I've Started Painting Tabletop Minis

Over the course of the past year or so, I've been thinking, "You know what? It might be fun to give tabletop games a go." In particular, I've been thinking about trying to get into Dungeons & Dragons, but really I could do any game where I can get together with friends and just have a fantasy adventure.

Despite the fact that I haven't even made a character sheet, much less found anyone to play with, I've already started buying a bunch of plastic figures from the local hobby shop, with the intention of painting them at some point.

I've bought the following figures, all of which are sitting in their packaging on my desk:

  • A set of three crates
  • A workbench with some tools
  • A set of three round tables
  • A pair of orc fighters
  • A pair of humanoid jackal creatures
  • A pair of wild boars
  • A pair of aarakocra paladins

So far, I've only got three figures that I've actually attempted to paint: a set of three little barrels. This post is kind of just an excuse to share my efforts.


Since this was my very first time trying to paint minis, I wanted to try and keep it quick and simple—I didn't want to put too much time and effort into something I had no idea how to do. Thankfully, the "slapchop" method exists and can give entirely acceptable results in a short amount of time!

Now, since I had three barrels to paint, I decided I'd change the method for each one, to see how they'd compare. The first barrel I'll show you is the simplest—I simply took it out of the packaging and applied the contrast paints over the existing primer.

A figure of a keg barrel, sitting on top of a paper towel in front of a painting handle. The "wooden" parts of the barrel are painted in vivid brown, and the "metal" parts of the barrel are painted in a very dark grey.
Just primer and paint, no drybrushing. The paint job on this one is the tidiest by far.

The second one I'll show is one where I applied the full "slapchop" method; black primer (completely covering the existing white primer), some grey drybrush, followed by a little bit of white drybrush, then the contrast paints.

Another figure of a keg barrel, in the same position. It uses the same contrast paints, but because of the different primer and the drybrushing, the colours are less vivid and more "natural".
Despite the paint being a little messy, this one is my favourite.

The last one is similar, but without the white drybrush.

Another figure of a keg barrel. It is painted similarly to the second one, but the colours are darker, as a result of the lack of white drybrush.
This one is probably the least good one. It's the messiest, too.

I haven't applied any varnish over these figures...I should probably do that at some point, to keep the paint from getting any messier.


Even though it was only my first attempt, and a sort of lazy one at that, I'm honestly pretty happy with how these turned out! I hope to paint some more over the coming weeks.