Miniature painting

After picking up boardgaming as a hobby again last year I have bought my first game with miniatures on Kickstarter: Dark Souls, The Board Game (it’s based on the video game)

It has lots of miniatures and there is more coming up towards the end of the year with all the stretch goals, add-ons and megabosses.


As you can see, the miniatures are beautiful and very detailed.

Since painted figures give more atmosphere to a game, I was thinking of painting them. But….the last time I painted was like 20 years ago!

I decided to start with “painting by number”, to see if my skills are up for the task. But more important: Do I have enough patience to work on details for many hours?

I picked this VOC-ship, since it reminds me of the history of Holland. And I like the theme of the Carribean and piracy.



It turned out pretty well, even though the delivered colors were a bit off. My worries about the lack of patience were unnecessary but I noticed I found it very relaxing to paint. Since my boardgame with miniatures was delayed. I was even looking for another project! I cannot remember how many hours I spent on this painting but it was a lot (50+). Therefor I decided to not get a new painting but buy some miniatures to practice before I start on my boardgame.

These are bought in Holland but they are from Reaper Bones.
If you’re interested, they have a Kickstarter running at the moment.

Since these are my first miniatures, it wasn’t perfect but I was pretty impressed with the results.  Mr Bones (with lantern) is not even 2 cm high. I started with the zombie: it’s ugly allready, so what can go wrong?


At the shop they advised me to buy the primary colors and start mixing until I’m sure I want to keep on painting in the future. I noticed right from the start that mixing colors is pretty annoying: it’s hard to get the right color, you have to mix a lot of paint and it’s almost impossible to recreate the same color.
But for my first miniatures it worked out okay, the colors are a bit too dark for my likings but that’s also because I had to get used to the colors and the black primer.

Painting the details wasn’t that bad either, with the right brush and a (sort of) steady hand.
The only negative part is how my brush looks like. After 30 minutes it felt abused allready, this picture is after 20 hours. I need to get some advice on maintaining my brushes because without a good brush it’s impossible to paint properly.

In my next piece I will write a bit about the techniques I have used, and what could be done better. I am no expert but practice makes perfect.

If you want to improve your skills and want some inspiration, check out Sorastro’s Painting. For a beginner, this video was really helpfull to me.

@poeticsnake also painted some miniatures, check out her website. Also for other artwork.
I will start writing boardgame-reviews soon again, so follow me if you are interested!