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I’m so pleased. The grey beards have been a joy to paint so far.

Finally got my Bones 4 this week and this is the first mini I painted. She's part of the elves section of the core set, but honestly she doesn't look particularly elven. Honestly I didn't like the sculpt that much so I thought it would be a good mini to try some different techniques. The skin was painted from a magenta base rather than a typical brownish skin base. I also practiced nmm on this mini, most noticeably on the sword. Also painted some patterning on the blue cloth around her waist. Also I got tired of trying to dot her irises with a brush, so I just used a tooth pick and it actually worked really well. Overall while there are a few areas to improve on (the nmm on the blade), I'm really happy with the results (magenta skin actually worked), especially considering it was originally intended as a test bed for a few new techniques.

I painted the 3 heck hounds (who guard the outskirts of the brutal circles of heck) as statues rather than going for a lava or dark red finish. I was thinking in particular of using them in Frostgrave. Basic drybrushing over a black undercoat, then a black ink wash, then a layer of modelling paste for the base, painted white. At a later stage will add a ball (or skull) and a bone.

From the depths of SPACE, they came! A menace unlike any the Solar System had yet seen! Their weapons--inexorable! Their strange mental powers--UNCANNY! Bombshell's Counterblast line has a faction called the Edofleini. Can't prove anything, but I feel strongly that the designer had read David Wiesner's "June 29, 1999" at a formative age. The Edo are giant-brained cephalopods with zap guns and psionic powers, and if that doesn't tickle your fancy, perhaps a Space Squid has used an Emotive Transductor to suck all the JOY and WONDER from your heart? (They can do that, you know!) I couldn't resist, anyway. Tried to give them a color scheme inspired by this coconut octopus. Here's the four-eyed leader of the bunch, in its magnificent robe of office. The gold-armored subordinate with Neural Halberd: A vicious enforcer, tentacles flailing: A four-eyed underling: And a runtish Spawnling: And here's a group shot! Keep watching the skies! Guard your brains! ARE YOUR THOUGHTS YOUR OWN, CITIZEN? Ever so many more pictures below if you click: Update: a very sizeable BRAIN SQUID, also Bombshell. "Destroys Nulls" is here to eat softshell hypercrabs and subjugate inferior intellects, and buddy, it's all out of hypercrabs.

I recently started a new D&D campaign (running Waterdeep Dragon Heist), and decided to paint up some groups of adversaries. Some of them to represent the opposing factions found in the city. These are all assembly lined, and while I wouldn't call them 'speed painted', I would say that they're not super detail oriented... Sorry for the photo quality. I couldn't find my camera, and had to use the phone! Some Gnolls, from various manufacturers, painted up for a sidequest (Did 20 of these): A large group of rogues and thugs, to represent the Xanathar's guild (18 of them): Lots of Drow. No spoilers, but if you've played or run the module, you know where the fit in (did 30, since I was on a roll): A certain character from the cover of the module: A half a dozen kenku and tabaxi: And, lastly, the party.

Here is my journey making my first water base. I'm not quite done yet, as I still have some work to do on the Satyr, but I'm so close to finishing. This was a huge experiment for me, but I'm planning to do it again. I'd like to enter a water piece into ReaperCon this year, and I think this was good progress on the way to doing just that. I would love your feedback if you have any. Photo 1 - I started with some foam board (first time using that too!!) and glued it together. I used regular old Elmer's glue for this. Photo 2 - I started carving out the foam board and playing with where I wanted the main rock to be. Photo 3 - I used some Vallejo Plastic Putty to smooth out the sides of the base. Neat stuff. Was recommended on another forum. Photo 4 - I started to use some Milliput to seal in the foam in preparation for adding "water" Photo 5 - I used Milliput and some cork to make "rocks" Photo 6 - I decided I didn't really like the cork rocks at all and sculpted them to look like slate instead. I also started sculpting some river stones for the basin. Photo 7 - More river stones, and placed the satyr to make sure it would work. Photo 8 - Priming and zenithal light. Photo 9 - Finally adding some color. Photo 10 - Flocking and some plants added. I made the vine out of wire and paper. The "fern" was from a laser cut set of leaves I had. I'm not really happy with the fern looking thing. I've crushed it more than once now while painting, but it will have to do for now. Would love some feedback if you have any. Photo 11 - I taped it and held my breath and add two part clear epoxy. IT LEAKED EVERYWHERE! It was terrible. I added more tape and stemmed the flow, but it was pretty bad. First time for water... I expected this to happen deep down inside lol. Photos 12, 13, and 14 - I started adding scenic fibres to simulate the waterfall. I also used some water effects called Making Waves to "glue" it in place. Photo 15 - I added another round of two part clear epoxy to make the water deeper and to fix some of the mistakes I made with the water effects and fibres. Photo 16 - I used some micro sanders to bring the front of the water to a shine. I also added some more water effect to show some flow in the water. I also started painting the Satyr and playing with colors. Photo 17 - I used some pure white paint to show water activity a bit more. I also did more work on the Satyr and glued him in place. I didn't pin him, and probably should have, but he's holding so far.

A curvier, svelter version of the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Bombshell's Gillie is a natural stand-in for a gender-flipped Abe Sapien. A good partner for the Heckfella I painted a while ago. She's been mostly done for a few weeks; just took the photos today. Flash photography: No flash: Now I just have to figure out how to kitbash a Johann Kraus...maybe Reaper's Deep Sea Diver plus half a pill capsule with a wisp of cotton wool inside?

Welp, the tree guys are here with two gigantic cranes and an entire woodchipper truck to deal with the humongous silver maple in our back yard. They look reassuringly professional.

One of the Guys I regularly painted for tried to get me to give him a discount with every order he would pick up. The last order I did for him got me a "can you better than that" on the price. The reply was "sure" & I doubled the price. That's not better" said he of the discount mind set. "It is for me; AND that is what the price will be from now on." said I. He moved to another state shortly after that & I never had to do business with him again.

The trunk is seven or eight feet across at the base, with four main trunks (when we moved in the inspector shook his head and said three of them should have been removed sometime before the Korean War), and some rot in one of the ones menacing leaning towards several neighbors’ townhouses. Ah, the chainsaws are beginning to rev. One minute later, expecting posts to merge. ... Okay, I shouldn’t have looked outside for that.

That would put his head at the right height to be a halfling

Found this acrylic holder at Dollar Tree near the Beauty section. Fits Reaper, Vallejo, Army Painter, and P3 paint bottles. Won’t fit Citadel. Only picked up the one, holds 16 bottles, cause I wanted to see if they fit. They do, so I’ll be going back for more.

Date is set. In a couple of weeks I'll become a double godfather. That makes it the second and third in the year.

I think I have got the right mini name. He or she is from Fan Favourites. Painted simply, Scale 75 black metal, then a wash, then drybrush with Army Painter rough iron/rust colour. Tried to do a water effect on the base, layers of gloss mod podge with green ink and bits of wood from a log bag in the middle.

AUUUUGGGGH. No, no, no... ... I was Groot. Poor Pingo! Getting grief for doing the right thing.

I had a great night at game night last night. First off I had a meeting with the new GM coordinator & it went well. Even thou I didn't get the spot, which I don't mind really, good to see the person that I wanted to get it, get it. We discussed how things were going to go & found out the new system of how rpgs will be handled/ran at the store will start up in July. That gives me ample time to gather for Ghost of Saltmarsh. On the other hand it gives me more then enough time to contemplate buying the GoS silver edition by Beadle & Grimm's. AL night went good as well. Currently they are under the City of the Dead in Waterdeep in a dungeon/tomb complex. They encountered a ghost girl who was looking for her sister. Thou, the twist was she was afraid of rats & the passageway she couldn't go down was filled with rat swarms. (fellow adventurers that were ambushed by someone else in the dungeon). The party found her sister, who in turns was a wererat. She just told the adventurers to say she was dead vs telling her she had been turned into something she feared the most. Party later on faced a guardian portrait & animated sword, along with animated armor. The painting was able to cast counterspell & crown of madness (limited charm spell). That made for a great encounter as the half-orc fighter with a reach weapon got charmed & proceeded to attack his fellow party members. Later on they faced a couple vampiric mists & eventually they ran into a vampire that is one of the hidden lords of Waterdeep. He offered them a job & they accepted. Session over. Looking forward to Weds night!!

I’ve got some pictures, yeah, but I don’t want to get in these guys’ way. I really don’t want to distract them. They’re fast. One trunk is almost all down.

Yep, I've had a few of those. One guy wanted a bunch of sculpts. I quoted him the price. He said, "No way, you are out of your mind." I said, "That's my going rate and is set competitively with other sculptors." He ranted back for a while that he knew of several other sculptors in Australia who would do it for half. "OK," I said, " Why don't you hire them?" "Because you're better than them." After I finished laughing, the conversation only went down hill from there. IIRC, his KS failed miserably, so dodged that bullet.

If people in Seattle called in sick for rain no one would work all winter. We save our sick days for when it snows.

In 16 minutes I walk out of the office and begin a short vacation which includes 5 days of gaming at Origins Game Fair. I think it's our 7th year going. Very excited!

I once came very close to a fistfight at a wedding because one of the guests asked me whether he could pay me to paint his Space Marines army. I told him I'd be happy to do it, and quoted him $10 per trooper and $40 per character, with vehicles starting at $20 and going up from there. He said several expletives and said no paint job was worth that...I told him my time was. That's when he called me an arrogant...well, let's say he became heated. In an expletive-laden rant, he demanded my price come down (for this hypothetical deal we were working out). I told him my price was my price. He started shouting and became physically belligerent... that was when his friends decided he didn't need to be at the wedding any more. Drunks are funny. I felt bad about the disruption at the wedding reception, though.

On Saturday after PoGo community day stuff, Sir Cyr said that another of his coworkers wanted to play D&D. Our group wizard (another geo person on campus with me) had run a 1-shot for him and his girlfriend (she's in my entering year here as a grad student), and he loved it. I happened to have a character that I'd be introducing as a temp NPC for them to fling about for an adventure, as soon as they were done the current one. They left the last session staying in a tavern to rest. So I had a character pretty much ready to go, offered it to the newcomer, and he loved the idea. He's taking the character and has story ready to go built in. Just tweaking a bit so instead of just DW melee ranger, he has a splash of barbarian in there. Now we need to buy more chairs, or the guy playing the halfling gets to sit on the floor.

Under no circumstance not involving actual malnutrition. Making your hobby into your job means that you don't have a hobby any more.

I just have to say, gripe water is amazing. Doctor said Baby has gas, suggested gripe water. It is now (nearly) 10pm and we have not had a screaming melt down. Its only the first day, but I have hope.

Very happy with the eyes on this one as I usually screw those up. I guess buying a 18/0 brush was a good idea. Apologies for the photo, was taken with my phone.

Yeah. The problem is cats have an instinct to attack and grab little wriggly things, but they have to be taught by their mothers how to properly hunt and kill.

AUUUUGGGGH.

I barely like painting miniatures as a hobby; don't push it.

No, my hair is all natural red :flips hair over shoulder:

Thought I'd put a little effort into getting better shots of my little plastic homies :-)

Worked on metal gold and silver part , so I am pretty much done with this body parts, minus couple forgot spot and later on some touch up I think ( once the other parts will be done ).He wanted to take some fresh air so I did outdoor photos

I really want to make sure he is symmetrical, so setting the foundation first. Brow ridges, center of drill, beak and horn Am checking it regularly to make sure it sets right

He actually did that for a session. It was hilarious. Well, he sat on a couch cushion on the floor. Not the most comfy for a few hour long game though.

The upside of commission work is that sometimes your client comes up with a really cool concept that you never would have thought of yourself, but you get to be the one to bring it to life. Working on one of those right now, and I'm so excited by it I'm about to burst.

My daughter accepts commissions for drawings of characters because she can do them quickly and has time for them and they don’t drain away her joy in making things. I think it would be difficult to convince people to pay an actual fair market rate for all the work that goes into painting something so small as a miniature.

Only in times of desperation have I painted stuff for other Folk. Unfortunately I have gone through prolonged periods of desperation. The work didn't pay enough to be considered a living, & the miniatures chosen, with a couple of exceptions, were uninspiring pieces, but I did get a lot of experience & developed an outstanding work ethic/discipline. Now I'd rather go hungry than paint things on commission. I do enjoy giving things away though.

Eh, no. I'm not fast enough at it, for one thing. For another, if my hobby was my job I'd have to do paperwork for my hobby

Ugh no. I did that before. Never again. Painting minis to pay rent is the surest way to years-long burnout that I know of.

Bartertown has allowed us to offload much of the GW stuff. Partner's been trading there since the early 2000s. A donation to the FLGS might be more likely. Unfortunately there don't seem to be many/any local WW2 players. Or Weird War-type players. Too much Star Wars distracting the local players Such a donation would wait until the last day before we move. Maybe the day we move. Any minis that can be found homes before then will be shipped off before then with vast appreciation.

Achievement Unlocked! I wish you much blissful sleep...

Loved painting this little chap from Dreadmere. Had ideas of painting him up as a villain or grim ranger but went back to a traditional bright Halfling pallette.

It sounds like you have a moderately efficient exterminator already...

@Guindyloo rolls natural 20. Giant wall of text crits you for one grillion damage :).

Go outside, call in and say you're feeling a tad under the water...you're not lying..

Definitely not. I would think that having to do any hobby on a nine-to-five basis would soon kill off any pleasure involved. And not having any say in what I would paint would make me positively mutinous.

Thanks to everyone for their input. To answer the main question this is a display piece. So far as I know the young lady it's for does not play rpgs or tabletop, Although this might change. I am going to try a little experimentation with a second kaphrixis I am basecoating. I have most of the sealers mentioned here and I can give them a try. Here is what I am trying to seal, Although the camera does not do it justice

Back from my long weekend playing board games. I got SWMBO along this time and she seemed to enjoy herself. She did manage to steal me away a couple of times to go sightseeing and eat out, but I still got a decent number of games in.

The mail brought me goodies! Replacement items from bones 4, and a paperback swap book.