You wait months and two Reapers come along in quick succession!
This is a great mini because it is so purposeful. Every fantasy game you've ever played has this type of veteran fighter as an NPC. They're usually the one giving the orders and putting your neck on the line!
It Seems like forever since I painted a Reaper mini (Dec 2021 to be exact). I've had this one trapped shipwrecked in the painting queue for quite a while.
Another simple and evocative sculpt from Julie Guthrie makes you wonder what this guy's backstory is. What's in the treasure chest? How good is he with that cutlass? That knife looks like it's got it's own story.
By Crom this guy has an interesting pose. It's screaming "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enuff!!"
My first Matt Gubser miniature and looking back at his back catalogue in the Reaper Figure Finder, I can see some great sculpts. Matt has since turned his attention to flexing his comedic muscles in stand up comedy, but there is nothing funny about Goldar.
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| Human Barbarian, Goldar (SKU 77047) |
Another Mythical Monster chalked off the list, this time it's a Harpy
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| Harpy by Julie Guthrie |
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| Citadel C18 Harpy |
Probably the most famous Harpy story is that of King Phineas of Thrace who was granted the gift of prophecy by Zeus until he gave away the Gods secret plan. Zeus blinded him and then left him alone on an island but tormented him with Harpies who would steal all the banquet food the Gods left him. This is most famously depicted in the movie Jason and the Argonauts (1963) where Phineas is played by the second Doctor Who Patrick Troughton.
Needless to say Jason fights off the Harpies and saves Phineas who then tells them how to pass through the clashing rocks (Symplegedes) further angering the Gods.
Let's face it this is as close to a Hellboy mini that you can get without infringing copyright.
Andre Duran, Time Chaser - Bob Ridolfi (SKU 80005)
As soon as I saw this mini there was only one way it was going to get painted. Thanks Bob you made my day.
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| Andre Durand (aka Hellboy) |
Now don't get me wrong I love a mini which is striking some highly dramatic heroic pose, but sometimes you need something that is just a big bag of subtlety.
Like Aragorn when he first meets the hobbits, he is travelling incognito as Strider. When you are starting out on your path to magical mastery you don't want to be standing out in a crowd attracting attention screaming "look at me I'm a wizard!". That's where Anirion comes in.
Anirion, Wood Elf Wizard - Bobby Jackson - SKU: 77068
I painted Anirion in shades of grey to accentuate the incognito feel. only her red hair and blue crystal staff give any hint of colour and I think the combo works well. My only criticism is that the staff is too thick, it's like she's carrying a small tree. However, the PVC that the early bones were made in was quite bendy even at this thickness. Life is a compromise I guess.
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| Anirion, Wood Elf Wizard (SKU 77068) |
The last of my Reaper Bones evil warriors (for a bit), say hello to Ragnaros.
Ragnaros, Evil Warrior - Bobby Jackson (SKU: 77150)
I wasn't terribly enamoured with this sculpt to begin with. He is basically an acre of plate and scale armour with a couple of skull motifs and a crude shield. It wasn't until I got stuck in painting him that I decided that the shield was his best feature.
I painted it like dragon scale. Ragnaros is so hard that after besting a huge red dragon he peeled off the side of it's face and stuck it on his shield (teeth included).
Totally ridiculous, but then aren't the best fantasy bad guys totally ridiculous? I'm looking at you Damodar!!
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| Ragnaros, Evil Warrior (SKU 77150) |
Big dudes wearing plate are the stock in trade of epic fantasy tabletop Role Playing Games.
Mangu Timur - Bobby Jackson (SKU 77148)
Mangu's got a big shield which gave me the opportunity to paint some planks. He's also wearing some weird elven looking decorative hip guard over the top of his faulds (the little skirt which does all the hip and butt protecting). I painted this antique gold but then felt that the viewers eye was drawn to the crotch area so gilded his pauldrons as well.
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| Mangu Timur - Front |
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| Mangu Timur - Back |
Seems like we have found a new furrow to plough. Badass fighter dudes.
Another archetypal evil head henchman. Full plate, big axe, horns and skull motif. He's all show but probably goes quite a bit too.
I'm treating you to two photos today (front and back) because I'm pretty pleased with how the cloak came out.
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| Norgol, Irongrave Knight (SKU 77065) - front |
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| Norgol, Irongrave Knight (SKU 77065) - back |
Bones Progress
Wow!, what an amazing pose for miniature monday.
Kord The Destroyer - Bobby Jackson (SKU 77061)
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| SKU 77061 - Kord The Destroyer |
If he got in a fight with Conan, "By Crom!" I don't know who would come out on top?
More scaley monstrosities on Miniature Monday.
I confess, when painting my lizardmen last week I had the green pot of paint open and I just went for it. The added bonus is that my lizardmen have at least two bad guys that they could be working for.
From left to right we have:
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| Vandorendra, Snakeman Warrior and Medusa |
Julie Guthrie knocks it out of the park again with theis crazy looking sculpt which will fit right into my Al-Quadim campaigns. A truly frightening six bladed whirling dervish of a boss monster which looks like it just jumped out of Ray Harryhausen's sketchbook.
In Forgotten Realms these are also known as the Marilith, Type V demons who are apparently master tacticians to the Abyssal Hordes (which is nice) so all you D&Ders have a ready to use stat block thanks to the the D&D Wiki. Apparently they made their first appearance back in 1e so they have been a feature of Dungeons & Dragons for as long as I have been a player and I have never encountered one. A situation I must remedy immediately.
The thing that has always puzzled me about snakemen is how do they move around. I mean they don't have the body length to form the S shape typically associated with snake locomotion. Never mind this guy comes with two really big swords meaning he can still reach you.
Of course no mythical fantasy monster collector would be seen dead without at least one medusa in their miniature collection. Bobby Jackson nails it with this sculpt which is only made better by me stringing that naked bow with a bit of sewing thread and superglue.
Something a bit different for this week's miniature monday with Lizardmen.
Reaper Miniatures seem to have a large selection of lizardfolk across a number of ranges including Bones / Dark Haven and their Warlord line. In my opinion lizardmen get a fairly rough deal from mini companies, usually you get a couple of sculpts and that's it. I have 3 from the original Bones kickstarter.
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| Lizard Men or Lizard Folk - they all taste like chicken |
I enjoyed painting these so much I am tempted to buy the others in the range to flesh out my lizardman warband. These include:
Another Monday, another Reaper Bones Miniature painted. This week it's...
Valeros is a desperate looking specimen. Not in terms of the sculpt, Bobby Jackson has done a fantastic job, but in terms of his expression. The fight has got to that stage of the evening where it's all or nothing. The party are out of action and only Valeros stands alone against the horde.
I chose to give him some bandages and he's dropped his broken shield to fight two handed against twice as many foes. Let's hope that the cavalry turns up soon...
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| Valeros, Iconic Fighter |
Like a bad movie franchise that seems to go on forever (I'm looking at you Sharknado!!) here is another transparent mini but this time it's RED.
Medium Fire Elemental - Bob Ridolfi (SKU: 77083)
Smaller and much, much sexier than the Large Fire Elemental thus is a cute mini with ridiculous wings. Whilst this may have worked in metal (this is a remoulded Dark Haven mini) in plastic she's a bit floppy given her slender form. Still I enjoyed painting her even if the transparency effect has been lost a little.
As promised I did use a pot of old (and I do mean old) Citadel Red Glaze that has probably seen better days. My Blacklist Miniatures Kickstarter is inbound and includes 18 transparent minis!!
I think I might need some new inks.
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More translucent minis again this week.
Grave Wraith - Bob Ridolfi (SKU: 77097)
I'm starting to develop a sort of technique using progressively darker washes and then dry brushed highlights.
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Labella DeMornay, Banshee - Julie Guthrie (SKU: 77096)
Controlling the amount of light leak is very difficult and if you overdo it you lose the transparency effect. Sometimes it's difficult to actually see what you are painting on these minis as the raw transparent plastic doesn't create shadows which define things like facial features. A blackwash to begin with really helps.
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A much better painter friend of said I should really be using inks so maybe on my next transparent mini I can throw some 30 year old Citadel shade on it.
Big shout out to Daniel of dhump3.com for the tips. If you are looking for some quality graphic design for your company or a fantastic digital painting give him a shout.
Following on from last week's Ghostly Summons, this week I managed to finish off two more translucent minis.
Night Spectre - Julie Guthrie (SKU: 77099)
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Spirit - Jason Wiebe (SKU: 77098)
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As you can see I haven't nailed the photography or the painting just yet. Translucent minis are more difficult than you imagine especially if you are trying to incorporate lighting. It's weird how some paints block the light and others don't.
Still I am pretty pleased with how the Night Spectre came out.
A long overdue post to mark the milestone of passing 100 painted Reaper Bones miniatures.
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| 100 Reaper Bones Miniatures Painted |
Those translucent Reaper Bones minis seem like a great idea, particularly when you can integrate LED technology as I did with my Flaming Sphere and Fire Elemental.
In reality many of them have very spindly lower portions which makes uplighting them particularly difficult.
It is however a great opportunity to try airbrushing gradients and to play with a 20 year old bottle of Citadel Blue Ink Shade. You be the judge of whether I managed to pull it off or not.
Ghostly Summons - Julie Guthrie (SKU: 77095)
To be brutaly honest I interpreted this mini to be some sort of water elemental spell and nothing supernatural of ghostly at all. This explains why I painted it blue (Facepalm).
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| Ghostly Summons - SKU 77095 |
Probably my favourite D&D setting is Al-Qadim: The Lands of Fate. This is one of the many settings that TSR released in the 80s and has a unashamedly Arabian Nights feel to it.
Kyra, Iconic Cleric - (Derek Schubert - SKU: 8901)
Kyra exudes that persian vibe from her head to her toes and I can see her squaring off against a capricious Djinn or some of those vile Yikkaran Yak-men any day now.
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| Kyra, Iconic Cleric - (Derek Schubert - SKU: 8901) |
