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The dwarves of the Black Hills delved too greedily and too deep for the rich coal used to fire their forges and fuel their machines of war. They awoke some ancient magic in those coal shafts, and the coal came to life, hunting down the miners. Scholars would debate if it was a golem of pure coal, or a twisted experimental elemental hybrid between an earth and fire elemental. Whatever their classification, they can be deadly. They wait for a troop of dwarves to march by, then stealthily emerge into the mine shaft and try to prevent the miners from escaping with their precious coal. The coal golems possess a fearsome attack: They spray a cloud of coal dust, and use their glowing ember eyes to ignite that cloud into a gout of hellish flame hotter than the most fearsome gnomish fire-spewers. Clever dwarf clans have developed specialized teams with members filling different roles or "positions." While some members distract the coalie, another member rushes by with the ore cart. If a lucky dwarf manages to get by the coalie, it runs back to the clan hold screaming "Cooooooaaaaaallllllllllllll" while waving his free hand madly in the air. This is the signal to the rest of the clan to arm themselves and rush to the aid of their team mates. The lucky coal scorers usually falls to their knees, exhausted, sliding for several meters on the scree, on account of their knee and shin guards. If you ever find yourselves in an abandoned mine shaft in the black hills, be on the lookout for two glowing coal-ember eyes. It may be your only warning of an impending encounter with a Coal Golem. I modified the Naughty Coal Reaper sends out for Christmas. I received it last year. Here is the finished product in a few different lights. I thought Coal Black would be a little green. It turns out it is a little blue, I think. I highlighted up with Highland Moss and a little Frosty Blue. I am most happy with the eyes. The photos really make them look like hot coals. Here is the WIP thread. http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/84433-coal-golem/ Enjoy. Let me know what you think.

If any of you are like me, you received a package stating you were naughty. For the life of me, I don't know why Reaper would consider me Naughty. I spend money on the Halloween and Christmas promotions. I have backed 3 of the 4 Bones Kickstarters... Wait, maybe I'm being punished for not backing Bones KS 2? I'll need to think on that some more. I have been toying with the idea of painting this...thing. Whatever it is. In order to do so, I needed to get a closer look. Here it is. I have heard rumors of what it is. Some people say it is Bonesium without any hardener. Some say it is some sort of silicone eraser. But, I think I puzzled it out. It must be a miniature. The only problem is, which one. It is like no miniature I have ever seen. I scoured the Reaper web store for days on end. After several pots of coffee, I came to a conclusion. It is painted black, so it must be part of the Legendary Encounters line. But for the life of me, I cannot find a model with a matching image or any evidence that this "lump of coal" has a SKU. The more I stared at it, the more it showed me it's true colors! See that subtle face sculpted into the mini? I decided that to punish us for not backing ALL of the Kickstarters, Reaper sent us a model sculpted by an anonymous sculptor who managed to really soften the details. To add insult to injury, they sent us the main body without the whole sprue of facial and limb features. Talk about punishing the "Naughty!" Reaper, you have stooped too low. I think I narrowed down which creature this is supposed to be. I remembered an old monster from the first Monstrous Compendium I ever owned (TSR D&D 2nd Ed.). The humble Galeb Duhr. I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees the resemblance. Now, I am the first to admit that my sculpting and Green Stuff skills are amateurish and unrefined. But I can't stand the thought of an incomplete miniature. And, although Reaper usually has AWESOME customer service for replacing missing parts, for this particular model I fear no replacements would be forthcoming for so naughty a Forumite as myself. Alas, I need to do it myself. But, if this material is silicone, I fear green stuff may not stick to it. So, I needed a framework: I drilled some holes into the model at key locations. I superglued in some paperclip bits. It seemed sturdy enough. I then proceeded to do my best to emulate a Galeb Duhr. However, due to IP, I'm sure Reaper calls this a Coal Golem. I gave him the name Coalie, as you'll read why in the Show Off post later... Now, to paint this model. Black Brush On Primer Coal Black 2:1 Coal Black:Highland Moss For the base, I wanted simple stone scree like you would find littering the floor of a dwarven mine. This is the Stone Grey Triad. 1:1 Coal Black:Highland Moss 1:2 Coal Black:Highland Moss I ended up going a little higher by adding some Frosty Blue into the mix a few times. Then I got to work on the eyes. I imagined the coal golem should have glowing lumps of fiery coal for eyes... Pure White, then some lines of Golden Yellow Added lines of Hearth Fire Then stippled in some Fire Red. I like the effect. Crude OSL with Golden Yellow mixed with Hearth Fire. The left eye came out better, in my opinion. I hope Reaper will think twice in the future about tossing misshapen, incomplete models our way as "free promos" and labeling us as Naughty. I'm sorry for not backing all the Kickstarters, OK! Are you happy now? Well, I'll link to the Showoff Thread Here. http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/84434-coalie-the-coal-golem-sku/ I hope you liked this idea. Let me know what you think!

When I had first seen the Darkrasp figure, back when my Bones 1 Kickstarter had arrived, something about its appearance read "Santa Claus" to me; especially with the long "list" he holds in his left hand, obviously containing the names of those who'd been naughty. And I had the thought of some day converting it into a Santa Claus figure. Well, with the onset of my Frostgrave addiction, that day finally rolled around; as I decided I wanted to make a Santa themed warband, and I selected this fellow to lead it. And, given the season of the year, it seemed the perfect time to paint him. I had to make some changes to the figure to move him a little closer to Santa, and a little further from Evil Priest. I began by cutting off the blade and skull top of his scythe, turning it into more of a wizard's staff. I then glued a small piece of lead shot to the end to make it resemble a stylized "North Pole". Next, I cut the bone-like ends off of the roll his scroll is wrapped around. Lastly, I took some Tacky glue and layered it onto the front of the scroll in an effort to lessen the appearance of the runes that are carved into it, as my plan was to list "naughty" names on it. As always, C & C welcome. Full painting write-up on my blog: http://allbonesabout.blogspot.com/2015/12/death-priest-to-santa-claus-conversion.html