Grandma’s Cookies

Here is a custom party that I converted which has to be one of the most ridiculous set of characters I’ve painted thus far. The party consists of a head witch and her minions: a sentient gingerbread man, a milk wizard faerie, and her homunculus Honk.

-> *Gee Snaps, Honk, Glinda, Golveig, Hetete*

Glinda/Greta/Gretchen/Gullvieg -

“the Head Witch”

The ring leader of the group, an eladrin druid/artificer. Eladrin are essentially elves who traverse through the four seasons throughout each day. They start off young and bubbly in the morning (Glinda), aging a bit to a middle aged woman who is a little more cultivated midday(Greta), aging more to a grandmotherly figure in the late afternoon(Gretchen), and finishing off the night as a shriveled hag (Gullvieg). Instead of painting four miniatures I decided to do two and have the shadow represent the other season. So the top miniature is Spring with a faint Summer shadow while the bottom is Fall with a much harsher shadowed Winter hag. The hag mini lends itself to this effect much better as the shadow areas are much more well defined.

I sculpted half of the face of a hag mini I had to soften the features to look more like a grandmother. I also sculpted a cinnamon roll in her hand and some bearclaws (with free hand almonds that I’m really proud of) for the other mini. Spring also has a freehand “Joy of Cooking” book on her side as that was my first cookbook and I can’t leave a bookcover unpainted on a mini…

Gee Snaps -

“the Gingerbread Rogue”

Here is Gee Snaps, a cookie assassin who is constantly in a existential crisis as his consciousness tries to process his sentience. I sculpted this guy from scratch using the Magic: The Gathering card “Gingerbrute” as a reference. He is equipped with a custom peppermint rapier which is a bit of a paperclip that I crushed with pliers.

I learned an important lesson in doing so as my mentality when I made him was to recreate Gingerbrute 1 for 1. But moving forward my headspace will be to be inspired by my reference but still use my best judgements for the final aesthetics. I loved the fold in the head of the Gingerbrute artwork but it doesn’t really translate into 3D space. I’m still very happy with how everything came out- specifically the freehand icing. I focused on trying to give it as much volume as possible even though it’s flat.

Gingerbrute - Food Golem

*The unlabeled vial was not vallia extract after all*

Hetete -

“the Milk Wizard”

Hetete is a deranged fairy sorcerer who uses milk which is acid in this campaign setting. I’ll let you guess where the milk comes from. He does the dirty work of the Head Witch and enjoys the task. This takes the cake for most outlandish mini I’ve ever put a paintbrush to. I started with a sprite from Nolzur’s Marvelous miniatures and sculpted the face, tutu, boots, cigar, and the uh chest features. Very happy with how the smoldering cigar came out with the subtle glow on the goods. I also did a little freehand to give his back side a backside.

Honk -

the Homunculus

Part chicken part cauldron, this homunculus is the final minion of the Head Witch. Honk is where the secret sauce of the pastries is made and also is the mount for Gee Snaps while the group is travelling.

I also sculpted the entirety of the legs and cauldron and then used a GW skull suspended in resin that I tinted crimson. This is easily one of my favorite miniatures that I’ve painted and is only the second mini I’ve created from scratch (Gee Snaps being the first). I used the same technique for the chicken butt as I do fire which I think looks pretty featherly. The cauldron itself was pretty tricky to get good contrast as I wanted it to still read as black. I added a bit of greenish glazes to have the blood pop a bit more.