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I tried going for a coconut crab colour scheme, following a tutorial I found on YouTube for doing Tyranids this way. It sort of went well.

Been doing some butchery, some Frankensteining lately. Particularly for my sci-fi setting. And has it produced results! First, the ingredients. A while ago, I ordered a Reaper Burrowing Behemoth (44058) and it was a fantastic sculpt. But I got two left feet, to match my own. Customer service quickly replaced it, because Reaper is THE BEST--but now I had some leftover insectile CLAWS! Then, Nolzur's came out with an Ankheg. Segmented, metameric abdomen, mantid-like foreclaws, two pairs of limbs, shield-like, many-eyed spiky head. And also with a set of hideous ...Quori? Never heard of, maybe a Pathfinder thing apparently an Eberron aberration. One of them is a grotesque tailed many-limbed squirmer with big ol' pincers. And with an Alhoon with many spell-effect tentacles. Now, I have a few factions of spacemonsters. One is insectile, and I gave a Burrowing Horror a third set of ankheg limbs to bring us to six total... ...while giving the burly Horror claws to an Umber Hulk: Now everyone has six limbs and I can rest easy! BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE Another faction is the horrid Crawlers. These I have posted before, and are mostly Bathalians. Shield-like heads, mouth tentacles, squirmy bodies, appendages made to mutilate and maul. The Tsucora Quori are warty and rugose and squirmy and pincered, but lack the characteristic head and tentacles. But a Chronoscope Hound of Tindalos (50289) has just the right kind of head on a lean and easily repurposed body! A little green stuff to fill in the Quori's unmistakable eyes and nostrils, and a little work with some wire cutters, and behold! Oh yeah, that's a Bathalian! I also snipped some tentacles from the Nolzur's Alhoon to give our Craboid Black Cat Alien (see link to Crawlers, above) the mouth-tendrils it deserves. Wait, but what of the mutilated Ankheg? Oh, it fits in with the Crawlers just fine now. Happy crafting, folks!

Hello everyone. I finally got off my lazy butt and stopped staring at my mind flayer Bathalian long enough to paint him. I had been staring and contemplating for so long that I finally just started slapping paint on him without worrying about how he was going to look in the end. I think I am more or less happy with the results. There are some things I don't like but in the end none of that is really important. What is important is that I have another finished mini. I put so many layers on the outside of his cloak and it still wasn't enough, the darn green kept overpowering the yellow and drying darker and some of the greens turned out kind of same-y but again, he's done. And I figured he needed a pet, because no mind flayer Bathalian is complete without his intellect devourer mind eater! He was super-simple. A couple inks, a drybrush and a coat of gloss to make the brain look icky. Not too complicated. Love to know what everyone thinks, have a great weekend!

'Tis the season! I posted this a while ago before is got paint on him. Santac'Laus has featured in the Christmas one-shot games I've run for the last couple of years (and this year is no exception). He's gone from villain to lovable (but weird) friend, who rides a manta-ray-shaped sleigh, pulled by a team of beholders. If you're one of my players, please don't read the spoiler! The hat, sack and present were all made with green stuff. The snow was made with snow powder mixed with water effects.

Some of you have probably seen my Tycho AFV for my Nova Corp figures, and the Rottweiler Grav Tank I'm working on for my IMEF figures. They've been quite fun to create. And now I've been going through my collection of other Reaper Chronoscope figures, and I've realized I've got a few other groups of figures that I could make similar sized units from. If I do that, it would be only fair if I gave them each a vehicle. Since it will be a little bit before I actually get around to any of these, I thought I would ask you all what sort of look you would envision for vehicles for these various factions: Cyber-Reavers - Given the Terminator vibe of these minis, I'm thinking something along the lines of the Hunter Killer flying craft from the movies. Kulathi - ??? Bathalians - ??? Blackstar Corsairs - ???. I'm thinking maybe some sort of drop pod or drop ship for them? Or maybe just a bigger walker? The Gray Aliens already have a flying saucer, so they're good. That's what I have in my collection already (mostly thanks to 3 Bones Kickstarters). But I went ahead and browsed through the Chronoscope line in the store, and while I don't really see any other groups of minis that are big enough to make complete units, there are a few that were inspiring, should additional minis for them come along: Illyrians (2 minis) - ??? Blood Nebula Mercenary (1 mini) - ??? Alien Overlords (3 minis) - ??? Sligg (3 minis) - ??? There are also enough sci-fi hero types, such as Kirby McDowell Space Privateer and Bonnie Futuristic Heroine, to assemble mercenary like unit. They'll need a vehicle too. So let's see your thoughts and ideas.

Howdy, Zombies are not the only ones coveting your brains... Donate YOURS today, Kev! P.S. Click to zoom

So, it seems like I'm not very good at the "Work in Progress" thing. Here is my finished mind flayer/bathalian.

Here is my 5th mini painted ever. I went with a very simplified color scheme (only 3-4 colors total). I want to add some more detail, especially around the eyes, but I rather like how it came out for being roughly 1.5 hours of work. If only I could get the staff to stay straight... Next I plan to tackle something bigger than ever before!

I got three of these to stand if for Venomthropes in my tyranid army. Going to do the base to match the others when I've got them all done.:

I was going for a more sinister looking fleshtone with this one. I've done it in green, purple, and finally this one. I am quite please with how he came out. Also, I am still getting used to actually using the metallics from the bones paint line. They are quite bright, even after being hit was dullcoat. I love the sheen in them. Hope you enjoy, and as always C&C is always welcome. CAH

Was bored at work so I started doodling in Bones. I call this kitbash a Bathalian Maw. It's the Primarch with the arms from the Centurion and the mouth from an Erynth Grask. It's to the point of needing a bit of greenstuff to marry the face to the head better. Also might use a second Primarch to extend the torso and give it a second set of arms with the original Primarch arms below the current Centurion ones. If I do I'm likely to borg in part of the second Primarch's tail to lengthen the tail to balance the longer torso. Anyway, it's kept me amused for a half hour or so which was its main purpose. Also, I hate how hard it is to get good photos of unpainted Bones.

For my summer exchange partner..

This is my second paint up from the D&D collector series - Scoundrels of Skullport. Classic D&D monster, the Mind Flayer! The Beholder is here, but I may go back, touch up and take better pics soon. Hope you Enjoy!

One of my current projects. The picture's showing me some ugly details, but that's hardly surprising. Lots of work left to go. My thought on the cloak is to mix Viper Green with the base of Vallejo Dark Sea Blue (the way I mixed Dragon Blue with Dark Sea Blue for the robe)... I suspect it'll look a little weird but I want this guy to end up looking a bit weird... As long as he doesn't actually look bad I'll be OK with it. Any thoughts or suggestions? Edit: Show-off!

I wanted to have an Illithid for gaming and got me D'Khul. To create a "fishy" look on his skin, I painted it in pale violet metallics, shaded blueish and highlighted towards silver, then applied matt varnish. I was quite happy with the result and got a bit carried away when also doing the staff in metallics and the hood and hem with violet-green iridescent pigments. The photo is not so brilliant, one will have to imagine it shimmering under different light directions. What do you think of the basic idea? Should illithids look like that or should they rather come with a dark-and-simple scheme?

I recently started painting miniatures again. These are the first three reaper bones miniatures I did. I hope you like what you see! Since I just picked up my old hobby any comments and critique is much appreciated! I am pretty pleased with the results after not having painted any miniatures for about 10 years

Hey all, A friend picked this guy up for me to paint for his upcoming pathfinder game. This is my 4th painted mini so far, and my first with a good brush. Painted this with a Raphael 8404, and the difference compared to synthetic brushes is pretty great. Anyways, all the colors were chosen by my buddy, and he wanted the gloss finish (though I would have gone with matte) This was also my first attempt at a transition/fade/gradient (dunno what to call it, mind is blank atm) effect on the cloak, which I think came out ok. Also, sorry for the totally 'meh' phone pics, ha.

I finally finished painting the player character models for my 50 Fathoms campaign. Sadly I am posting this now instead of playing, since one of the players is sick. Group shot: First up, my husbands character, Toa, the kraken earth mage and swordsman. (Reaper 3135 Bathalian Pirate) Those who know 50 Fathoms should be able to guess one his starting edges. My son wanted to play a Zorro like character, so here is Xorro Mandez, the spanish mask wearing swordsman and ladies man (Reaper Chronoscope 50054 Zorro). This figure is also my first real success with NMM on a bigger object like a sword. The third character is Tawny Tinewise, a masaquani gunslinger with a penchant for blowing stuff up (Reaper 3623 Finaela), modified to have 2 guns. And yes, that revolver is not quite the right period, which is why I was trying to hide the cylinder by painting it wood... Last but not least, the captain of the bunch, an Englishman named Tim Brighton, which is also quite adept at shooting pistols and bows. (Pathfinder 60148 Sandru Vhiski)

So, as you may or may not have seen in the Summer Exchange thread, I painted up a Bathalian for RobinH. I included a note that had most of my thoughts/directions (or lack there of) with it, so I think I'll just post a bunch of pictures, and post part of the note below. Lots of pictures (and loads more I didn't put here) - I'm pretty happy with how it turned out overall, even if there's a few rough patches (I really should have painted the hand/book BEFORE it was attached to the muchroom). And now for my novella, for perspective, it's directed toward RobinH (in case you wonder who "you" is): Spoiler tags because WALL O' TEXT ETA - as you can see in RobinH's photos (in the Exchange thread) I patched up the black on the base after I took pictures - I didn't notice it was scuffed up before I took the photos.

So I ran a one shot 50 Fathoms adventure this weekend with hubby, son and 2 friends that were visiting. It went well, but they derailed the adventure completely by not walking the plank, instead choosing to stand and fight... First round was rough, half the party was down from all the pirates firing their pistols. But they prevailed, loosing only 1 extra, and headed off in a totally opposite direction from where the one-sheet adventure was at. So I winged a treasure map, and they found and dug up buried treasure, so all was good in the end. Anyway, here is the slightly converted Bones Bathalian (77020), I painted up to be a Kraken earth mage, one of the pre-made characters they could pick from. Not so happy with the color choices on his clothes. Tiik warriors (Bones 77186), standing in for Kehana, one of which has been converted to wear pants. Not sure what up with my color selections for them either, that pink is not terrible attractive...

So, now that I'm home, I'm working on minis again. While at my folks' house, I managed to finish two minis, though they still need basing. Thought I'd get some early pictures up before I do, and maybe do a WIP for the basing. Unfortunately, I didn't think to start taking pictures until I was just about done painting Mr. Bathalian Primarch's body. The camera's flash washed out a lot of the detail on his body. His lower scutes are painted with the bone triad (dirty bone, graveyard bone, splintered bone) that came from the first Kickstarter. The arms and tentacles are more-or-less the same, except that I substituted bathalian chiton for graveyard bone. They're very similar shades. It just seemed right. His back plates were done in a base of christmas wreath (one of my favorite greens), with a midshade of about half-and-half christmas wreath and the mystery shade green I got a year or so back, and edged with Vallejo Fluorescent Green. Here he is with his head on straight. Before placing the head, I painted the two larger tentacles and the underside. I figured they'd be more difficult to get to later on. You can also see a skeleton swordsman. I used some superglue debonder to remove his shield as a test. I actually let the debonder evaporate on the skeleton, to see if it would damage the bonesium. Doesn't appear to. I'll still be careful when using it in the future, but it did make it reasonably easy to remove the shield. You can see his claws pretty well here. They were done with walnut brown and a highlight of blackened brown. Same with his arm spikes. I used an activator on the superglue when placing the various parts on, and they dried within thirty seconds or so, where the Zap-a-gap I use usually takes five minutes. So, that helped out. Here he is, all done. The eyes were done with a simple bit of blood red. I might touch them up a bit later, but I think they look fairly decent. I mean, look at that face. How can you not fall in love with that adorable face? Here's his good side. Here's his other good side. Here's the other mini I got painted while I was over here, Orson Lugrum, Evil Wizard. Not nearly as awesome as Cash's version, of course, but I did my best. The robes got a bit of an unintentional wash. I thinned my Coat D'Arms Deadly Nightshade a bit more than I intended, but I liked the way it came out. Shaded it a little further with additional mixes of deadly nightshade and various Reaper blues (ultramarine shadow, sky blue, etc.) I'll be basing him as well once I get home. And here are the two of them together. Any basing suggestions?

These are two octopus-headed psychic baddies, one Reaper's "03135: B'thuhl, Bathalian Pirate", and one a classic "Brain Slayer" from Ral Partha, showing a little of the scale creep of the last twenty years. Their mauve-green complexion comes from mixing Phthalo Green with Quinacricone Magenta. Adjusting the mix can give you anything from purple to a surprising deep blue to blue-green. Privately I think of them as "Fred" and "Charley." EDIT: Oh fruitbats, I forgot to reduce the size of one of the photos. Is that going to be a problem, mods? (And weird, editing added all sorts of annoying font tags which I had to remove manually.)

Finally got my Bathalian based. Went a bit lazy on this one. The idea was a simple dirt foundation base with a slime trail. For the slime trail, I simply glopped superglue everywhere around the bathalian. Also helped set him to the base, obviously. I used a superglue activator on the glue, since I didn't want to wait a long while for it to dry (there was a lot of glue laid down). It kept it from drying quite clear, but I think I kind of like the effect. I'll think more on it, but for now, I'm satisfied. As mentioned in my WIP thread, the back scales were done in MSP Christmas Wreath (quickly becoming my favorite green) with shading from PP Bloodstone, and Vallejo Model Color Fluorescent Green for the edging. The belly scutes were done with the new bone triad that came with the second paint set from the last kickstarter, and the other light bits were done with the same, except bathalian chiton taking the place of the midtone. Darker bits were shaded with GW agrax earthshade. Claws and armspikes were done with muddy brown and walnut brown. I thought about doing the back of his cranium in MSP Brains Pink, but I decided it would stand out too much against the rest of the mini. Finally, a scale pic with Tox the wizard standing in for Sir Forscale.

I haven't done one of these in a while... Started up a new mini to keep me busy. I haven't done any bathalians, aside from Professor Kraken, so I thought I'd give D'Kuhl a try. Haven't done much so far. Just primed, then basecoated his robes in red and purple, and put on some heavy shading. I'll be painting over the majority of the shading as I go along, so only the deepest parts will show. Probably going to go with a nice yellow or orange for the trimming on his robe. I'm planning olive green for his skin, and then I'm going to try the Vallejo fluorescent green and yellow to give him some distinctive markings. Hopefully it comes out looking all right. If not, I'll just paint over it. Back view of his robes.

Here are the results of my Metal vs. Bones paint off. Both figures were painted simultaneously using the exact same mix of colors; I basically went back and forth. I alternated which version I started/ended painting particular sections, so that neither got any favoritism with regards to order of painting. I didn't agonize over making things as perfect as I'd like; ego wasn't the point of this experiment. You'll note the one difference with respect to customization is the freehand inside the robe. I assumed that my freehand skills wouldn't allow me to replicate the same pattern on both figures, so I just followed my 'feeling' as I worked. I do hope that this one difference doesn't give any Bones naysayers ammunition to try and invalidate the experiment. I am in no way affiliated with Reaper. So there you have it, which version is which version?