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:

• Simon, from Fantorical, has begun the all-important selection process;
• Jeremy, from Carrion Crow’s Buffet, has begun work on the sweet-yet-spicy Gingerbread Dragon;
• 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;
• Snapfit, from Da Green Horde
• Matt, from PM Painting
• Jon, from Jon’s Hobby Desk

And from Instagram:

• Malcolm, @mdcampbell_dunwichcreatives, who has done a Toxic Spirit, from the old Ral Partha Shadowrun line;
• Mike, @sasquatchminis
• James, @spoontasticminis, has begun work on a Tyranid Exocrine;
• and Sabrina, @Uthwulfsminis.

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!