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I received my Reaper Bones II Kickstarter stuff a few weeks ago, and while I had a little bit of Buyer's Remorse at not having purchased a few additional bits and pieces from the campaign, that's mostly due to having started new projects that things would have worked well for in the time since the campaign ended, and then finally delivered however many months late it was. I didn't even bother keeping track of that this time around. Overall it's a solid bunch of models for PVC, and I picked out a few that I thought would make nice, quick painting projects. The first was the Bronze Bull/Brass Bull/"Gorgon" which I have been working on, and just need to finish the final touches on (probably later this weekend). The second and third are these two ...thingies. Now, my nerd-background is solidly on the Warhammer/LotR side rather than the D&D side, so when I saw the 03603 "Cython" and 03582 "Mind Eater", I saw silly-weird Rogue-Trader-esque space aliens, rather than D&D critters, and decided to paint them up in that spirit - somewhat inspired by Cheetor's Alien Flora and Fauna project (and the fact that they looked like they'd be quick and easy enough). So in the spirit of all that, I thought I'd paint these suckers up. Knowing that of course, the things must be "inspired by" some kind of D&D or Pathfinder critters, I also asked Tarmor if he knew what these things actually not-are. He informed me that the 03603 "Cython" looks a lot like a Grick from 3rd edition D&D and that 03582 "Mind Eater" is a direct "copy" (ripoff) of an Intellect Devourer from all editions! Tarmor also kindly provided me with a couple of pictures that I then used as paint references. Now that I've done the photography, I'll be adding some Gloss Varnish to the Brain Diner, and these two will be done and dusted. Since I rarely play D&D/Pathfinder (every few months I play the occasional session run by Orez. I think we're level 3 or so?) I don't know when or if these will ever see the table in their "proper" form, much like that not-Purple Worm. Anyway, both figures were reasonably quick and easy to paint, and the various blending of tones was fun and turned out pretty decently as well. Now it's back to bloody goblins!

I bought this pair of Pre-KS Bones over a year ago, but they got put to one side for most of that time when I had to pack up to move, then move, and unpack and so forth. Recently I finished them, and finally we had some decent light, so today they got photographed. There's a bit of mould line that I missed on one of them. Noticed it when it was too late, and I didn't want to butcher my paint in order to fix it. You barely notice in person, anyway. I used some Woodland Scenics Water Effects to create the beginning of the "drool", some WC Realistic Water over the top to smooth it out, and some Vallejo Model Colour Clear Yellow to add a touch of colour to the discharge. These suckers took awhile to get going, but once I actually sat down to make myself paint them they were quite an enjoyable experience. Originally they were all-purple, then I looked up the D&D colouration, which said they had yellow bellies/undersides, which I thought would look far too cartoony, but it kept bothering me. A day or two later I came back to them and used some sand and ochre shared for the "yellow" to make them look much more like natural colouration, and it worked for me. I used some pinky-purple for the transition ridge between the ochre and the main dark bluish-purple for the main body. One of the things I enjoyed most was the fact that since these are cheap Bones models, I allowed myself to play with them a lot more. I used drybrushing, blending, a purple oil paint wash at one stage, the aforementioned realistic water products, and a few weathering powders in the end. Basically a lot of experimentation and "play", and I think they turned out pretty successful in the end! More pics on my blog, including a scale shot with a SM, an Orc and a Gobbo. I didn't want to overdo it here...