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The Ivar Dwarf Priest hammer appears incomplete as if it didn't get enough plastic in the mold. Perhaps this is a short shot. See pic of my mini's hammer compared to a completed example. Q: Is this common for Reaper Bones minis? Do people usually seek a replacement or use green stuff to sculpt up the missing portion? The Anirion Elf Wizard has a strange curtain effect between the staff and the robe. Unsure if this mini was sculpted like this or if this is also a mold-making error. See pic of situation. Q: How would you approach this strange nether land of material between the staff and the robe? Carve out what should be a gap? Paint a vertical black 'gap'? Other? Thank you for helping a new Reaper painter. Edit: Q: Should we still follow the 150k image size limit per rules, or do y'all usually post a little better resolution?

Finished my first mini this year, and oddly enough it was a speedpaint, taking just over an hour... On the flipside, some of those colours work together really, REALLY well, like Sunrise Orange and Heart Throb Paint.

I recently finished Anirion! It was time to add layering to my toolbox of techniques and he seems to be the go-to model for learning. Since by I now have (just) over 10 minis under my belt, I'm obviously an expert so I felt confident enough to go with my own colors rather than the ones in the instructions (from Layer-Up kit). Still, even with my "vast experience", I've only painted beasts and monsters so far -- no fancy clothing on any of them -- so I was a bit nervous about messing up my first hero, but you gotta start somewhere. I think he turned out great, but it went nothing like the videos one might find... And by that I mean it took me several painting sessions over a few weeks to finish him. More on how it went on: pocketsizedadventurers.wordpress.com/2019/10/19/anirions-wavy-robes/ * * First post, woo-hoo! Still finding my way around here. Rules seem to allow non-commercial external links, let me know if I'm wrong... Our blog, Pocket-Sized Adventurers, features the works of two newbies and is meant to keep track of our progress and share our experience with whomever might find it helpful.

I liked painting this figure, did it for a friend from my d&d party. He's using it as his half-elf druid. We are both happy with it overall Hope you like it too! I also tried fiddling with lighting and a background for the first time so if you have any tips on what I could have done better with the photos please share :) Thanks for looking!

Painted (mostly) by-the-numbers, Anirion: This was a departure from my normal style of painting, and I made a number of mistakes, but wanted to stick to the instructions and see how it all turned out. All things considered, I think it looks decent. I didn’t worry about trying to correct the bend in the staff or any mold lines. And I added a third highlight layer (more yellow) to the robes, to make them pop just a bit more. The camera washed these out, it seems. The little details probably deserved more attention, but the focus here was clearly on the robes. I think I did learn a few new things, hopefully for the better. More practice will help. Comments and critiques welcome.

This was my favorite project of 2017 due to how much I pushed my abilities in creating it. It was my first major conversion of this sort, first time doing texture, first major use of OSL, and first Sci Fi base built fully from scratch. So lots of firsts with this one. Those of you who followed my WIP thread know what I went through with this one; the OSL dilemma, redoing the base, and sculpting new hands at the last minute. In all I am proud that I stepped out of my comfort zone and I cannot give enough thanks to those who posted in the WIP thread, your encouragement gave me the push that I needed. So this conversion is the result of critique I received at ReaperCon 2016 regarding my Open entry, it was to up the difficulty of my conversions. When I got home I went through the Reaper web store and found minis that I call "blank slates", ones that I felt would be a good base for multiple conversions. I found a few that sparked an idea but the one that I got stuck on was Anirion and how he would make the perfect Jedi. So he was the project I choose for my ReaperCon 2017 Open entry but I made myself focus on having fun with it and not worrying about it being perfect. When I was finished, I was extremely happy with the results but I knew that there were somethings that could be better. Knowing that, I was extremely surprised to find that I got a gold medal in Open and blown away when it was announced that I got the Open Silver Sophie. So again thank you to everyone who gave me feedback in the WIP thread. WIP thread: Wizard of a Different Sort: Anirion Conversion Conversion breakdown: -Reshaped hood and sleeves -Smoothed out cloak to remove border -Removed staff and bag? -Repositioned arms -Added light saber out of styrene and metal piece -Added some strands of hair -Resculpted hands

Painted yesterday with LTPK: Layer Up bought with Xmas monies. Followed directions from booklet with the exception of the shirt sleeves. The guide has red sleeves. I went with Heather Blue, and shaded with a wash of 1p Dark Highlights/1p Ebony Flesh/5p water. Layering is a tough skill for me. Several adjustments of shade and base back and forth. I skipped the lining; too cartoony for me. Highlights came easier. (Also bought MSP Starter Set) Tried to shadow Anirion's face on the left more as it is deeper in his cowl. Not the effect I was looking for, but it's time to move on to another mini. Primer: None Paints: Reaper LTPK paints Finish: Testor's Dullcoat As per Reaper's suggestion: I did not primer the mini, but I will in the future. I did wash it thoroughly with a toothbrush in hot soapy water. If you look at the right bottom hem of the cloak on the pic of the back you can see a chip out of the paint. That was the fourth such chip I had to retouch. Mini was never dropped or scraped. The paints simple didn't bond well. (All Reaper paints)

Alright, ReaperCon is just around the corner and I really need to get cracking on my entires. I already have a thread up for my planned Painter's entries and I will be doing separate ones for my Open and Diorama entries. So first off here is my Open entry, the Bones version of Anirion: Oh, wait that's not right ... Much better This conversion came to be due to one of the critiques I received last year and that was to up the difficulty of my conversions. So first thing I did was scan Reaper's site and pick out minis that would be a good base for conversions. I got a pretty good list but I really got stuck on Anirion and turning him into a Jedi. This is the result. Here is the conversion break down: -Reshaped hood and sleeves -Smoothed out cloak to remove border -Removed staff and bag? -Repositioned arms -Added light saber out of styrene and metal piece Now on to paint and basing. Here are some side by side comparisons.

Sneak peak at my "next" project. Custom base that I've been playing with (one of two). I made this from an old medicine jar, dollhouse crown molding (cast into a flexible piece), some strip styrene, balsafoam, smooth cast 300, alumalite quickset, and an old ring. I think that's it. Oh, and some Magic-Sculpt (two part clay) and let's not forget the tree bark. Still some clean up to do and more Magic-Sculpt/sculpting to bring the top (ground) piece together with the mountain.

My Reaper Learn to Paint kit just finally arrived after one set getting lost in the mail and the other taking its time. Last night I decided to end a stressful day by painting. Very pleased with how Anirion came out, would still like to refine my photo taking. The light tent I threw together is helping, but the natural highlights and shadows are still obscuring some detail. I think part of my problem is that I need to reconfigure the backdrop so that I can place the mini deeper into the tent.

Ahoi, I spent some time researching yew trees and owls the last weeks and created an old gnarly yew tree that can be removed from its base to place miniatures inside the hollow trunk and also has magnetized branches for easier transport. If you are interested how to make one yourself check out the detailed tutorial with many pictures on Dagger and Brush: Through a Forest, Darkly - How to Make an Ancient Yew Tree for 28mm Part I As you can see, Anirion is adventuring again:

So here is my take on Anirion, Wood Elf Wizard from the Vampire set from the first Kickstarter. I will be the first to admit that I might have gone a little crazy with the GW Agarax Earthshade wash on the robe (Especially on the back, you can see it just clumped and got goopy), but this was my first foray back into painting in about a year, and was kind of rushing it to get him finished for play. I know he doesn't look much like a Wood Elf, but that's because the player in my Campaign who I painted this for is quite fond of Fire Spells, so I used alot of hot colours, and then used the ice blue to sort of oppose the colour scheme and add some contrast. Doing the yellow line was also my first attempt at free hand painting. Like... Ever. I think he turned out a-okay for table top quality. Tell me what you think!

So I wanted to paint up an evil cult after seeing the excellent venom cult by Maglok in this thread http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/49517-the-venom-cult-lots-of-pics/?hl=cult I decided to go with a more stereotypical black robe cult look for a more generic bad guy look. First up, the 3 evil Acolytes from Otherworld Miniatures, I love these guys, they have so much character. Then I needed to expand the evil band, so Bones Anirion (77068) got drafted: And Satheras (Bones 77040). By popular demand from the Scary Autumn contest, here is how I did the staff Crystal: Pretty sure the main color was Winter Blue (Reaper HD 29817) with Mint Green (Reaper MSP 9263) and Pure White (Reaper MSP 9039). The top crystal facets got the darkest color, the middle facets got a mix of blue and mint green, and then the bottom facets and the crystal edges got a lighter mix of blue, green and white. Then to finish it off the top facets each got a tiny white dot. Even though I have a pint notebook next to my work area, I wold rather paint than write, so this is from memory. The Herald of Aglanda also joined, she/he got a pointier cowl with some green stuff: And the last member of the cult is a Lance and Laser monk from long ago: Group shots are always fun!

I'm not a big fan of elves, and I have very few (non-dark) elves in my collection. I picked these elves up several months ago (around January) so my friends without minis of their own could assemble elven warbands in Song of Blades and Heroes. Now they are finally painted. I kind of imagine these guys as an elven adventuring band in an elven land, You've got your fighter leader (Arthrand), a ranger/rogue (Nienna), requisite wizard (Anirion) and token demi-human (Drys), who also serves as Team Cleric (or, in this case, Team Druid). I get the sense that these guys would do okay in a dungeon, but would completely wreck a wilderness adventure. Also, I'm not prone to tooting my own horn, but I really feel with this set I've achieved two new personal bests. I think these guys represent some of the finest painting I've done yet, and a vast improvement in my digital photography skills. 14553: Arthrand Nightblade, Wood Elf Sergeant 02909: Nienna, Elf Ranger 03491: Anirion, Wood Elf Wizard 14479: Drys, Elven Dryad