I needed a test figure for a 3D printed item that is going to be airbrushed in gold. Looking at my unpainted Bones shelf, this mini stood out as the perfect set piece to be a golden statue.
So this was pretty easy - airbrush with Glorious Gold, then airbrush with Umber Wash, then drybrush with Polished Gold. Pretty happy with the way this turned out and I'll follow those steps on my 3D printed item.
Kickstarter paint total 227 + 1 Foo Dog = 228
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.
Some more fun with leftover green in the airbrush paint pot. This model was first sprayed with Dark Green, then highlights of Sick Green, and finally Light Livery Green. Once that was completed I went back in with a drybrush (the Golden Maple soft round brushes - described in earlier posts) of Bonewhite leaving the green inside to represent the energy empowering this fiendish collection of bones.
This is another miniature that gets brutalized in its conversion from metal to the Bones material. As a DM that's okay as it's just another monster in the way of my player's goals which they'll quickly dispose of within a few rounds. Bones is $2.99 while the metal is $6.99 as of this posting.
Kickstarter paint total 226 + 1 Bone Fiend = 227
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
This is the final model in this grouping of fishmen that Reaper call their Tiiks. The Tiiks combined with a handful of Creatures of Blood Reef can make an excellent coastal encounter. Start off at the blood reef where the party encounters the creatures. After the encounter they find a passage through the coral and within the passage they encounter Tiik Warriors guarding just before entering a submerged cave where the Tiik Baron and his Champion lay claim to a long lost pirate treasure.
Unlike the other Tiik's, this model doesn't come in a metal version. I'm guessing Julie sculpted this exclusively for the Bones Kickstarter. Like the others, this was airbrushed using what was left over from working on the Hexton Hills project.
One other note about this model - it's an odd size. The champion is really oversized for the medium base, but doesn't quite fill and looks a bit small on the large base. Therefore I decided to place him on the medium base. If the Reaper variant of 5e called Dungeon Dwellers has stats for this creature as a large, then I'll modify the base later - currently I have a pre-release pdf and the Tiiks aren't in there but there's talk of a Denizens book 2 post initial release to cover other monsters from Reaper's miniature line.
Kickstarter paint total 223 + 1 Tiik Champion = 224
Same deal, different set of models - these were sprayed using the leftover airbrush paint and done in the same schema as the Tiik Baron.
These are more bones off the shelf - I think the metal versions of these would be more fun to paint as you'd have more opportunity to adjust the figures and they'd stand vertical a bit better. The metal versions, as of this writing, come in a 2-pack for $16. The bones version is $4 each (only one). If you needed a bunch of these the $4 savings per model would add up - but if you only need 2, the metal versions at what amounts to $8 each might be the way to go.
Two more unpainted bones model off the shelf of shame!
Kickstarter paint total 221 + 2 Tiik Warriors = 223
When you're airbrushing a lot of green with the Hexton Hills project, you're always looking where else to spray green because the airbrush is so much fun. So these guys were sprayed with the Sick Green and highlights of Light Livery Green. The spikes on the shell were Red Terracotta as leftover paint from a turtle dragon (coming soon). The brown was sprayed Earth which is the basecoat used on the hex tiles.
The hand painting was some quick Bonewhite on the club teeth, a bit of Plague Brown on the beak and then I did more of a sandy base with Earth, Desert Yellow, and Khaki.
I love using the airbrush and just finding ways to quickly paint monsters - I'm still trying to figure out ways to get tight - using a super fine needle - playing with different psi - and using various combination of paint with thinner and flow. All the details can't get airbrushed - still need a brush but I'm pushing for more and more airbrush. I need to get a Warhammer army painted soon and I'm thinking the airbrush is going to help tremendously. Any other airbrushers out there, please hit me up with your techniques and tips.
Kickstarter paint total 219 + 2 Spikeshell Warriors = 221
This one, like the recently posted Otyugh from Goodman Games, is actually an older paint job that never got posted. I don't have a reason why the original Otyugh didn't get posted but this model goes back to 2015 as I remember grabbing this off the unpainted Kickstarter Bones shelf and painting this one prior to our Texas move on a Saturday morning for a Dungeons and Dragons game I was having that afternoon. I needed two Otyughs for the game and therefore painted this in basically the same color schema but in a hurry. I also obviously sprayed the crap out of it with a non-matte varnish prior to the game and then didn't hit it with Testors Dullcote.
I'm sure that because of needing to use it in the game is the reason the miniature never got posted. It wasn't until I needed these Otyugh's in a recent game and having to perform some touch up repairs that I realized neither of them made it to the blog. Plus this is a Kickstarter mini so I have to count it in the Kickstarter mini total, lol - every one counts!
As to the model, it's kind of a weird looking thing with three legs, some weird appendages, bulbous sacks on its side, and a too small mouth. While I like and have painted a lot of Bob Ridolfi's models from Reaper I think the Jason Wiebe interpretation he did for Goodman Games is better - which can be purchased from RPG Elements (gotta keep promoting those indy guys keeping the old metal miniatures alive).
Kickstarter paint total 218 + 1 Filth Beast = 219
This was fun and another 100% airbrush (except for basing). As I noted on my previous post, airbrush is awesome fun and contagious - once you get started you just start pulling stuff to spray. So I was spraying green land on the hex tokens, which led to using the green on a turtle dragon, which led to using red terracotta on the turtle dragon shell, which led to using that on barbed devils, which needed bonewhite highlighting which led to mummies!
After pushing these off to the side and getting back to my Hexton Hills map project, I eventually came back to the mummies. Now normally this would call for a brush and a wash - this is the perfect model for that - I wonder if I can airbrush a wash - yes, yes, and yes!! I dropped some Vallejo Umber Wash into the airbrush and sprayed, it worked awesome! I could direct the wash to exactly where I wanted it to go, and the air pressure from the airbrush pushes the wash into the grooves and prevents coffee stains, bubbles, and other brush issues when working with washes. Talking about air pressure - I did lower to about 8-10psi vs the normal 18-20psi I regularly shoot with.
Now I'm excited about experimenting with Vallejo's Xpress paints and shooting those out of an airbrush - going to have to give that a test.
One other note, this bones model transferred over from the metal (2156) rather well as the grooves between wraps are quite good. Not bad as you can order the bones model in a three-pack for $6.99 while one metal will set you back the same $6.99. The only problem is bones classic material and the legs are very bendy. If your rpg adventure only has a single mummy as the main antagonist in a dungeon crawl then splurge for the metal; but if you're building an army, then a whole bunch of bones classics and an airbrush is a great way to get lots of models on the table fast. Final thought... Reaper has a bunch of great looking mummy models in its metal Legends and Warlord Nefsokar line that hasn't made it to a bones material as of yet.
Kickstarter paint total 214 + 4 Mummies = 218
Wow! What a great dragon by Sandra Garrity - is just too bad they don't make this one in metal or at least bones black. This was an original Kickstarter and according to Reaper's website at the time of this publishing it's still only in "classic" bones. So you lost some details in the eyes and teeth but the real problem is that this model doesn't want to stand in "classic" bones as the pvc material doesn't have enough stability to it. I found I was able to super glue the feet to the base in a bit of a wider stance.
However, that didn't keep the model from wanting to fall backwards to the right - 3D printing to the rescue! I found an appropriate "rock" from the collection which had a groove in it. I then scaled it down to fit right where the tale goes into the groove to keep the model upright and look natural.
This is a "huge" model which is based appropriately on a 3" round base from Reaper. The last couple of pictures show the scale. The sorceress and the cleric are medium size on a 1" base. The Owlbear is considered large on a 2" base. Then there's the dragon which according to Reaper is 6" tall with a 10" wingspan!
A model of this size is perfect for the airbrush and indeed, as this model has been sitting on the shelf for more than a decade, it was airbrushing water hexes for my Hexton Hills project (where I'm always looking for other minis to airbrush when I have extra paint in the pot) that got me to take this "miniature" off the unpainted shelf and into the paintbooth.
With the name Deathsleet and given Reaper's description, this is intended to be more white dragon than blue - but besides color, the main difference according to standard Dungeons & Dragon lore... the main horn is straight up (1-3rd editions) and actually curved slightly forward in 5e whereas with the white dragon the main horn is curved towards the back. My players won't know the difference and I have an encounter in mind for a blue dragon - so blue it is!
As to airbrushing, this model started off with Ultramarine Blue and then Electric Blue. I believe that I used Leather Brown but I didn't note or set aside the color used for highlighighting - I think it was Bonewhite. All out of the airbrush. I also hit it with a highlight drybrush using Vallejo's new Sunrise Blue which is a highlight color for Electric Blue. The underbelly and the horn was done with a paintbrush and that was Plague Brown with a drybrush of Bonewhite. I then picked out the eyes, teeth, talons with a brush as well and called it done.
Kickstarter paint total 213 + 1 Deathsleet = 214
