Each month, I tore through the new issue and gleefully read everything related to D&D. At first, I skipped over the esoteric “Through the Looking Glass” articles. It wasn’t until I was a sophomore in high school that the Dungeon Master for my D&D group introduced me to painting miniatures. Once I picked up a paintbrush, I devoured each back issue in search of any nugget of miniature lore I could find. One article in the January 1990 issue caught my eye—Ed Dobrianski’s “Do-it-Yourself Dragons.” My mind was riveted—here’s someone who isn’t just painting miniatures; he’s sculpting them from scratch!

Since the introduction of miniatures into fantasy roleplaying games, I have been interested in making my own figurines. The major obstacle I had to overcome was finding suitable construction material...