A short update this week (for once!) because I spent a good chunk of the week working on the smallest miniatures I think I’ve ever painted. In the Kingdom Rush video games, the most important towers are your Militia ones. While they don’t shoot enemies like most towers, they put melee soldiers in the path of enemies which can really slow them down and give you a fighting chance against the endless waves of marching enemies. These minis are some of the last things I need to paint to have the game in a pretty playable state too so I figured I’d better get on with them.

They’re not really anything too special and they once again remind me that I don’t enjoy painting TMM as much as NMM, especially because these weren’t as fast to paint as I was expecting. And the bad news for me is that I’ve got six more to paint one of these days.
One thing that did strike me when working on these is how toy-like the characters are, especially in miniature form. You do hear people refer to minis as toy soldiers or dollies like friend of the site, ArgentBadger, cleverly did recently but I admit that I rarely think of miniatures in that way. These footmen certainly remind me of toys and honestly, all of the miniatures I’ve painted from Kingdom Rush have both a cartoon and toy-like feel to them. I will admit that I do like that about them even if the sculpts are not as high quality as I usually go for.
I’ve talked up how small these are but I haven’t showed any proof of that yet, have I? Well here’s a quick size comparison for you. We’ve got 28mm Ringwraith from MESBG, 32mm Fallout Raider, and whatever scale Bastian is. He’s even bigger than your typical Warhammer miniature but he was what I have on hand at the moment.

I’ve already started back on Minerva and I’m working on something that should be pretty cool/special right now, if all goes according to plan so hopefully some of you will be looking forward to that next week!
I think these look really good, Jeff! 🙂 Probably shorter than the size I paint, but more chunky! I like the style of them though!
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Thank you, John! I think they would be a bit shorter than what you paint too but they are certainly chunky. Personally, I think that was their way of trying to make them easier to paint.
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Excellent work on these Jeff, as they are simple in detail, I think you have done a fantastic job adding some character into them with your painting, and yes they do seem pretty small in comparison to the others. Always look forward to seeing what your next post is.
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Cheers, Dave! I did what I could with them anyway. I don’t see myself becoming a smaller scale painter anytime soon truthfully! 🙂
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These look cool, very video game like
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Cheers, mate! I should have posted the artwork from the game as the minis look almost exactly like them.
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I like those tiny dudes! Always enjoy size comparison shots but why is the base of the Ringwraith unfinished?
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Thank you, Bret! Its because the Ringwraith was meant to be in a display project but it fell through. I couldn’t make the Dol Guldur terrain work as the base so I gave up on it. I have no idea what I’ll end up doing with the mini. It looks nice and deserves better than the state its in truthfully.
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It is a nice job on the ringwraith, but don’t recognize the pose – non gw?
I knew you never had much luck with the Dol Guldur scenery set, I was never impressed much with that box set.
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Its the newest GW version that’s advertised as being The Witch King but it has an alternate build that is just a ringwraith. I like the Ringwraith version better than the Witch King in many respects.
I think the Dol Guldur set is best used as terrain. My attempts to take the pieces and convert them into display scenery failed miserably, unfortunately.
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That makes sense, I’ve only seen the witch king version painted
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I applaud you for taking just the right amount of time and care for these models to look good on the table instead of knocking yourself out to achieve the highest possible quality. 🙂
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Haha, thank you, mate! I did them as fast as I could though it wasn’t fast enough for my liking still 🙂
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It can never be fast enough for models like these! 😅
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They look so cute! How long did it take you to work through these little chaps? If it was a quick process then maybe you should just bash ahead with the other 6 and get them done.
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Sounds like a good idea – then they’re just done and dusted.
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Too long! I think it took me about 3-4 days so maybe 6-8 hours? They’re so small you think they’ll be quick but they’re not. I will definitely do the final 6 when I can as I’ll be happy to be done with them.
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I’m still not sure how small they are, as I don’t have any of those models. But when I zoomed in, I noticed you forgot to paint the faces! 😉
How big are they compared to an old space marine?
Since they’re gaming minis, chances are people will mainly be focusing on the game and these will end up looking great and enhance the play experience.
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Very small! And how much is my wife paying you!? 🙂 She said the same thing to me and then patronized me when she said, “How hard can it be to add some eyes and a smiley face?” haha!
These would probably be up to the waist or thigh of an old space marine I’d guess. Its been a while since I’ve had an old space marine in my possession though. I’ll mostly be playing this game solo so I’ll be the one to see these minis mostly for better and worse! 🙂
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Ok, those are pretty small. I think that’s about 3/4 of the size that my Halfling was. Which I think is the smallest mini I’ve done with any sort of detail. Haha, your Wife is funny! You should hand her a paint brush and say “Here you go!”. 😉
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They’re hard to hold while painting because they’re so small. I’ll give that a try with her and see how far I get haha. She hasn’t painted anything in the nearly ten years we’ve been together so I’m not holding my breath 🙂
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I got my Wife to paint at ReaperCon and once at home. But I asked her the other day and she said no way. I was really
surprises she painted in the first place I guess I caught her in a more relaxed mood.
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I think you’ve got it right there and I wouldn’t expect her to become a miniature painting fanatic like us! I’ll be shocked if my wife ever paints a miniature at all 🙂
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They came out looking pretty darn cute I’d say. 😀
Definitely more in the ‘meeple’ category than the miniature.
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Cute is a good word to describe them! Funnily enough, if you just buy the base game of Kingdom rush, you get soldier meeples instead of miniatures. That wasn’t good enough for me, so I bought an upgrade pack (with some other upgrades in it, to be fair)! 😀
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I know nothing about Kingdom Rush but those minis are cute. They do seem to be screaming out to be painted as Minions though. As always, a pleasure to read one of your posts mate even with how hectic my life has been of late.
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Cheers, mate! I hadn’t made the connection to Minions but I can see it now. I hope that things slow down for you soon as well!
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Thanks! At least it is busy time filled with good things.
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