I started buying individual miniatures and paints, one by one, earlier this year. Partly, it was because I wanted to have them. Partly, it was so I did not feel like a bum for spending hours each week playing D&D at my FLGS and not buying anything.
My wife caught on to this and wanted to be supportive of my new hobby. As she does in all things, she went entirely overboard. For my birthday, I received:
•An enormous case full of paints
•A special tray to store them in
•A display case for my minis
•A headlamp think with magnifying lenses
•A desk-lamp with a magnifying lense
•An assortment of paint-brushes
•A special tray for storing the paint-brushes
•Two jugs of liquid primer
•Nearly every model thusfar produced by
Wildspire Minis
This was in May. I've been painting these things for months.
They're all a bit crude, but I'm improving little by little as I go. Here are some samples of what I've finished so far.