FirstLevelFighter

Thanks for all the advice, so far. I've backed away from the ledge concerning chopping up my black dragon and casting its horns. It's a cool dragon and I'd hate to ruin it. I've never cast anything before and the price of a starter set of two-part rubber mold and plastic casting material is almost as much as the black dragon would cost to replace. The horns will serve me well right where they are as reference material. In addition to the black dragon horns, I'm going to sculpt the big nasal horn on the blue head (Ma'al's upper left,) build out some ear frills and texture the horns on the red head (topmost, central,) and patch up her wings. I'll do it all with green stuff. I'm working on some sketches to plan the sculpting before I dive in. For variety, I'm going to add a couple horn rings and maybe one other bit of jewelry to the green head using some bits from my bits box. I'll definitely make a place to lay her down before I get started, too, and wear gloves, or at least one on my left hand for holding her. I'm planning to do a partial assembly and use her base for support as often as possible when I'm not handling her.

I'm going to paint Ma'al Drakar as D&D's Tiamat. I'm planning to do some conversions to make her look more like the Queen of Evil Dragons. Before I start on her in earnest, I have a few Bones Ogres and other Reaper minis i'm planning to use to familiarize myself with Reaper paints. I'll do a WIP thread to follow my progress.

Hello, all! I'm planning to paint Ma'al Drakar as Dungeons & Dragons' Dark Lady, Tiamat. She's going to be, by far, my biggest painting project. Before I start painting, I'm planning some conversions to make her look more like D&D's Chromatic Dragon. I'd love to get any advice or tips that anyone would like to share about painting large models, or any of the other parts of the process. I'll share my plans, and try to keep up a WIP thread about this grand adventure. My first step is going to be pretty drastic, so if anyone wants to jump in with advice, please do. I have WotC's Gargantuan Black Dragon. The forward-sweeping horns are so iconic, my Tiamat's black dragon head (Ma'al's lower right head) should have horns like that. The Gargantuan Black's a perfect scale to use for Tiamat's horns. I'm actually planning to carefully cut the horns off the black dragon, make a 2-part mold, cast a set of horns for Tiamat, and reattach the horns back on the black dragon. Am I out of my mind? Does any one see potential problems with this plan, other than the usual challenges of casting minis, etc? Thanks in advance for any advice, feedback, and encouragement!

It's a great mini, with a lot of character. Just enough detail, with a lot of opportunities for for freehand and/or conversion work. I received my replacement miniature! It's the metal version, which is perfectly fine. I hope the defect is not a problem, or at least, not an insurmountable one, throughout the entire run of the Bones version of this particular mini. Thanks, Reaper! Well done!

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Thanks, Bryan! I certainly will follow up. I also wanted to make sure you wonderful folks at my favorite miniatures company are aware of a potential defect. Reaper is a great company with a product I have solidly relied on for years, so I like to do what I can to help maintain that level of quality. Thanks, also, for your quick attention and excellent customer service.

Here a few pics of the Corim I have, and the other photo I was able to find. Looking closely at the picture of Corim facing the camera, it is possible to see there is actually an indentation where the nose should be.

Hello! I picked up the Bones version of Corim the Kestrel, Gnome Sorcerer at Origins, and his nose is flattened compared to photos of the metal version. I have found one photo of another Corim and it looks like his nose is squashed in that one, too. I'm assuming this is a casting flaw, and not an intentional feature. Do all of the Bones version of Corim have a squashed shnozz? I know the days of gnomes with enormous noses are well past, but poor Corim should have at least some nose to speak of.

This is the wise and brave street urchin, Parilli, the Shining Company's ertwhile guide in the city of Tephu in the Pathfinder Mummy's Mask Adventure Path. This is my second Bones mini, and I'm a convert. Speaking of conversion, Bones make weapon swaps and mods super easy. I removed his blade and drilled a hole through his hand, cut the studs off his armor, filed his fuzzy feet smooth, and based him with green stuff and sand. After sealing him, I added an actual twig as a camel stick/wooden sword he uses to emulate his hero, Zekir Safakin, the Sword of the Dawn, paladin of Sarenrae. I really enjoyed the simplicity of the sculpt and the limited palette, and had a good time with the stripes. His WIP is here. Please share any comments and/or constructive criticism.

I’m calling him finished. A couple coats of gloss seal, coat of matte, and you can find wise and brave Parilli in the Show Off section. There are as many bits that I am happy with and proud of as there with which I am less so. I had fun with the WIP, and I’ll try to do more. I’d welcome any kind, honest feedback and constructive criticism of both the mini and the WIP that anyone is willing to offer, and let me know if I can answer any questions. Thanks to those of you who have already commented and clicked ‘like’. Best— FirstLevelFighter

He's almost finished. I added an orange stripe to center of each of the red stripes of his pants, and pupils to his eyes, cleaned up few sloppy spots (while leaving plenty of others,) and added a dark line at the hem of his cloak and around his feet. I'll have to clean that up, as well as finish his sash and scabbard, add his club, and that might be it.

They could be sticks or vines, but they look a little too thin to be bones. Decide what you think they are, then paint them that way, and that's what they'll be. :)

Corim the Kestrel. He's in a dynamic pose with just enough detail but plenty of blank space for conversions, freehand, weapons and adventuring gear.

Stripes are fun! Added eyebrows and stripes to his pants. There is a lighter orange stripe in the center of each red stripe, but they aren't really showing up—I'll pick up some yellow to brighten the orange and go back over them. Also highlighted his skin and hair, and laid a dark brown base coat on the scabbard. I'll clean that up, and it'll be metallic copper-and-gold. Then it'll just be a matter of cleaning up and highlighting his sash, highlighting the whites of his clothes, and adding pupils to his eyes. I'm sure I'll find more to do before I call him finished.

Today I cleaned up the inks, did some highlighting on the cloak, added a sash (the edges of which will need some touching up) and decided to add some stripes to the patches. I'm much happier today than I was after the last session.