Thomas Hammond uses an airbrush to apply a base coat of paint to a miniature.
A miniature tank used in the tabletop game “Warhammer 40,000.”
A “Warhammer 40,000” EldarMORE INFOFor contact info, a gallery of completed pieces or to place an order with miniature painter Thomas Hammond, visit www.HammondMiniatures.com or email tomdhammond@gmail.com.
Thomas Hammond, like all artists, begins his work with a blank slate. In his case, however, that slate starts out in pieces, sometimes dozens of them.
As a teenager, Hammond, now 32, began painting miniature figurines that players use to represent troops in tabletop role-playing games. But before he can transform them from dull plastic or metal into tiny, vividly colorful vehicles, knights, monsters or artillery pieces, he must put them together.
“[Miniatures] used to come in … two or three pieces, including the base,” he explains, holding a rack — or sprue — containing dozens of linked, molded-plastic body parts and weapons that eventually will become a squad of five soldiers.
“Now, [assembly] is harder, but it’s a lot more rewarding,” he continues. “With figurines from the same box, you can see the variations I’m able to pull off in how they’re holding guns, what’s on their belts and where they’re facing.”