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I painted up several of the “invisible” PCs offered by Reaper in clear plastic, to be used as “Phantom Warriors” in a certain castle of a certain vampire guy trapped in a certain demiplane in a certain shadowy plane. Mostly it involved airbrushing various combinations of turquoise and white inks to maintain transparency but draw out the details.

Hobbit thief with an invisible cloak. This was a really fun little project. A lot of playing with colors and experimenting. It is an old Ral Partha hobbit from my ‘painted-years-ago-box’ that got a repaint. The first picture is from the side that is towards the wall. And the last is from the angle where the illusion (almost) works. Any critiq and comment is welcome. Thanks for looking.

I cut back on the ink for the cleric and am happy with the result. I also first drybrushed him with Polished Silver. the results are barely visible under the ink wash and just doesn't seem to add anything to the effect. I don't think I'll bother in the future. The mix I used for the wash/stain this time around was: 5 drops RMS Gloss Sealer 1 2/3 drops RMS Wash Medium 1/3 drop Liquitex Phthalo Blue Because I'm a fan of replicable processes, I approached thinning the ink by first mixing one drop of Phthalo Blue with two drops of Wash Medium. I then drew some of it into a cheap, disposable eye dropper I found in a hobby shop years ago and added one drop to a five:one mix of Gloss Sealer and Wash Medium. I'm sure that I was overthinking this. . . . The resulting seven drops of wash was just enough to coat the figure. I was a bit worried when I started applying it, but fortunately, it all worked out. The viscosity of the mixture seemed just right for what I wanted. The cleric has a more ghostly quality over his nigh-invisible wizard buddy, which works for me. I'll probably stick with some version of this formula for my other transparent figures.

I've been thinking about doing this for awhile - painting up one of the clear "invisible" adventurers in Bones III as a translucent figure. The obvious choice was 77449 - Invisible Rogue, as my delightful wife painted the matching 77035 - Visible Deladrin some time ago. I painted the figure using a thinned Tamiya Clear Blue X-23 (thinned with Tamiya Thinner X-20). This produced a very light blue tint to the figure while at the same time introducing some definition. I also hit points where I wanted extra definition, mainly the face and weapon transition points, with unthinned Tamiya Clear Blue. The broccoli is basically Reaper Peacock Green worked up through Reaper Clear Green to Reaper Clear Yellow. The bottom of the base has been painted Reaper Pure Black. Important Note: Tamiya Clear paints are significantly different from Reaper Clear Paints. Tamiya Clear are translucent, Reaper Clear are not. Issues - there's a big one in that because of the black I painted the bottom of the base, the boots of the translucent figure are significantly darker than the rest of the figure. It almost reads right, but I'd have been better off doing the first coat on the bottom a green or maybe a white so they looked like they were clear going onto the grass of the base. It's something I'll consider later, although could largely be ignored if you rebased the figure. But on the whole I think this came out pretty good, accidental scimitar that we never noticed originally on Deladrin and all. There's one additional issue that I didn't spot till after I posted this - a Virtual Chocolate Fish™ to anyone who can tell the class what that very delibrate mistake was for our educational porpoises.

My first transparent mini: I wanted to try painting one of the new invisible heroes from Bones III the other day. This is super simple paint job where I first painted the base, then masked it with a solid coat of Brown Liner for opacity. After that, I quickly painted the wizard with a single coat of a mixture of: 3 drops RMS Gloss Sealer 2 drops RMS Flow Improver 1 drop RMS Wash Medium 1 drop Liquitex Phthalo Blue After waiting a day (I was worried the ink might leach out of the sealer or something if I tried to work with it too soon), I painted the exterior of the base with Rainy Gray, followed by a coat of Brown Liner magic wash. To finish, I sealed the entire figure with a coat of Gloss Sealer, followed by a second coat of Gloss on the wizard and a coat of Brush-on Sealer on the base. The result was a very blue, almost candy-like mini. I'm happy with the result, but I'm thinking of pushing back the ink next time by at least half to get a lighter tint. The wash went on pretty well, but I might also try increasing the viscosity just a bit by upping the ratio of Gloss Sealer. Overall, a fun and easy paint job.