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I am in the process of updating my blog/gallery with a huge backlog of projects and I came across this guy that I painted in 2017 but I don't recall having ever shared here on the forum. This mini was part of my speed painting push at that time and I went for a more colorful palate than the standard rust monster. I think the splash of verdigris works really well on these guys as a contrasting color while still fitting the theme. Not the best execution (I think the base might be painted better than the mini itself), but hey, it was fun!

Hi: I did this last year. Old school DMs know there's nothing like a rust monster to strip a party of excess booty... I entered it in the 2022 Reaper Con as "Nom, nom, nom... Crunch." Thanks for looking! -t

While so many of y'all were out Denton way, having a grand old fooforaw at Reapercon, I decided to go ahead and paint a bit, too. Only finished two things, really; here's one. Very much "done now" quality. Had a little fun with color, nothing special.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the forums, I'm here to unload another batch of my old enamel paint jobs from around 15-25 years ago. Fire Giant Bonesnapper Satyrs Gorgon Kobolds Umber Hulk Rust Monster Chimera Bulette

I hadn't been painting in awhile, but finished a couple lately and even tried a little basic basing with the GS. Getting the close photos made me see a couple of things I need to retouch but this is about it. Just playing around with some different ideas though clearly some things weren't intended.

Here's the last mini painted for the day, a Rust Monster (or Oxidation Beast, as it's called in Reaper's catalogue).

After 14 months of not touching a brush it feels good to finally be posting some work. Per usual, I just couldn't help myself with respect to color. I was torn between going muted palate to emphasize the 'underdark' nature of the creature, but then my love of color kicked in.... Please be gentle as I'm a bit rusty.

So today, I was painting. And taking occasional breaks to waste time on the internet. You know. "A day off." And I noted something interesting on artist Tony diTerlizzi's blog: Tony's got this really interesting article up about the origins of some of the first Dungeons and Dragons monsters... whose MINIATURES actually predate the MONSTER! Usually, someone comes up with the idea of "beholder" or "Frog Dragon" or whatever, and then someone SCULPTS the thing. But these creatures actually caused the development of their D&D counterparts -- in the illustration above, the rust monster, bulette, and owlbear, respectively. In this case, Gary Gygax bought a bag of dinosaurs at the dime store, found some things in there that were decidedly NOT dinosaurs, and literally whipped up encounters based on them ANYWAY. Can't blame him. Would you believe there was a time where miniatures of D&D monsters were really pretty hard to find? Outside of a bottle of Old Skiddocan Squeezin's, anyway. It got me to thinking about inspiration sources. I'm no sculptor... well, I am, but no one in their right mind would pay me to sculpt anything more complicated than a very relaxed ooze ... and I found myself looking at the figure I'm painting at the moment: the medusa from the first Bones kickstarter: 77037, by Bobby Jackson, for the completists. Now, while this is a perfectly good medusa -- attractive, detailed, and certainly quite menacing -- it ain't the medusa described in Greek literature. I had to go and look around at the shelves to see the other medusa... 02354, sculpted by Jim Johnson. Not the poison koolaid guy, the sculptor. Two totally different guys, really. ...no... still not the Greek mythology version... where had I seen this before? And then it hit me: The original version of "Clash of the TItans." So... we have RPG adventurers facing off against a Greek mythology critter, as filtered through the sensibilities of movie SFX master Ray Harryhausen, and then through the minds of two different sculptors. Made me think hard and seriously about inspiration sources for sculptors. I mean, everyone has a mental idea of what a zombie looks like, sure... and owlbears... well, once you get the idea of "crossbreed between an owl and a bear, mostly bear with owl head, and big honkin' claws and the temperament of a wolverine who took the brown acid," you can draw a pretty quick mental image. 77156, by Jason Wiebe. Here, Jason Wiebe takes a basic idea by someone else, and goes pretty gonzo with it -- while the one in the picture up top looks like it might be satisfied with a few pick-a-nick baskets, Boo Boo, and watch out for Mr. Ranger... Jason's looks like it wants to rip my arm off and shove it down my throat, just to see the horrified look on my face. My point: The original idea wasn't Jason's, but he took it and ran with it. And he's not the first, nor is he the only. I was kind of surprised when the D&D folks didn't sue Blizzard for some of the things that turned up in World of Warcraft: Jason Wiebe coulda done 'em better. ...and anyway, I guess I'm not sure where I'm going with this. It made me think about cultural bleedover, and how "orcs" started out as one thing when I was twelve (Lord of the Rings) and became another thing when I was thirteen (Dungeons and Dragons), and would become yet another thing when I was in my late twenties (Warhammer), and to most of today's kids, have become yet ANOTHER thing (the LOTR and Hobbit movies). Like I said, cultural bleedover. Our myths are CHANGING. Sometimes in small ways, like owlbears in dynamic poses instead of just standing there. Sometimes in BIG ways, like the ever-changing orc. Anyway, anyone interested in diTerlizzi's blog article? It's here: http://diterlizzi.com/home/owlbears-rust-monsters-and-bulettes-oh-my/

This bizarre little guy came in a blister with a Rakshasa. The rakshasa is smaller than the rust monster. The rust monster is an odd sculpt, but adorable in his own way, and he was a fun, quick paint-up...the Rakshasa may be destined for a melt bucket, he's so bad. Anyway, from the depths of the 80's, from the dark days of lead (see, it's a pun, because lead is darker than tin...oh, never mind), I give you, RUST MONSTER! Bane of adventurers, eater of weapons and armor. About two hours, maybe three, to paint him. The rust effect on his shield is stolen whole cloth from Jabberwocky, whose tutorial on the subject can be found, with some search-fu, in these very forums, but more readily on his blog, here: http://jabberwockyminiatures.blogspot.com/p/rust-tutorial.html My major change to the method described is that I wanted an effect of rust in-progress, so there's a bunch more metallic on this little guy's snack than you see in the tutorial. C&C welcome!