Heartbreaker Miniatures Identified...

It's the little things that are the most satisfying and today I bumped into a Kickstarter looking to republish the Earthdawn line of miniatures - Kickstarter Earthdawn RPG Fantasy Miniatures.  The company doing the work is Impact! Miniatures and they state that they'll sell the re-published Earthdawn miniatures under the ZN Games branding on their website once the Kickstarter rewards have been shipped.

It looks like Heartbreaker Hobbies & Games originally had the rights to produce Earthdawn miniatures.  The molds for Earthdawn miniatures as well as their general fantasy lines were then purchased by ZN Games.  I've painted a bunch of ZN Games published miniatures.  Those molds have recently been obtained by Impact! Miniatures who kicked off a Kickstarter in October 2014 for the Earthdawn line with FASA's blessing.

Here's why it's satisfying to me... I found the answer to an unknown miniature I've had in the "archived" status.  I was scrolling through the potential stretch goal rewards and there in mold 308 was the orc miniature I've had in my Archived category as a half orc fighter.

 


I was able to confirm that by going to Knoble Knight Games and indeed HBH308 was a three pack published in 1993.  Furthermore, going to the Lost Minis Wiki shows that this specific figure was 308B.

The only piece missing is who sculpted figure 308B Orc With Sword for Heartbreaker.

I like to publish the sculptor as part of my blog posting - for the ZN Games figures I was able to pinpoint from within the Lost Minis Wiki the Goblin Scout to Chaz Elliot originally published as 5018 Goblin Hero.  The Goblin Dungeon Boyo to Kev Adams originally published as 2026 Dark Goblin Champion #2 with Axe.  The Wild Satricon to Phil Lewis originally published as 6502 Chaos Knight Musician.

I also found the Human Thug as originally being an Earthdawn miniature 353 Blood Elf Grim Legion Mercenary - but unfortunately no information regarding who sculpted the piece.

The final ZN Games piece the Human Hero I didn't find at all in Lost Minis Wiki - so I'm still looking for the sculptor on that mini as well.

AND... I finally found the answer to the last piece in my unknown bucket - the War Maiden.  It's from the Chronopia line produced by Heartbreaker as well.  According to both the Lost Minis Wiki and The Miniatures Page, this was figure #2 from the warband box 20517 - Sons of Kronos Maidens of the Blade (this is the same box which has the nude figure which is a favorite of mini-painters everywhere).  Unfortunately, I haven't found information on who sculpted the miniature - it might be Kevin (Kev) White - I found an article that he did the aforementioned nude blade maiden leader - it's rumored he did most of the Chronopia line as well as the i-Kore Celtos line (which is why I originally thought it might be a Celtos miniature).

 

Shout Out to The Painting Clinic (aka: Doctor Faust)

When I started this crazy hobby of ours back in 1999, there wasn't much in the way of resources outside of Games Workshop published material, but the internet was starting to take off and a local group formed which we called dcareaminipainters.  While monthly meets were at a local game store we also used an internet group messaging service (bought out by Yahoo) to communicate.  Eventually there became a larger national and then international internet group on Yahoo and that's where I bumped into Dr. Faust and his minipainting website called the PaintingClinic.

The PaintingClinic quickly became a go to resource for me and over the years I've referenced back numerous times.  Eventually he started a YouTube channel and has now abandoned the website altogether which he explains why in this video here (an excellent little history lesson by the way on the beginnings of using the internet for group collaboration as well as a bit of a tirade on internet trolls and life lessons - I found it all interesting).

Every now and then I get an update of the latest videos from channels which I've set as a favorite - I've viewed a few of PaintingClinics videos but those viewings have been few and far between as they've been mostly sci-fi material or armies - neither of which I'm much interested in.  However, within the last month he's been on a Dungeons and Dragons kick and painting singular minis for his gaming sessions - that's awesome!

While I explain my style of painting as a "layering" approach and I write up the steps/paint in each layer within my blog posts; the PaintingClinic videos SHOW you exactly what it means to use the layering method as well as a glaze to blend the layers together.  These are some fantastic videos and I want to give a shout out to some really cool stuff - the benefits of layering is you get 90% of a fully blended look with 20% of the effort - most of his work is within a 2 hour time period.

As of this blog post - here are the videos...

Reaper Ranger Part One
Reaper Ranger Part Two
Reaper Dr. Orontius Part One
Reaper Dr. Orontius Part Two
Reaper Bones Ogre Part One
Reaper Bones Ogre Part Two
Reaper Bones Hell Hound
Ral Partha Copper Dragon Part One
Ral Partha Copper Dragon Part Two

I highly recommend taking the time to watch these videos.  They're all very nicely done (even have a professional feel to them) and last about fifteen minutes each on average.

Reaper Miniatures' Ghost King - 77161

      

More Bones Kickstarter... next up was the Ghost King from Reaper Miniatures.  Again, the same sculpt as the metal Dark Heaven Legends line - item 2991 at $7.99 - but, the price of the Bones is $2.79 - about a third of the price - great value!  Unfortunately, this model also displays the issue that's a downside to the Bones line - items like the sword are next to impossible to straighten although I've given it my best effort to heat, straighten, and dip in cold water to set.

I really like the sculpt - sculpted by a name I'm not familiar with - Tim Prow in 2005.  Reminds me directly of the King of the Dead from the Tolkien/Jackson LOTR:ROTK images.  Therefore my naming of Mortuus.

The painting method used was a first for me - started with the darkest base colors - Scab Red on the cloak, Graveyard Earth on the robes.  Boltgun Metal on the armor. Vomit Brown on the bones.  Then, I decided those colors were going to be the highlights - so I opened up the Devlan Mud wash and proceeded to "inverse" layer - using the the wash to paint on layer after layer to darken the model - in the end, all paint on the model was washed with an initial layer driving down to where the darkest recesses have about five or six layers.

Painting Instructions for Ghost King (Mortuus):

Step 1: Undercoat model with black paint (not primer - it will eat into the plastic and cause tackiness)
Step 2: Use Scab Red on cloak
Step 3: Use Graveyard Earth on robes
Step 4: Use Boltgun Metal on armor
Step 5: Use Dwarf Bronze on armor trim
Step 6: Use Vomit Brown on bones
Step 7: Wash model with Devlan Mud - continue process over and over working into the recesses to provide highlight to shadow
Step 8:  Drybrush Codex Grey on base
Step 9: Drybrush Fortress Grey on base
Step 10: Drybrush Skull White on base
Step 11: Use Chaos Black on sides of base

An alternative paint scheme that I thought about would be to have a brighter model by making the robes look like swirling magic air - much like the pizza dijinn or the reaping wraith.  Then the cloak could be brought up to a brighter base and the bones could drive to white highlights.

Kickstarter paint total: 51 + 1 Ghost King = 52

Reaper Miniature's Ragnaros, Evil Warrior - 77150

Back to the Kickstarter pile!  I grabbed the evil warrior by Bobby Jackson Sunday evening and worked up a finished product.  This one is interesting - there's a lot I like about it, but there's some things I'm not a fan of regarding this sculpt.

Two bits I don't care for - the first is the overemphasized sword - I think this is part of the Rakham influence that was happening for a bit and I'm not a fan.  Particularly in bones as it was very difficult to heat up and straighten (I tried numerous times and still didn't get it quite right - advantage metal).  Second, this miniature is over-sized for the footprint - he'd be about 8-9 feet in scale.  Not quite giant size and needing to go on a large versus medium base (thinking D&D terms) but he certainly overwhelms.  That kinda ruins any thought of using as a player character - this is definitely a bad ass boss level character in your dungeon.

With that out of the way, there's a lot to like about this figure - he's cool, he's mean, he's just a wonderful and bad ass sculpt by Bobby Jackson.  The metal plate mail is well done and I was able to cut the left foot off the base and pose it for a more dynamic stepping at you look.  It's a great sculpt that was fun and simple to paint; I'd love to see this exact model shrunk to scale just a bit with a right-sized sword.  He's definitely going to be used as the big baddy in an upcoming game.

The figure is available in both bones for $2.99 as well as figure 3374 in metal for $11.99 (again, bones shows off what a great value it is).

I tried to keep the painting simple so I could get it completed in a single evening.  The model works really well as a drybrush and wash occasion.  I just lightened up on the drybrushing as well as used a more watered down ink wash for each layer.

Painting instructions for Ragnaros, Evil Warrior:

Step 1: Undercoat model with black paint (not primer - it will eat into the plastic and cause tackiness)
Step 2: Drybrush all the armor with Boltgun Metal
Step 3: Wash armor with Sepia ink (watered down just a bit)
Step 4: Drybrush all the armor with Chainmail
Step 5: Wash armor with Sepia ink (watered down just a bit)
Step 6: Wash armor with Red ink (watered down)
Step 7: Drybrush armor with Mithril silver as highlights
Step 8: Wash armor with Sepia ink (watered down)
Step 9: Use Red Gore on shield
Step 10: Wash shield with Sepia ink (watered down just a bit)
Step 11: Drybrush Blood Red highlights onto shield
Step 12: Wash shield with Sepia ink (watered down)
Step 13: Use Bestial Brown on horns and spikes
Step 14: Wash horns and spikes with Sepia ink
Step 14: Use Bubonic Brown on horns and spikes
Step 15: Use Bleached Bone on horns and spikes
Step 16: Use Skull White on horns and spikes
Step 17: Wash horns and spikes with Sepia ink (watered down just a bit)
Step 18: Use Red Gore on sword
Step 19: Use Blood Red on sword
Step 20: Use Blazing Orange on sword
Step 21: Use Sunburst yellow on sword
Step 22: Use Skull White on skull with power line through middle with zig zags to the end
Step 23: Wash sword with Red ink (slightly watered down)
Step 24: Drybrush Codex Grey on base
Step 25: Drybrush Fortress Grey on base
Step 26: Drybrush Skull White on base
Step 27: Use Chaos Black on sides of base

Kickstarter paint total: 50 + 1 Ragnaros = 51

Reaper Miniature's Townsfolk Beggar - 2584A

  


Another time lapse - it's been awhile since the eyebeast - that's what kinda happens during the spring and summer.  I actually started painting this figure earlier in the summer when I had a friend over to paint and just recently found time to finish.

This is the beggar from the Reaper Miniatures Townsfolk II pack (2584) which includes the bar girl and the smithy.  This is a great miniature for use in a D&D/Pathfinder game as either the evil/good wizard in disguise that the party encounters early in the campaign and can either help or hinder the party later in the campaign depending upon how they treat the beggar.

Painting instructions for Beggar:

I didn't keep great notes on this one - so it's going to be more of an approximate, but I did a mixed compliments on the color wheel.  The shirt and pants are red and green.  The makeshift cloak is split between blue and orange.  Both of those sets are opposites on the color wheel (complimentary).  Normally you wouldn't mix the two on the same model, but I felt that the two were distinct to the eye and would work.  I like the end result.

I stuck to a neutral color (tans) on the patches - I figured there was already enough various colors and making those anything other than neutral would distract rather than enhance.  The beard was in the ghostly grey colors.

This one is old fashioned metal - so no update to the Kickstarter total.

Reaper Miniatures' Eye Beast - 77043

I started this miniature on Sunday and it was pretty close to finished - thanks to a snow day in northern Virginia (15" of the white stuff), I was able to finish him up this evening.

I love this miniature - it's a great sculpt by Julie Guthrie this is the Bones version that came with my Kickstarter - I also have the metal version (product no. 2712) which is sitting in my to paint pile.  If you're going to paint and play, then the Bones version is an incredible value - $3.79 versus $14.99 for metal. 

I actually went to the color wheel for this one - the triad is red-violet/blue-green/yellow-orange.  The red-violet is the body; the blue-green is the inside of the mouth and gums; the yellow-orange is the tongue and eyes.

Painting instructions for Eye Beast:

Step 1: Undercoat model with black paint (not primer - it will eat into the plastic and cause tackiness)

Step 2: Use Imperial Purple as basecoat on the body and tentacles

Step 3: Drybrush Liche Purple liberally on the body and tentacles

Step 4: Drybrush Warlock Purple moderately on the body and tentacles

Step 5: Drybrush Tentacle Pink as highlights on the body and tentacles

Step 6: Use Red Gore as the basecoat on all the little eyes and ends of tentacles

Step 7: Use Sunburst Yellow and fill in the main portion of each of the little eyes and ends of tentacles

Step 8: Use Skull White to run a white strip (line) over the middle of the little eyes and ends of tentacles

(the above step gives it a "glow" like laser - kind of like the alien deathrays in HG Wells War of the Worlds)

Step 9: Use Scaly Green inside mouth and on gums as basecoat

Step 10: Use Jade Green as gum highlights

Step 11: Use Blood Red on tongue as basecoat

Step 12: Use Blazing Orange on tongue

Step 13: Use Fiery Orange on tongue as highlights

Step 14: Use Skull White on teeth and center eye

Step 15: Use wash of Snakebite Leather on teeth pushing into the in-betweens and the gums

Step 16: Use really close to a wash of Golden Yellow on the left and right side of the center eye

Step 17: Use Fiery Orange in a three pronged dagger towards middle of center eye

Step 18: Use Blazing Orange to deepen three pronged dagger towards middle of center eye

Step 19: Use Chaos Black to paint in an elongated oval vertically in middle of center eye

Step 20: Drybrush Codex Grey on base

Step 21: Drybrush Fortress Grey on base

Step 22: Drybrush Skull White on base as highlights

Step 23: Use Gunmetal on sword

Step 24: Use Bright Bronze on handle of sword

Kickstarter paint total: 49 + 1 Eye Beast = 50

Reaper Miniature's Zombies - 77014

I painted these two zombies from the Kickstarter while watching the second Resident Evil movie (Apocalypse) on Netflix - again, Resident Evil provides the perfect movie for this painting session!

Again, the value of the Bones figures is pretty awesome - $4.49 for a pack of three bones (the Kickstarter only came with two).  The metal figure is in their Warlord line as 14410 and will set you back $4.99 a piece.

I painted these two a bit different than the other set of zombies from the Kickstarter - I started these with a base of Bestial Brown.  I wasn't really happy with the result as it was too brown and I ended up giving the models a wash of Desert Yellow to add some color and that worked out rather well.

Painting instructions for Zombies:

Step 01: Undercoat model with black paint (not primer - it will eat into the plastic and cause tackiness)
Step 02: Paint all flesh with Bestial Brown
Step 03: Drybrush all flesh with Rotting Flesh
Step 04: Drybrush highlights on flesh with Pallid Flesh
Step 05: Wash all flesh with Desert Yellow
Step 06: Use Scorched Brown as basecoat on tattered pants
Step 07: Use Snakebite Leather on tattered pants
Step 08: Use Bubonic Brown as highlights on tattered pants
Step 09: Use Scorched Brown as basecoat on hair
Step 10: Drybrush highlights on hair with Bestial Brown
Step 11: Drybrush Codex Grey on base
Step 12: Drybrush Fortress Grey on base
Step 13: Drybrush Skull White on base

Kickstarter paint total: 47 + 2 Zombies = 49

A Bit of Game of Thrones - Cello Trio

Impressive!

Reaper Miniature's Zombies - 77053

I painted these three zombies from the Kickstarter on Sunday while watching the original Resident Evil movie on Netflix - it was the perfect movie for this painting session!  Call me a fanboy - I'm big on Milla Jovovich going back to her role in The Fifth Element (which ranks near the top on my list of favorite sci-fi movies).

I was able to crank out everything except the base which I completed tonight.

Again, the value of the Bones figures is pretty awesome - $5.49 for a pack of three bones.  The metal figure is in their Legends line as 3598B and will set you back $3.99 a piece.

Painting instructions for Zombies:

Step 01: Undercoat model with black paint (not primer - it will eat into the plastic and cause tackiness)
Step 02: Paint all flesh with Camo Green
Step 03: Drybrush all flesh with Rotting Flesh
Step 04: Drybrush highlights on flesh with Pallid Flesh
Step 05: Paint tattered pants with Regal Blue
Step 06: Drybrush tattered pants with Enchanted Blue
Step 07: Drybrush highlights of tattered pants with Lightning Blue
Step 08: Drybrush highlights on hair with Shadow Grey
Step 09: Drybrush Codex Grey on base
Step 10: Drybrush Fortress Grey on base
Step 11: Drybrush Skull White on base

Kickstarter paint total: 44 + 3 Zombies = 47

Reaper Miniature's Mummy - 77144

Another Kickstarter model 77144 - purchasing this model from a retailer will have 3 in the pack for $5.49 or the original metal model can be purchased (2156) for $4.99.  The Kickstarter came with only one of these in the Vampire package.  I didn't overthink painting the model - again, the best purpose for the Bones line of miniatures from Reaper is to get them painted up for the gaming table - so this was a quick drybrush and a bit of fine detail on the face.

Painting instructions for Mummy:

Step 01: Undercoat model with black paint (not primer - it will eat into the plastic and cause tackiness)
Step 02: Drybrush Desert Yellow
Step 03: Drybrush Bleached Bone
Step 04: Drybrush Skull White
Step 05: Use Rotting Flesh on face
Step 06: Use watered down Sepia ink on face
Step 07: Highlight face features with Rotting Flesh
Step 08: Use Skull White on lower teeth
Step 09: Drybrush Codex Grey on base
Step 10: Drybrush Fortress Grey on base
Step 11: Drybrush Skull White on base

Kickstarter paint total: 43 + 1 Mummy = 44

Reaper Miniature's Goblins - 77024

Here's the group of 12 minis together to form the dungeon goblin army for a D&D game.

Painted in three separate groups:

• Goblins with maces
• Goblins with spears
• Goblins with bows

Reaper's Goblins 3 - 77024

The third and final 4 of 12 goblins that came with the Reapers Bones Kickstarter.  These are the bow goblins.  The actual 77024 comes with a total of 6 - 2 each of mace, spear, and bow.  The painting of all three sets of goblins was exactly the same.  As I was painting 12 of them, the point was to create a theme of goblins (as if they were a tribe) with the same color characteristics.  I did this using standard army painting techniques of basecoat, wash, and drybrush.

Painting instructions for Goblins (all three sets):

Step 01: Undercoat model with black paint (not primer - it will eat into the plastic and cause tackiness)
Step 02: Use Blood Red on skin
Step 03: Drybrush Blazing Orange
Step 04: Use Vermin Brown on all leather
Step 05: Use Bleached Bone on bows, spears, club shaft, arrow feathers, coat/boot fur
Step 06: Use Gunmetal on all metal parts, armor, mace head, spear head
Step 07: Wash entire model with watered down Sepia ink
Step 08: Drybrush skin highlights with Fiery Orange
Step 09: Drybrush skin final highlights with Golden Yellow
Step 10: Wash all skin areas with watered down Red ink
Step 11: Use watered down Bleached Bone on bows, spears, club shaft as highlights
Step 12: Drybrush Bleached Bone on arrow feathers and coat/boot fur
Step 13: Drybrush Codex Grey on base
Step 14: Drybrush Fortress Grey on base
Step 15: Drybrush Skull White on base

Kickstarter paint total - 39 + 4 bow goblins = 43

Reaper's Goblins 2 - 77024

Merry Christmas!  A great time to paint and get some more off the workbench.

The second 4 of 12 goblins that came with the Reapers Bones Kickstarter.  These are the spear goblins - I now only have the bow goblins (4 more) to finish.  The actual 77024 comes with a total of 6 - 2 each of mace, spear, and bow.

Kickstarter paint total - 35 + 4 spear goblins = 39

Reaper's Goblins - 77024

The first 4 of 12 goblins that came with the Reapers Bones Kickstarter.  These are the mace goblins - I have the spear goblins and bow goblins (4 each) about half way done.  The actual 77024 comes with a total of 6 - 2 each of mace, spear, and bow.

Kickstarter paint total - 31 + 4 club goblins = 35

Reaper's Eli Quicknight - 2425

 

Welcome to Black Friday!  I did my annual mecca to Best Buy in order to oogle at various electronic devices and to get a feel for the latest trends - I'm really impressed with two - the all-in-one pc is back, but this time it really works as it's a flat touch-screen with wireless keyboard and mouse (I'm not into the metro design or whatever Microsoft is calling it these days, but I think it works well on these new devices) - the second trend that impressed me was the boom to wireless speakers with wifi control (fifteen years ago I had a set of Bose speakers ceiling mounted professionally in the main tv room with wires running to the central controls - an expense no longer necessary).  There's a third trend and I think next year it will really take off, everything attached to wifi with the ability to control all devices via the web or your smartphone.  After a bit of browsing, I picked up a couple cheap movies and then hurried home to paint.

I thought about tackling my prepped Kickstarter goblins, but I decided as I had the afternoon/evening to myself that I'd crank out a complete miniature - so back to the good old metal and the figure Eli Quicknight from Reaper Miniatures.

Painting instructions for Eli Quicknight:

Step 01: Undercoat model with black primer
Step 02: Use Dark Angels Green on shirt and pants
Step 03: Use mix of Chaos Black and Scab Red on cloak
Step 04: Use Bronzed Flesh on face and hands
Step 05: Use Sepia ink watered down on face and hands
Step 06: Highlight face and hands with Bronzed Flesh
Step 07: Use Scorched Brown on leather armor and boots
Step 08: Use Leprous Brown on leather belt straps and rope
Step 09: Use Sepia ink watered down on leather belt straps
Step 10: Further highlight face and hands with Elf Flesh
Step 11: Final highlight of face and hands with Pallid Flesh
Step 12: Use Snot Green as initial highlights on shirt and pants
Step 13: Use Scorpion Green as final highlights on shirt and pants
Step 14: Use Bestial Brown as highlights on leather armor and boots
Step 15: Use Snakebite Leather as final highlights on leather armor and boots
Step 16: Drybrush Bleached Bone on rope
Step 17: Use Enchanted Blue on liquid vial
Step 18: Highlight liquid vial with Lightning Blue
Step 19: Final highlights on liquid vial with Ice Blue
Step 20: Use Scab Red on cloak
Step 21: Use Red Gore on cloak for highlights
Step 22: Use Blood Red on cloak for final highlights
Step 23: Use Bronze on sword handles and cloak pin
Step 24: Use Gunmetal on swords
Step 25: Drybrush Codex Grey on base
Step 26: Drybrush Fortress Grey on base
Step 27: Drybrush Skull White on base
Step 28: Clean up sides of base with Chaos Black

Reaper's Skeletal Archer - 77018

Nothing overly exciting about these skeletons - more cannon fodder for first level characters.  The Kickstarter included two while a package of 77018 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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kickstarter painted total - I was at 26 at last count, +1 for the Marsh Troll and +4 skeletals = 31

There's now actually a little bit of space on my desk!

Reaper's Skeletal Swordsman - 77017

Nothing overly exciting about these skeletons - more cannon fodder for first level characters.  The Kickstarter included two while a package of 77017 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.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Goblins Webcomic...

This weekend I prepped up a dozen goblins from the first Reaper Kickstarter and I jumped on the net for a bit of inspiration.  The Reaper goblins are quite a bit taller than the third edition D&D miniatures put out by Wizards and they have this great elongated face that reminds me of the Green Goblin from the Spiderman comic books and shows.  I did find a fantastic paintjob by a guy called Crowmire located on the Warseer website (see post 11).  I'm going to stick with a more traditional D&D color of a dark red / burnt orange / pale yellow - so look forward to that in a later post.

However... the point of this posting, in my search for goblin color schemes I came across a webcomic called Goblins located at www.goblinscomic.org which I must say is an excellent read.  If you haven't come across this before then start at the beginning of the Goblins story.  I wasn't much into comic books as a kid, but this webcomic puts me back in early high school around 1983/84 - there was a series of what was unique 8-1/2x11 full color comic books called Elfquest (boy would I still like to have my original copies of those books - along with my blue box D&D set, my first edition AD&D hardcovers, and my box of little metal/lead men and monsters).

Shaqtila

Reaper rarely names their monsters - so I left this one on the painting table when I was finished last week and had to come up with a name - I didn't want to put marsh troll on the base.

A lot of early D&D was a bit of tongue in cheek humor and with that in mind I finally decided to name my Reaper Marsh Troll (77152)... SHAQTILA - my unique take on Shaqzilla as this monster looks a bit like a blend between Shaq and Godzilla!

Reaper's Marsh Troll - 77152

Staying with the big stuff but moving back to the pvc plastic - here is the Marsh Troll from the original Reaper Miniature's Kickstarter.  I think this one is unique in that there is not a metal master from which this mini was derived that I can find - I do believe that this sculpt originated as part of the Kickstarter and has only been produced in the new pvc plastic.

I went to town on this Friday night and then finished off some drybrushing on the base after the Monday night football game.  Again, my goal on these products is to produce a fast, efficient, game worthy paintjob and in that light I do no prep work to the model other than to put it on a base.  In this case it's the 2" base from Games Workshop (technically I think it's a 50mm monster base).  That covers the correct basing for a D&D 3.5 / Pathfinder role-playing game.

For the most part the camera shots came out pretty well - I was able to shoot it up using digital macro and the club gets a little blurry in the picks as it has a greater depth of field than the macro focus.

Painting Instructions for Marsh Troll:

A quick note on basecoating - I don't think I've mentioned in my previous posts - but when I used the spray primer there was a bit of tackiness that never went away on the first couple of bones figures that I painted.  While doing some research I came across some articles on the Reaper forums how others experienced the same thing.  The paint characteristics that work really well for metal don't work the same for this pvc material - what happens is that the primer actually eats into the pvc and doesn't completely dry - that's the tackiness.  It's best to use a straight black undercoat from your acrylic paint sets - just slightly watered down (not too much or it won't stick).  I've used that to great effect on my later models using a giant fat brush that I stole from my kids art set - works great.

In this case I actually did what Reaper recommends or at least states - that you can paint straight on the figure - while I found this true that you can, I really had to give it two coats to get the initial coverage that I wanted.  I used a double-coating of Reaper's Clouded Sea for the skin, Vallejo's Game Color Heavy Red for the plating, and Vallejo's version of Scorched Brown for the leather, fur, and cloth bits.

The paintjob is a combination of layering, drybrushing, and blending techniques...

I continued adding Skull White to the Clouded Sea and added a couple of layers to the skin until I ended up with the highlighting that I wanted.

The belly was carefully blended using Clouded Sea and Rotting Flesh - drawing the Clouded Sea color into the Rotting Flesh so that the highlight of the sagging belly was pure Rotting Flesh.

Next I used a combination of drybrushing on the plates which stick up starting with Blazing Orange, Golden Yellow, and then Skull White.

On the scales across the back, arms, and legs I used a drybrushing of Fiery Orange to which I then proceeded to add Skull White layer after layer - this gave me a cool orangey/pink/white highlight effect.

The fur was drybrushed Vermin Brown and Leprous Brown.

The leather was painted up with Snakebite Leather and Bubonic Brown highlights.

The club was Bestial Brown with highlights of Bubonic Brown and washed with Sepia ink.

The club spikes and finger/toe nails were done up with Bubonic Brown, Bleached Bone, then washed with Sepia ink, then highlighted with Bleached Bone and then a mix with Skull White.

The cloth was a layer of Dark Angels Green and then Snot Green for highlights followed with a final highlight of Scorpion Green.

The front loincloth was Bad Moon Yellow followed by a heavy wash of Sepia ink.

The final touch to the model was to drybrush the base - Codex Grey, Fortress Grey, and then a touch of Skull White.