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| A batch of 28mm horror figures for my frontier America 'Devilry Afoot' campaign |
To quote from Gimli in Peter Jackson's
Lord of the Rings:
"It's all right! It's all right! Nobody panic! That was deliberate..." Unlike Gimli, I panicked recently and goofed up! I'd started working on my second batch of
Retro Raygun Sci-Fi figs, when suddenly I thought I'd forgotten to alternate between painting old and new batches of miniatures. Since both the
Viet Cong women soldiers I'd just finished and the
Hydra Miniatures Pulpy Sci-Fi figures were
current projects, I got it in my head they were both figures I'd bought this year. So, I hurriedly looked through my list of unpainted miniatures I keep on my Iphone (yep, I do that...!). I grabbed a batch of things for my
Devilry Afoot campaign set in frontier America. I cleaned them up, primed them, and started on them the very next morning, setting the Sci-Fi ladies to the side.
After a couple of days working on the Devilry Afoot miniatures, I realized that I had actually bought my Hydra Miniatures back in 2024 and 2025! The project was current, but the minis qualified as "Old." That deserves a Homer Simpson-style forehead smack, "D'oh!" Oh well. I did want to bring the Devilry Afoot project back to life. What better way than painting up some figures I could possibly use in an upcoming scenario? This batch included two monsters -- a Reaper Miniatures Yeti Warrior to paint as a Sasquatch and a Silver Bayonet Wendigo. It also included a pair of Bad Squiddo Games Banshees that I would paint up as generic undead specters or spirits. The final two figures in the batch were Bad Squiddo's The Seer and a Silver Bayonet Forest Witch. I would do these up as native American "medicine women", aka witches, in my frontier adaption of Devilry Afoot.
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| This Reaper Bones mini is labeled 'Yeti Warrior,' but I thought he'd work fine as a Sasquatch, too |
The two monsters were very quick and easy to paint, especially the Sasquatch. He received only a Dark Brown base coat and lighter Camo Brown dry brush highlight. After that, I had to pick out only a few details. The mouth was done in Blood Red with some Salmon colored highlighting on the tongue. The teeth and claws were done in a pale yellow. I painted his eyes and snout, and he was done! Now, that was fast!!
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| A very creepy, multi-eyed version of a Wendigo, another native American legendary creature |
The hardest part about painting the Wendigo was gluing the darned thing together! It is a very plastic like resin, I believe. More and more, figure manufacturers are substituting random resin figures in mostly metal lines (see the Banshees below). It is kind of annoying, as there is no reason this casting could not have been done in metal. Make up your mind on a line! Will it be in metal or resin? Anyway, the antlers and arms had to be trimmed with a hobby knife before they'd fit in the obvious spots for them. The internet recommended super glue to do that (yay, my favorite...not!). After a number of frustrating tries, I finally got them to hold with superglue. Once the superglue seemed to have cured, I put a line of two-part epoxy across the seams in hopes that would help.
When it came to painting, I used a very pale tan with white dry brushing for its skin. For its patches of fur, I used a medium brown color, dry brushed with tan. The mouth, claws, and teeth were done just like the Sasquatch, but I gave him yellow eyes with red irises. Creepily, he has two eyes on each side of his head. The antlers were painted in a parchment color. To match the previous, much larger, Wendigo I had done for my Reign in Hell cabal, I gave him native American tattoos all over his body. The last step was to do a brown vehicle wash over him. It came about a bit darker than I wanted, but oh well. He still looks suitably scary.
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| More resin minis (not my favorite) - 2 eerie, dead-looking Banshees floating up off the ground |
Next up, were the two Bad Squiddo Banshees. I'm guessing that they are also 3-D printed resin. I'm really worried about their fragility, though. Each female spirit is rising up off the ground as its dress ripples out beneath it acting as its base support. It seems very thin, though. I'll cross my fingers that they don't end up snapping off during handling in a game. I painted their skin a pale yellow with white highlights. The hair was done in black with medium gray dry brushing. One banshee received a pale blue dress and the other a Sea Foam Green outfit. Both dresses received a white highlight to make them appear faded. Only one of the pair has a visible face, so I made it as scary looking as I could. I applied a black vehicle wash to give the dresses and skin a dirty, grimy look like they've been lying in a grave for months or years.
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| Finally - metal miniature! I painted this Bad Squiddo 'Seer' up as a tribal medicine woman |
I like The Seer figure best of the two medicine women. She is obviously meant to be blind, with a cloth across her eyes. She holds up an eyeball in her hand, doubtless what she sees with. She wears a wolf-skin cloak that I painted as a gray wolf, similar to how I do my wolves. Otherwise, I gave her a light brown dress, topped off by a pale yellow hood. Since native Americans were known for jazzing up their garments with beadwork and other colorful decorations, I made sure to do that on this figure. I gave her a lighter colored wooden staff, so she was keeping in the general earth tones range. There wasn't really enough skin to put tattoos on -- plus, I didn't want to ruin it! I really liked how it was turning out. The finishing touch was the eyeball in her palm. I painted the eye in light gray, white, blue iris, black dot for the pupil, and finally tiny red veins for the sides of the eye. I can see how she would definitely be an ominous looking figure for my players to encounter in the woods at night...!
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| Another medicine woman -- the almost cartoonish Silver Bayonet 'Forest Witch' |
Silver Bayonet's Forest Witch is a neat looking figure, too. She has a very cartoonish bulbous face with beetling eyebrows. She is heavyset, holds a nice tree limb staff, and has various totems and fetishes strapped to her body. I struggled over identifying what everything is on the sculpt, though. The cloak, tunic, and undergarments didn't seem to line up, especially on her left hand which is outstretched. Finally, I went online and zoomed in on photos that I could find of the miniature. It turns out she has a snake wrapped around that outstretched hand! I actually had to go back and repaint that part of the figure, as I had been doing it as part of her garments. Once I realized that, I kind of liked the figure a bit more...ha, ha! I chose a green snake as it would contrast nicely with the earth tones of her garments.
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| The pair of medicine women lead the creatures of horror & legend forward to attack Franklinton |
So, as Gimli says, this
"deliberate" painting of this batch of six horror figures turned out all right. It also keeps my mind focused on scheduling a Devilry Afoot game soon. However, that means my next batch should be something new. The Sci-Fi ladies will doubtless be getting impatient when more Viet Cong ditch in front of them...ha, ha! So stay tuned...you'll see my blue-skinned beauties eventually!
MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026
- Miniatures acquired in 2026: 210
- Miniatures painted in 2026: 185
TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026
- Terrain acquired in 2026: 14
- Terrain painted in 2026: 36
SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026
- Scatter acquired in 2026: 34
- Scatter painted in 2026: 75
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