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Here is the 4th of 5 party members, done and painted! I would have added more color, but I was working off of a picture reference, so this guy is the "man in black".

While I've been relatively inactive, my lovely wife has not. She's been working on a selection of figures some of which in my admittedly biased opinion are much better than anything I've ever done >.> 77265 - Drys, Dryad I love this figure and the paint job is so subtle. The shading on the greens is superb - unfortunately, I'll have to work out how to link the front again : ) EDIT - front of dryad: https://goo.gl/photos/1FRcQ5ZqZoqGt3dCA 77313 - Krug, Hill Giant Yet again, some gorgeous shading on this figure. 77314 - Golan, Hill Giant This figure is very... uh, purple. But I think it works well. I might have to go over it and tidy up some of the tree branch club - the paint coverage isn't as good as it could be. But still a lovely bit of work. 89013 - Ezren, Iconic Wizard She has this annoying tendancy to rattle off freehand that's better than my "paint by numbers" detail work, elf her eyes! This one was a fairly fast paint, with not as much shading as she's done elsewhere. 89014 - Seltyiel, Iconic Magus She refers to this one as her "Michael Jackson" figure, for obvious reasons : )

Painted this guy up to be my hubby's new illusionist character. I had a love/hate thing going with him (Seltyiel not my hubby) for the past couple of days. He has so many little fiddly bits and it was hard to tell what some things were. Even looking at painted examples in the Inspiration Gallery didn't always work so I guessed at a few things. I am also not a huge fan of the spell effect thingie. There are some things I am super proud of and some....not so much. He is for playing with though so I tried not to stress too much about the mistakes. So, here he is just in time for tomorrow's game, Seltyiel who from now on will be known as Finagus the Illusionist who is also an archaeologist.

Here are the latest PC models chosen by my players, painted quickly to get them ready for the game. They are all escaped slaves in the Underdark. I don't recall what names they gave them, just the class. 77047 Goldar - Fighter 77149 Damien - Sorceror 89014 Seltyiel - Druid 77061 Kord - Barbarian 77040 Satheras - Warlock

Seltyiel is a typical Werner Klocke miniature with tons of minute detail like buckles, studs and other trinkets. Because of the amazing amount of detail, I felt like he was an excellent candidate for a Bones vs. Metal challenge. Goals for this challenge included: 1) Paint all 5 figures at a very high level so as to demonstrate the differences between the figures. 2) Paint all 5 figures at a very high level so as to highlight the similarities between the figures. 3) Boggle your minds. 4) Work on some complicated painting techniques to push my comfort level. 5) Not try and replicate DKS' legendary paint job. Each figure got the same treatment, and the figures were routinely varied in terms of which one got details painted first to last. Every figure had mould lines removed, based, primed with Reaper brush on primer, and then a base-coat wash of blue liner. Ironically, both the metal and Bones versions of the same figure helped me to pluck out details on the opposing surfaces. For instance, there are metals rings hanging off of studded leather straps that appear in exquisite detail on the Bones figures, which were all but nonexistent on the metal version! By comparison, the bracers on the metal version were better defined than that of the Bones version. Artistically, my goal with using OSL on this particular figure was to create a flow of transition from cool tones to warm tones across the miniature. The cool tones being cold firelight cast from the fire spell manifestation, while the warm glow of an ally's flickering torchlight glows off his other shoulder. I opted to also work toward a dramatic dark-light effect from the front; essentially a more neutral third source of light from the front. If the gold appears to be a little flat, that was a choice so as to not diminish the fire OSL effect on the sword hilt, etc. I realize that some of my transitions are not as smooth as several figures I've recently posted. Painting five figures with this level of detail with the mental considerations I was factoring stretched me very thin and I find at certain times my patience just wasn't what I normally have. I opted to make things even more difficult on myself by making the sword blades of each Seltyiel crystalline instead of metal since crystals are also not my strongest. Each base is different and gave me an opportunity to keep figures straight with respect to which ones are metal and which ones are Bones. I've never painted water before, so I got to practice water effect with 2 of the bases, and then decided to paint up a swamp water looking base on a third. The dungeon flood and swamp terrain bases were my own sculpting. The rock base and two water bases are resin from Dark Age Miniatures. At ReaperCon 2015 I will be showing all 5 together. Brad (chaosscorpion) and Terry (Bonwirn) will each take one home with them. The colors I used were all Reaper MSP paints and each figure was painted with the same Reaper #1 Round brush: Blue liner, oiled leather, blue sapphire, maggot white, burgundy wine, dark elf shadow, dusky skin highlight, light blue, worn navy, midnight blue, nightshade purple, bright turquoise, ultramarine shadow, emerald green, black green, carnival purple, rusty red, pale saffron, sun yellow, tusk ivory, nightmare black, fair skin, mahogany. Conclusions: 1) Bones figures are far more forgiving than metal figures specifically because the depth of features isn't so dramatic and some of the more shallow features actually make it easier to paint at a higher level. 2) Loss of detail happens in any mould, metal or plastic. 3) Own the metal and Bones version of any figure and they will help you paint one another up better. 4) Pushing your abilities as a painter and posting your work is the only way to get better. 5) Bones vary by batch with respect to softness and firmness of the plastic and sharpness of features; firmer Bones tend to be very close to the metal version.

Mangu Timur feathered serpent & Faerie Dragon Tereziyna, bonepander wizard aka Ms Violet Damiel, Iconic Alchemit Mr. Bones Halbarand, cleric - generic sun god symbol (free handed) Seltyiel, iconic magus and that's everything that would fit in the case: Below is all that remains for me to paint in Bones 1: the rest were sold/traded away. Its not my goal to paint them all before Bones 2 comes in, but ..... Comments and criticisms welcome. I want to get better.

Man, there's a lot of details on these minis. Every time you think you are finished you see a buckle or something you missed. Some of the detail gets a bit muddy in the Bones material, but overall these have been fun to paint. Nice to not have to make color choices sometimes... Related note - how the heck does everyone pronounce Seltyiel? I love me some Pathfinder but the names sometimes... Damiel Seelah Ezren Seltyiel

Finally finished(ish) my players' PCs for our ongoing game of D&D. They all still need bases, and there was one latecomer whose mini I'm going to start in earnest now, but the figures themselves are done so I thought I'd show you guys. (All are in Bones.) First is Daughter Ren, human cleric of Broxin, homebrew goddess of motherhood and honorable combat. Her face is a little wonky, in large part due to a botched facial-reconstructive surgery on my part, since she came without a nose. Still, I'm pretty pleased with how she came out. A good experiment in highlighting red, into orange on her coat and into white on the gemstones. It's a pity they discontinued this mini; I'd really like another go at her in another color scheme but can't see myself getting the metal one anytime soon. Next is Kaida, eladrin rogue. Pretty simple, but I do really like her face and the color-shifting(?) on her cloak. The sealer turned out too shiny on her; some of those highlights aren't actually paint. Perra Bloodbane, dragonborn fighter, was relatively simple, by comparison. I'm not thrilled with her little cloth thing, and I need to learn how to shade yellow better (though I'd sort of figured it out by the time I did Ren). Pretty pleased with the flaming sword (which I added from a spare paladin after she got one in-game), and my light OSL on the armor, where I used a mix of silver and copper paint to indicate the reflection of the fire. Next is Lillith, elven druid, who was quite an adventure to paint (you can find a partial WIP here). I don't like the sculpt very much to begin with, the cast is weird and bumpy, and then my initial attempt to paint it turned out alarmingly garish. Pingo's suggestion of a unifying colored shadow sorted me out though, and I ended up pretty pleased with the final result. She's pictured here with her "animal companion," a dog whose name I don't remember. Last up is Lalopan Maxia, half-elf Star Pact warlock. I'm really proud of him. I got a little drained towards the end, so some of the fiddly bits are a little rougher than I'd like, but for the most part I think he's one of my best minis to date, especially in the face area. I also really like his sword blade; it was a pretty effective study in shaded metallics. Comments and criticisms welcome! (Yes, I know I need to do something about the bases and also that I need to dust my minis before I take pictures of them.)