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Gave a shot at this funky Dark Horse githyanki yesterday. I only had a few Dark Horse pieces circa 1983, not the sharpest sculpts, but always interesting and I loved their newsletter and indie vibe. I pulled out my old Fiend Folio for inspiration.

Here are some Spelljammer-esque minis that I have been working on. They've been in my collection for many years, so I don't really remember, but I think a few of them are Reaper. Githyanki Rogue Cleric Oriental Sorcerer

Once upon a time there was the first Bones Kickstarter, and one of the figures, Ellen Stone, came out of the mold somewhat lacking in the nose department, and people said, "What can you do with a noseless cowgirl?" and someone (It may even have been me) said, "Paint her up as an alien." Somewhat later I was musing over the Githyanki (who seem to keep cropping up in games I'm involved in) while sorting through my Bones minis looking for inspiration (as you do). In my bag of cowboys (Yes, I sort my Bones minis by theme), I ran across the old Ellen Stone figure, as well as a man's figure which, I realized upon close inspection, seemed to have a skull-like face, almost zombie-like, certainly lacking a nose. And something clicked and I thought "Oooh, yuss." Now, I don't absolutely know for certain that I ever will have a use for a couple of Githyanki desperadoes, and yet, here they are. First is the Bones Ellen Stone, SKU 80003. WIP thread here.

So, I started these a while ago as a kind of a giggle. This is kind of a catch-up thread, as I am pretty far along with them. I had been feeling the need for more Githyanki / Githzerai figures. Anyhow, I had the abortive Ellen Stone, Cowgirl figure (link is to the metal version) from the first Bones Kickstarter, the one that never made it to retail because she hasn't got a nose. Someone (it may have been me, if anyone feels like digging through the old posts) suggested painting the bodged Bones version up as an alien. Then I noticed this guy from, I think, Bones II, 91001: Stone from the "Savage Worlds" line, who looks like a sort of zombie-ish revenant cowboy with a gaunt build and a skull-like, noseless face. And it all clicked together. My normal prep for Bones figures these days is mild flash removal and a wash of dilute Reaper Brown Liner. I don't have any pix of the figures at that early stage, but here they are with a thin layer of pale banana yellow on their skin (the male figure appears to have gloves, but I'm going with bare hands anyway to emphasize his alienness). I mixed it from my favorite Golden matte fluid acrylics in Yellow Oxide and Titanium White. The point of this pale layer is to give an undertone to the skin so that one is not dealing with a single flat color. After the initial layer I rinsed over the skin with a very fine wash of a more orange tone mixed from Hansa Yellow Opaque (a very bright lemon yellow) and Golden heavy body Pyrrole Orange. Then I started building up the shapes and contours of the skin with various subtle golden browns, mostly mixed from Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Oxide, and Titanium White, and add more bright yellows based on Hansa Yellow Opaque. This is where you can start to see the shapes of their faces and they start looking a little less awful.

"How did this come to pass? This one was with its brethren, raiding the Prime. This one's raiding party was Seeking a lost Silver Sword. This one was wounded, slowed. Then there was Mist, thick, heavy Mist. Mist was all this one could see. This one became separated from its raiding party. This one wandered for a time, then there was this Place. This Place is not the Prime. The core of this one's Being knows it, but this one cannot determine the interplanar coordinates of this Place. This Place is Mystery. This Place is Emptiness. This one is Alone. This one has no choice but to continue the Mission, Alone. The missing Silver Sword must be found. This one must Seek the Silver Sword. This one will find it. This one was brought to this Place for a Reason." As always, c&c welcome!

This is my first ever post in Show Off. When I came back to the hobby last August after a 20-year hiatus, I promptly painted up some minis and was appalled at my level of incompetence. I've been a little gun shy since, dispensing plenty of artistic advice but not really putting my money where my mouth is. Anyway, after absorbing a lot of good advice from y'all and half-finishing several figures (I will get back to the Bones Ogre, buglips, honest.), I finally have finished some, bases and all. These are Reaper's set of 02765: Astral Reavers, which I have painted up as Githyanki for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign I'm currently playing in. Feedback would be most appreciated.