rubegon

That looks great! I love the mouth and the skin shading on the front of his body. Great contrast and awesome base too.

Do you have the neutrals triad - Pure White, Rainy Grey, & Pure Black? Those are useful because they’re a basic lamp black, a true white and a middle neutral grey. If you want a real black wash you could try diluting Pure Black or maybe Black Ink to make one. Anne Foerster designed the core paint line. She recommends mixing paint with Brush On Sealer and Water in a 1:4:2 ratio to make a wash. I would start there and see how it works. Anne has a free public post on her Patreon covering thinning of MSP paints that is very useful to better understand how to work with the paint line: https://www.patreon.com/posts/thinning-msp-pdf-41884036

I painted this pair of Jade Fire orcs for the last Secret Sophie. They are in the hands of their new owner now so I can post some pics. These Gene Van Horne sculpts are amazing, btw! These fierce ladies look powerful and dynamic and were a lot of fun to paint. These Bones Black versions from the Bones 4 are fantastic too. This was my first time trying to paint a crystal. I also carefully cut/sanded them off their integral plastic bases and pinned them to bases I made out of ApoxieSculpt. A skeleton archer paid the ultimate price to help spruce up the shaman’s base. Skin tones are mostly the Grey Blues triad with Blue Liner and a bone color. Redstone triad for the cape. Crystal was Nightmare Black / Tropical Blue / Snow Shadow / Pure White. I spent a lot more time on the shaman. I wanted to blend her skin more smoothly to give her a softer look and make her a bit warmer with some violet in the highlights. I also took some time to get her facial expression just right. The crystal was a little project in itself, but I learned a lot from it. For anyone wanting to learn how to paint crystals, I recommend Anne’s RTB video on the gem troll https://youtu.be/0JYlckjCd0A

As a matter of fact, I did happen to take a few I’m so glad you liked them @Pochi! I think I was just as excited for you to get everything! That detour to Tokyo had me worried for a bit...

I received my Secret Sophie box today from @SamuraiJack! Thank you sir for all the goodies (and also for your expert enabling over the years with your Kickstarter threads!). Here are the contents: Lots of great metal minis including a Santa Dwarf and Tigerlily Pug Mage(!), a Reaper dice set with a purple pyram the pincher, clear weapon spurs, a wooden D20, hologram Reaper sticker, chocolates, and ... This Angry Angry Hippo (Avatar of Rage) He's awesome! It was a real treat to receive and open this - I'm so glad I participated this year. Thanks again SamuraiJack, and also many thanks to @SGHawkins09 for all the work you put into organizing this and making it happen. You're the best!

Damn - that's a great idea!

I love seeing the photos of all the Secret Sophie packages! Lots of great minis and thoughtful gifts! I just finished painting tonight! I'll get to boxing tomorrow and should be shipping on Monday. I ended up doing 2 models because they go together and I wanted to try some things. I took some quick photos on the hobby table but will take nicer one in my lightbox tomorrow for ShowOff. My recipient knows who they are and should NOT open the spoiler tag (unless they want to spoil the surprise! ).

I was going to say that this seems very specific, but then figured this would be perfect for a Stranger Things themed D&D game, maybe using that box set that came out a while back. This one:

We could always use more Sophies! Like a Supergirl kinda look, or maybe Wonder Woman ish?

That’s beautiful!

I usually sand the bottoms of my bones minis to get a flat surface when I want to glue them directly to a flat base. I don't have a belt sander - I just sand by hand on a flat sheet of sandpaper on my hobby mat. That usually goes pretty quick. I think you could definitely use a belt sander, but just be careful you don't remove too much. I think you'll remove material pretty quickly.

Thanks! Sorry for the delayed response - work got busy and I was away for a while. This guy is getting very close! I'm giving myself a deadline of end of Thanksgiving weekend to finish him, come hell or high water. I finished the gold NMM (on the dagger hilt) and did eyes, claws and a couple of other details. Did some touchups on the cloak too. Need to clean up the sword NMM, a few more touchups and then basing. So close!

I have received goodies for my recipient and gotten a good start on painting. WIP below

A little bit of progress Oct 18: NMM gold details on sword hilt & pommel, dagger sheath, and a greave. Also touched up rubbed off edges.

Finished Dragonkin’s leather last week. Pretty happy with the bracers and greaves, not so much with the cuirass, but leaving it this way. Oct 10: leather finished Oct 11: NMM steel on small buckles and blades, then quick job on tan trousers Oct 17: Yesterday I did a little more work on the trousers and then did the highlighting/texturing on the inside of the cloak And that’s all caught up. Next is some more gold NMM on some small details, hopefully this evening.