Category Archives: Painting Challenges

Monster May(hem) 2026: Y’Golonac

My first submission for Monster May(hem) this year is that wild and crazy guy, Y’Golonac!

Y’Golonac is a Great Old One, an entity of the Cthulhu mythos, created by Ramsey Campbell in his short story “Cold Print”, published in 1969. He is the god of depravity and perversion. Seriously. This guy gets up to some twisted shit.

Y’Golonac usually manifests from the body of one of his worshippers, but he can manifest from the body of anyone who has read or spoke his name aloud. So, congratulations! You’re on that list now, too. When he does, the unfortunate vessel grows into a huge, headless, flabby monstrosity and sprouts bloody, slavering mouths from the palms of his hands. Cool, huh?

This miniature is a 3D print. I forget who designed it, but it’s actually quite good (not my usual opinion of printed minis). He fit together nicely and you can’t see the putty I used to fill the small gaps. I based him in Army Painter Peachy Flesh, which is the only paint I own from their Speedpaints line. It’s a wash that I found a bit too orange, so I dulled it with some Reaper Rosy Flesh. The tongues in his hands were painted Bugman’s Glow and washed with Druchii Violet and highlighted with some Tentacle Pink and white. and I used a Reaper Ivory trio over Steel Legion Drab for the teeth. The seam where his head should be was painted in Baal Red wash.

Y’Golonac is the subject of a Christmas song by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, set to the tune of “Feliz Navidad”, that’s been in my head on repeat every time I sat down to paint. It’s a hoot.

Hoping to finish one more before the month’s end, but in the meantime be sure to check out everyone else’s fine work here:

  • Simon, from Fantorical, painted both a Banderhobb and a Death Dog!
  • Dave, from Wargames Terrain Workshop, has done several Gnarloc Riders, and then went full-on Star Wars (as is his wont), completing (as of now) a Lugga Beast and a Varactyl, neither of which I was familiar with!
  • Roger, from Rantings From Under the Wargames Table, painted up a “Brute” miniature, as well as a cute baby owlbear. There’s no rule saying your monsters can’t be cute, so check it out!
  • Azazel, from Azazel’s Bitz Box
  • Tom, from Good Ground, painted a terrifying thing he calls an “uber-ghoul”, but posted it to his Instagram accout.
  • Jeremy, aka Carrion Crow, has joined the challenge with a Cheese Golem, a miniature I didn’t know I needed until now!
  • Tim, from The Safe Hole painted a “Goliath Monstrosity” (and eldritch horror) and a Skeletal Dragon! Both look great!
  • Mike @sasquatchminis

There’s still plenty of time to join the challenge or paint more stuff before the end of May, so keep checking back for updates!

Monster May(hem) 2026: First Update

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!

And from Instagram:

Mike @sasquatchminis

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!

Check back soon. I’ll update as we go!

Gath of Baal and Monster May(hem) 2026

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.

Paint those monsters!

Forced March Update: Galacteers!

Forced March is drawing to a close, and I’ve finally finished a unit of miniatures! These are Galacteers, from Hydra Miniatures, and I’ve had them for about fifteen years. In fact, my first posts on this site were some War Rocket ships, Galacteers and Imperials, and I’ve previously painted some Galacteer characters (you can see them at the end). These guys are just the rank-and-file scrubs, complete with a heavy weapon.

Started out by priming them white, figuring I’d paint all the other colors around the white uniforms and just highlight up. Easy, right? Well, yeah. Maybe once upon a time. But these took much longer to paint because I kept fucking up and getting paint on the white parts, so, by the time I got to the white, I had a lot to fix. Damn these eyes!

Still, not too shabby when they’re all painted up, and completing them after all this time means I have no more Hydra miniatures outstanding in the pile of shame. This gives me a feeling of accomplishment I haven’t felt since finishing off my Pulp Figures years ago.

Here’s an image of the squad with all the Hydra characters in the front row. Done!

But of course, I am not the only one taking part in Forced March! Below find the other participants and their awesome submissions. As usual, if I forgot someone or something, let me know and I will certainly correct it. Like any “real life” forced march, I expect some stragglers over the next few days (I might even be one of them!). Be sure to drop by these blogs/accounts and lend your support!

  • Simon, from Fantorical, completed a unit of Uruk-Hai crossbowmen (crossboworcs?), some Alien Legionnaires and is working on some Beastmen, both of these from Crooked Dice (a company I wish I could patronize more)
  • 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! Add in some Wookies and a few more Space Marines and a unit of Raptors, and you’ve got a typical month of painting for Dave. The man is a machine!
  • Roger, from Rantings From Under the Wargames Table, painted a unit of Forge Fathers (Mantic Squats), and then did a unit of Plague Zombies! Awesome, Roger!
  • Azazel, from Azazel’s Bitz Box, paints so much stuff all the time that I’m not even sure he painted anything for Forced March! If so, I can’t find it, so LMK if I’m wrong, Azazel!
  • Tom, from Good Ground, painted a squad of Iron Warriors Space Marines!

And the Instagram crowd:

  • James, @spoontasticminis has been painting Emperor’s Children Space Marines all month, which more than qualify for Forced March.
  • Sabrina, @Uthwulfsminis is working on a squad of Space Marine Beakies that she has dubbed the “Pumpkin Spice” marines. Whether that’s an official chapter name or blasphemous heresy is for the Emperor to decide.
  • A newcomer this year, @horridperson, is a hobbyist close to my heart, as they have been working on tons of Star Trek miniatures lately! And even though they said they forgot about Forced March, they painted enough miniatures to make a unit: the Commune, a TOS-era reimagining of the Borg. Very cool! (I need to play some Star Trek miniatures games again).
  • @groddsnods did what he does best, converted and painted some Heroclix into a unit of Steve Ditko’s Madmen! This could have easily been an entry for Forgotten Heroes, too…but I’m sure we’ll see more awesome stuff in June!

And that’s another challenge sorted. I was hoping to get at least one more unit done, but that doesn’t seem likely. They might show up a few days into April, though, so check back soon! Monster May(hem) will be here before you know it!

Forced March Update 2 (and Honeyacre Militia)

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!
  • Roger, from Rantings From Under the Wargames Table, has completed a unit of Forge Fathers (Mantic Squats). I love those miniatures!
  • Azazel, from Azazel’s Bitz Box
  • Tom, from Good Ground, painted a squad of Iron Warriors Space Marines

And on Instagram:

  • James, @spoontasticminis is working on some Emperor’s Children Space Marines
  • Sabrina, @Uthwulfsminis is working on a squad of Space Marines, too, and best of all, they’re MK VI Beakies!!!! (As they SHOULD BE!!)
  • A newcomer this year, whose name I do not know, @horridperson
  • And finally, @groddsnods

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!

Forced March: First Update

Nothing from me yet, although work continues apace on that long-delayed project from December. I have primed, based and readied two small units for eventual painting this month. Meanwhile, have a look at some of the other participants, because stuff is already rolling in! Drop by their sites and lend some support and encouragement!

These are all the participants thus far, along with any Forced March submissions I am aware of. If I missed anything (or anyone), let me know!

Meanwhile, over on Instagram:

  • James, @spoontasticminis
  • possibly Sabrina, @Uthwulfsminis
  • A newcomer this year, whose name I do not know, but who has thus far not lived up to their namesake, @horridperson
  • And a latecomer to the challenge (it’s never too late), @groddsnods, who I just bet will be joining us for Forgotten Heroes in June, too!

Whatever these folks do, whether for Forced March or not, is worth a look. You won’t find a more supportive and inspiring group of hobbyists out there. Check them out.

Forced March begins in two days!

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!

Forgotten Heroes 2025: The Escapist

For my last submission to Forgotten Heroes this year, I present: The Escapist!

The Escapist first appeared in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay, Michael Chabon’s fantastic novel published in 2000. He’s the fictional character created by a couple of Jewish cousins working in the comics industry back in the 1930’s, the Golden Age of Comics. If that sounds familiar, it’s because Kavalier and Klay are an homage to the creators of Superman, Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, only Siegel and Shuster weren’t cousins and Siegel (to my knowledge) wasn’t gay.

If you haven’t read this book, I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s a novel about persecution, fear, Jewish identity, family, love, perseverance and heroes, both real and created. But you don’t have to take my word for it. Chabon won a Pulitzer Prize for it in 2001. Three years later, Dark Horse Comics published a series of comics, Michael Chabon Presents: The Amazing Adventures of The Escapist, which featured stories about the character written and drawn by different comic creators. I don’t have any, but I wish I did.

But what about The Escapist himself? Because it’s early and I have to go to work, I’ll cut and paste Wikipedia for the benefit of all.

The character’s modus operandi is part of a recurring theme of escapism in the novel, representing the imaginative and positive effects of escapism in superhero comics as well as Kavalier and Clay’s attempts to escape from the troubles of their past. Joe Kavalier has fled to America from Nazi-occupied Prague in Europe, leaving the rest of his family behind. Unable to help them, he starts fleeing from himself and everyone trying to get close to him. Sam Clay also wants to escape from himself – both his polio-stricken body and repressed homosexuality.

The Escapist’s true identity is Tom Mayflower. He is the crippled nephew of escape artist Max Mayflower (who performs under the stage name of Misterioso). When Max is fatally shot while performing onstage, he reveals that he isn’t his real uncle, having rescued him from a cruel orphanage as a baby. He gives Tom a golden key and a costume, explaining that he was recruited long ago by a mysterious organization called the League of the Golden Key to fight tyranny and free the oppressed. With his dying breath, Max commissions Tom to carry on his work. As long as Tom is wearing the costume and the key, he finds that he is no longer lame of leg and can perform amazing feats of escapology. Tom uses his powers to fight crime under the guise of the Escapist, especially against the evil forces of the mysterious criminal network, the Iron Chain.

To make The Escapist, I used this Animal Man Heroclix as a base miniature. He’s pretty much perfect.

From there, it was an easy paint job, as The Escapist’s costume is a black/grey skintight leotard and a TMNT-style bandanna domino. Not hard.

Although I was happy with the result, he looked somewhat blah, so I added the chains. It’s an actual necklace (worthless, of course) that I clipped and superglued into a pile at his feet. One quick metallic drybrush later, and voila! The Escapist has escaped!

That’s it for Forgotten Heroes 2025. Thanks as always to Jeremy for hosting it. I’ll be making the rounds to everyone’s blog to see their contributions and heap well-deserved praise upon them!

Forgotten Heroes 2025: Chemistro

I’ve always been a huge fan of the Heroes for Hire (especially Power Man), so I have a near-complete run of Luke Cage, Power Man and Power Man and Iron Fist. Power Man and Iron Fist have (or at least had) very few recurring villains, but Chemistro was an exception. No less than three guys have called themselves Chemistro. Luke Cage fought the first two on his own before partnering up with Iron Fist for the third.

The first Chemistro, Curtis Carr, was a chemist who invented an “alchemy gun”, with which he could turn stuff into other stuff. His bosses claimed it as company property, so he stole it back and used it to get revenge. He blew his own foot off with it in the process, and Power Man sent him to the slammer.

While in there, he was cellmates with a guy named Archibald Morton, who forced Carr to reveal the secret of the alchemy gun. Morton tried to build one himself, but since he’s a dummy and not a scientist, it exploded in his hand. This gave him the powers of the alchemy gun without the gun. He also ran afoul of Luke Cage and lost.

The third Chemistro is Curtis’s younger brother Calvin, who stole a new gun and tried his hand at being a criminal until Power Man and Iron Fist shut him down with the help of Curtis, who didn’t want his younger brother doing crimes. As far as Chemistro’s history goes, that’s as much as I know, but he’s apparently still around. Check Wikipedia for updates if so inclined.

To make Chemistro, I used this Thunderball Heroclix as a base model. I mean, you can’t do better than this. He’s not even carrying his wrecking ball, so I don’t have to remove it.

I slapped on a retro raygun bit I had in the bitz box, and voila! One repaint and rebase later, and here’s Chemistro!

I’m hoping to get my last one done over the weekend for posting on the 30th. There’s a little more work involved with that one, but the costume is easy to paint. Fingers crossed!