28mm Horror Miniatures: Printed Obsession's Circus of Horrors

A travelling circus rolls into town the night before the party arrives, and by morning three villagers are missing. If you're running a Halloween one-shot this month, that setup needs a cast, and Printed Obsession's Circus of Horrors is one of the most complete sets of 28mm horror miniatures we stock. It's ten figures and a prop: clowns, sideshow acts, a stage magician and one very large hydra, all printed to order in resin here in the UK.

What's in the Circus of Horrors range?

The range was originally an October release from Printed Obsession, the studio behind a lot of the stranger NPCs and monsters in our catalogue. Every piece is listed at 28/32mm, so it sits happily next to standard D&D and Pathfinder figures. Here's the line-up, with current prices:

Bought one at a time, that lot comes to £83.60. The full set is £55.99, so if you want most of the troupe it's the cheaper route.

Running a horror circus one-shot with these 28mm horror miniatures

A circus works well for horror because the players walk in expecting fun. Every act can be a small encounter, and you can escalate them as the night goes on.

Start the party at the gate with the Circus Token as their ticket. Inside, Tiny the Clown and Inky & Otto make good early meetings: odd, a bit unsettling, not obviously hostile. White the Rabbit Mage's trick with the head is the moment the table realises something is wrong. From there you can run the Contortionist as an ambush from the rigging, Stabitha as a duel in the ring, and the Lady of Fire as a hazard that changes the battlefield.

The Lobster Boy is the one we'd keep ambiguous. He reads as a victim of the circus as easily as a member of it, which gives your players someone to rescue or someone to argue about. Save the Clown Hydra for the big top finale. It's the biggest model in the set and it dominates the table.

The Performing Bulettes are a nice nod for D&D players who know bulettes as burrowing ambush monsters. Here they're trained acts, which makes the question of who trained them a good hook.

Which figures work outside the circus?

Most of this cast does double duty. The Lady of Fire stands in for a fire elemental or a cursed spirit. Stabitha and the Contortionist slot into any dark fantasy campaign as cultists or assassins, and the Rabbit Mage makes a memorable villain for a fey-touched adventure. If you're building a rogues' gallery, our villain miniatures guide has more fantasy horror miniatures that pair well with this set.

For a wider Halloween table with undead, zombies and other monsters, see our horror tabletop miniatures round-up. And if you like Printed Obsession's sense of humour, the Printed Obsession designer profile covers the rest of their range. You can also see the studio's own work at printedobsession.co.uk.

Painting tips for a creepy carnival

Clowns look scarier when the colours are slightly wrong. Bright reds and yellows with a grubby brown wash over them read as an old circus that hasn't been cleaned in years. Keep skin tones pale and add a little purple or green in the recesses for a sickly look.

The Lady of Fire is a good figure for practising a glow effect: start with a bright yellow core and work outward through orange to deep red at the tips. The Clown Hydra has a lot of ruffs and fur, which take drybrushing well, so you can get it table-ready in an evening.

Everything ships unpainted in resin. If you're new to that, our guide to painting resin miniatures for beginners covers prep and priming, and the basing techniques guide will help you give the whole troupe a matching sawdust-and-straw ring floor.

With Halloween a couple of weeks away, now is a good time to order if you want the circus painted for game night. Browse the full Printed Obsession collection for more of their oddities.