Reaper Miniatures Honaire, Spirit - 60199

 

I did a no-no, sort of - I experimented on a metal mini vs. a plastic mini - again, a victim of having blue paint in the airbrush, lol.

This metal miniature was sculpted by Bobby Jackson - his sculpts are always great - for the Pathfinder product line and I think in the Pathfinder lore this particular ghost is full green. I've already done that with Reaper's Cairn Wraith.

Instead I hit this with various shades of blue as I was airbrushing my Hexton Hills project (after a prime coat of white as this is a metal model). I only did the swirly bits with the blue and then I gave it a wash with Vallejo Blue Wash. I used Vallejo Silver on the upper portions. 

Then, I've had this fun paint color from Reaper called Retro Frost Satin which is a bit of a metallic silverish light blue. I placed that on my palette and watered it down to almost a wash - then I hit the silver on the model hard like a wash and blended down into the blue just a bit to bring the blue and silver together.  On the face I used Vallejo's Pale Flesh with highlights of Dead White.

Reaper Miniatures Arran Rabin, Human Wizard - 77209

 

These two models were quite a few years in the making. They're the same Bones model and both have been used for experimental purposes. This model is made from the Bones material and it really lost some fidelity from the original metal model - for a DM to use as a NPC, this is good enough - if I was going to use the model as a player then I'd recommend ponying up the few extra dollars for the metal model - also, lol, the metal model is named Arran Rabin, Half-Elf Rogue - so human or half-elf, wizard or rogue - your choice!

The version with the square base started out in 2017 at ReaperCon where I participated in a class on utilizing the stippling techniques. Two different methods - one method is to use the tip of the brush to generate dots - a highlight and shadow effect could be done be stippling the dots closer together or more spread out. The second method is to use small stripes - again, more stripes for highlights. Each gives a different type of fur effect when complete. While the results are rather interesting, it's quite a manual process and not one that I've repeated to any great extent.

The version with the round base started about a year ago simply as an experiment in airbrushing - I wanted to see if I could spray various layers on the cloak from a dark red to a light red - essentially the same process as using a paintbrush. This was my first utilization of the Badger Super Fine Detail needle in the airbrush - the one with a black ball on the end. For the most part it was a successful test - there's a couple areas where the air blows out the paint into almost a bubble or lake effect. It's a bit of art and science - turning down the air pressure helps but that requires thinner paint (using Vallejo's thinner and flow) but too thin and the paint will have a spider effect on the model. It's definitely possible - I think cloaks this size are about the limit on the small size for an airbrush. The airbrush is really good for base layers of miniature models. I've been looking at other airbrushes that might change my opinion later as I get more experience under my belt.

As to the remainder of the models - these both sat on my desk and whenever I had some additional paint remaining I would throw it on one model or the other. You always need a few in-process NPC models to throw extra paint at - I feel like I might have a few too many as 8 years is a long time.

One more lol, the square base was printed on my first 3D printer from several years ago - at the time I thought that was pretty good - now looking at it, ugh - 3D printing has come a long way.

 Kickstarter paint total 224 + 2 Arran Rabin, Human Wizard = 226

Reaper Miniatures Townsfolk: Innkeeper - 77084

 

Wow! So I did one more test - I painted this the other day using the Vallejo Xpress Color paints and gave it a day - simple paint job which is how I see the Xpress paints being used - I need a quick innkeeper at the bar for my game.

I used grey primer and then did the slapchop thing with a drybrush of Dead White.  The Xpress Colors were Velvet Red for the shirt, Mystic Blue for the pants, Dwarf Skin for the head and arms, Black Lotus on the boots, Space Grey for the hand towel and hair, Copper Brown for the mug, and then Templar White for the apron. Pretty quick paint cause you need to get it on the table.

And then curses, I sprayed it with Testors Dullcote. The best way to explain it is if someone threw bleach on the model as the colors literally bleached out - except for the Space Grey on the hand towel and the Templar White for the apron - somehow those survived - weird? The Velvet Red took the worse and the Mystic Blue wasn't too far behind in the damage department. Again, I know the Testors product is good as the base greys and black are using Vallejo's Game Color and those are good with that perfect flat look which I love about the dullcote.

At this point I've ruled out using Testors Dullcote on Vallejo Xpress Color. One alternative is to just not throw a protective coat on the model. Another alternative is to try a different brand of matte spray or spray Vallejo's matte from an airbrush and see what happens.

Kickstarter paint total 204 + 1 Innkeeper = 205

Reaper Miniatures Maggotcrown Ogre Juggernaut - 44011

This miniature is sitting on a 2" base and is pretty good size - basically it's an undead ogre - full title is Bones Black: Maggotcrown Ogre Juggernaut - it is part of the Bones Black line but I'm not sure why it uses the Bones Black in the title as there isn't a metal nor an original Bones version of this model (looking at Reaper's website there's only a handful which use the Bones Black in the naming of the figure).  

This is the first Bones Black miniature that I've painted and in my opinion much better than the original Bones material.  It's a bit harder, more rigid (but still has some flex which is good to keep paint from chipping on a drop), and holds detail much better.  Pricing appears to be about the same as the original Bones material.

After airbrushing the core colors in the previous three models, I wanted to test what it's like spraying metallic paint through an airbrush.  I used the base metal color in the Vallejo Air kit that was actually considered a primer.  It laid down beautifully - far better than I expected.  Normally I'd do a model like this with a black undercoat and then a lot of drybrushing.  Spraying down metal give the model an awesome look - very smooth and the metal dries in perfect flat without sheen.  I then used Vallejo Game Wash and a size 8 brush to carefully apply lots of wash to give the metallic paint depth and shadow.  I layered up the skull from a Filthy Brown, Bonewhite, Dead White and then a light Flesh Wash to tone it down.  Drybrushing of Cold Grey, Stonewall Grey, and DeadWhite on the base and that's it!

Rarely is there a model that I say oh that was easy and it looks great - usually it's a scale of effort to results - more effort = better results but less miniatures to the table and less effort = okay results but more miniatures to the table (the story of 2022).  I'm really liking what the airbrush can do to provide less effort and better results which equals more miniatures that look great!

Reaper Miniatures Eando Kline - 89026

 

I needed a group of figures that represented an opposing adventuring group for the excellent Scarlet Citadel - A Dungeon of Secrets campaign by Kobold Press.  This is a great campaign for on again / off again groups because it's a long dungeon crawl and this campaign is with teens which makes it very sporadic.

I didn't have much time to get 7 minis painted up for the next session - and of course, when you're in a hurry to do something is when everything goes wrong.  I don't know why, but the paint on primer just wasn't working and it was being bubbly making pockets of bubbles on the miniatures.  Then I tried to heavily use the game wash on these and didn't really like where that went except for the metal bits - so I've come to the conclusion that it's really only good for metallics.

I wanted to have some element of color that brings these together as a unit so I chose purple pants and red somewhere on the model - although this model didn't receive any red.

This is 7 of 7.

I grabbed these models off the unpainted Bones shelf so I could keep continue working on getting that pile towards being completed.

Kickstarter paint total 172 + 1 Eando Kline = 173

Reaper Miniatures Hobgoblin Warriors - 77476

 

I needed a group of figures that represented an opposing adventuring group for the excellent Scarlet Citadel - A Dungeon of Secrets campaign by Kobold Press.  This is a great campaign for on again / off again groups because it's a long dungeon crawl and this campaign is with teens which makes it very sporadic.

I didn't have much time to get 7 minis painted up for the next session - and of course, when you're in a hurry to do something is when everything goes wrong.  I don't know why, but the paint on primer just wasn't working and it was being bubbly making pockets of bubbles on the miniatures.  Then I tried to heavily use the game wash on these and didn't really like where that went except for the metal bits - so I've come to the conclusion that it's really only good for metallics.

I wanted to have some element of color that brings these together as a unit so I chose purple pants and red somewhere on the model - so this model has a red bow on the first and red hair on the second.

This is 5 and 6 of 7.

I grabbed these models off the unpainted Bones shelf so I could keep continue working on getting that pile towards being completed.

Kickstarter paint total 170 + 2 Hobgoblin Warriors = 172

Reaper Miniatures Juliette, Female Sorceress - 77057

 

I needed a group of figures that represented an opposing adventuring group for the excellent Scarlet Citadel - A Dungeon of Secrets campaign by Kobold Press.  This is a great campaign for on again / off again groups because it's a long dungeon crawl and this campaign is with teens which makes it very sporadic.

I didn't have much time to get 7 minis painted up for the next session - and of course, when you're in a hurry to do something is when everything goes wrong.  I don't know why, but the paint on primer just wasn't working and it was being bubbly making pockets of bubbles on the miniatures.  Then I tried to heavily use the game wash on these and didn't really like where that went except for the metal bits - so I've come to the conclusion that it's really only good for metallics.

I wanted to have some element of color that brings these together as a unit so I chose purple pants and red somewhere on the model - so this model has a red cloak.

This is 3 of 7.

I grabbed these models off the unpainted Bones shelf so I could keep continue working on getting that pile towards being completed.

Kickstarter paint total 168 + 1 Juliette, Female Sorceress = 169

Reaper Miniatures Vernone, Ivy Crown Knight - 77382

I needed a group of figures that represented an opposing adventuring group for the excellent Scarlet Citadel - A Dungeon of Secrets campaign by Kobold Press.  This is a great campaign for on again / off again groups because it's a long dungeon crawl and this campaign is with teens which makes it very sporadic.

I didn't have much time to get 7 minis painted up for the next session - and of course, when you're in a hurry to do something is when everything goes wrong.  I don't know why, but the paint on primer just wasn't working and it was being bubbly making pockets of bubbles on the miniatures.  Then I tried to heavily use the game wash on these and didn't really like where that went except for the metal bits - so I've come to the conclusion that it's really only good for metallics.

I wanted to have some element of color that brings these together as a unit so I chose purple pants and red somewhere on the model - so this model has a red shield.

This is 2 of 7.

I grabbed these models off the unpainted Bones shelf so I could keep continue working on getting that pile towards being completed.

Kickstarter paint total 167 + 1 Vernone, Ivy Crown Knight = 168

Reaper Miniatures Galadanoth, Elf Sniper - 77320

I needed a group of figures that represented an opposing adventuring group for the excellent Scarlet Citadel - A Dungeon of Secrets campaign by Kobold Press.  This is a great campaign for on again / off again groups because it's a long dungeon crawl and this campaign is with teens which makes it very sporadic.

I didn't have much time to get 7 minis painted up for the next session - and of course, when you're in a hurry to do something is when everything goes wrong.  I don't know why, but the paint on primer just wasn't working and it was being bubbly making pockets of bubbles on the miniatures.  Then I tried to heavily use the game wash on these and didn't really like where that went except for the metal bits - so I've come to the conclusion that it's really only good for metallics.

I wanted to have some element of color that brings these together as a unit so I chose purple pants and red somewhere on the model - so this model has a red bow.

This is 1 of 7.

I grabbed these models off the unpainted Bones shelf so I could keep continue working on getting that pile towards being completed.

Kickstarter paint total 166 + 1 Gladanoth, Elf Sniper = 167

Reaper Miniatures Dragonman Warrior - 77060

I needed a dragonborn NPC for a game I was running so I grabbed this Reaper bones miniature.  As I'm backdating this figure from a year ago, I have to think about what I did...

Looks like the entire miniature was based with an undercoat of black and then all the metallic bits of the plate, shield, and sword drybrushed (done first because it would make a mess of all other areas of the model).  I remember then using a dark blue to light blue on the cloak, chest, and shield.  Brown leathers on wrist guard and the blue-greys for the dragon.

It turned out rather well - although I'd love to have a go at the metal version of this one.

This does count towards my Bones Kickstarter total - left off at 165 - so...

Kickstarter paint total 165 + 1 Dragonman Warrior = 166

Reaper Miniatures Turanil, Male Elf Paladin - 77044

I need an elf paladin as an npc for a recent game - so I threw some paint on this guy and placed him on the table - perfect.  Not to complain too much - but I couldn't really tell what all the bit were on the front of the model around the waste.  There's so much detail that gets lost in these bones - I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on the new black bones and see if those have better detail.  I see there's a new Kickstarter coming out and I'll have to be part of that.

Kickstarter paint total: 131 + 1 Elf Paladin = 132

Reaper Miniatures Townsfolk: Oswald the Overladen - 77141

This miniature has become one of my favorites and has been sitting on my desk for awhile - I have a few figures that I keep around and throw paint at it as an overflow and this is one (another is packrat which is close to being complete).  There is purposely no rhyme nor reason to the paint scheme other than when I had an extra bit of paint and an object needing painting I'd throw some paint at it.  The last object to get painted was the wooden barrel on top.

One henchman looking for party of adventurers - will work for food, a few gold coins, and health benefits in the way of magical healing.

Favorite object being carried --- the chicken.

Kickstarter paint total: 130 + 1 Townsfolk: Oswald the Overladen = 131

Reaper Miniatures Townsfolk: Wench - 77085

Another miniature that started life during Reapercon 2017.  This class was on how to make realistic fluids such as in a jar or a bottle.  The focus was on the six beer mugs being held by this medieval bar wench.  We looked at various pictures of beer and what you see (a) there is a dark line at the top of the beer and the foam, (b) the light actually reflects more clearly at the bottom of the glass meaning that the color goes from dark to light from top to bottom, and (c) that a nice vertical line gives that reflective look of glass.  Example....

That was a great class and this mini has sat around long enough and would occasionally get some paint splattering from a drybrush or an accidental swipe of a brush - so I thought it was time to give it a quick paintjob over this labor day weekend.  Nothing fancy - just enough to get it put up on the completed shelf.  Maybe I can get a bar fight going in one of my D&D campaigns - damage from a flying beer glass?

Kickstarter paint total: 129 + 1 Townsfolk: Wench = 130

Reaper Miniatures Sir Conlan - 77200

This miniature started off life as a practice figure at the Reapercon 2017 class on a technique whereby you load the brush up with a dark, medium, and highlight at the same time - I didn't really manage to get the technique down and over time just used a more traditional layering technique.  This then sat on my desk for a long time and I'd do bits and pieces of it when the right color hit.  I finally finished it off tonight by painting the shield with some leftover red from my Giant Octopus project.

Kickstarter paint total: 128 + 1 Sir Conlan = 129

Reaper Miniatures Ostarzha, Elf Cleric - 77441

I noted in previous posts that I had an altar of evil and a skeleton minotaur as part of an evenings fun to rescue a fair maiden.  Here's the maiden, her name is Imsa in the campaign module.

Painting instructions for Ostarzha (Imsa)...

Step 1: Undercoat model with Stynylrez green primer (this is awesome on bones)
Step 2: Use Dragon Blue on dress
Step 3: Use Dwarven Gold on dress trim
Step 4: Use Fireball Orange on scarf and sash
Step 5: Use Rich Leather on leather and hair
Step 6: Use Caucasian Flesh on skin
Step 7: Use Sold White on scarf tip and sash center
Step 8: Use Devlan Mud as wash over entire model
Step 9: Use Desert Tan as highlight on leather and hair
Step 10: Use Solid White as highlight on scarf tip and sash center
Step 11: Use a bit of Solid White in mix with Caucasian Flesh for skin highlights
Step 12: Use Entrail Pink on lips
Step 13: Use Sunburn Tan for eyebrows
Step 14: Use Retro Red (red metallic from Reaper) on container
Step 15: Use Solid Black on base
Step 16: Drybrush Concrete Grey on base
Step 17: Drybrush Arctic Grey on base as highlight

Kickstarter paint total: 107 + 1 Ostarzha, Elf Cleric = 108