Rats! And I said I was done Painting 15mm (ish) Figures...

    8 Splintered Light Miniatures rat slingers that I need for my solo Sellswords & Spellslingers games

The other day I sorted through my Splintered Light Miniatures anthropomorphic animals (that's a mouthful...), both painted and unpainted. I discovered that I don't have quite as many rats painted up as I thought I did. They're going to be the "Orcs & Goblins" of my solo Sellswords & Spellslingers campaign. I must have sold some to my friend Rich Brown of RRB Minis & More this past Advance the Colors. I talked him into buying my multi-based armies (5 infantry or 4 missile troops per large hexagon base). He would be using them for Grey Matter Games' Mice at Arms rules. I had painted and based these for my own big battle fantasy miniatures rules set that never got written. So, I figured, why not make some money off of them? I remember also taking along my individually based ones, so I'm pretty sure he picked up some of my mice and rats.

    There were two poses in the batch of 8 figures - here the one with a pouch for sling stones

The reason for this long-winded diatribe is one I am sure you can guess: "Rats! I needed to paint up more rats!" So, I pulled out a bag of 8 rat slingers and sorted through and picked out 10 with hand weapons that looked like good characters. I would do them in two batches -- the slingers first and hand weapons after. To be honest, I had not painted figures this small in a long time. What scale are they? Well, that's a great question! When Splintered Light first released its miniatures, they were 15mm scale. Then, they started releasing bigger and beefier figures intended more as characters than as packs for 15mm armies. Initially, they said these were 18mm/20mm. Well, I looked on their website the other day, and they're listed as 28mm. To be fair, they say quite clearly, "Please note that these stand 15mm-22mm in height and are similar in size to halflings and kobolds." Measuring one of the slingers, he stands 14mm from bottom of the feet to eyes. So, yeah. I'm painting 15mm figures...

    LONG time since I painted such small figures - these rats measured 14mm from soles to eyes

Thankfully, this blast from the past of painting 15's went well. I did not pluck my eyes out and run screaming from the room! I told myself going that I would not go as crazy as I currently do 28mm figures. Every item on the figure would not be getting a base coat and highlight. Did I hold true on that? Hmm...you be the judge. Either way, this batch of 8 rats went fairly fast. First, I cleaned them up. Splintered Light figs have very little flash and are excellent castings. I glued them down onto the Litko hexagon bases that I started using for my individual ones long ago. And...um, that was for another set of rules that never got written! Then, I primed the rats white with Gesso.

I did a Google search of various rat fur colors, and end up choosing four to five. With a big brush, I slapped on their base coat, not worrying about splashing over onto other parts of the figure. Similarly, once dry, I grabbed my flat brush and dry brushed each in the appropriate highlight color. Next, it was time to look at the figures more closely and plan things out. I decided to go with their tunics/shirts next. I used pale or dark colors for that. I also did a drybrush on each. So far, no real difference between how I was painting them and how I do 28's! Next, I did the leather belts and straps in Autumn Brown base coat and Iron Wind Metals Leather highlight. Oops, still the same recipe as my 28mm figures!

    Here is the other pose which carry shields -- they were easier to paint than I'd feared they might be!

Pouches and bags were next, with the tiniest pouch on four of the poses getting only one color. The slings were done in a base and dry brush (Maple Sugar and Wild Rice highlight). The stones visible in the sling and in the pouches were done in a medium gray, with a dot of light gray highlighting. There were basically two poses in this batch of eight. Four had shields, and I did each design differently -- once again, with a base coat and dry brush. I chose to do individual shield patterns mainly because I went back and saw I had done that on my previous rats. I tried to strike a balance between barbarian looking shield designs and simple ones 

All that was left at this point was the pink of their noses,  tail, and skin inside their ears. This was done with a Salmon base coat and a tiny highlight of Pink. I also gave them big black eyes. I was tempted to put a tiny white dot of the light reflecting, but felt that I wouldn't be able to consistently make it small enough. At this stage I was essentially done. The biggest difference between painting these and my 28mm figs, I guess, is that there simply isn't as much detail -- not so many pieces of equipment festooned all over them!

    I also put tiny leaves on the bases from a bag I'd bought -- adds a nice woodland touch, I think

I finished them out with brown and black washes, and then flocked them. I added a couple steps over my standard flocking. I put three small tan colored pebbles on each base, and then at the end, I added a few scattered leaves on each base. It seemed like an appropriate touch for woodland fantasy figures. I may yet go back and add leaves to my already-painted animals. We'll see.

So, what else is on my desk right now? I am finally just about done with my two Shipping Container buildings. They took longer than I thought they would. They are in the flocking stage now, so you will see them likely tomorrow or the day after. I have the batch of 10 rats with their fur base coated, now. I also have the clothes lines from Miniature Building Authority (still) primed and ready to go. So, as you can see, I have plenty to work on!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 100
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 39 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 14

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 30