Here’s those Hieronymus Bosch tabletop miniatures you were looking for

It is common wisdom to add a few miniature plastics to your Kickstarter game board. It’s certainly worked wonders for companies like CMON and Steamforged, with their licensed video game and Marvel tabletop crossovers. Reaper Miniatures is no exception, with a seemingly endless supply of sculpts for all occasions.

But a surge of interest in the hobby of painting miniatures means that as the market gets wider, it also gets deeper — and that’s allowing sculptor Andrew May to live out his dream of converting medieval art into miniature masterpieces.

A helmed lizard creature and a short, pot-shaped may with a flame on his head and a long, rat-like tail.

A lizard/goose hybrid playing its own beak like a horn and a nun-inspired torso-less figure with an owl nesting on its head.

A figure in a red cloak with a long beak and a funnel on its head. They are wearing wooden skates and holding a piece of paper on their beak.

A man holding a bow and arrow with a whole tree on his head. He is accompanied by a dog wearing a barrel.

May launched his 21st Kickstarter campaign on February. It is called Hieronymus Bosch Tabletop Miniatures and features a few characters inspired by the paintings of the Dutch classic painter. Bosch’s most famous works — including Garden of Earthly Delights The Last Judgment — include quite a few weird little medieval guys, and May has selected 10 of them to bring to life as delicate resin sculpts.

May has long been an admirer of Bosch’s work, even before he began a career as a freelance miniatures sculptor. In fact, they’ve become something of an obsession for him.

“Since I was 16 years old,” he told Polygon in a recent interview. “I was drawing them when I was at school. I’ve got [one] tattooed on me about 10 years ago.”

Key art showing the collection of miniatures in Medieval Marginalia Season Two.

Key art showing a collection of figures from Medieval Marginalia’s first season.

The Medieval Marginalia Miniatures Season One and Season Two are his previous projects. They also have a focus on medieval miscreants. The draw for his customers, he says, is in pulling the hobby every so slightly away from its usual subjects — namely dragons, shiny golden knights, and brightly-colored Space Marines.

“It’s maybe an alternative to what you see every day from bigger firms,” May said. “I think people just really like weird shit, and it definitely is that.”

May claims that May’s work appeals to diorama builders and artists. He’s also working on a ruleset of his own.

“It’s going to be set in that kind of Bosch, medieval’y world.” May said. “It’s going to be based around treasure hunting and magic, with all those strange medieval monsters that you see in manuscripts. […] It’s not so much conflict driven, but with more board game-inspired elements. It’s more about building a cool tabletop of really fun figures. The game is almost secondary.”

Is there anyone else who inspires May in tabletop gaming? Max FitzGerald, his Napoleonic-inspired Turnip28 were just a few of the creatives he mentioned. setting; Westphalia Publishing’s line of Mörk Borg Compatible miniatures as well as those that are compatible with the Forbidden Psalm skirmish game spin-off; and the community that surrounds Peter Vigors’ Necropolis 28. He also highly recommends Gardens of Hecate by Ana Polanšćak, A website that includes both a shopfront and a blog which describes the work of their team.

May’s crowdfunding campaign for Hieronymus Bosch Tabletop Miniatures, which is already fully funded, ends early on the morning of March 6.

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