By The Shopkeeper — SnatchleBits
Most gifts arrive finished. These six arrive as beginnings: resin figures, unpainted, each one waiting for somebody to decide what colour a goblin's book should be, whether a wolf runs grey or brown, how hot a fire elemental burns. The six pieces below were chosen on one test: each pick's own page states that it arrives unpainted, ready for a painter to finish — the finish is stated on the page first, in the page's own framing, rather than in a frame invented for this post. Together they are not a selection from the shop's miniature bench. They are the bench: every miniature figure the shop files, under twenty dollars, seated whole.
Two honesty notes belong up front, because this shelf's record needs them. First, the frame this post does not use: this blog has seated tabletop figures as a session kit once and as gamer gifts once, and six preparations in a row in this series counted a game-night frame and set it aside as already owned. Nothing here is seated as session equipment — there is no dice tower and no token bowl on this shelf — because the question here is not what a figure does in a game. It is what a painter does with a figure before any game begins. Second, the overlap this post does carry: five of these six stood together once before, among the gifts for people who love tiny things, judged by how small they were. They are seated here, with the sixth beside them, judged by how unfinished they are — and every section below says plainly where its pick has served before, twenty-one prior turns between the six, counted in the open.
The bench, in price order
- Soldier Miniature — $13.32
The bench opens with its guard: a soldier mid-pose, spear in one hand and sword in the other, who arrives exactly as a painter would want him — blank.
See the Soldier Miniature — $13.32
An unpainted resin figure, about 2.25 inches tall including his spear and about 1.5 inches head to toe, wearing a distinctive hat and standing on a sturdy round base about 1.125 inches across. His page states the finish outright — unpainted, perfect for painters and hobbyists to customize — and frames him for tabletop gaming, display, dioramas, and hobby collections. His page's honesty line is carried here whole: miniature ships unpainted; paint not included. Designed by Cobaltsun043 (licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution). He has served three times before — among the gifts for people who love tiny things, in the tabletop session kit, and on the last-one shelf — he was named in six later preparations among the tabletop pieces a game-night post could not honestly re-seat, and he also stands in this blog's gift-a-day index, which is an index listing and is disclosed here rather than counted as a turn. Everywhere he has served, he served as a figure in a lineup. Here he serves as a canvas with a spear: the uniform colours are the buyer's decision, and that decision is the gift.
- Toilet Goblin Miniature — $13.52
Twenty cents up, the bench's comic relief and its most-served figure: a goblin on a toilet, reading a book, entirely unbothered — and entirely unpainted.
See the Toilet Goblin Miniature — $13.52
A detailed resin goblin, about an inch tall on a base about 0.9 inches square that lets him stand securely wherever he is put, framed by his page for desks, tabletop games, bathroom décor, and curio cabinets, and as a gift for fantasy fans, tabletop players, miniature collectors, and anyone who appreciates the absurd. The same honesty line stands on his page, carried here whole: miniature ships unpainted; paint not included. Designed by mz4250 (licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Share Alike). He has served eight times before — among the weirdly useful gifts, among the white elephant gifts, among the gifts by budget, among the bathroom sink upgrades, in the tabletop session kit, on the $13 shelf, on the regulars shelf, and on the last-one shelf — the most turns of any pick on this bench, stated here rather than smoothed over; he was named in six later preparations among the tabletop pieces a game-night post could not honestly re-seat, and he also stands in the gift-a-day index, disclosed here rather than counted as a turn. A goblin who has been seated eight times has been a joke, a bathroom piece, and a price-band resident. He has never been seated as what his finish makes him: the funniest first painting project in the shop, because a one-inch goblin forgives a beginner's brush in a way a dragon never will.
- Tiny Fire Sprite Miniature — $16.41
Two dollars and eighty-nine cents over the goblin, the bench's smallest canvas: a fire sprite three-quarters of an inch tall, smiling, one arm raised as if casting a spell or greeting a friend.
See the Tiny Fire Sprite Miniature — $16.41
A resin sprite, about 0.75 inches in every direction, on a matching fixed base of about 0.75 inches, whose page states its finish as unpainted, ready for your artistic touch, and frames it for tabletop scenery, dioramas, and desk companionship, and as a paintable collectible. Its page prints no not-included line, and none is claimed here. Its page does add, after its disclaimer, that the piece's small size and delicate detail suit it to display or gentle handling, and that care note is carried here as its page states it: this is the bench's delicate piece, a steady-hand project rather than a rough-table one. Designed by Clankyclogs (licensed under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). It has served three times before — among the gifts for people who love tiny things, in the tabletop session kit, and on the numbered shelf — it was held in reserve once, as the named alternate in another post's preparation, without being seated from reserve, named once as a piece standing over a tighter post's ceiling, and named in six later preparations among the tabletop pieces a game-night post could not honestly re-seat. Its turns have all been about its size. This one is about its scale as a painter's test: three-quarters of an inch of flame, and every colour choice visible.
- Rock Gnome Miniature — $16.59
Eighteen cents up, the bench's tinkerer: a rock gnome with a wrench in hand, mounted and ready, whose trade is fixing things and whose colours are still nobody's but the painter's.
See the Rock Gnome Miniature — $16.59
A resin gnome, about 1.25 inches tall, mounted on a base about an inch across for stability during gameplay, in a durable, finely detailed resin his page frames as perfect for painting or display, and sized, his page says, for standard tabletop game scaling. His page's honesty line is carried here whole: miniature ships unpainted; paint and accessories not included. Designed by MagdielCAS (licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution). He has served twice before — among the gifts for people who love tiny things and in the tabletop session kit — and he was named in six later preparations among the tabletop pieces a game-night post could not honestly re-seat. He is the bench's quietest record and, fittingly, its most practical seat: a character figure a painter can finish in an evening and a player can field the next day, wrench and all.
- Miniature Resin Wolf — $16.86
Twenty-seven cents over the gnome, the bench's wild card: a wolf that can be painted as a loyal companion, a wild threat, or a summoned creature, because its page offers all three and its finish commits to none of them.
See the Miniature Resin Wolf — $16.86
A finely detailed resin wolf, about an inch tall, pre-mounted on a base about 0.8 inches across for tabletop use and stability, sized to fit standard scaling and encounters, in a durable build with crisp details. Its page's honesty line is carried here whole: ships unpainted; paint and accessories not included. Designed by Flash711 (licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution). It has served twice before — among the gifts for gamers and tabletop players and among the gifts for people who love tiny things — it was held on the bench once, named in the session kit's preparation among the pieces held back so that kit's sixth slot could go to an organiser, without being seated there, and it was named in six later preparations among the tabletop pieces a game-night post could not honestly re-seat. Held back once to make room for an organiser, it is seated here on the organiser's opposite virtue: it holds nothing, organises nothing, and waits entirely on a painter's idea of what a wolf looks like up close.
- Fire Elemental Miniature — $19.65
Two dollars and seventy-nine cents over the wolf, the bench's closer and its ceiling watch: an elemental made of flame, the tallest figure here, standing thirty-five cents under this post's fence.
See the Fire Elemental Miniature — $19.65
A high-detail resin elemental, about 2.5 inches tall on a base about 2 inches wide, with dynamic flame details across both the figure and the base itself, framed by its page for tabletop battles and encounters, for game masters, for players summoning elemental forces, and for collectors. Its page states the finish among its features — unpainted, ready for priming and painting — and prints no not-included line, and none is claimed here. Designed by MZ4250 (licensed under Creative Commons (4.0 International License)). It has served three times before — among the gifts for gamers and tabletop players, among the gifts for people who love tiny things, and on the F shelf — it was held on the bench once, named with the wolf in the session kit's preparation among the pieces held back for an organiser's slot, without being seated there, and it was named in six later preparations among the tabletop pieces a game-night post could not honestly re-seat. It ends the bench because it is the painter's piece in its purest form: a figure that is nothing but colour waiting to happen, where the choice between embers and white heat is the entire artwork.
The Shopkeeper's rule
The rule for this post was a finish question, not a session question and not a size question: every snatchlebit on it arrives unpainted, with that finish checked against the pick's own page rather than against a frame invented for it. Six of the six pages state the finish outright: perfect for painters and hobbyists to customize; ships unpainted, paint not included; ready for your artistic touch; perfect for painting or display; ideal for gaming, collecting, or painting; ready for priming and painting. That is the whole test, and it is a census, not a selection: the shop files exactly seven miniature figures, and the seventh, a dwarven cannon mech at $23.49, stands over this post's ceiling and is named in this post's preparation with its full record rather than quietly dropped — each named banished piece doing the honest work of showing the bench is complete at six, not curated down to six. The test also turned away honest neighbours: a dice tower that shares the figures' tag but is filed as a tower, not a figure, and sits inside this post's recent window besides, and a whole shelf of finished pieces whose pages describe what they are without ever offering a painter a start, which is a fine quality in a product and no qualification at all for this bench.
One confession belongs on the record: twenty-one prior turns across the six in total, counted and stated in each section rather than smoothed over, and five of the six have stood together before — once among the tiny things, judged by their size, and four of them once in a session kit, judged by the game they served. A size list, a session list, and a finish list are not the same claim, and the difference is the post: the earlier lists asked how small a figure could be and what a game night needed; this one asks what a painter gets to decide, in the order the canvases are priced, with the honesty lines — paint not included, paint and accessories not included, one delicate piece for gentle handling — carried whole instead of softened to make the bench easier to fill. What is new is not the figures. It is the blankness, seated as the point.
One more honesty note, because this series claims shelves carefully: these six do share a shelf in the shop — all six sit on the Gifts Under $20 shelf — while two of them, the soldier and the goblin, also sit on the under-$15 shelf and the other four do not, so the set claims the shelf it honestly shares and names the tighter one it does not. No variant on the bench is unbuyable: six figures, six single variants, all buyable when this bench was verified, and stated that plainly because the series discloses the opposite whenever a set has it. The whole set runs from $13.32 to $19.65: six dollars and thirty-three cents, end to end, and $96.35 for all six outright, each exactly as listed, at the same prices — plus, honestly, a painter's own paints, which four of the six pages state are not included and two state by their finish alone. Five of these pieces stood as tiny things in an older post, Gifts For People Who Love Tiny Things, where they were judged by their size; this post is those pieces, and the goblin beside them, read by their finish. And if the desk those painting projects gather on could use a reset of its own, The 15-Minute Desk Reset — a free one-page printable with eight timed steps — is free for Shopkeeper's List members: join the list at the shop (the signup pops up when you visit) and it lands in your inbox.
— Prices checked November 10, 2026 against the live store and may wiggle a little. Free shipping to U.S. destinations only; handling 1–10 business days, transit 2–5 business days, for an estimated total delivery of 3–15 business days.
Originally posted at https://snatchlebits.com/blogs/news/ready-for-paint-unpainted-miniatures-under-20
