Review of Halloween Pumpkins

Tiny Furniture's "143-1: Halloween Pumpkins" is a nine-piece resin miniatures set, of three pumpkins, and six jack-o=lanterns. The pumpkins consist of a large and two medium-sized pumpkins. The jack-o-lanterns consist of three medium-sized jack-o-lanterns with candles, and three small ones. The small ones have a candle, a pot, and a demon-head. One of the pumpkins comes on a sprue, and all of the jack-o-lanterns come on a sprue, with the smallest jack-o—lanterns sharing a sprue. As a painting project, I would say that this project is a beginner to intermediate difficulty. Note that, since Tiny Furniture is located in Russia, delivery will take some time, so order them months before October! Tiny Furniture offers a painted version (see last picture). You may find wholesalers on Amazon or other online stores able to ship the miniatures sooner. The set is pretty inexpensive for resin, so you may wish to purchase this with your order from Tiny Furniture.

Details: The details, like many of the Tiny Furniture line, are impressive, particularly with the jack-o-lanterns. While most jack-o-lanterns I've seen are pretty much pumpkins with the "carving" pressed into the side, Tiny Furniture jack-o-lanterns are actually hollow, sometimes with the carving going through the "wall" of the pumpkin. The jack-o-lanterns actually have candles molded inside, although this makes them a little tricky to paint. Each of the jack-o-lanterns even has a different expression.

Preparation: Like many resin terrain, the miniatures have minimal mold lines. The "eyes" of the jack-o-lanterns may have some resin to scrape out, although I didn't bother.

Painting: I painted the figures on the sprues. I painted all of the pieces with a brown brush-on primer. I then basecoated them with orange paints, including craft paint. Rather than thin basecoats, I used thick vertical strokes to match the "grain" of the pumpkin skin. I also put less paint on the "valleys" of the pumpkin, to increase the contrast. I then washed with a brown wash. While I experimented with Strong Army Painter wash, you might try a weaker wash, such as Light Tone, which I will recommend later. The result was on the darker side, so I then reapplied orange paints. This time, I used the conventional consistency for painting miniatures. Interestingly, at this point, I ended up painting the pumpkins differently from the jack-o-lanterns.

Pumpkins: Again, for the pumpkins, I used vertical strokes along the "grain" of the pumpkin skin and avoided the "valleys". Since pumpkins are similar to spheres, I painted downward strokes from the "top" of the pumpkin in lighter orange. I painted upward strokes from the "bottom" of the pumpkin in darker orange. To lighten orange, you can add yellow. This suggests light from above the pumpkin. I would say that most viewers would look at the pumpkin from above, much like most miniatures, because most people see miniatures from above, and because the features of these pumpkins, namely the stem and leaf, are on "top" of the pumpkin. After painting the pumpkins orange, I painted the stem a light brown, and the leaf green, including Army Painter's Green Ink.

Jack-o-Lanterns: Unlike the pumpkins, the focus of the jack-o-lanterns is the "face". So, instead of painting the jack-o-lanterns from an overhead view like I did the pumpkins, I painted them from a front view, with emphasis on painting the faces over painting them like pumpkins. As a result, for the medium-sized jack-o-lanterns, I painted more orange paint over the brown "valleys" than I did with the pumpkins so that the faces could be more recognizable. I experimented with leaving the "valleys" more visible with the smaller jack-o-lanterns. If I used too much orange, I washed with the light brown Army Painter Light Tone. Light Tone kept the jack-o-lanterns from being too dark, and left the valleys less dark. Light Tone comes with the Army Painter Quickshade Ink set.

Candles: Candles are molded into inside of the jack-o-lanterns. This makes them a little tricky to paint. Otherwise, paint the candle as you would any other, including the progression of the flame from white, to yellow, to orange, then red. If you are not already familiar with painting fire, you may wish to see a tutorial on painting flames to understand this color progression for a candle. Paint the candle ochre, and the melted wax and flame white. Paint most of the candle yellow, except for the base of the flame. Paint about the upper half of the candle orange. Paint the tip of the candle red.

Small jack-o-lanterns: Finish off the small jack-o-lanterns by painting the details of the "tops". Paint the candle ochre. Paint the "stirring pot" handle brown and contents whatever colors you would like. I used green as a contrast to the orange. I painted the demon ears red, and the pumpkin stem brown, but you can use whatever colors you would like. After painting, you will need to be careful in removing the "pot" small jack-o-lantern from the sprue. I recommend cutting away the bottom of the pumpkin from the sprue, then carefully cutting away the handle, erring on leaving resin on the handle. Trim the remaining resin from the handle with a hobby knife, then paint brown.

Conclusion: This set lives up to the Tiny Furniture standard of details, yet is still accessible for the beginning painter with some painting experience. The variety of jack-o-lantern expressions adds to the set. You'll want to show off these miniatures every Halloween!

Amazon reseller : https://www.amazon.com/Tiny-Furniture-382-Halloween-Pumpkins-UNPAINTED/dp/B07MBK8X59/

Tiny Furniture : https://tiny-furniture.com/products/search?sort=0&balance=&categoryId=&min_cost=&max_cost=&page=1&text=pumpkin