My name is Mike McCuen, better known to mini-painter list members as "Sildrotha".

I'm an artist living in Maryland with my wife Leigh, our hyperkinetic schnauzer Max, and my beautiful little daughter Zoë. I've been painting and collecting miniatures for twenty-six of my thirty-six years. Nothing makes me feel quite so old as picking up an unpainted blister pack of figures I bought in junior high and thinking "I just bought these! What do you mean copyright 1982!?"

I was the winner of the Reaper Miniatures Online Painting contest in 1998. My figure design was made into their "Protector of Souls" miniature (the Cadrusat).

I have more figures than I'll be able to paint, but accept this doom. Miniatures and RPG's have gone hand in hand since I first got into the hobby, and I like to have every thing in the game in miniature form. Since my RPG world is an original work this has lead me down the path of extensive customizing and converting.

Once I saw what John Blanche was doing in White Dwarf's 'eavy Metal column I couldn't just take a figure out of the pack and paint it "un-tweaked". This might mean something as simple as bending an arm a bit, or something as severe as rebuilding the torso in epoxy.

Most of my figures these days are at least partially painted by airbrush, a tool that I use for my non-miniature painting.

My art site is at Necrosys.com. I'm happy to say that I've recently been interviewed for an upcoming book about contemporary erotic art.

I attended Maryland Institute, College of Art, but I do not hold them responsible for anything.