My mother recently sent me some photos she’d unearthed that my father took of my formative painting efforts that I am fairly sure would have taken place during 1989. In my home town there was one very good bookshop that carried role playing games and one bicycle shop (yes!) that for some reason also sold minis. Whenever we went to to ‘town’ I would visit and stare at all the beautiful blister packs arrayed neatly on a column. It was church for this 14 year old. I pestered my parents to buy me the Warhammer Fantasy Regiments box for my birthday. Sixty minis in one box was just too good for me to pass up, even if they were primitive mono-pose white styrene! They were ideal for a young painter to experiment with, I had a blast and learned a lot. I still have the odd body and head floating around the bits boxes to this day!
Reviewing the photos I can recall that the vast majority of my paints were the screw top Tamiya range, which while still available today are frankly pretty awful for painting minis. The orc flesh is a glossy Park Green mixed with white. Essentially all the materials were poorly suited to the job. The brushes I had were shit, there were no washes, I either lined things black or diluted black paint. the metallics were of mixed consistency and turned grainy when mixed with water. Fourteen year old me didn’t care though – there was nothing better to use, and I loved every minute of it!
The Dark Elf and Elf from the Fantasy Regiments box. I did also paint the Dwarves but they didn’t make the photo shoot for some reason. Clearly my dislike of Wood Elves runs deep since I glued Dark Elf heads onto them!
Of course before I found the Citadel minis at the bike shop, I contented myself with 25mm Grenadier Fantasy Lords. The curious ‘scottish’ wizard on the right I have clearly attempted to ‘convert’ into a Chaos Sorceror with black blanchitsu flames.
A Grenadier cyclops and what I think is a titan both coveting the great treasure of ten New Zealand cents. Riches!
Mini Makeovers 