Reaper's Kobold Raiders - 2470

I purchased the Kobold Raiders quite awhile back and they've been sitting on my "too be painted" shelf - a dozen other brothers in the Kickstarter has me blowing the dust off this set.  I really dig the these little guys and they're the first miniatures I've painted sculpted by Ben Siens.  I actually have quite a few of his sculpts sitting around and look forward to getting them painted (there were quite a number of his in the Kickstarter) - he sculpts a lot of classic monsters for Reaper - lizardmen, bugbears, trolls, golems, goblins, ghouls, and ghasts.

I pulled these down because the Kickstarter included 12 kobolds based off of three of his sculpts (4 of each).  With the four standard sized kobolds and the mighty kobold, I can put 17 of those little guys on the board.  There's also another four pack (Reaper 3064) with some different poses and a leader & sorcerer pack (Reaper 3024) - might need to get my hands on those and I'll have a proper grouping to complete a nice entry level dungeon scenario.

Here's a good opportunity to make a quick note on the metal versus bones pvc in regards to detail.  On the standard size and especially the larger size monsters, the bones pvc product does a great job of presenting detail that's certainly acceptable for tabletop gaming.  I have a number of duplicates of medium and large sizes where I had the metal version and the same figure was part of the bones Kickstarter - they're really quite comparable.  As the figure size decreases, and these kobolds are small, you can really see the difference in the detail - the metal versions of these kobolds are much sharper than the bones pvc counterparts.

In my case I don't care about the differences - when painted up and looked at on the gaming table the players aren't going to notice which are pvc and which are metal.  They're just going to say !*&^%$ when I drop 17 kobolds on their first level ass and run for the hills.

However, if you're going to spend 50 hours on that award winning paint job - start off using a metal mini.

Reaper's Skeletal Spearmen - 77001

   

Nothing overly exciting about these skeletons other than they're officially numbered as the first of the Reaper Bones miniature line (fitting - skeletons - bones) at 77001.  They're also the first miniatures I've painted from the Kickstarter - so two down and hundreds more to go!  The Kickstarter included two while a package of 77001 will include three.  I didn't invest a lot of time on these - quick sets of drybrushes, a wash, and set into one inch bases from Fortress Figures.

Again, I can't say enough about the value of these new Bones - a three pack will cost the gamer $4.99 - whereas the pre-painted Legendary Encounters will go for $8.49 - and if you want them in the Legends metal line it will set you back $10.35.

Being a bit critical here - the long shafts of the spear on these Bones lines just won't get and stay straight.  Even after using the boil and ice method I still can't get the spears to be the way I want them - which is quite possible with metal.  However, these guys are going to be cannon fodder to all but the lowliest first level adventurers - they're designed to be placed on the mat and swept off.

Game's Workshop's Wraith 3

I absolutely love some of Game Workshop's older skeletons and wraiths that were sculpted pre-2000.  The old Vampire Counts models were a mixed bag in my opinion.  There were some models like the wights, necromancers, and banshees that just looked ridiculous - kinda like skeletons going to a Mardi-Gras.  There were other sculpts during the same time period that were just fantastic and I've wanted to pull into a Dungeons & Dragons game.

I have the Citadel Miniatures 2000 Annual that had all the GW miniatures in production at the time.  The Armoured Skeletons on the bottom of pages 336 are awesome and I've painted up skeleton 3 and skeleton 5.  Would love to get my hands on a few more such as sculpts 1, 2, and 4 and make a proper five piece unit out of them that I can drop on adventurers - they all have a bit of heavy armour (british spelling) and a bad-ass halberd to give out some damage.

In that same book a few pages later - page 343 to be exact - is a set of wraiths with a killer scythe.  My favorite of these has been wraith 3 and I picked him up as GW blister pack 8572G for $5.49 over a decade ago and he's been sitting on my shelf (last time I saw this figure at the GW store it was in the high teens - crazy prices for a single figure).  I love the flowing robes and the way the sculpt floats above the base - I've kinda had this Scooby-Doo vision in my mind of a ghostly wraith floating down the castle halls chasing intrepid adventurers to their doom.

Therefore, unlike similar Reaper models (skeleton/ghost with sword, skeleton ghost) I painted this up as vision of a blue ghost including the robes, head, and weapon.  I started with enchanted blue as the base color and kept adding skull white with each layer until I was satisfied that I had captured the right look.  I also tossed out the tiny base and put him on a GW one inch base with my standard dungeon look and the name "Harvester".

The Citadel book says the miniatures on page 343 were designed by Michael Perry and Trish Morrison - doesn't specify who did wraith 3.

Reaper's Dwarf Warrior - 77011

Another Reaper Bones model - sculpting was done by Werner Klocke  - and he's a pretty good size for a dwarf - definitely fills the role as the big time warrior or even the king.  This is a model was pre-Kickstarter and I purchased new in package at my local gaming store for $1.99.  It's the same model as the Legendary Encounters pre-painted figure 20034 sold for $4.99 and matches up with the Warlord model 14146 for $6.49 in metal.

This figure does very well in its Bones incarnation - the detail works quite well all the way around - about the only area of issue was the little bit of mail on the front.  I based him on a plastic base from Fortress Figures - see my other post on square 1" plastic bases from Fortress Figures - they're really going to be useful when I get through my Kickstarter models.

The miniature was painted from a black undercoat.  Unfortunately I didn't really keep track of the painting process on this one as it's a Bones model and now that there's a few hundred minis sitting on my desk... I've been trying to paint to a really good tabletop standard, but at the same time be quick (quick for me anyways).  I used the layering techniques - so the red beard was done red gore, blood red, blazing orange - the coat was scorched brown, bestial brown, vermin brown, and then bleached bone.

Minions - Miniatures of Another Sort

While not exactly miniature painting, they are miniatures of another sort...  we'll call it miniature baking!

My daughter baked Despicable Me Minions for my youngest son's birthday - he turned 7.  I thought they were awesome enough to throw up here on my miniature painting page to share with everyone.  And yes, those were real twinkies!  Most likely one of the first batches after the great twinkie shutdown.

Enjoy!

Fixing My Bones

Now that I've received all of those new shiny bones I needed a method of "fixing" or tweaking them to a desired position.  In the packaging of all miniature models there are always the occasional bent swords, figures, staff, etc. as the miniature gets smooshed into the packaging (one website I read remarks that his miniatures need some viagra).  With metal figures it's a simple pinch with the hobby pliers and it's easy to repose or straighten out a bent item.

Pulling, twisting or some other manipulation doesn't do a dang thing to the plastic models as the plastic has "memory" and contorts back to it's undesired state.  Off to Google I went and I found lots and lots of advice and information.  I found a good site that provided accurate information as well as a youtube video.  The white plastic is some sort of pvc mixture that when heated goes back to its original memory state (ie - a straight sword).  To get it to stay in that original memory state or to manipulate into a different pose the trick is to rapidly cool it down.

I was extremely successful following these steps:

Step 1: Have a pot of boiling water
Step 2: Have a big bowl (I used a big plastic popcorn bowl) of ice water
Step 3: Dunk miniature or part of the miniature (such as only the sword, staff, wing, base, etc.) into boiling water for about 10-20 seconds depending upon the thickness of the miniature
Step 4: Take miniature out of boiling water and while warm form to desired shape
Step 5: Quickly dunk into ice water (physics is so cool - I feel like I'm on Mythbusters) and the miniature immediately hardens into the desired shape

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7/28/2013 update: if you have a one off Bone and you don't want to go through the entire process of boiling a pot of water and dipping into ice water - then the use of the bathroom sink with the temp turned to maximum hot water and a nearby cup of cold tap water will do the trick.  It takes a little longer - you definitely need to work at it a bit more (the plastic doesn't get to the goo state) - and dunking into cold tap water isn't as instant hard as ice water, but it does the trick.
===

Its a bit different than dealing with metal miniatures but no less taxing - in some ways it's easier.  I was able to straighten out the base of the miniature, the angle of the miniature, swords, staffs, wings, etc. as well as repose as desired.

My recommended websites that I found most useful:

Castles and Cooks - a well detailed explanation of the process with pictures
Fixing Reaper Bones - a decent video explanation whereby he shows and tells to the audience

Hope that helps everyone else out there!

My Reaper Bones are Here

Wow!  Can't believe it's been since September 2012 that I last posted - time flies when you're having fun and coaching an 18u fastpitch softball team.

I haven't been not painting - I've actually painted a couple of models in 2013 - one was a Reaper Bones model and the other an old Games Workshop model.  They're sitting on my desk waiting for picture taking.  I've also been re-basing/tweaking some really old models that I wanted to update and I'm just about done with those.  Additionally I've been basing lots and lots of models - one of my goals this year was to take small limited opportunities to unpackage and base my entire line of Reaper Dark Heaven Legends - which for the most part I've done.

The big news is.... I received my Reaper Bones!  I ordered the Vampire level Kickstarter campaign as well as all the additional options.  Hundreds and hundreds of miniatures came in a 14.5 pound box about 10 months after the Kickstarter.  The wait was well worth it and here is what I received (there is an old Larry Leadhead cartoon about living as long as you have miniatures to paint - I've definitely broken the century mark with this purchase)...

 

Here is what they look like after opening and laying out on the table - there are four significant pieces I didn't lay out because they are huge - three dragons and Cthulu "miniatures" - they're absolutely huge.

So there it is in all of it's glory - now to start painting during what remains of 2013!

Reaper's Male Human Warrior - 77008

 

Here's the traditional side views...

  

More Bones!  Gotta love them Bones by Reaper - this is my second test model (first was the ghost) with the new plastic Bones from Reaper.  Again, I placed him on a plastic base from Fortress Figures.  These figures look great - forget about the mold line - just go with it - paint 'em up and play with the 'em.  This is the second Bones figure I cranked out on the same day.  I named him Sir Jacks as a tribute to one of my favorite sculptors - Bobby Jackson and yes, this is one of his sculpts

I used Vallejo game color paints directly without a primer - unlike the Reaper paint (I only have one bottle of the Reaper paints - Clouded Sea - which I used on the ghost), any significant watering down of the paint caused it to run and not stick to the plastic.  However, I had heard when doing some research that using it full strength out of the bottle worked very well.  Indeed - ditto the same results - full strength without dilution (or very minor - just a wet brush - enough to make it flow) worked very well.  Again, I banged and bounced the mini around while and after painting with no ill effect to the paintjob - like the ghost, I did hit it up with a very light coat of dull coat just to take the shine off the surface.

Painting Instructions for Male Human Warrior:

Step 01: Use Chaos Black on all armored areas
Step 02: Use Regal Blue on robe
Step 03: Use Scab Red on shield face
Step 04: Use Scorched Brown on leather and back of shield
Step 05: Drybrush Boltgun Metal on all armored areas
Step 06: Drybrush Chainmail highlights on all armored areas
Step 07: Use Enchanted Blue as highlights on robe
Step 08: Use Lightning Blue as final highlights on robe
Step 09: Use Bestial Brown as highlights on leather
Step 10: Use Bubonic Brown as final highlights on leather
Step 11: Use Bubonic Brown as wooden planks on back of shield
Step 12: Use Bestial Brown to fill in wooden planks on back of shield
Step 13: Use Blood Red on top half of shield
Step 14: Use Space Wolves Gray on shield/shirt pattern
Step 15: Use Skull White as highlights for shield/shirt pattern
Step 16: Use Dwarf Bronze on sword handle
Step 17: Drybrush Codex Grey on base
Step 18: Drybrush Fortress Grey on base
Step 19: Drybrush final highlight Skull White on base

Reaper's Ghost - 77007

I love Reaper's new Bones line of miniatures - essentially the same figures as their Legends and Warlord line but cast in a new plastic resin (end result is a miniature that's very similar to the Wizards D&D line of figures - the plastic is soft and somewhat bendable).  The first miniature I painted was the ghost - it is a Julie Guthrie sculpt and used in three of Reaper's lines - it's a $1.99 in Bones, $4.29 in Legendary Encounters (pre-painted 20017), and $5.99 in the metal Warlord (14148).  All the same figure but at different price point - Bones gives you a $4 savings over the same metal figure in the Warlord line!

I based mine with a $0.50 plastic base from Fortress Figures (see earlier blog posting on plastic bases from Fortress Figures).  Added a bit of drywall compound to fill in the base and then tossed in some tiny rocks and lichen.

I used Reaper Master Series Clouded Sea as the base color right from the bottle.  It took directly onto the plastic without any prior prep/primer (as advertised).  A note about Bones, there is a small amount of mold line - I tried all sorts of methods from files to knife and there's really no getting it off - the plastic is too soft and squishy for it to be effective - these are designed to paint and play - not as your next masterpiece - and I'm ok with that!

I then added Skull White to the mix and drybrushed the ghost - I kept at it - adding more white - then another drybrush layer until I was happy with the result.  Some Chaos Black for the tombstone with a drybrush of Fortress Grey.  The whole thing from start to finish took me a couple of hours.

During each painted layer (and when finished) I bounced the miniature on the desk; off the desk and onto the floor, and gave it a couple severe beatings.  To my surprise not a scratch or a dent - the soft plastic just absorbs and the paint stays stuck on.  Never-the-less I gave the miniature a quick shot of dull coat when I was finished - if nothing else it's just to dull off the shine of the paint.

I'm quite pleased with the new bones line - an awesome price savings over the metal - the detail looks very close to it's metal counterpart and certainly won't be noticeable on the gaming table.  The flexibility to grab a handful of these and throw them down on the gaming table without damaging the mini or the paint job is remarkable - add in the cost savings and you get to have your cake and eat it too!

I named this one Ghost Ralor - the Warlord figure is named Railor - but I was running out of room and therefore took out the I in the name so I could fit it all on.

Plastic Bases from Fortress Figures

What's great about the hobby of miniature painting is that everyone within the hobby treats your interest more like family - from conventions, to group get togethers, and even the vendors themselves.

Earlier in the year I was at my local gaming store and happened to come across an old box of bases by Fortress Figures (I had to blow some dust off it). They were 1" square bases - the type that had a recess where the figure could be placed (good for Reaper, Ral Partha, RAFM, etc. - putting them on a base helps stabilize them during in-game use). Many of the older figures from Fortress Figures came with this type of basing prior to the more popular slotta base.

I love the 1" square base with recess as I have for years purchased the Reaper base 74006 - 1" square bases from metal so that my figures didn't fall over during an rpg session. Unfortunately, as much as I love them, the price of metal has skyrocketed and Reaper reduced the number of bases in the package from 4 to 3 while the price has gone up to $8 - that's almost $3 a base - add that to every figure in my collection and it becomes quite costly.

I tried out those plastic bases by Fortress Figures and you can see the results with my Mushroom Men and Skeletons. The plastic base sits a little taller than the metal base, but I've found since that using a nice gritty sand paper (T2) can reduce that down a bit while making sure the plastic is level on the bottom (the plastic bases have a tendency to be a bit more warped out of the box than the metal).

The above sample picture shows a Reaper figure in a metal base, and then another in a plastic base. The third is after I fill the base with drywall compound (I let that dry and then carve my dungeon path) and the fourth is the new Reaper Bones mini in a filled in plastic base.

I went back to my local gaming store and I couldn't find another package - as mentioned, the one there had quite a bit of dust on it. So I contacted Fortress Figures directly - showed them some pictures - and asked if they had any more of those plastic bases. I received a reply from Jeff Rodman (owner of Fortress Figures) that it had been several years and he'd dig out the mold for me and see if it was still viable. It was and he made me a batch of 50 for $25 - that's $0.50 each - a heck of a lot better than $3 for metal. Particularly for the new Bones miniatures by Reaper - there's absolutely no reason to put a $3 metal base on a $2 plastic figure! Plus, it gives that plastic Bones figure a solid base so it won't get knocked over during game play!

Nice to know that there's great customer service with folks who care. With all those new Reaper Bones (I pledged at the Vampire level), I'm sure that I'll be ordering another 50 -100 bases from Jeff and Fortress Figures.

Human Thug - 23-017

Another ZN Games figure that I slapped together this past weekend. I have a handful of these (two more to go) - they're a bunch of fun as I use these as a "speed paint" session where I try to get them complete from start to finish within a couple of hours. That forces me to keep the paint scheme simple and helps me when I paint my other figs. Again, you'll see that all figures from the unearthed hyperborean age are two dimensional - they have a front and back but no real side pose to the figure.

Again, it would be much appreciated if anyone with information as to who sculpted this or any of the other ZN Games would ping me by leaving a message below or sending me an email to my gmail account of rickajr.

Sorry - no step by step painting instructions on this one - it was rather basic - Bronzed flesh to Elf Flesh on the skin with a wash in between. The leather armor was Scorched Brown through Bubonic Brown. All metal was a wet dry-brush of Boltgun Metal (wet dry-brush is where I thin down the metallic paint with water and then paint as normal with a dry-brush - it makes for a smoother paint technique). Hair was Scab Red to Blood Red. The base was standard drybrushing of codex grey, fortress grey, and skull white.

All Boys Love Planes - Twin Mustang F-82

Now for something different - a Monogram Twin Mustang F-82G kit 85-5257 - 1:72 scale model airplane.

At some point in time I've purchased a couple of different model planes for Matthew. We built a Navy Corsair F4U a few years ago and hung that up in his room. So this weekend the Twin Mustang F-82G came out of the box. There were two options - one was an aluminum skinned plane which last saw service in Alaska or the all weather version (essentially a night and bad weather fighter used during the Korean War). I really liked the pitch black and red trim - plus the local hobby shop was out of aluminum spray so black and red was chosen!

Here's the finished product on the hobby table. I've come to the conclusion that I'm not very good with putting on decals. I'm sure there's an artform to it, but to me it looks like a piece of tape with writing on it.



All little boys need planes hanging from their ceiling - so out came the step ladder, some twine, and a thumbtack. He now has the two planes hanging side by side.

Reaper's Mushroom Men - 2679

I'll update more tomorrow with additional views and painting instructions - just running out of time tonight - so here's the front side view of the mushroom man that I painted.

Father and Daughter Paint Session

Presenting Reaper's 2679 Mushroom Men...



Just like with the hounds, Elizabeth declared she wanted to paint something. So I found the 2 item Mushroom Men pack from Reaper Miniatures. Instead of doing both figures like the hounds, she did the little figure and asked me to do the bigger figure. The paint scheme was her idea!

Another Jason Wiebe sculpted miniature figure - I do like his stuff.

I'll post up pictures of the larger of the two tomorrow when I get a bit more time as well as the step by step directions. So stop by again a little later tomorrow night.

Reaper's Skel W/2 Hand Swds Army Pack - 5009

Saturday night I had some time and ambition to put together the remainder of the 2 handed skeleton army pack. This was based on Reaper's skeleton 2129 and the pack contained 5 models. According to Reaper Miniature's website they no longer produce an army pack under the 5009 model number and I couldn't find this particular model in any other current army pack sold by Reaper today. What's interesting is that Reaper's website credits Ed Pugh as the sculpture for the single 2129 model but the tag on blister pack says by J. Allen.

As a unit, they came out rather well. They're all the same figure, I twisted the head a bit and mounted the model in the base differently for each one to give them some semblance of uniqueness - yet a unified whole.

The paint scheme obviously was the same as the first posted and therefore I won't post the instructions again - see Reaper Miniatures Skeleton 2129 post for step by step instructions.