paint and tools | The Mad Devil

As I think is mentioned elsewhere, Polly S was my first brand of paints. Glass bottle, metal lid. They had a couple or three different sizes. At one point they had the TSR license and made official "D&D" colors. I still have a few as of May 2026. They were good paints. I am reluctant to open the few remaining pots I have for fear that I will learn that they have dried out and need to be thrown away. But given my current paint supply, I should.

I am not sure what sort of flow improver or similar material would help stretch its life at this point.

Doing some research, Polly S was owned by Testers and renamed Polyscale and discontinued in 2013

I feel like the hobby stores I used in the mid to late 90s phased out Polly S or Polyscale so by the time it was actually discontinued I had transitioned to the next entry.

The discontinuation announcement letter:

Friday, May 17th, 2013

Dear Valued Partner,

I am writing to inform you about changes that are taking place at the Testor Corporation. For over 80 years, we have provided premium paints and finishing systems to the craft and hobby industry. Today, we announced that we are transforming our business in order to more effectively address the changing needs of our consumers and their interests.

We’ve made the decision to exit the following businesses within the Testor® Brand family - Pactra®, Floquil®, Polyscale®, and ColorArtz®. This will enable the Testor Corporation to return to our foundation of success – providing premium, innovative product that inspires creativity. We will continue to accept orders and ship product for a limited time based on available quantities.

Going forward, the following brands will be critical to our success and development – Testor®, Model Master™, and Aztek®. These brands will be infused with marketing support, innovation and operational efficiencies.

In support of this, we have announced a consolidation of operations at our Rockford facilities. Over the next several months we will provide updates critical to your order and delivery needs as well as product availability. We assure you there will be no disruption to service during this transition.

Our commitment to the Testor brand has never been stronger. By implementing these changes, and the ability to leverage all of Rust-Oleum’s world class services, we are more strongly poised to take your business to the next level through product and merchandising innovations, and increased customer intimacy. Please contact me or your sales manager directly with any questions.

We appreciate your business!

Best Regards,

Kristin J. Schiro
Director of Sales & Marketing

In college and the years immediately following, I had found and was using a good bit of the Ral Partha paint line. I think I started noticing them when Polly S lost the TSR license. At least I remember buying the latest pots of Polly S at Hungates in the early 90s.

I am pretty sure that these only ever came in one size. Plastic bottle, plastic lid. As of May 2026, I still have a lot of RP/IWM pots still in regular rotation. Occasionally, I have to thin them, but they remain useful.

Ral Partha was acquired by Iron Wind Metals in 2001, and the internet tells me that IWM discontinued the paint line when they acquired Ral Partha, but I know I have IWM branded paint pots. It could be that they just burned through the remaining inventory or the internet sleuthing I am doing is wrong.

When Will P started painting in the late 90s/early 00s, he did not have my preconceptions about what brands were good. So he ordered miniatures from companies I had never heard of and bought paints with which I was unfamiliar. High on that list were the Vallejo paints. These were the first dropper bottles I used. It took some time for me to get used to that concept and I still feel like I end up wasting paint when I dont use all of what I squirt out.

That said, the first two entries get dried paint in the threads of the top, occasionally develop a dried out skin across the top of the pot and otherwise also have non-zero waste paint. I can't say with any certainty which wastes more paint.

When Will P stopped painting, I inherited his paints. I have bought other Vallejo paints as well beyond those I got from him. But somewhere in there I feel like my Vallejo purchases have waned. This likely coincides with my shift over to Reaper paints.

One of my early boxes of Xacto knives. Useful in trimming mold lines and injection sprues off metal minis. I don't know that I used too many of those blades over the years and somewhere the box and blades got lost. But I have a new one that is similar.

My set up has changed over the years, particularly as I find new tools or have a new technique that needs a different space.

I dont have much memory of my painting space before 1987. I am sure it was ad-hoc on newpaper and on whatever surface I could find convenient.

My room at Choate was small, and we had our beds up on our furniture (one end on a desk and one end on a dresser) so that we could have more floor space. My painting space was on the dresser, underneath where the bed hung over it. No special lights or tools, but adequate for me at the time.

College saw a similar set up, although I think I used the desk.

GSO had a set up similar to Cary/Raleigh. It was originally in the spare bedroom with my big desk. Then Will P moved in and I moved that desk to the living room of the apartment. I am half convinced that Will P's cats stole one or more miniatures.

Cary had the same desk and set up - but in the "office bedroom."

Here are some for which I managed to get pictures beginning at Davendell.

While I only lived at Ring Place for 6 years, the painting set up saw substantial changes. This was due in some part to Covid and more time spent painting, but also because in this iteration of my painting, YouTube and the Internet had made so many resources available on painting and tools. I watched, learned, and bought new toys.

So, in the beginning, you can see I was still using my old arm lamps, although the big white magnifying glass had been reduced. Likewise, the magnifying in general had been replaced by the white headset there in the middle. I also discovered the joys of the mixing tool (that blue thing in front left). You can also see some of the paint handles (the black squat things) on which to mount miniatures while painting. So handy.

I also got more paints - ReaperCon in the Covid years was virtual and the swag boxes had paints, and, well, I buy paints. More paints demanded a better way to store them. Reaper again had an initial solution with a transparent rack, but they were routinely sold out. Thus, I found equivalent transparent racks designed to hold nail polish on Amazon. Handy. Miniature Gaming Montage introduced me to the white arcuate lamp.

I got even more paints and added the elevated table to put the other racks. The little TV has gone away as I did not have room and was not actually watching anything on it.

My painting space set up

This was my Raleigh Davendell set up for many years. I had an old countertop scrap to protect the desk. Arm lamps including the one with a magnifying glass. You can see this was still in the Ral Partha and Polly S era of my paint collection. So this was probably taken before 2005. I see the Ral Partha Mountain Giant and the Reaper Vrock that took me forever to paint.

Davengard was my destination in March of 26. Sadly, it did not stick as we needed the space for other activities. This is a partial shot of that space.

I have had a variety of ways I stored my miniatures. Both for home storage and for travel. I don't know that I have found the right solution ever, but I think I am getting closer. Here are some of my efforts over the years.

I think I got this curio cabinet before the wooden house, but it has stayed at the KY house so it was only briefly my primary storage mechanism. Getting this thing home from the store was apparently a great challenge with the mirror and all that glass, but I only heard it second hand. While it does close up and have a light, it still allows dust in and does not actually store all that much given the need to be able to pluck things out of the middle of the shelves. I am sure I could cram in more than I have, but given that it is not where I use my miniatures, it is relegated to an afterthought. Maybe one day it will be the focal point of my less playable, display type miniatures.

It has the bottom shelf of wood, and then a glass shelf in the bottom section. The top has a glass bottom shelf and three more glass shelves. For a while I stored empty boxes in the bottom. So here are some more photos of the shelves from some time ago, and then more recent shots.

Two shots of the bottom section - I used to have paper terrain (ships, walls), but it died over the years. So this is some chaos troops and the Ral Partha dragon from Dragon Mountain

Other side of bottom shelf of top section. Black dragon of flame and fury and some giants and Dragonlance

And now 2026 shots

The bottom is mostly empty, but apparently I still have a house

Elf Chariot, some dragonlance

I am not sure what this was originally intended for, but for me, it was a place to house miniatures. I got this, I think in the late 90s, probably while I was in Greensboro, but certainly by the time I moved to Cary in 1999. Conceptually, I would group the miniatures by classifications that made sense to me at the time. This resulted in some overcrowded cubbies and some that were sparsely populated. This worked for several years, but you can see by the time this picture was taken, it was already mostly full. The downside of this was that dust can and did get on the minis. The plus was it was easy enough to find what I was seeking.

Middle shelf of top section. Dueling Dragons. Ral Partha and some giants

some giants and the Black Prince's chariot of flame and fear. One of my favorites. Sadly it has been damaged over the years.

Storage

Bottom shelf of the top section. The Grenadier Yellow Box Wizard Lab in a Coke 12-pack box. Some more of the paper terrain (catapult and ballista)

My notes say top shelf. Elves, a giant, and some huts.

Dueling Dragons and the Black Dragon of Flame and Fear. Dragon Mountain Dragon.

some mimics, the wizard lab still, some of the ral partha dwarves