What hobbies go well with RPGs?
Miniature painting of course!
(Dungeon Tiles courtesy of @inkedadventures Thanks!)
At a car boot sale in 1985 it wasnāt the colourful rule books or the funny shaped dice that attracted me to the stall where a some older kids were selling roleplaying stuff. Ā It was miniatures. Ā Dozens of painted figures wielding swords and bows, overlooked by what I recognised (probably from the Ralph Bakshi cartoon) as theĀ BalrogĀ from Lord Of The Rings. Ā
As a kid who was reading The Hobbit and had devoured all the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks his local library had I knew I wanted in on this hobby!
(āJeremyā the Ral Partha OgreĀ do you see the celebrity resemblance?)
Even though itās quite rare that I use minis in my home game these days I still love to paint, and Iām still learning. Ā I donāt have any aspirations to win competitions but I think the standard of minis I set out on the table is better now that it was a couple of years ago and Iām still improving. Ā
(Ghouls and Ghasts, One of my first experiments using a shader product)
Of course Iām still buying them more quickly than Iām painting them but someone recently told me to think of unpainted minis as a form of life insurance; Ā Legend has it that if a mini painter runs out of things to paint he dies, but I think Iām safe for a few more years!
('Len' the Cleric (Heresy Minis) so named because of a passing resemblance to one of my oldest gamer friends)
Post Script: Ā If youāre interested in watching me paint I do occasionally stream my painting sessions on twitch. Ā Constructive criticism, support and banter always well received!
