Late last year I got back into miniature painting, something I hadn’t done since I was in college. I was living on my own in the middle of nowhere for most of 2024, and painting miniatures was a nice way to spend time, especially when I was snowed in. I even made a few YouTube videos about painting.

Here’s everything I painted in 2024, along with a few notes on the experience. I want to shout out the Brush Wielders Union, a fantastic group run by Simon Berman, for providing an encouraging space to discuss technique and share works-in-progress. If you’re looking to get into miniature painting, I’d highly recommend joining them.

Beer Badger (January)

A cute little guy I got from an Etsy seller, this was a pretty quick Slap Chop paint job (transparent/contrast paints over a drybrushed base). The snow effect on the base doesn’t look great as I just used some white flock I had from a basing kit, and some of the colors could use some highlighting, but the fur and mug still look nice to me.

Marines Malevolent Kill Team (February)

In Warhammer 40,000, the Marines Malevolent are just huge assholes. They’re loyal to the Imperium of Man, but everyone hates their guts anyway because they’re pieces of shit who frequently cause lots of collateral damage. I was watching The Trailer Park Boys at the time, and it seemed like a natural fit.

The faces didn’t come out very well here as I hadn’t done much practice on them. The hair for Julian, Ricky, and Bubbles is all sculpted on and could look better but could also be a lot worse. Bubbles’ cats are from an Etsy seller. I like how grimy these guys came out, and, inspired by Shade Fish’s Marines Malevolent art, I also put a lot of time into scrawling up their armor.

DIO (March)

I realized that the Marines Malevolent colors are also DIO’s colors from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. The head was from an Etsy seller. The skin and eyes aren’t amazing, but the shoulder pad text came out ok.

Chaos Space Marines (March)

Chaos Space Marines were the first models I ever painted when I was a kid, so it was fun to come back to these ones from the Blackstone Fortress board game. Added a cat I had left over from the Bubbles mini, which I think is actually the best part of these two. The glowing effect on the eyes and shoulder pad of the righthand one isn’t bad, either. Pictured here with another mini from Blackstone Fortress, a Chaos Psyker I painted up in June for a video.

Vampire Blood Bowl Team (April)

This was my first time using contrasts over a flat light base coat, which feels a lot less forgiving than Slap Chop. Still, I like how vibrant the results are. Again, the faces are a little messy here as I was still figuring those out. Tried to create a contrast between the polished, unified look of the vampires and the ramshackle gear of the thralls. These are fun sculpts — I love how goofy the image of Draculas playing American football is.

Beastmen Kill Team (May)

I love the Beastmen models but I wasn’t particularly inspired by the “realistic” way that they’re painted on the box. I decided to go with a bright, chaotic scheme using inverted pairs of contrasting colors. The bases are done with a sand paste — if you’re like to give it a shot, I made a video on the process.

Ur-Ghuls (June)

More little Blackstone Fortress guys I blew through in a night, just a drybrush highlight over contrasts. Used a crackle textured base paint and didn’t get the exact effect I wanted but it was fun to experiment with.

Sega Drones (July)

These dudes are also from Blackstone Fortress, and I wish Games Workshop would put out more of them because they’re really cute. For some reason I decided to paint them in the colors of four Sega consoles: the SG-1000, the Genesis, the Saturn, and the Dreamcast.

Techpriest (August)

This was an Etsy resin sculpt that I added a bunch of stuff to — the plasma arm, wiring, and piping from the shoulder. I pushed myself to try and highlight the robes, and those came out pretty neatly. The metal is a weird layering of shades that didn’t quite pan out and the lighting effect on the cannon is kind of messy but this was a fun guy to play around with.

Adeptus Custodes Patrol (October)

These guys took months and months to finish, because I didn’t plan well enough in advance. Even though this set is only a few models, it’s definitely the most minis I’ve painted in a single faction or color scheme at any one time. I could have picked out some of the armor details more effectively, the weapons could have been cleaner, and some of the gems got a little sloppy, but overall I’m proud of how these guys turned out.

Neurolictor (November)

I wish I could say I ended strong, but I’m not happy with how this one turned out. The green carapace has some nice depth, but I rushed with the rest of the coloring and the limbs ended up much darker than I’d been envisioning. Throwing washes over contrasts is not always the way to go!

I’m probably going to take a break from painting in the new year, but it’s been fun to get back to a hobby that was pretty niche when I first got into it. There are so many resources out there now for new painters, which is nice. At the same time, there are so many incredible painters sharing shots of their work that it can be a little intimidating. If you’re looking to start mini painting, definitely check out the BWU for a supportive environment in which to grow and learn.