jaryth000

Its a Tangu actually. Similar but less... imposing? Like my character in the party? Thats a tricky one... My mini is the elf in the first picture who I named Rand Thrull. But in a twist of oddness (That the players know but the characters do not. Except the Warforged), my actual character is the sword. Yeah I'm playing a sentient weapon. Mostly for a change of pace and because my GM allowed it. In appearance my sword would like more like what the warforged is holding. I named the sword Luxumbra after the Magic The Gathering card Sword of Light and Shadow. Because yes, I am that much of a nerd.

Especially when your gird mat has bumps in it! But they've done well enough so far.

My group decided to start up a new 5e campaign. We just hit Level 2 and I realized we where still playing with (my) unpainted miniatures, so I offered to paint them for everyone. They're a little below what I would normally put in, but I did all 5 in a single sitting, and they are fine for tabletop play quality, so I'm happy. My largest complaint I guess, is that I apparently ran out of my trusty Testors Dullcote, so with just the Liquitex Matte Varnish I had put on, they still have much too much sheen for my tastes. But I can fix that once I have a chance to pick up more dullcote. Given the above information in hand, I would love feedback on these none the less. No attempts at shading or layering where attempted on these, just basecoats, wash and a bit of drybrushing.

Which one? I've backed all three bones KS's, and I feel I would have remembered getting him? I suppose I didnt go too deep into Bones II outside of the core tho. Oh yeah, good old SASCWCtaAHSMW28mmEtA6FiRLT, super catchy shortened too!

I've never thought of looking at it via Black and White, it gives a completely new perspective, thank you for that tip! Additionally thank you for the solid suggestion on the strap, I was not sure what would be best to do the edge highliting, as a light tan would not have been enough, but I think your absolutely right on the palomino gold.

Question: was SirForScale part of the Bones III Kickstarter? I've seen a lot of him in Bones material in this topic, was this something people just already had, or was he in Bones III and I just totally missed it? If he was, which set/expansion was he in?

So... Continuing my trend of only painting every 6 or so months, I've finally gotten more painting done. The problem is that this damn Giant, its one of the few projects I dont want to settle on. Sometimes I'll paint a mini that I know will only be for tabletop use, and if I'm not super happy about it, I'll usually move on anyway. But not this Giant, mainly he's still for practicing, but I only ever work on him when I'm "feeling in the mood". Given that I only paint 2-3 times a year, that means I have not worked on him in quite a while. On the plus side, over the past year I've had some successful side projects that I feel have helped hone my skill a bit. I just finished a batch of mini's recently for a recent D&D game that my friends and I just started, 3/4ths of them I'm really pleased with! One of them not so much, but thats a topic for another day. So, this years update (so far?) is that I've finally done the shading on his pants/shorts/kilt/skirt, and done my very first failing attempts at Non-Metalic-Metals! So lets take a look shall we? Ok, so what have we got? Well, initially I was quite happy with the skirt shading, until I brought it upstairs to take the picture, and realized that somehow my midtone is completely gone. I dont mind the contrast between the very dark and very light, and I'm pleased with the layering I've managed to accomplish, but it is a tad stark. Its not so bad that I'm in a super rush to fix it (more so out of fear of making it worse). Thoughts? Is the contrast too stark? Should I go in with a mid-tone glaze over the whole thing maybe to tone it down, smooth it out? Oh, and I disliked the uniformity of the leather strap on his back/chest, so I did some stippling with two different brown colors to make it a little more uneven. Its subtle, but I feel it looks better. Also my first attempt at stippling. So... on the sword hilt, my first attempt ever at NMM. I got the NMM Gold triad from the Bones III kickstarter which just came in recently, so I figure I'd give it a try. Well.. not super pleased with it. I think I failed to understand the technique fully. Which does not surprise me. The NMM concept keeps escaping me, no matter how many tutorials I read or videos I watch. It just does not click in my brain for some reason. Last year (despite not actually painting) I even spent an evening in Photoshop creating a mockup of how I felt the technique works: (Actual Picture of the base colors) (Photoshopped example of NMM attempt) At a glance it looks NMM like, and I'm actually pretty happy with my Photoshop mockup. When I tired to do it IRL tho, even though up close it all looks pretty similar (or at least the best I can do with my fine details brush control), it just... does not look right. Or... maybe it does look ok and I'm just being super critical? Well, at any rate, hopefully, despite killing the midtone, my shading on the dress shows in some way that I've improved on layering over the past year. I get this this topic is from 2015 now, and people are most likely understandable sick of seeing it, but if you have any constructive criticism or suggestions, I'm super glad to hear them. I've been working on this one mini very slowly for over 2 years now. In that time I've painted maybe a dozen or so other mini's in total? Given that I got my Bones III in, I now literally have hundreds of unpainted mini's. But this one Giant is always the one in the back of my mind whenever painting comes up. Even when I'm working on other mini's, this guy keeps coming to mind. So to recap: -Suggestions on how to not suck at NMM -Would you say my shading has improved? Do you think I should go back and glaze it with the mid tone, or it looks fine as is? -While subtle, thoughts on the leather stippling? -Have you ever had "that one" mini that you just keep coming back to over a super long time? -Should I just give up and move on with life? Just throw some metalics on him, call him done? Thank you for anyone that took the time to read this novel, even if you dont have anything to add to the topic, I appreciate your time. I type too much. I apologize. Also Haven't slept yet and its 8am. I'm going to go to sleep now.

Wait, is there legit such a thing is a Reaper Paint Poker Tool, or is that a gag? Because whenever my paint get stuck I use a sewing needle, and its finicky and kinda a pain. If paint pokers are real, I would legit buy one.

Very nice work, kinda inspiring to me. Are these done with Reaper paints, or another brand? Some of your colors are absolutely perfect. Like the midtone brown on the first mini's cape, or the green on the fifth mini's cape. Very curious what sorts of brands/colors you've used.

A few more pictures I suppose. After my friend took all of his dragons that he went in on my order for this is what I'm left with for my haul (roughly 200 minis, including the dissembled ones off to the side in bags): Mainly from the Core set and the Stoneskull, with a few others thrown in (Air Elementals, Goremaw, etc). Also holy CRAP is Goremaw ever larger than I thought it was going to be! I thought it was going to be like the size of a Purple Worm or something! Also I think one of my unexpected favorites so far is the "Invisible Heroes". They look so cool! Finally, is anyone else that's gotten their bones having problems with a few of them in terms of strength quality? I've done Bones I, Bones II and now Bones III, but this is the first time I've run into this issue. The wings on my Solar Angel are almost droopy, same with his sword, even after heat treating like I've done with dozens of other bones, it feels... weaker than other Bones material. His wings kinda flap like rubber almost. In a similar situation my Ms Bones, her right wrist is SUPER flimsy, wiggling the sword a little bit legit makes it fell like its just going to fall off. I have somewhere near like 500 bones now, and haven't seen this before? Has anyone else? Or are these defects in these two particular models? I do see a small rip like seam in Ms Bones arm. I haven't looked at every single mini in super detail yet, but I haven't come across any other obvious details of this "weak bones". I might shoot off an email to Reaper in a few weeks once things settle down to get their suggestion on this. Otherwise this batch is fantastic! I agree with what a lot of the other people are saying, the darker grey bones material is pretty fantastic!

I like the Microsoft Surface box just causally laying on the ground in the background, forgotten for a new box thats more fun! In more self centered news... I got my bones! To recap: Canadian, Wave 3, Early locked in. I can now confirm, as stated by others, I did not have to pay any Duties/Taxes/Import fees. UPS showed up, handed me just under 20 pounds of plastic and walked away (without a signature...). The tracking number that a bunch of us Canadians got on the 19th, that tracking number became active once it got checked in at the UPS distribution center (in Calgary for me). Hope this information relieves other Canadians!

I feel I've been painting just long enough now to see through the simplicity in the colors into just how much work and artistic skill goes into a mini like this. I can see people looking at this and just thinking "Meh, just a green shirt and brown backpack?", without noticing all of the subtle color changes, not just one or two tones, but tons of shades! Spectacular work, I am in awe.

Thank you for all of the Canadians chiming in in response! If this keeps true it'll be a huge load off my mind (and my wallet). Although I will point out that I have had an instance where UPS did not charge me at the door, but sent me an invoice 2 weeks later. And yes, I apologize, myself and many others have taken to calling all Taxes, Duties, Brokerages and Import fees as simply "Duties" out of simplistic sake, which is indeed not the case (not always anyway). When I had been estimating mine, I had indeed been taking Manitoba taxes into account, plus the UPS $10 Brokerage fee, plus the occasional $5 processing fee, plus the random $12 "Because UPS can charge you whatever they like" fee, all of which I've seen in random combinations before when having packages delivered by UPS. I think my biggest issue is how inconsistent they are. I get it, rules and laws change, but I cant believe they flip flop every year. Through a program I have through work, I've ordered a discounted Intel CPU every year or two years for the past 8 years or so, and every time I do, even though its also been the same classification of item, and roughly the same price (exchange rates excluded...) I've been charged such wildly different charges every time UPS has delivered. Sometimes $12, sometimes (usually? Or at least the most often) around $32, randomly once $50, randomly once $0. Yes there can be differing reasons, but that seems like a bit much. At any rate, that paragraph rant got a bit off topic. The important thing is that Reaper has been doing a fantastic job these past two weeks, and that people are getting their products! :D I'm personally still on the side of people that has no issue these are "late" compared to when they had been initially advertised. There are still so many Kickstarters that never even get anything, or get something much less in quality that they thought they would get. I know by now that I can trust Reaper to deliver in the end, so I had no worries. :D

@Solauren @Suden Or any other Canadian Backers that have gotten their shipment from UPS Just to confirm (or not?) there was no Duty or Import charges for you guys? Seriously that is my biggest scare right now. My bones are apparently on their way (ETA May 30th), and the thought of having to pay Duties on top of the nearly $800 CAD I've already paid is getting to me. But if there's even a slim chance that Canadians are getting their Bones without Duties... that'd be massive to me! :D

You know you're my favorite person now right? Did the shipper provide any rough ETA for the delivery to the hubs? Then we get to wait for the fun that is Canadian Customs! Will it take 10 minutes? Will it take 10 days? With CBSA Agents it could be anything! After all, its for our protection!