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Here's another one that's an Etsy find. The printer I bought a few from tossed some randos into the box and this was one of them. I have 3 more in this fox/cat collection I'll get around to at some point. This little one was supposed to be a deeper blue and purple color, but I started punching up the highlights and went a bit nuts. I'm struggling still with placement of highlights, but it's getting better each time.

I've never taken so long, after starting to paint a miniature, to finish it. She is Svetlana, the Frost Giant Princess. The metal version is DHL 3431; in Bones, she's 77107. Read below the pics for the backstory of sculpting and painting. THE SAGA I sculpted her in 2009, from this drawing by Wayne Reynolds: He designed some other frost giants and the new icy-themed dark elf faction for Reaper around that time. Werner Klocke had recently sculpted Reaper's fire giant queen, with a clever metal-saving design: a body cast in front-and-back parts that left a hollow center. I stole that idea for the front giant princess. I took my sculpting kit along on my 3-week bicycle ride from ReaperCon '09 (late May) to Asheville, North Carolina (mid-June). I didn't sculpt much along the ride, but I do remember a day in Monteagle, Tennessee, when the fog was so thick I didn't want to risk being on the road. I gave my legs a rest that day and spent a few hours sculpting in my hotel room. I finished sculpting the figure in late July, and she was released in September. Some folks on the Reaper Forum debated whether the princess's face was exposed skin or a mask. I weighed in here. You can see how different people have painted her over the years, mostly with masks. I didn't get around to painting my own version with the bare skin. I got a metal copy of this figure in late 2009 or early 2010. May 2010: 1 hour cleaning the figure. ((wait 1 year 10 months)) March 2012: 4 hours assembling the body (but not the left hand and spear), and using Greenstuff to patch the gaps and adding volume to the back of the hair. April 2012: 3 hours doing a primer coat / value-study in White and Black Brush-On Primer. ((wait 3 years)) April 2015: 5 hours verifying the assembly, attaching the hand, refining the shape of the eyes a bit, setting wires for the extra hair strand & the spear strap (in WAR's sketch but not the stock figure), and then sculpting over the wires. Thin things like these can make a miniature look more dynamic and realistic because they aren't limited by the considerations for casting. (I got that advice from Jeremie Bonamont when he was at ReaperCon one year.) WIP pics then: That evening / night / early morning, I spent another 7 hours in 3 sessions roughing in blended base coats over everything. And then I lost interest. She went into the cabinet. ((wait 5 years 9 months)) I decided to include the fox in some way. (The fox goes with Feiya the Pathfinder iconic witch, #60048, sculpted by Julie Guthrie.) I occasionally got nebulous ideas for an ice/snow base, but I never sat down to give physical form to these ideas. Jan-Feb 2021: She called to me again at 1am one night / morning. I painted until 5:30am. More painting sessions over the following week, and then basing. Built the base from rough masses to final shapes -- just start building, and then edit and refine. Devised the sticks-with-straps elements to fill the front-right area and show the wind. Added the snow, including drifts and footprints. Refined the colors, especially the ice-spear and the snow. Glazed, glazed, glazed. In all, about 50 hours over the last 3 weeks. And for now, she is finished. I think the sculpt holds up pretty well, though I deviated on several points from WAR's sketch (partly from my own design sense, but mostly from my lack of sculpting skill). If I were sculpting her today, I could do better on some proportions and making the fur and hair more spiky/icy than wavy. Thanks for reading! Enjoy! Derek

One of the newer minis from Dark Sword Miniatures. I saw this at the beginning of December and immediately thought of my best friend. As it took me until just this past week to finally find time to paint her, and my BFF lives in London, it's a much belated Christmas present. But worth the wait, I think. She has a little friend hiding in the flora too.

So I was really proud of this guy, am planning on submitting this for the inspiration Gallery I think it was new for bones 3, so this may be one of the first painted. Oh there is a metal version - sculpted and painted by DKS. aw man.... I need to fix some stuff. Also when I first based it the leaves were too bright and stole attention. (also a criticism of my Reapercon entry) So I tried adding some dull brown paint to tone it down. I think it worked and may go back and do the same to Treetop Pheonix.

So... Reaperbrian got my account fixed! 2 years of fiddling with it and he fixed it in like 2 minutes. I haven't done the water color for this one yet. The sculpt is finished though. The picture is a bit pixilated which is making the face look granny when it isn't, in the final picture.

Long time lurker, second time poster, first time upload. Here is the Frost Giant Queen from the Reaper Bones 3 Kickstarter for your consideration. I was unable to participate in the Bones 3 Kickstarter as I came upon these Bones figures late in the game. However, the participants who were able placed their unwanted miniatures up on eBay, so I took advantage of opportunity when presented. I focused on Color Theory and Texture on this piece as she provided a very large palette to paint upon. These Giants provided me practice in sketching too, which makes the entire line appealing to me. Side note: Gratitude to those who did place these minis up on eBay without jacking up the prices. I was able to purchase the both Frost Giant Royalty around cost of what Reaper will sell them at Retail. This certainly displays an ethos in the Reaper community that makes this community stand out among others. Further, having lurked for awhile: the community here is quite kind and helpful. This is a good community of miniature painters. I like the Bones miniature range. The detail on this miniature was very close to what I expect from the metal range, and I will purchase more of the Bones range in the future. I am looking forward to the resculpt of Vanya, the Fire Giant Princess, and her new size to match the Fire Giants in D&D. The attire of this miniature is akin to the Viking attire of old, and I found my SCA ventures to assist me in painting this Viking Apron and embellishments. The sculptor did an outstanding job and I look forward to more of their work. The FAQs were an asset that made my first foray into Bones an easier one. I had difficulty with flash lines until I picked up some diamond files, which handled them quite well without marring detail like my serrated files. The bent pieces were fixed with some boiling water and cold water quite easily. The pieces fit together like a glove, though I admit I still pinned them. (My OCD was tingling.) I did use Krylon as Primer, and the tackiness disappeared after the first coat of paint. She was sealed only with Krylon Dull Cote and exhibits no tackiness. She has been handled and there is no rubbing off of paint. I like how her base was round, though I am ignorant of what would be an appropriate Reaper base to place this inside of. (I currently have the King on a GW Dreadnought base, and I do not like it. If anyone reads this and has a recommendation, I surely would appreciate it.) This Bones line of miniatures has proven to me to be a Good Idea and one I will support. I am already purchasing more of the Bones 2 line for my D&D and Oldhammer alternatives, and I admit excitement at the new of Bones 4. Based on the quality of these miniatures: you will have an additional participant. Please keep up the outstanding quality and amazing work. I hope you enjoy my efforts. C&C is always appreciated: it is the only way an Artist can improve. May your blends be smooth. Peace and blessings.

Two copies, primed with Titanium White and a wash of Burnt Umber: This is a Kitsune figure Reaper offers only as part of a set. I got mine from two copies of 03495: DHL Classics: Lady Lycanthropes (which also includes a werewolf and a weretiger). She also comes in the set 02900: Beastmen of the Wyld (which also includes a boar-man and an elk-man (American elk or wapiti, not European elk or moose)). I will confess, I had seen her around in the store and thought her sculpt only okay and kind of flat looking. But then a couple of gorgeously painted examples changed my mind: So I got two copies of 03495: DHL Classics: Lady Lycanthropes, since I knew I was going to need lycanthropes for a game soon and there aren't too many females out there. Just to get a sense of place I sloshed a little drab green, mixed from Burnt Sienna, Yellow Oxide, and a dab of Phthalocyanine Green, onto their bases. I decided to paint one up as a silver fox and one as a classic red fox. Using my standard method of slopping some beginning colors on, I mixed up a neutral grey from Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna plus some white and daubed it on one of the figures (plus some pure white on the tail tip). I took some of the straight Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna mix -- which is a transparent dark near-black with violet overtones -- and laid it on the silver fox in the standard places. If you Google silver foxes they are beautiful, almost like Siamese cats, with silver heads and backs and black legs, tail, ears, and face. I did similar things with the reddish kitsune. I mixed a dull rusty red from Burnt Sienna, Yellow Oxide, a dab of Titanium White, and a minuscule amount of Phthalo Green to grey it down just a hair, then I daubed it on the parts of a fox that would be red. I washed her darker bits with that same Ultramarine Blue-Burnt Sienna near-black, and a light brushing of pure white on her tail tip. Then I took some pure Carbon Black and laid in their eyes, noses, and lips. It's really hard to see on the silver fox, but there is a difference between it and the "black" on her face. So they are a real mess right now, but there should be some interesting developments as we go along.

Since I posted some of my work where I converted certain reaper miniatures into kitsune a while ago, I figured I would post one of the newer kitsune that I've painted recently. I got this miniature from "Everyman Gaming", they have been getting a site called imagine3dminiatures.com to 3d print miniatures for them. This miniature was a bit difficult to paint because I had to clean off a lot of plastic nubs that were leftover from the 3d printing process. I kept finding more even after I primed the miniature. I also had to cut the mini off of its 30mm base and glue it to one of reaper's 1 inch scale bases. However, in the end the mini came out very well! Well, some parts came out a bit messy, like the gold on the shield, and the black wash. Luckily, in real life people won't be able to see the messy black wash that I put on the mini, lol. Painting this mini was a lot of fun, so I'm planning to paint Everyman's nine tailed kitsune miniature soon :D

Note: All of these are from Reaper Bones #77176 (familiar pack) I haven't done the bases for these yet, those will be done later. I also accidentally deleted the photo of the ferret... Sorry. First up, the Fox. Not bad... Not GOOD, but not bad either. Second, the Cat. I decided to do it as a Siamese cat, 'cause it doesn't look too "fluffy", and I hate black cats (even though both of mine happen to be black...). Though it turned out okay, I did notice afterwords the large seam along it's back (too late now), and that I failed to do a proper "fade" on it's front-right leg... The rest faded nicely though. Thirdly, the Bird. Too small to be a hawk (which I already did with the "animals pack" anyway), and too small to be a raven (which would be boring to paint anyway), I went with a Blue Jay... I'd like to remind you how small this figure actually is (about the size of my fingernail) - so I think I got a pretty darned good amount of detail on it, all things considered. :D Note 2: I didn't do the bat yet, nor the fairy dragon... I'll show off the bat, faerie dragon, and ferret later in another "batch".

This was a christmas gift from my sister that I am finally opening and starting. Got the kirin pieced together and greenstuffed. It will be painted like an Okapi

just playing with these to get some more done. I had to increase the ear size on this model. I would like to say the new size is preposterous but when you look at the pictures of these critters, they are just about half ears. I could probably have done a better job filling the space between old and new ear but I wanted to keep the fuzzy texture of the ear. What's done is done. Overall I like the way his face came out and the desert pastels were an nice change to work with. let me know what you think. He will be coming to a desert oasis near you...

Hi folks! Now that Flamehawke's received my Secret Sophie box, I wanted to share the miniature I painted for her. She enjoys mythology so I painted this mini based on the markings of silver foxes (which have darker leg fur patterns). It was really fun to find & paint something that matched with the "kitsune" theme of the Secret Sophie gift. This werefox archer is one of Reaper's "Lady Lycanthropes"in the 03495 pack. I had a bit of a snafu with the top part of the bow breaking off while cleaning which halted the process for over a week, though thanks to some advice from the Reaper Sculpting part of the forum, I was able to sculpt & patch it back up-- hard to tell, huh? She was a lot of fun to paint and I'm so happy to hear she's going to a good home where she may see some game time!! --Mocha

Lets play a game! I will post a picture of an animal miniature I have painted. Then, someone posts a pic of an animal mini they have painted. I will then follow with an animal mini, and so on. Real animals only, extant or extinct. Most of mine are speedpaints, so grab a mini and join in! At the edge of the woods your party sees.....a red fox! Reaper Miniatures fox familiar on 25mm base.

I wonder what god he prays to? Loving the Critter Kingdom minis.

I must say, the small size of these models (especially the smaller of them) made this a nice challenge. I did my best to find reference photos of real animals to use as a basis for painting them, which was a big help. I have two sets of each of these, and with the exception of the wolf, wolverine, and bat, I painted the duplicates differently, to provide more variety. Here are pictures of the Animal Familiars: Bat, Crow, Red Fox, Weasel, and a 'black' cat. Bat, hawk, grey fox, ferret, and a brown-striped tabby cat. And here are pictures of the Animal Companions: Snow leopard, vulture, wolverine, wolf, brown bear. Black panther, falcon, wolverine, wolf, black bear.

Working on finishing up some minis for July, during the 24 hour challenge I managed to paint a few hours each day and finished up my Kirin. The foxes pictured here have since made it to their new base but rather than make a separate thread I figured I could sneak them onto this one to count for the RPChallenge until I get the rest of the piece finished. I decided to have some fun with my Kirin and go for a bit unnatural color scheme, I haven't quite decided if I like it or not but its starting to grow on me. I may revisit his base as I hurried through it and it shows, but for now I am checking him off as complete. And for now a quick picture of my foxes.

A bonus mini for this months resolutionary challenge! Canine from 77176: Familiars pack I know it is not supposed to be a fox, but I wanted to do one and this one was close enough. It is a rather big fox though. 20mm base.

Next up are a pair of Kitsune from Stonehaven. (if anyone can't tell I like their minis) :D These are rather flat without some serious manipulation of the tails and, in the females case, the arms too. But overall they came out pretty good. Tried for a classic starfox coloration on the male and a classic anime on the female. Not sure if I got it but I like how both came out. Once again Happy Seppuku base stamps to the for on the bases. Riverbed on the female and Urban Jungle on the male. Enjoy! QCC still welcome!

Hey, I'm new around here and would like to share some WIP pictures of a custom miniature project that I've been working on lately. This is the first time I've done anything like this, so suggestions are appreciated :D I recently created a Kitsune Sorcerer character for Pathfinder and have been driven crazy by the complete lack of suitable miniatures to represent him with. After doing a lot of searching and some research I finally decided to attempt some 'miniature surgery' to create one of my own. The pictures below are of the best 'prototype' I've been able to come up with so far. I'm planning to eventually redo this once I've perfected my methods (hopefully with nine tails instead of three, but I'm not sure if that will work out too well). Basically, I took two Reaper miniatures (a werefox and a "Piers, Young Mage"), cut their heads off with a jewelry saw, and glued the fox head to the mage. I made a few mistakes here: the mage's pony tail wasn't cut off properly and I didn't use the same metal types for the minis, but I'm hoping to correct that in a final version. After that, I coiled three copper wires together, drilled a hole for them (set so it looks like they come out from under his robe of course), and glued them to the mini to serve as a base for the tails. Then I used some Procreate putty for the tails themselves. Yea, someone with more experience could have done a better job with the fur and shape of the tails themselves, but I'm relatively happy with how it came out ;) I'm going to prime and paint this mini to serve as a placeholder until I perfect my methods. I'll post the finished pictures at some point. The main thing I need to figure out is a way to remove the ponytail from the Piers mini without creating a messed up area on the back of the 'robe'. I'm currently trying to shave it off with a dremel, but the thing skips around way too easily on even the lowest setting. Maybe I'm using the wrong type of dremel head for this kind of metalwork?