Category Archives: Insanity Pile

Forced March begins in two days!

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This week began with a blizzard here in Massachusetts that dumped a ridiculous amount of snow on us in roughly 24 hours. Although we knew it was coming, the actual snowfall far exceeded projections. We are a state that doesn’t tremble at the thought of snow. It’s hardly our first or (even our hundredth) rodeo.

Still, this was a cast-iron bitch of a storm, and although it ended on Monday evening, it will take weeks to clean up. My town got close to 40″ of snow, but the drifts in my yard were well above five feet. It took me a full day to snow blow and shovel my driveway and property, and at 53 years of age, let me tell you it sure sucked. There’s no parking anywhere in the city where I work (it got more snow than I did), so I stayed home most of the week. So did everyone else.

You would think that would give me plenty of time to focus on my hobbies, but not really. I was so exhausted and sore that I just wanted to sit there and not move. After gripping a snowblower all day, it’s not like I could hold a paintbrush steady, either.

But that’s over, and March approaches. Time to get the units ready for painting. “Forced March” is upon us!

Here is a list of all those who have confirmed they are participating in my new challenge, which, as a reminder, is to paint a unit of infantry or cavalry in the month of March. Any scale, any genre…but I define a unit as “more than one model belonging to a group designed to deploy and function together in combat.” While technically units can be a single model (such as a vehicle, artillery piece or a monster), I’m hoping for at least three models.

But of course, there aren’t any miniature painting police here, so do what you want.

Anyway, the participants thus far are:

And from Intstagram:

If I missed anyone, or if anyone else wants to take part, you 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.

Let’s get priming (if you haven’t done so already)!

“Forced March” is Coming!

I’m still working on a project I started in December with the intent of finishing by the end of 2025. As you can see, that hasn’t happened. I just can’t seem to paint for long periods of time, and this project contains 20 miniatures. (That’s half of what was originally planned, by the way.)

Painting such a large number of miniatures is something I haven’t done in a long time, and it got me thinking about starting a new challenge for March, entitled, appropriately enough, “Forced March”. What are the rules?

Paint an infantry or cavalry unit in March. This can be any size unit, although I feel like it should be more than a one-model unit (like a giant, for example). Vehicles are allowed, but again, preferably more than one. So, a squad of Eldar jet bikes is fine, but a Leman Russ is just being lazy. This can be for any game and in any scale.

So these Dwarfs would work.

Ditto for these Klingons.

Or these Colonial Marines.

Or even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They’re a unit, too, right?

Let me know if you want to participate and as usual, I’ll link your blog/site/Instagram account when the challenge commences! At the rate I’m painting, I likely won’t be doing anything too ambitious, myself. I’m hoping another challenge might kick me in the pants and jazz me up, because Monster May(hem) will be here before you know it!

Board Game Blues: The Miniatures

I promised a closer look at some of the miniatures featured in my (mostly unplayed) board games, and here they are.

First, the eight heroes from Touch of Evil. These are some nice miniatures, roughly 28mm scale, suitable for any gaslight setting. The definition is much better than my blurry photography would suggest.

I like these a lot, and it wouldn’t be an overwhelming project to get them painted if I could just park my ass at my painting desk for more than five minutes at a stretch. Up next, the miniatures from Batman: Gotham City Under Siege:

L-R: Catwoman, Batgirl, Robin, Batman, and Commissioner Gordon and Officer Montoya. This game is based on The Animated Series, in case that’s not obvious from the sculpts. Painting these will be fun, and I’m definitely going to do it soon. I really like the Gordon/Montoya miniature. Too bad there’s no Detective Bullock.

Marvel: United! is a game that got a lot of hype when it released, mainly for the cute miniatures:

L-R: Black Widow, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Storm (with mohawk!)…

L-R: Venom (odd choice), Ant Man and the Villains: Red Skull, Taskmaster and Ultron. This game was a Cool Mini Or Not Kickstarter, and it funded quickly and with a ton of stretch goals, which were additional miniature sets that you could not purchase anywhere else. As a result, there are additional miniatures for this game that sell for ridiculous amounts of money on the secondary market. I picked up this core box at Wal-Mart for $15, IIRC, and that’s about as much as I want to spend on this game. Do I really need a cute Fantastic Four expansion? Not for $140 I don’t.

Wonder Woman: Challenge of the Amazons has some awesome miniatures, well worth the $10 I paid for this game at Ollie’s. Like the Batman game above, this is on my short list of projects to paint (for whatever that’s worth nowadays).

Look at this sculpt of Diana. Freakin’ sweet, right?

Mansions of Madness has some amazing miniatures, all scaled at 32mm. Here’s a shot of some of the investigators and a couple of monsters, but the big Eldritch Horrors contained in this box aren’t featured on the box itself, which is a shame because my box remains sealed at the moment. This would be a big project to paint, and TBH I don’t know if I have it in me. I played the game before and it’s a lot of fun, but I think this may languish forever in the unpainted pile of shame, much like Space Hulk.

And now we reach game expansions for games I do not own (and never will), purchased solely for the miniatures contained inside. These were deeply discounted clearance items at Miniature Market (I paid $6 for the Solomon Kane expansion, a game that I’d actually purchase if the core set wasn’t prohibitively expensive).

First, some expansions for The Others, a game I know nothing about but one that has some cool futuristic/horror/pulp figures, as seen below.

Next: the aforementioned Solomon Kane expansion: Castle of the Devil. I’d say $2 a miniature is about right, especially when one of them is whatever the hell that thing is supposed to be. It almost made it into Monster May(hem) this year.

Finally, a couple of expansions for Yashima, an Asian fantasy-themed game. I like the miniatures, and I have a long -stalled Legend of the Five Rings/Samurai project that I will likely never get to, so I bought these because they’re cool. I think I paid $2 apiece for these expansions during one of Miniature Market’s “up to 90% off” clearance sales.

A couple more games bought solely for the miniatures, although both of these seem very playable: Journey: Wrath of Demons and Age of Thieves.

These are the heroes from Journey. I think this makes the third or fourth Sun WuKong miniature that I own.

These are the bad guys. IIRC, some of the demons are anatomically correct, which may offend some folks who don’t like dicks on their miniatures.

Above are the miniatures from Age of Thieves. You get 24 of the blue guards, which are quite serviceable for town guards (because that’s what they are). The other four are the thief characters you play in the game. Some cool character concepts here.

And that about rounds out my board game pile of shame. Hoping to get back into painting soon, but for whatever reason I’ve lost my mojo again. I seem to be incapable of choosing colors anymore, or for painting more than five minutes at a stretch. It’s not worth the time to set everything up. Any of you ever have this problem?

Monster Mayhem 2025: Nyarlathotep, The Crawling Chaos

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!

Monster May(hem) 2025: Avatar of the Abyss

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:

And from Instagram:

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!

It’s Back!!!! Monster May(hem) 2025!

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!

The Year of the Dragon, or How Not to Host a Painting Challenge (again).

I know. I already have a post entitled “How Not to Host a Painting Challenge.” Turns out I suck at hosting painting challenges, because I had an entire fucking year to paint a dragon, and I failed. This dead dragon represents my efforts. It’s a resin piece by Dave Stone. I completed it for the Season of Scenery in 2022. (I failed to take part in the Season of Scenery last year, one of the many things at which I failed.)

Now, lest anyone think I didn’t put in ANY effort whatsoever, I planned on painting this classic Sandra Garrity T’Char, Dragon of Flame and Fury. This is how far I got.

I was going to prime him (I’ve decided T’Char identifies as male) white, because I was going to paint him blue. Screw Dragon of Flame and Fury, I have enough red dragons. Now I think I’m going to prime him black after all, because I’ve reconsidered the blue (but he still won’t be red). I filled all the gaps but left the wings off, because while I was fitting them it became obvious that if I glued them to the body prior to painting, I would have problems painting and shading.

Then, I set about finding stuff to add to the base. I added some Nolzur’s treasure piles. but I still have more space to fill. If I was a talented sculptor (like Dave or Roger) I could sculpt some more treasure piles, but I’m not, so I didn’t. Instead, I decided to use the “dungeon dressing” bits from an old Kickstarter I backed, along with an assortment of weapons and stuff to round out the treasure hoard.

That was in late November, when I knew I had to get on the stick and paint this fucking dragon, because I only had a month.

I recently reorganized my “miniatures I will never paint before I die” (aka my miniatures), and one of the boxes I labeled clearly indicated that the dungeon dressing bits were inside. They weren’t. That set me off on a quest to find where I put them. A quest that took me two weeks, because of course it was in the last place I looked, because WHY THE FUCK WOULD I PUT DUNGEON DRESSING BITS IN WITH MY OLD WEST PROJECT (which I also will not complete before I die)?

I blame gin. Or whiskey. Something alcoholic, anyway. Like me.

I’ll get it done eventually, and I’ll post it. Just know the shame is real.

My 2024 painting output has been dismal. 43 miniatures. On the plus side, I managed to paint the miniatures for three board games (one of which I actually managed to play): Indiana Jones: Sands of Adventure, Horrified!, and Alien: Fate of the Nostromo. I painted all the old TSR Adventures of Indiana Jones miniatures, something I’m guessing not many folks have done. I even painted two of Dave Stone’s cowboys, which means I now have painted all of Dave Stone’s cowboys (the ones that are human, anyway). I hosted Monster May(hem) without fucking it up and took part in Forgotten Heroes, which is my favorite painting challenge. (When I stop doing that, you know I’m either done for good or dead.)

On the downside, I painted 43 miniatures, which is disgraceful by almost any standard. (Unless you’re one of those unbelievably talented folks who spends six weeks on a miniature and it looks FUCKING ALIVE when you’re done. I’m not one of those people.) I also pretty much dropped off the blogosphere (although I have been active –somewhat–on Instagram), so I am 100% sure I missed some Year of the Dragon submissions, and failed to give proper recognition. I know Dave did more than one dragon (and I’m guessing he probably made at least one himself), but I haven’t been around to see. If you’re so inclined, drop your submissions in the comments section here. I deeply apologize for missing them.

In my defense, 2024 has been a fucking year here in the States (and everywhere else). It’s been tough to focus on anything that brings me joy. To say I have been unmotivated is an understatement. Every year around this time I make some hobby resolutions. I’m not gonna do that this year, since I’ve pretty much failed at the ones I’ve made for the past five years or so. I’ll paint what I paint, I guess.

As far as gaming goes, I’ve actually made some progress. I ended my self-imposed isolation from gaming to run a few games last year: some old-school Marvel Super Heroes and Star Frontiers, some OSL Lamentations of the Flame Princess, a session of Slasher Flick, a session of Hard City, and a couple of sessions of my own original 1970’s Street Crime RPG (to be released at some point). All these game sessions were virtual. I wrote several gaming scenarios for various games, including a new one for my game, entitled “Nicky Fucks Up”. I even got to PLAY in a game rather than run it for a change: a session of Dragonbane, which, despite having anthropomorphic ducks in it, I found to be really fun and a great system I would like to run in future. I’m committing to running at least one campaign in 2025. I even have four players already.

I really enjoyed the “Year of Pop Culture” in 2023, and I have a bunch of miniatures to paint that I didn’t get to back then, so why not bring it back for 2025? I’m not promising anything, mind you. Just considering.

I hope to be around a bit more going forward. Happy New Year, everyone.

Forgotten Heroes 2024: Bee-Man!!!!

This book is a boon for Forgotten Heroes enthusiasts. The heroes contained herein are indeed forgotten, and usually for good reason. This book gave me the impetus to construct Rainbow Boy a couple of years ago, and it delivered again this year.

May I present: Bee-Man! Never heard of Bee-Man? Me neither! That’s because he lasted a total of 2 issues, printed before my time, in 1966. That’s it. He’s probably in the public domain, because I can’t imagine anyone giving a shit about Bee-Man.

Barry E. Eames (clever, right?) sabotages a rocket ship that is landing after being out in space, collecting cosmic samples, Eames hopes to make a quick buck by selling whatever’s inside. What’s inside turns out to be angry space bees, who drag him back into space after stinging him a lot.

Bee- Man returns to Earth, intent on resuming his criminal ways, now armed with the advanced technology of the space bees. He has a huge, beehive-shaped “secret lair”, from which he hatches his criminal plans to steal gold, radium and honey. Really. But in the second issue, Bee-Man allies himself with the FBI, to fight against the space bees’ plans to enslave humanity.

There was no third issue.

To make Bee-Man, I used these two Heroclix miniatures, a Para-Demon and the Wasp. I removed the Para-Demon’s jetpack and axe, and replaced the jetpack with the Wasp’s wings. I sculpted his bee-helmet, but there was no way I was gonna do his antennae. Too small, and beyond my skill.

Then, it was just a matter of repainting him to look like Bee-Man. And that’s what I did.

Looks not bad, right?

I managed to get this one in in the late hours of Forgotten Heroes this year. Looking forward to the Season of Scenery!

Forgotten Heroes 2024: Grendel

Grendel, created by Matt Wagner, is a complicated character with a rich comic history. Rumor has it they recently filmed most of a Netflix series only to pull the plug last minute (which is a dick move).

There have been many people to assume the mantle of Grendel, starting with billionaire author-turned-bored-guy-turned-assassin-turned-criminal-kingpin Hunter Rose. Rose is unquestionably not a hero. He’s more of a sociopath who does things for no apparent reason–like take over the criminal underworld or adopt a child–simply because he can. He’s able to use much more of his mental capacity than most normal humans, and he’s an extremely skilled combatant and acrobat whose favored weapon is a two-tined fork of his own design.

To make the Hunter Rose version of Grendel, I was at a bit of a loss, as Rose is pretty lightly-built, and most superheroes are jacked. Since I knew I couldn’t very well sculpt one from scratch, I chose this version of Daredevil, mainly for the pose but also because I thought I could work with it best. I rebased him first, then covered the DD on the chest and his lips with some Vallejo White Stone landscape paste, filed down the horns, clipped off the billy-club holster, and completely repositioned his arm. I tried to make his clothes look more loose-fitting with some green stuff. I made the fork from plasticard (once again, my old health insurance card) and the handle of a Mantic dwarf warhammer. Then I painted him up.

Here he is. Like I said, he’s a lot beefier than Hunter Rose, but he’s unmistakably Grendel.

You can still see the DD on the chest if you look hard enough, but otherwise, I’m ok with him.

I added the head-ties too. Forgot about that.

I have one more submission for Forgotten Heroes planned, but no idea whether I will get to it in time or not. I’m definitely doing it, though; even if it has to come in early July. With six days to go, I should be ok.

Forgotten Heroes 2024: Judomaster

My first Forgotten Heroes submission this year is none other than:

I was going through my comics the other day and was surprised to find this, as I don’t remember buying it. I’m a sucker for kung-fu comics, so I guess I’m not surprised after all. This is the only Judomaster comic I own and I’ve never heard of the character, so that’s “Forgotten Heroes” enough for me.

I looked up his story: Judomaster was a sergeant in WWII in the Pacific theatre. At some point, he saved a girl. The father of the girl he saved taught him judo as thanks. That’s it.

The character was originally a Charlton comics character, and most of those ended up owned by DC comics. DC never did very much with Judomaster before killing him off in the Infinite Crisis storyline by having Bane break his back. Judomaster is no Batman, so he died.

You figure he’d be tougher, since he’s apparently REALLY good at judo:

They don’t give costumes like that to just anyone, after all.

To make Judomaster I used Iron Fist as a base miniature. Can’t really do better than this.

Rebased and repainted, he looks like this.

I somehow overlooked the fact that Judomaster wears a black belt (of course he does), and I didn’t want to sculpt one after I painted him, so I just painted the belt on.

I hope to do at least one more miniature this year, possibly two. I do so love this challenge!