No monsters from me yet (big surprise), but I did paint this guy, who is obviously not a monster and does not count, but I thought I’d share him anyway. I paint a piper for every 100 posts I do in Instagram. This is my ninth piper, even though I have 800 posts, because my first post was a piper, too. Maybe I’ll post them all here sometime.
Incidentally, I’ve got some problems with this guy. First, he’s 3D printed. Second, he was digitally sculpted by someone who has no idea what a bagpiper looks like. This posture is appalling and unmanageable. Look at a photo, man. There’s a reason we use a cord to bind the drone pipes together. And lastly, the flames. The fucking flames.
Anyway, it’s a week into Monster May(hem), and here’s what you may have missed, First our list of participants this year. It’s still not too late to jump in, so I expect this list will get longer!
Simon, from Fantorical, has started work on a Banderhobb, a creature I am unfamiliar with but undeniably monstrous!
That’s it so far, but like I said, I have a few people who want to participate but can’t fully commit. And I can’t blame them. There are a lot of challenges run by lots of people out there. You gotta pick and choose which ones appeal to you most, and I’m always a big proponent of trying new stuff. So, if you want to give Monster May(hem) a pass in favor of something else, no sweat! It’ll be here next year!
That’s Death Dealer, a classic painting by the great Frank Frazetta, a print of which hangs on the wall of my basement / hobby space / criminal headquarters. You may be familiar with this image (if you’re not, you likely wandered here by mistake), but did you know that there was a series of novels written by James Silke (and Frank Frazetta) that gave this image a full-blown character, with adventures of his own?
First, I am a great admirer of Frazetta. He’s my favorite fantasy artist hands-down, and in a world where Larry Elmore, the late great Keith Parkinson, the Hildebrandt brothers, Denis Beauvais, Michael Whelan and John Howe all exist, that’s saying something (for me, at least). If you ask me who the greatest of the great is, it’s Frazetta. Period. The documentary about his life both before and after his strokes, Painting with Fire, released seven years prior to his death, is fucking phenomenal. In it, Frank is seen drawing with his left hand AFTER suffering a stroke that made it difficult for him to use his right hand, and it still looks amazing. You can (and should) watch it free on YouTube.
But, other than being the guy who envisioned this character and painted him, I am unclear how much influence Frazetta really had on the writing. Likely, not much. James Silke wrote the prose. It spanned a series of four novels, shown here.
These Tor paperbacks came out in the late 1980’s and now go for stupid money on eBay, likely because the rights are tied up in the Frazetta estate and haven’t been reprinted, although I have no firsthand knowledge if that is true. All I know is despite the cover damage to my Book 3, shown here, I could still sell these bad boys for a pretty penny. But I won’t.
So what is the story? Well, let’s see if I can remember, It’s been a while. At a time “before Atlantis”, a guy named Gath of Baal put on a horned helmet and couldn’t take it off. It made him pretty invincible, and let him breathe fire at times, but it was stuck permanently to his head. He fought against a horde of “barbarians” called Kitzaaks, which, IIRC, seemed to be a stand-in for not-Mongols (although if it’s pre-Atlantis, that’s not right…). Gath killed lots of people, and he could maybe get his helmet off if he fell in love. There was a female character named Robin Lakehair (I remember that dumb name to this day) who, again, IIRC (it’s been over 30 years since I read these), was innocent enough to remove his helmet. (Eyeroll). There was something about a super-sexy, almost-naked, voluptuous Frazetta-drawn woman with a big sabretooth tiger in there somewhere, and lots of blood and slaughter throughout. I remember being entertained, but I was also 16 when these came out. Maybe I’m wrong about these details, since it’s been so long. Maybe I should read them again.
Anyway, turns out even before the books, the amazing Frazetta art inspired a sculptor. This is Ral Partha’s classic Super Hero with Axe (01-015). I’m not sure who sculpted it, but it has the Dennis MIze look about it. He has a mounted version, too, which looks (actionably) like the famous Death Dealer painting, above. I don’t have that one.
This was one of Owen’s Miniatures, which, if you may recall, I stored for several years in the hope my friend would return to the miniatures-painting fold. Alas, he is lost to the hobby, so upon his request I transferred his vast collection of miniatures to his niece, now a gamer herself. I did not hesitate to pass the trove of minis on to the next generation, but I did keep a few. And this is one.
Gath of Baal, the Death Dealer.
1976. That’s an early one indeed.
But that’s only part of the story! It’s almost May, and that means MONSTER MAY(HEM) is back!!!
What is Monster May(hem)? Why, it’s the month you paint monsters, of course. Any monster will do, although it should be a proper MONSTER, something big and mean, like this Avatar of the Abyss I did last year. I mean something truly beastly; like an Elder God, a dragon, or even a rust monster. Your monster(s) doesn’t have to be strictly a fantasy miniature, and it may be any scale and from any manufacturer.
How many monsters you paint is up to you. The minimum is one, of course; but feel free to do as many as you like. The only caveat is that they get painted sometime in May. I will link to your stuff throughout the month, and (if it’s not there already) add your blog/website/social media to the blogroll on the side! If you don’t have a site of your own and still want to participate, I’ll happily host your pictures here and ensure you get proper attribution! So if you’re in, let me know in the comments below or reach out on Instagram. I’ll post the list of participants in the next post. Until then, go find some monsters to paint!
I bought a monster especially for Monster May(hem) this year, and I still have one unfinished on my desk from last year. Hope I can get to both!
Let me know if you want to take part by dropping a comment here or emailing me at angrypiper@angrypiper.com. Or, you could always DM me on Instagram @angrypiper.
We’re in the thick of it now, folks! Forced March continues with some lovely submissions from seemingly everyone but me, but rest assured I am working on my first infantry unit and should have it posted soon. For now, a quick recap of the participants and their submissions thus far. As always, please let me know if I’ve missed anyone!
Simon, from Fantorical, is working on a unit of Uruk-Hai crossbowmen (crossboworcs?)
Dave, from Wargames Terrain Workshop has been busy indeed, with a squad of Star Wars Imperial Scout Troopers, some old-school metal Space Marine Scouts, a squadron of Space Marine Speeders, and some Star Wars Imperial Stormtroopers, to boot! Dave always brings his A game to every challenge and this one is no exception!
Be sure to check out these very creative folks and their impressive efforts!
I’ve been late with my submissions because I’ve been bogged down in a project since December that was originally supposed to be completed by the end of the year. I knew if I paused mid-way to work on Forced March, I would likely never return to it, so I made myself finish before doing anything else. I present The Honeyacre Militia!
These are Halflings from Wargames Atlantic. They do NOT count for Forced March, because I started them in December. Particularly attentive visitors to this site may recognize five of these fellows from a couple of years ago, when I painted up a sprue that came free with my copy of Miniature Wargames magazine. I always liked the way they looked, they paint up nicely, and so I bought a box of them last year, figuring I’d throw them together and use them in my never-to-be-completed-or-played Empire army. Instead, I made a militia based on a settlement of Halflings in my current AD&D campaign.
It is a failure of my character that I often do things against my best interests, knowing myself as I do. For example, I have posted that I have no patience for plastic, and yet I bought and assembled 40 plastic halflings on a whim that soon became a millstone around my neck. (Yes, I still have 20 more of these motherfuckers to paint. Not happening soon.) My lack of patience has not changed, but I still really like the look of these models when assembled and painted, so hopefully this will be worth it in the end.
You can arm your halflings with spears/halberds, slings or bows, and there are individual bits available for character models. The spears are long and look great, but they’re also quite fragile with a tendency to break, which is a bummer. Between the militia and the other, unpainted unit of halflings I used up all my spears, only to have 2 of them break about halfway down the shaft, so I guess now I have two (unpainted) halflings armed with quarterstaffs.
These halflings armed with slings are pretty cool. They made me realize I have very few miniatures armed with slings.
I used the bows the least, although I like the look of the archers very much. The hero with the horn was painted a few years ago, part of the original five (the other four were spearmen).
I guess the spears are long enough to double as standards if you wanted to add a banner, but it would have been nice to have a dedicated banner pole in the box. There is a little bit that looks like a chicken that may be intended to replace the spear tip for this purpose, but I didn’t use it.
I gave my hero an old GW shield, because the shields that come on the sprue are laughably tiny.
Honeyacre is known for its mead, hence the shield device. Painting a bee freehand on a shield the size of a dime is a skill I no longer possess, if ever I had it.
A closeup of the heroes.
Like I said, these don’t count towards my challenge this month, but now that I’m free of these halflings at last, I’m available to start on my first infantry unit for Forced March: some miniatures that harken back to the earliest days of Dead Dick’s Tavern!
Nyarlathotep… the crawling chaos… I am the last… I will tell the audient void…
For my second submission for Monster May(hem) 2025: I present a classic Grenadier miniature from 1985: Nyarlathotep (also known as the “Spawning Horror” once Grenadier stopped making Call of Cthulhu miniatures). I’ve had this miniature since it was released, so it’s great to free it from my pile of shame!
As you can see, the miniature is sculpted on a long, narrow base. I found a circular base wide enough to mount the miniature with no overhang, but that left a lot of extra space, so I added a few rocky bits with some green stuff before priming. I intended to make this a lava base, as Nyarlathotep, being the Messenger of the Great Old Ones, probably hangs out in inhospitable locales and wouldn’t be bothered all that much by lava.
Then I changed my mind and decided to make it a foul, swampy base, complete with Vallejo Water Effects you somehow can’t see in these pictures, but trust me, they’re there.
There’s a weird part of his back that I didn’t know how to paint, so I decided to make it the “three-lobed burning eye” referenced in Lovecraft’s story The Haunter in the Dark. Trouble was, there is an obvious slit in the middle which makes a “three-lobed eye” look dumb, so I just made it a big eye. Not totally happy with it, but whatever.
Nyarlathotep is the Lovecraftian Outer God that has the most interaction with humans, as he derives pleasure from corrupting and tormenting humanity. He offers forbidden knowledge and eldritch power in exchange for worship and depravity. Nyarlathotep is rumored to have over 1000 forms, including this one, known as the God of the Bloody Tongue, but he’s also happy to take human form as needed.
This miniature is actually pretty small, probably because it’s 25mm scale. If it were made today I’m sure it would be much larger, considering this form of Nyarlathotep is usually about the size of a house.
And finally, here’s a better look at the base. I’m glad I went with swamp over lava, but I’m annoyed my water effects aren’t visible in the pictures.
Monster May(hem) is at the halfway point, and we have some great stuff so far! Check out all our participants and their contributions so far!
Monster May(hem) continues until the end of May. I’m hoping to do at least one more, hopefully two. I’m keeping up with submissions and will post them here as they drop! Thanks to all!
My first submission for Monster May(hem) 2025 is this thing: the Avatar of the Abyss.
This miniature is from B=Sieged, a game released by Cool Mini or Not back in 2015. I don’t play B-Sieged and never have, but on one of my Miniature Market binges I tacked this guy onto my order as, IIRC, he was only like two bucks, probably because no one else ever played B-Sieged, either. CMON is notorious for releasing games and then abandoning them, so their miniatures often find themselves in online clearance bins. (They make some pretty good miniatures, so it’s often worth the wait.)
Anyway, I would have no reason whatsoever to paint this miniature were it not for Monster May(hem). I thought about which colors to choose for far too long before I just settled on painting him like the box art.
I’m not totally happy with the color transition on the abdomen. My guess is he’s meant to be belching forth fire or something. I used a wet-blending technique but I kind of rushed it. It will do, but it’s far from perfect.
This is one of the many miniatures I have collected over the years that I have no planned use for, had no real intention of painting, certainly did not need and probably shouldn’t have spent the money on (even though it was dirt cheap). That being said, he’s not bad-looking all painted up, and he took me less than two hours total to paint.
I kept the basing simple: just a grey drybrush over some black paint, with a few Army Painter scorched tufts thrown on for good measure.
One down, and at least one (or two) more to go. I have another miniature I’ve had since the late 80’s I want to paint, and another I’ve had for almost 15 years that I was going to get rid of, but decided to keep. (That one looks like a cast-iron bitch to assemble, though, so we’ll see if I can summon the patience.) And then, there’s that Dragon I was supposed to paint last year that I never got around to…
Here is the blogroll of participants thus far, meaning those who have let me know they want to take part. From the blogosphere:
Dave, from Wargames Terrain Workshop, painted a Dewback (I was considering painting one of these myself, Dave!), and if I know Dave, he’s not done yet;
If nothing else, this random miniature from my pile of shame has got me painting again, so that’s something. Looking forward to seeing what everyone does! I’ll update this list periodically, but don’t let that stop you from checking out all these blogs and IG accounts yourself. As always, there’s a lot of talent here!
No big surprises there. These are my peeps, after all, although I’m thrilled that Monster May(hem) has lured Matt out of the wilds of Vermont to join us again after a year’s absence!
Anyone else who wants to take part need only let me know in the comments below, or drop me an an email at angrypiper@angrypiper.com, or PM me on Instagram @angrypiper. I will add your name and website/IG account (if applicable) to the blogroll forthwith! If you don’t have either of those and still want to take part, no problem! I’ll host your images here on this very site.
Like last year I plan on making every effort to be in The Paint Pit channel of my Discord server this month while I work on my monsters. That’s usually between the hours of 5:30-7:30 PM (EST) on weekdays here in the States, and anytime I can get to myself on the weekends. Can’t promise I’ll be there every day, but if I’m not, feel free to hang out and meet some of the other participants, if so inclined. Don’t have an invitation to my Discord server and want one? Read this first, and then contact me.
Without further ado, Gentlemen (and Lady), PAINT YOUR MONSTERS!!!!
Hi. I’m The Angry Piper. You might remember me as a guy who used to paint stuff. Not so much these days, but if I can’t get off my ass for what’s fast approaching, then I should just hang up my painting kilt for good. May is upon us, and that can mean only one thing. It’s Monster May(hem) yet again!
Veterans of Monster May(hem) will recall that it is a painting challenge I host annually in May (duh), which focuses on painting monsters. It is open to both old-school blog scrollers and new-fangled Instagrammers. Monster May(hem) does not discriminate.
What is Monster May(hem)? Why, it’s the month you paint monsters, of course. Any monster will do, although it should be a proper MONSTER, something big and mean. I mean something truly beastly; like a manticore or a hydra or a giant, irradiated chicken. Your monster(s) doesn’t have to be strictly a fantasy miniature, and it may be any scale and from any manufacturer. For example, I painted those wampas last year (and not much since.)
How many monsters you paint is up to you. The minimum is one, of course; but feel free to do as many as you like. The only caveat is that they get painted sometime in May. I will link to your stuff throughout the month, and (if it’s not there already) add your blog/website/social media to the blogroll on the side! If you don’t have a site of your own and still want to participate, I’ll happily host your pictures here and ensure you get proper attribution! (And I’ll be much better about it than I was with the Year of the Dragon challenge last year.)
So if you’re in, let me know in the comments below or reach out on Instagram. I’ll post the list of participants in the next post. Until then, go find some monsters to paint!
My painting output for 2024 has been somewhat dismal, but I managed to get eight miniatures done this month. Because of the season, I chose to focus on some spooky-themed minis.
First up, a miniature I’m certain many of you will recognize: Isabella Von Carstein, by Games Workshop. I’ve had this miniature since her release in the early 90’s, back when Warhammer Fantasy Undead weren’t split into two armies (Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings). It was just Undead back then. I recall not liking the miniature all that much, and if I recall, her points cost didn’t justify using her in the army, therefore she has languished unpainted these few decades.
As I was painting her last night and this morning, she began to grow on me. I kind of like her now. Maybe it’s because she’s the only Fantasy miniature I’ve painted all year. (Still need to do that dragon.) Aside from painting all the Indiana Jones TSR miniatures and taking part in Monster May(hem) and Forgotten Heroes, I’ve mainly focused on painting miniatures from board games. I did Indiana Jones: Sands of Adventure and Alien: Fate of the Nostromo earlier.
This month I completed Horrified, by Ravensburger Games, released in 2019. This is the original version of the game, featuring the Universal Monsters. There have been several other releases featuring monsters from European and American folklore, one featuring monsters from Greek Mythology, and one featuring Cryptids. Some of the miniatures in those variants are pretty cool, but not cool enough for me to buy the same game more than once, especially since I haven’t played it yet.
Here’s a group shot.
The Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954). One of my favorite Universal Monster movies. This film is 70 years old this year, and watching Julie Adams in a swimsuit still makes my heart flutter, even if it is in black & white.
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935). My favorite miniature in the game. Elsa Lanchester has almost 100 acting credits to her name, yet she could never escape being the Bride of Frankenstein. It’s probably the best Universal Monster movie of all. The 1985 “remake”, The Bride, featuring Sting and Jennifer Beals, is also really good. Plus, it has Clancy Brown as The Monster!
The Wolf Man (1941). I just watched this the other day. If I’ve ever seen it before, it must have been as a young child. It was a bit of a slog, truth be told, even though it’s only a little over an hour long. I didn’t know that Lon Chaney Jr. was such a big guy, nor did I know that Bela Lugosi was in this movie, too!
Dracula (1931). And speaking of Bela Lugosi, he’s my favorite Dracula, although Christopher Lee is a close second. This miniature is good, but it has the annoying trait of being bent forward. I’ve tried to straighten him with the hot water/freezer trick and I thought it worked, but a couple of days later he was bent again. Of course that was after I painted him, so I can’t very well try the hot water thing again.
Frankenstein (1931) I love this sculpt of The Monster. He was also pretty easy to paint. It’s been a few years since I’ve last seen the film, but I remember enjoying it quite a bit. Although nothing like The Monster in Shelley’s novel, Boris Karloff’s portrayal is iconic. I also like the Kenneth Branagh/Robert De Niro remake from 1994. Am I alone?
The Invisible Man (1933). I know Claude Rains was the Invisible Man, but that’s only from Science Fiction Double Feature, the theme song to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I’ve never actually seen this one, not the original, anyway. The 2020 remake featuring Elizabeth Moss was very good. Still, I’m gonna watch this one tonight, because it’s currently on Prime.
The Mummy (1932). A year after he was Frankenstein’s Monster, Boris Karloff was The Mummy. Another one I haven’t seen. Since it’s also on Prime, maybe I’ll go home from work early today and make it a double feature.
I can procrastinate no more. I must get started on my dragon for the Year of the Dragon challenge. At least I have finally decided which dragon I will paint. It’s going to be my main project for November, and then I think I will try to finish up some more board game miniatures before next year.
I figured Monster May(hem) is as good a time as any to return to my Imperial Assault project, which, like many of my projects, I seem to have forgotten about for a while. To be honest, I’ve been playing a lot of Star Wars video games lately (Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi:Survivor), so I have the galaxy far, far away on the brain. Time to paint another boxed set, and I chose Return to Hoth, because t contains Wampas.
Sadly, these two Wampas are the only two “monsters’ in the box, so the rest will have to wait for some paint for a bit.
Now, I could have chose to paint the Jabba’s Realm box instead, as it contains the Rancor, but I couldn’t bring myself to paint the sets out of order. Because I’m sick like that.
Anyway, 11 days in, and this is all I’ve painted so far. In that time, Dave Stone has already painted a Balrog and a frikkin’ Mumakil, and both look amazing, as per usual for Dave. Check out everyone else’s blog/IG account and lend them your support!
I have at least two more entries planned, one being a Games Workshop miniature I didn’t realize I owned, and another a miniature I sought out on the secondary market purely for its name. Stay tuned!
Don’t see your name here? That’s because you haven’t told me you want to participate this year. It’s certainly not too late (it never really is), so if you want in, let me know in the comments below, drop me an an email at angrypiper@angrypiper.com, or PM me on Instagram @angrypiper. I will add your name and website/IG account (if applicable) to the blogroll forthwith! If you don’t have either of those and still want to take part, no problem! I’ll host your images here on this very site.
My Discord server has been a bit barren lately since I stopped running RPGs, but I plan on making every effort to be in The Paint Pit this month while I work on my monsters. That’s usually between the hours of 5:30-7:30 PM (EST) on weekdays here in the States, and anytime I can get to myself on the weekends when I don’t have errands to run or surprise plans or projects that aren’t my projects suddenly becoming my projects (IYKYK). Can’t promise I’ll be there every day, but if I’m not, feel free to hang out and meet some of the other participants, if so inclined. Don’t have an invitation to my Discord server and want one? Read this first, and then contact me.
Now what the hell are you waiting for? Go paint some monsters! There’s only 30 .5 days left (less if you’re in Europe)!
