Garden Ninja Studios ← Professional painting of wargaming minis + geek cake toppers

Tzolk’in Aztec Calandar

Jan

12

2021

This project was very different from most. This is the large center gear from Tzolk’in: The Aztec Calandar that I painted.While it is more of a relief sculpture than a traditional minaiture, it offered some interesting challenges.The center area is all freehand (due to the way that the gears fit on the board, that part ...

For Starcadia!

Dec

23

2020

I’ve continued on with Starcadia Quest miniatures, still using a sort of comic lineart style-bright colors with black outlining. I’ve especially loved the way that some of these remind me to create some Borderlands fanart in chibi.The style is loads of fun, and I really love how metabreaking it is when compared against some of ...

What Makes a Unique Cake Topper

Dec

18

2020

Most of what I like to do with the wedding cake toppers is include the things that are important and unique about the happy couple. What makes a cake topper special is how well it includes the things that make that couple unique and special.I am often very interested in matching the unique aspects of ...

Tank Basing

Dec

4

2020

While it is standard for most miniatures to be set on bases, for some reason, that doesn’t always apply to vehicles.Probably, gaming bases are seen as a necessity to allow troopers to stand up, so vehicles with treads or wheels that can exist without basing get a pass.But I have found that adding an uneven ...

Infant Sunstalker

Nov

25

2020

The campaign that comes with the Kingdom Death Suntalker expansion features the settlement of survivors helping to raise the offspring of the Sunstalker from infancy. It seems that the lifecycle of sunstalkers involves being nursed by survivors and eventually eating them when grown enough to set out.The art includes a few pictures of infant and ...

Star Wars Starcadia

Nov

20

2020

Starcadia Quest’s linup of personalities includes a lot of delightful tributes to popular science fiction, and no science fiction is more popular than Star Wars. Star Wars references and jokes pervade the game, far beyond the Thorntroopers expansion.Here are a number of terrific Star Wars inspired characters fighting for Starcadia. Phasma’s silver armor is a ...

Aftermath

Nov

11

2020

Last time I posted up just the heroes and bosses from Aftermath, but here is the whole set of painted miniatures, including the rival gangs.Once again, the main theme was to create various textures on all of the minis, like the scales on the Scaled Ones, fur on the rodents or leather on the scrappers.Also, ...

Locust Patrol Vehicle

Nov

4

2020

For whatever reason, today just seems like a good day to post another post apocalypse heavily damaged vehicle. Don’t know that I can say for sure why.Here is the Locust from Seedy Tea Publishing’s Simulacrum Protocol line. Freehanding the insignia was really interesting.

Post Apocalypic Battle Damage

Oct

30

2020

Wear and tear is usually a welcome addition to most vehicle models. After all, tank armor is made to take a few hits.One of the things to keep in mind when painting something like that is the story it tells. Where and how you place it tells of how the damage happened. Rusty areas are ...

Cthulhu Death May Die

Oct

22

2020

A little while ago, I got in on a Kickstarter for CMON’s mythos game. It is a fast dungeon crawler where insanity points are used like XP for upgrades up until you go totally nuts and lose.And, of course, you get to shoot Cthulhu in the face.Here are some of the minis from the game. ...