommended to play the game.

Naturally, wolves and werewolves are part of those recommendations. I was able to pick everything here up from Otherworld, who are one of my favourite miniature companies.

The big guy is actually Grendel from the Beowulf saga, but I thought he’d work well as a werewolf.

I also needed some giant flies and a companion called Orla, which are now painted up. Oh, and a pond, too – I got some nice 2D neoprene terrain to take care of that.

We’ve played through three Rangers of Shadow Deep scenarios to-date, and it’s definitely one of my favourite games.

• The Deserted Village
• The Infected Trees
• The Bridge Guards

I’ve talked a fair bit on the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast about my miniature painting process. I consider myself a very limited painter, but with these techniques, I get results that I’m very happy with.

First up, I apply the basing to the miniature. I know for many hobbyists, this is one of the final parts of the process. I like to do it early because I feel it helps with the overall consistency. I use Vallejo Ground Texture which turns rock hard after about 12 hours. I find it stays on much better than a sand/PVA glue combo.

Then, I undercoat with Chaos Black, before applying what’s known as a zenithal highlight, using either the Wraithbone or Grey Seer sprays. This technique involves applying a few short bursts from above the miniature, and gives the effect of natural light and shadow.

Then, I cover the entire miniature in the Citadel Skeleton Horde contrast paint.

The “colouring in” stage falls easily into place after that. I’ll add colours where they are needed (again, using Citadel contrast paints) but I try not to go overboard. I use Plaguebearer Flesh on the grass, which has also benefited from the zenithal highlight earlier on in the process. I’ll then finish up with a bit of traditional Goblin Green around the base edge.

And that’s it. Not a lot to it, and I won’t be troubling Golden Demon any time soon. But I find this an efficient, satisfying, and satisfactory way to paint miniatures.

I recently painted up some of the excellent Junior Townsfolk range from Midlam Miniatures. As always, they’re full of character, and were a lot of fun to work on.

There is a time, before they are sent to be apprentices or a life of responsibility, when the young folk of Midlam can play freely in the streets, happy with their games regardless of the dirt and squalor.  Others, though the entrenched poverty of their families, find themselves from an early age, forced in to a life of servitude.  Some will go on to become craftsmen, artisans and nobility, others may cast off their heavy duties for a life of adventure. – Midlam Miniatures’ Junior Townsfolk

As I mentioned recently on the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast, I got these kiddos as part of my preparation for a game of Rangers of Shadow Deep – the Blood Moon supplement, to be specific.

I’m going to stat this gang up as a warband at some point, either for a game of Song of Blades and Heroes or Frostgrave. I like the thought of them taking on a group of hardened chaos mutants or daemons, and – maybe even at all costs – winning.

I decided to give my old Krell, a bit of TLC. Mainly, because I’d bought an undead chaos warrior from Diehard Miniatures – one of my favourite Oldhammer miniature companies. I thought he might’ve been made as a bit of a homage to the original Lord of the Undead.

Vulcan the Chaos Reiver was another Diehard purchase.

‘Goatsy’ was a Midlam Miniature. I’m going to add him to our Rangers of Shadow Deep party.

This wee armoured goblin champion was from Midlam, too.

Then back to Diehard, we have Pandora the Chaos Reiver.

A vulture for Rangers of Shadow Deep, courtesy of North Star Military Figures.

That’s what I’ve been up to recently, anyway. I talked more about the painting of these on a recent episode of the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast, so be sure to take a listen if podcasts are your thing!

I’ve actually got through quite a few miniatures since my last painting update and photo dump. The latest batch are all from CP Models, one of my favourite Oldhammer-style miniature companies.

These Near Future Mercenaries would fit right into a game of Necromunda.

The Zombie Grey Aliens are a part of my Undead Stargrave Crew.

Fed Troopers – Terran Federation Security Troopers armed with automatic weapons.

Future trench warfare figures. Loosely based on World War I troops but with a near-future twist.

The mercs are led by this “Detective for Hire”. If I remember correctly, he came as a generous freebie miniature with my order from CP.

More mercs.

I liked painting these guys. They had a good variety, without being over the top.

The other (more uniformed) squads were fun too though, and I got through them quickly, without opening many paint pots at all.

Anyway, there you have it. Thanks very much for taking the time to have a look. And whilst you’re here, why not check out the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast, too? It’s like Citadel Contrast Paint for your ears.

Does that sound like a good thing or a bad thing? I’m not quite sure…

Stargrave is a miniature agnostic sci-fi skirmish game. I’ve been working on building my own crew for… well, quite a long time. But it looks like I’m finally finished.

Inspired by the rabbit holes I went down when talking about collecting Stargrave minis with a rogue trader feel, as well as where to find Oldhammer-style miniatures, I set to work creating an undead Stargrave crew.

I liked the idea of a “crew” that didn’t need to be kept safe, fed, watered, and essentially transported around the galaxy. The leadership would simply arrive in the location of their next objective and re-animate the corpses of whatever last happened to die there.

These little undead aliens by CP Models can be used under the ‘Guard Dog’ category.

The backbone of my force: undead space troopers by Diehard Miniatures.

Midlam‘s great Crow Shaman miniature will make an ideal “medic” for the crew. Not a medic in the conventional sense perhaps, just someone with a bit of necromantic magic know-how who can patch up skeletons when they get blasted to bits.

The Captain and Vice-Captain of the crew are Chaos Villain Skully and Kane the Tech Mancer, both courtesy of Diehard.

An ex-Blood Angel, perhaps? He can be deployed in Stargrave as the (extremely expensive) ‘Armoured Trooper’.

I’m still undecided if the Captain and Vice-Captain will both be given the ‘Mystic’ background. This would fit the lore of the crew best, but from a gameplay point of view, diversifying would be sensible.

If you’re not too familiar with Stargrave, you can learn more about it on this episode of the Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast. Find the show anywhere you get your podcasts.

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Remember to check out the 3 companies I used to assemble my undead space crew, too. They are, CP Models, Diehard, and Midlam. You can find more info about all 3 in my roundup of Oldhammer Miniature Companies, too!

Doing an Oldhammer miniature companies roundup was always going to come at a financial cost. The latest company I decided to pick up a batch of cool and interesting minis from was Diehard.

Diehard Miniatures create metal wargames miniatures. The company started as a collaboration of 3 sculptors back in 2014 (Tim Prow, Chaz Elliott and Drew Williams). With the assistance of Richard Luong for the initial artwork and concepts, Diehard has expanded its artist stable to include Chris Walton, Johan Egerkrans, Kennon James and Jody Siegel.

I’ve been working on building a crew for Stargrave and I’m going for an undead theme.

I loved the look of these skeletal astronauts, and they were fun and easy to paint, too.

There’s a brilliant range of undead miniatures on the Diehard site which cater to both sci-fi and fantasy.

Joining the bony ranks of this crew is an undead Space Marine, also from Diehard.

No “here’s what I’ve painted recently” roundup would be complete without something from Midlam, either. This guy is a crow shaman and he’ll act as my crew’s “medic”.

Another character from Midlam is this demon who’ll be used for my dungeon crawler games.

Back to Diehard for another dungeon denizen, this guy is a Satyr.

Have you ever wondered why undead creatures persevere in their attempts to play wind instruments?

Another company I buy from a lot is CP Models. This trooper is part of a group of 5, so I just need to get his pals painted up now.

Finally, I painted up the last two Blood Bowl beastmen that I found in a box a while back.

So that’s what I’ve been up to recently on the hobby front. Well, that, and running our new Tabletop Miniature Hobby Podcast. We’ve had some great conversations on there recently about Oldhammer, Herohammer, and old White Dwarf mags. Have you listened yet?

Painting and has been a bit slower recently due to the better weather, easing of restrictions, and a few other commitments taking up a bit of my free time. Nevertheless, I’ve still managed to get another wee batch of minis finished up, starting with these Chaos Space Raiders from Diehard.

I came across these guys whilst researching options for Rogue Trader-esque Stargrave crews. They’re big chunky marines with a fantastic Oldhammer aesthetic.

Jadus Blakk’ here was the hardest miniature I’ve ever tried to photograph. There’s quite a lot going on with him.

You can pick him up for £6 on the Diehard Miniatures site.

With those 4 big exhaust pipes, he’s hardly what you’d call an Eco Warrior, eh? I wonder if his suit’s a nightmare to get through its MOT.

Back in May I painted some Chaos Dwarfs. I had another one of these obnoxious little guys in my to-do pile, so here he is.

Not to be out-tusked though, it’s a Boar Man from Midlam Miniatures.

I paint a lot of miniatures from the Midlam range, they’re definitely one of my favourite companies. I go on about them a lot though, and I don’t want to ‘boar’ you… 😐

So I’ll move on to another company I’m always banging on about – Knightmare. Here’s two more splendid tusks, too, sported by Commander Tusker himself.

I’ve built a lot of skirmish warbands from the Knightmare range, including Beastmen, Chaos Warriors, and Goblin Archers.

Swinging back round to the Diehard Space Raiders too, here’s Amorbis Zoon’…

I did him “a bit Nurgly”, if that’s an actual term.

So there’s the fruits of my labour this past month or so. I’ve plenty more to be getting cracked on with this summer, but for extra servings of my finished work, check out Chaos, Cultists, & Blood Bowl Beastmen, as well as From Battlemasters to Dungeon Masters.