I've been collecting them since I was 13, starting with Grenadier's Dungeons & Dragons figurines, and painting them with the brushes and paints Mum used for her ceramics. I still have most of them too.
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| Gnome illuisionist, archer, druid |
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| Medusa, winged imp |
Better looking figurines followed and my painting slowly improved, and wanting to see more toy soldiers on the tabletop led me to games like Games Workshop's Space Hulk, which led directly into Warhammer 40,000 and wargaming.
I accumulated loads of miniatures while working for GW from 1995-2007, and grabbed quite a few when I parted ways with them, as you could still order the metal miniatures by weight at the time, a perk they discontinued within a year or so of my departure.. A large portion of these became my XXII Valhallan army back in - egad, 2012? Wow. Sadly, an even larger contingent remains unpainted.
They languish alongside a complete army of 25mm Early Imperial Roman legionnaires, 15mm British Long Range Desert Group and German Afrika Korps, 28mm zombie gunfighters and a number of boardgames like XCOM and Big Trouble in Little China that I know would look better painted, but frankly play just as well unadorned.
Theoretically, social distancing and the inability to attend movies should make this a golden time for painting some of my backlog, but no - my current fervor for D&D has me ordering pre-painted miniatures instead. These models lack in detailing, sure, but in terms of effect, they are hard to match for the price.
The shipment arrived the day before I was scheduled to play with the family (and Bobby), which meant I could put three foul spidery-human hybrids called ettercaps on the table instead of proxies. The disgust these 1-inch monstrosities elicited from my players made it all worthwhile.
Their arrival, though timely, meant I finally had to bite the bullet and reorganize my non-army miniatures, using a set of compartmented boxes I had ordered. Not necessarily elegant, but a bit more secure than the random boxes and egg carton foam I had been using to that point, and the transparent lids should make it easier to find what I'm looking for. (Now if I could only find the grell and the Type VI (Marilith) demon that I know are lurking about here in the Batcave somewhere...)
Best of all though, it doesn't take much time to paint a single monster, unlike the delayed gratification required to assemble an army of Tyranids or fleet of starships. This crocodile painted up nicely in a single night, and the translucent base makes for a very decent water effect. Best of all, it will probably serve a dual role as an adversary as well as a potential Wild Shape for Fenya's shapeshifting druid.
And yet, the desire to expand the collection even further remains and temptation lies around every corner. I constantly muse about the classic monster missing from my collection: the fearsome beholder, the eerie mummy, the puzzling rust monster and of course, the gelatinous cube.
Well, at least I managed to get the dreaded owlbear included in that last shipment, and I've even got the first coat of paint on him already. ("He's just for painting, right Dad?" my daughters ask. "We aren't gonna fight him, right?" My shrugs do little to comfort them.)
And as far as counting them goes... maybe it makes more sense to do that once I'm done collecting.
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