Search the Community

Couple I finished over the weekend.

Was planning on doing him in all red and blue when I first seen this mini got such a DR STRANGE vibe from it but when got to the cloak and seen all those diamond patterns chickened out real fast lol.

Amazed that the arms glued on strong and perfectly with no help from putty. That has to be a first ever for me.

Well, I did it. this is the last of the Elmore dragons that Darksword Miniatures makes. This miniature is based on a pencil sketch by Larry Elmore and is one of the tallest freestanding dragons I have in my collection. He is also one of my favorite miniatures. from the huge wingspan to the quirky happy/puzzled expression on his face, this dragon is just amazing. He has also been sitting in his box waiting patiently for years because for years I thought he was a brown dragon which made him what I considered a real challenge to paint well. Some reading and thought later and he has found his stride as a bronze dragon. It was also an excuse to break out some of my new color change paints on his wings to see what they look like over a broad expanse. The answer, as you will see below is amazing to look at, very difficult to capture in pictures. So anyway I thought I would let everyone see him. I hope you like what you see! Here he is from the front with the color effect from the color change paints in the down position and here he is again with the color change in the up position. the color flare is really pretty amazing in real life but I just cant seem to capture it well.

I'm painting this up for the BBEG this weekend. Last night I tried the layering technique for black by using multiple thin layers of complementary colors. Someone posted the artist and demo on the Reaper fan page a couple of weeks back when someone asked about painting black. If anyone knows the artist or link, please let me know since I can't find it. I highly recommend it. While these pics don't show the various tones of colors, it looks like rich black with some depth vs going flat like some black paints do. I love the effect. However, I will say it doesn't work as well on something more curvy. I was also trying it on another mini for her top and she'd very curvaceous. It looked a little weird so I just repainted it. So that being said, I'd love some thoughts on what to do about the collar piece and gloves he has. Should I do the same black treatment or go with a different color? I think I'm going to do his pants in a gray so the focus is more on his armor. Thanks!

Here are a few random Darksword minis I've painted over the last few months. I tried to stick to an earthy color palette for most of them. Male Blind Warrior, SKU: DSM7417, and Young Hedge Knight - Dual Wield, SKU: DSM5026 Male Range with Wineskin, SKU: DSM7403 Male Elven Ranger with Bow, SKU: DSM7451. This one is a gift for my brother. He wanted an "Aragorn-esque" ranger mini. Male Warrior with Battle Axe, SKU: DSM7427, and Female Elven Archer, SKU: DSM1196

Maester Luwin - from Darksword George RR Martin collection he definitely looks like a worried advisor rather than a commanding wizard.

Another of last months work, I wanted to try two things with this mini, first practice on some osl, but mainly wanted to see how far I could push the shadows on a white cloak, hoping for almost a pure black. But I failed miserably, when I had up to reapers 09137 Blackened Brown It just didn't feel/look right to me so this was the darkest I could get. I also did something weird for me as well painting the hair a weird color for kicks.

well thought I's post this month's work so far.

well I thought I'd post some of the work I did this month so far.

So, a very long time ago, somewhere around the turn of the millennia, when I started buying minis (not counting that dragon I bought in the early 90s...which I should get around to painting one of these days....) I came across a miniature that would change the course of history! Well, my history anyway, because if I hadn't seen it I likely wouldn't be posting about all these other minis I bought because if it, not to mention all the butterfly bunny effects that that one change would have made to the timeline....but I digress. One that faithful day I spotted the legendary (and apparently back in print!!) Doom Bunny from Ral Partha. I, of course, had to have it. It then sat (as is usual) unpainted for years. Then one day, while GMing a campaign, I decided to run an entire rabbit themed night as we were playing on Easter Monday. The campaign either had (I think, unless this was the first animal night....I think the Bovine Liberation Army came first....) , or ended up having an animal theme for a bit so all was good. I painted up the Doom Bunny and my wife painted up 4 Reaper bunnies from some familiar set or another (must have been one with weasels in it, I needed a bunch of those for a Hackmaster thing). I had a very fun time running the bunnies (unlike the BLA final encounter...anyone remember how long it took to create a high level minotaur blackguard in 3.x? It got critted 3 times in the first round and went down in the second. It got to act once and rolled a 2 or something....but I'm not bitter....) and since that time have gone out of my way to collect rabbit figures of all sorts. So, long story, er, long, it's time to start thinking about painting the rest. A big motivation for this is that I recently went in on a Killer Rabbits kickstarter and have a horde more coming soon. The other motivator to get going was Reaper releasing 03929: Drangus, Duckman Warrior, the hereditary enemy of bunnies everywhere! So step one was to find them. I spent a good hour digging through boxes and I "think" I found them all (excluding any painted exchange figures I may have received due to mentioning in EVERY survey I've done for years). So at the front we have the 4 Reaper bunnies and the Doom Bunny. The grey resin is Bombshell, as are their little doom bunny and jackelope (it still counts!) sidekicks. The right side are all Darksword. The left in front are Oathsworn. Back left there are 6 spear bunnies that I believe were Ral Partha from the same era as the Doom Bunny (they have the same shields). And at the back is Nibbles, from CMoN's Arcadia Quest, which a friend ordered for me with their KS order. BTW, if you know of any other bunny figs, feel free to mention them here, or PM me directly if you prefer. I'm always on the lookout for more. Up next will be bagging all the multipart figs now that I've got them sorted, then figuring out what to start with. That may not be a quick process, but I'll (theoretically) get there.

well thought I'd post this month's work so far.

well just thought i's post some of my last month's work.

well just thought i's post some of my last month's work.

well just thought I'd post some of last month's work.

Just finished this for my sister! Hope it arrives close ish to Christmas but at least it's finally done - only been planning it since last year or so. These are the Darksword minis Owlbear and cubs, as my sissy has two kids, and we joke a lot about going all momma bear, I thought this would be perfect for her :D She's also a hunter so a woodland scene is right up her alley. Not my best job tbh, I'm pleased it came out ok but was hoping to get more detail etc in. I'd wanted to make the trees but no time =/ Better to get it done than sit on it another year. It's in a softball display case, on a wood base I picked up at Michaels. So no need to dust!

again more of my November work. why paint him.... because who doesn't luv dragons and to be dragon born.

again more of my November work. Even thou I will be forever a Reaper Mini lover, I find myself developing a crush on some of the darksword stuff.

I sculpted this wolf for Darksword last spring. I got a couple copies of it last week. Friday night, I decided to paint a version of it for a friend's 11 year-old girl who is crazy about wolves. When asked how she wanted it painted, she said tan with black stripes and spots. That took me a bit to get my head around, but I took the challenge and here is what I painted. It took me about 3 hours.

I've had a lot of fun this august painting a bunch of miniatures. The first of them is that gorgeous sculpt from Darksword miniatures. Their figures have that old school fantasy look that it's really enjoyable, and a pleasure to paint. I love the character Medea, from Greek Mythology: my first idea was to copy the Medea on "Medea and Jason" from Pre-Raphaelite artist John William Waterhouse: but then I realized I've been using a red palette too much lately, so I changed to an orange-yellow one I've been wanting to try since I painted Ariel's wings. Since I've also abandoned the freehand arabesque I planned to paint and gived her a tan, the resemblance to what had to be is near to zero right now... Ultimately I'm happy with it, although I may have overhighlighted it. P.S. Thanks to the photo I realize now I painted her strabic....

Pretty late in the mini to start a WIP but I could use some thoughts and suggestions, in particular in the area of contrast. I am looking to bring up the contrast on the scales but I don't want to shift to an orange or pink. The skin shows a decent contrast but to my eye it's more orange than red at this point. I love the different shading going on for each scale type but I want more from the upper body scales without going into orange and yellow. My challenge to myself this year is to gel my reds to be red. It's not an easy color to work with and a lot of these paints are either transparent or chalk when thinned. It has been a long road to get this far but I want a richer color. Thoughts would be welcomed along with critique. Pictures were snapped off my work bench but I will shoot for better ones this weekend. In the meantime... the photos are raw and taken without flash to try and show the pieces in the most natural light The body. Trying for three textures plus the crest. The heavy armored back scales are under layered with corpreal shadow to make them stand out, then shaded from a dark purple red to blood red. The body scales are undershaded with brick red and shaded up to a highlight of Phoenix red. The body skin on the arms starts at Gore red and shaded up to a lantern yellow. Problem is with the body. I would like more highlight but whatever I try changes the tone to either orange or pink. The head: still a work in progress. Needing to clean up the horns and again highlight without going to the orange or pink Upper side of wing. Looking pretty good although a set of missed mold lines is making me repaint the horns Wing underside. Subdued and darker as this part is solidly cast in shadow and the horns are in the process of being repainted... again So thanks again for anyone who would like to help out.

That frog is finished.. finally...going to take some rest from scene set doing some more simple figure and base before go into my next one ( already have an idea with Reaper bones figure this time :D ) My WIP for this project here : http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/81457-darksword-frog-hunter/

Well..let keep it busy, so starting a new minis / scenery with this cute frog and it bumblebee :) Just to change from the big muscle fighter guys or the green guy haha ( well frog skin may tend to be greenish though...) So very first beginning..as I do usually zenithal prime on the figure..and blocked out my base shape ( this one I am going to use the water texture from Vallejo, thus the hole made in the base )

Something I painted for a friend. This is tiefling #2 of 5 so far. Hoping that before he starts the new campaign that players may pick as their characters. A short work in progress can be found on my just for fun blog/website EYEDAMAGEART Fire and Ice!