Maledrakh

To quote Black Sabbath "The Devil is never a maker, the less that you give, you're a taker". Yes, you need to be aware that there are a lot of people that will drain your soul via abusing your generosity. It usually starts with you giving an inch. Ask yourself: Are these people that pay it forward? Do they ever do favours (small or significant) to you? This should inform your decision if you yourself don't particularily want to do whatever favour it is they ask of you (assuming you do not owe them, of course). I would also make sure to inform them of what they actually are requesting. I know of several individuals that breeze though life, asking others to do stuff they have no concept of the real cost of, and when informed of this absolutely would not consider that cost reasonable.

Now I know who this reminds me of...it must be Galactus, Devourer of Worlds.

Pork is similar to human flesh, also known as "long pig". I have had pork chops spoil and literaly turn green. Hence, I believe green is to be expected at some point of decomposition. But spoiled meat if left alone will continue to change colour as it decomposes, so any colour from pallid to pitch black should be OK for a zombie. Also, the green could be mould growth.

https://www.reapermini.com/previews look under February, "Dark Heaven Legends" almost at the bottom. What we do know, is that the vast majority of Bones 5 will probably not be released as is to retail, but might be redone in Bones USA before release. It looks like Reaper is trying to reduce their dependency on China (and the enormous hassle and cost of getting anything shipped from China) by rethinking all their releases, and rather then need to reorder from China they will make them in house. However...these releases look like they are in metal, not in the new "legends" line that is Bones USA. So why are these already released models slated as new releases? (and moved to where they are neither searchable nor orderable on the website?)

Every kickstarter has shown improvements in the "bones classic" formula, from the Bones 3 KS and out I think they found a formula that consistently works well, and that is what, six years ago now? They have also tinted the plastic to a light grey in recent years. If the bones model is grey instead of white you should be safe that it is a newer formula. The bones black variant was introduced for many minis in bones 4, and has the potential for detail similar to metal models. The bones USA is a different sort of plastic, with potential for detail similar to resin models. They make the Bones USA minis themselvs in the USA while all the other bones are cast in China. The 2022 release schedule includes many older bones and metal minis being remade in the Bones USA material, thus reducing Reapers dependency on China.

Nice! If I could make a suggestion: The goblin is holding the torch above its head, but the top of the head is very dark. If you paint the top of the head in the lightest green, it would look more like the torch is giving off light. From there, you can add just a little yellow to make a sort of OSL (object source lighting) effect, the yellow of the torch's fire reflecting or giving colour to the surroundings. Just the top of the head and maybe the top curve of the edge of the sword that is facing the torch,

someone needs to make The Dancing Hat of Baby Yoda

Also, Copper is quite poisonous if ingested in more than trace amounts, so don't eat glitter that isn't food grade. (Cheap glitter often has copper in it.)

I use the backing sheets from shipping labels on my wet palette.

The Octopus with balloons!

printyourmonsters is now preparing their new (second, they were in the first wave with their "plants and rocks"-tribe) tribe, and sending out messages to their existing patrons actively promoting moving over to tribes when it goes up, enticing with cheaper monthly rates, early birds deals etc. In their series of messages (slighly jumping the gun I would say, since the new tribes is not active yet) it certainly seems that they as creators want to get rid of extra hassle with the patreon delivery and keep it all at MMF where stuff according to them is more streamlined and easier for them to deal with as creators. They used the words "when you can leave patreon and go on Tribe :)".

Here is a tip: "dress" the model from the innermost colour to the outermost colour, in that order. This lets you paint smaller and smaller areas, and you won't have to reach past already painted bits to paint other bits, thereby reducing the chance of messing up by hitting the wrong areas and then having to go back and fix them. combine this with a dark / black undercoat. Stay neat and with practice you can up your speed significantly.

Wakka Wakka Wakka

You can usually see if the miniature is a made in a lead alloy: Lead is duller and darker in tone than tin. Also it will be more bendy since lead is much more soft. If you drag the mini along a piece of paper, tin / pewter / white metal will not leave any coloured mark, while lead alloys will often leave a grey mark. if you handle bare lead minis, you will often get a grey residue on your fingers. *I am not a metallurgist, but* I experience this when prepping lead metal minis.

Narglauth. (conan for scale)

a general tip when assembling pegged, keyholed or what you call it parts in PVC, such as bones or bones black is to heat one or both parts before assembly. I use recently boiled water for this. the same hot water trick as when straightening swords or whatever. This softens the plastic and in many cases undoes any warpage present from the moulding process. In my experience this makes the parts fit much better, and reduces possible gaps as they will flex a little to fit when warm and pressing together. If you then dunk in cold water, they set. Sometimes no glue is even needed. Heated parts are much easier to cut if needed, I slice with a scalpel or exacto. Specifically, this makes Bones Black models much easier to deal with, as room temperature bones black is significantly harder than bones classic to cut. Also any residual moisture in the hole (if there is not too much) functions as a super glue-hardener, and makes the super glue set faster. The plastic itself does in my experience usually not get too hot to handle, but the water can be scalding. Caution is advised.

BBC reel has a 5 minute short on a real life "dungeon": The hidden medieval world buried beneath a castle https://www.bbc.com/reel/playlist/secret-worlds?vpid=p08b8d1n

My entry for the Reaper Challenge League Q2 diorama: The minis are: Reaper Bones Black 44044 Dark Watcher as Pac Man Reaper Metal 03920 Shadowgaunt as Pinky Midlam Miniatures’ metal “Ghosts of Midlam Manor” x 3 as Inky, Blinky, and Clyde -the latter pair in edible mode. and 3D printed walls designed by Printable Scenery White balls are expanded polystyrene, plucked from some packing material. The Black gravel is …black gravel. This is an idea I have had for a scene or diorama for ages, a Beholder stuck in a dungeon getting really bored, chasing the other denizens around playing tag, occasionally getting the munchies.

At last, a decently sized treeman! More pics below

it's a good paint job, but... something seems to be slightly off.....it's far to clean? Perhaps just a little gunk on the base would do the trick? Green and brown spots with some gloss varnish? Maybe this is just my prejudice against the poor, misunderstood Otyugh, who much like the common pig, actually might be the very model of cleanliness when given half a chance?

I have been slightly less of a workaholic in May than in April, so I have been able to do some quartely challenges as well as the monthlies. I am probably not going to be able to paint anything else this month, so here goes. These were all painted for the Reaper challenge league May, and again, squeezed in between work. So, low effort speed painting is the key. which also shows that is it possible to get quite decent results in a short time as long as you accept there will be some rough bits. there are some pictures below

Warning! Warning! Will Robinson! You really, really need to consider if you want to add anything at all to the paint on a permanent basis, and at the very least experiment to see if whatever substance you add to the paint actually works like intended. The long term effects especially might not be what you want. There is a true story somewhere on this forum about a person who added something (floor polish?) to ALL his brand spanking new reaper paints, which resulted in a whole lot of ruined paint and when he complained about "bad paint" Reaper naturally had to dismiss the person with "your own fault for adding stuff to the paint". I myself experienced "stainless steel" balls that where anything but stainless when I put them in the paint (to act as agitators when shaking). Now I use haematite beads and have not had a problem with rust in the paint after that. I use water when transferring citadel paints, which works fine. (for me at least) I would also offer the advice to keep any additives to the same brand paint that you are working with to avoid cross compatability problems, such as lahmian medium for citadel paints, vallejo for vallejo paints, reaper for reaper paints etc

Those are Elder Things the original colonizers of earth

I have seen that Titan Forge also is going the USD 100 route for a post-patreon montly set, where the patreon still charges USD 10 for a month. I might speculate that the sets simply do not sell in any significant numbers at USD 30, 40 or 50 outside of the patreon, so they have chosen to up the price both to increase percieved value of the patreon, and to actually get the USD 50 price when there is a 50%-off sale, since very many customers seem to hold off for a sale once they have decided to buy a mini or a set. This way they increase the FOMO for the whales that maybe would otherwise quit the monthly subscription, and also increase their actual revenue on sales. After all, USD 100 is not really all that unreasonable when considering the individual prices of the minis in such a set. At least I believe this could be the long term reasoning behind the price hike.