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We're only about 3 months away from delivery of the Bones 5 (so stoked I can hardly contain myself) and there's A LOT coming. I stated in another post that I'd like to get through as many as i can. I also know burnout is a real thing to be prepared for. I don't know if this is a thing somewhere in the realms of Reaper Forum already, but would anyone be interested in getting on a weekly painting group to try and knock out the same minis? I figure if anything it will at least be a means to keep on top of the painting and also encourage, inspire, and grow from the group effort. There's a lot of logistics to be worked out, but if anyone would want to start something up with me, I'd love the company on the trail. Here's my general stats to see if you're in alignment: Usually take about 1 to 1.5 hours on my minis. Intermediate painter. Nothing pro-level, just painting for fun. Love to try new techniques. I find working with others is more motivating for me than on my own. Who's interested?

I just submitted this for the RCL large group challenge. He clearly fits into the fairytale theme! His weird musculature made some of the highlighting challenging, but the opportunity to try a stone axe made it rewarding. I’m trying to push my contrast by focusing more on the dark side, and I can see incremental gains, but it’s still very much a battle against my tendencies. As always, your comments and criticisms are welcome!

Finally got around to finishing up Kalanzar. Took some reference from @Sirithiliel Narthrax, and tried to do something similar. I feel like it looks pretty good.

I submitted this for the February RCL ‘23. She came out of the kickstarter box a little goofy (her left arm is a bit of a mess) although not nearly as bad as Zeus. As usual, Reaper immediately sent me a replacement w/o question, what great people! While he’s going to get chopped up for broken pillar parts, I thought I’d try something different and go for a bronze statue look with her. Just one coat of brown over the olive primer told me it was the right choice. This was just an amazing painting experience - each color (I used Reaper’s Power Palette on a brass statue picture to pick candidate colors) just seemed like a revelation. I can’t believe how much a light brown over drab green can so immediately read as ‘aged bronze’. Comments and criticisms are welcome. I’m omitting the front view, but rest assured I resisted the impulse to give her a shiny nipple to match more famous statuary!

Bones V dreadmere ranger. Submitted for the Feb ‘23 RCL in the ‘something shiny’ category. His sword slowly got bendy again, I should have been more clever in photographing him. Still, a great subject for OSL practice. Comments and criticism are welcome!

I did a Nagendra Swordsman for RCL in January based on the blue pit viper. It was fun, so I figured I’d set him up with a date. Get ready for a teeming horde of blue baby snakes (calling out any fans of Zappa…!). Anyways, this time I knew to put magenta down first, then work on the blues. I didn’t go into it planning it as an NMM study, but the copper, steel and gold all seemed appropriate choices. I was happy with the effect I got by adding a purple wash into the copper triad, it seemed to give a better burnish to the highlight color, which then could be selectively pushed with a second highlighting (verdigris was last). Still not happy with the sword, but all of the relief work makes those Nagendra swords tough! As always, comments and criticism are welcomed!

Hi all: I feel like I spent forever working on this guy! I played around with mixing some oil glazes in, and while the wings look pretty good in person, it was really hard to get decent pictures. Anyways, this was a great lesson in patience and perseverance - it really took a while before he looked like he had any volume. I may add a few tufts of bashing to the edges, but otherwise I'm happy to end this particular dragon quest! Comments and criticism are welcome!

Still working through bits that have been hanging around my desk...the Giant Clam with unfeasibly large pearl (at least 3 feet/ 1m diameter) seems more like scenery than monster but as I waspainting this one I wondered if it could be the underwater equivalent of the Wolf in Sheep's Clothing and the pearl is the bunny on top? Or is it a mimic that knows how to swim 🤔Hope you like it whatever it is...

OK delay in delivery of next giant so working on random stuff. These two have been falling on my head regularly so I gave them bigger bases to start with! Base-coated them in Zandri Dust to start the process of painting them stone. Next stage should be a wash with Earthshade - but then I picked up the Gargrak's Sewer. I've been using it a lot to shade gold and bronze but this time I coated the whole figure - not even really trying for an even coat and the figures just turned into bronze. Today I gave the rub points a very slight drybrush with gold ( every public bronze I've ever seen has shiny spots and a couple of verdigris trickles. Actual painting time well under an hour and the base coat was most of that. ( the marble bases are off-white, a coat of contrast medium with a bit os Space Wolves Grey swirled in then veins of gold and white dragged in with a pin then gloss varnished)

Here he is, Mr. Oman Ruul charging up a grapefruit. Let me know what you think of the OSL. I did a few multishots so you can see angles. Overall I think he came out pretty good. I was trying to only hit where the light would be coming from the glowing grapefruit of doom.

This turned out to be one my favorite sculpts from Bones 5. It is probably the most menacing looking thing I have ever painted and while it was on my painting desk my family kept getting creeped out by it. It makes me shiver every time I look at it. It was also a lot of fun to paint. Lots of texture and scratches that add interest to the model while still providing a large surface for trying to simple freehand (or complex freehand if you're more brave than I am).

Well, I was going for a sunrise kind of effect here. It didn't really work. I think I needed to blend from yellow to orange to red and then to a sky blue to really make the sunrise come through. My daughter (9-years old) says it's not a Pegasus unless it's pink. So, I guess I know two things I can try next time...

This is another one of my attempts to paint something simple. I tried to add some texture to the lion to make it look more furry and less smooth by painting all the highlights in lines. I'm not sure how well it worked, but it's a technique I haven't used very much yet so I'll have to experiment more.

I've been practicing my nonmetallic metals quite a bit and feel confident in my understanding of that technique. In contrast, TMM pains completely baffle me. This seems counterintuitive to me but thats the way it is. When I first started out metallic paints were a really easy quick one-coat way to make something look like metal. Then I learned more about contrast and shading and highlighting and took Ian Markon's NMM Bootcamp at Reapercon and everything flipped on me. NMM looks so much better to me now, while TMM is really hard to highlight and shade well. This was my attempt to learn TMM by doing a lot of it. I think the result is... OK. The parts that I like the most are the parts that are not metallic... If any of you have ideas about ways this could be improved please let me know.

I was looking for something bigger and simpler, easier to paint. This took longer than expected (lost of flesh tone) but it was fun and the sculpt has the angriest eyes that I think are possible. I'll think I'll call him Carl.

Really happy with this one. I've been wanting to work on really pushing my highlights, and I figured this would be a good one to go nuts on. I reasoned that her clothing would be made of a silky/satiny material, so it would catch light quite a bit. My original plan was actually to paint her in a color scheme similar to Queen Bavmorda from Willow (since their outfits look so similar at a glance). But, I opted for a last-minute change to the blue-based color scheme right before I started painting. I still think a Bavmorda color scheme would look cool on her, if anyone else wants to run with the idea. This model is beautifully sculpted and was great fun to paint. Special thanks to kazmania for the tip on photographing against black felt. I haven't mastered it yet, but I'm already noticing the improvements in photo quality.

My first time painting something bigger than a regular size mini. I kind of learned as I went. Lots of dry brushing went in on the scales and the wings. Overall, I'm happy with the outcome, especially given that it's a first time deal. I will definitely try out bigger things in the future. The one thing I'm sort of disappointed in is the black lining on the chest-stomach area. The grooves weren't smooth, and I couldn't seem to keep those lines clean. Maybe there is a better/smoother way of doing it? Some sort of a controlled wash? Let me know! As always, all sorts of comments are welcomed! 🙂 EDIT: I realized that he has a name and a number. Narthalyssk 1120 from the core set. I'll make sure to refer to the KS graphic for the future posts.

Hi: I just submitted this guy for RCL October. What a fabulous sculpt - the details were a treat! I tried playing around with shaded metallics, which seems like a nice compromise between full-on NMM and simple metallic + wash. -t

I painted this little guy up on a whim a while back. He doesn't have much going on from the front, but there's a ton of cool mushroom detail sculpted into his back.

This is the Bones 5 Brinewind Expansion 743 Otterfolk Goblin Hunter converted to a ranger for my Burrows & Badgers warband:

Another one from my monk stash. Not to be confused with a mustache. Although with Movember around the corner, perhaps something around Monkvember could be a thing for painting? I digress. It's clear i got some inspiration from Dr. Faust's model he painted (thank you! ) Always love the feedback.

I had a lot of fun with this one. I had painted the Overgourd last year, but missed my chance to submit it for my local October contest. I've been waiting to put him into the ring. Funny enough my daughter goes, "Dad he's kind of looking down on something. It'd be cool if there was a guy that didn't know he was there." And that's how the idea for the diorama was born. The pieces were based to be used with something else later. I figured it was a good test to see if i could make some kind of hole for he bases to slot into. Not perfect but not bad. I found two henchmen that were perfect monster fodder. I call this one "always look behind you"

Got two finished for a friend's kid who plays D&D. He mentioned it in passing and i said, "do you know what characters they play as?" He tells me a half elf monk and an elf Ranger. I said, hold my beer. I dug into my treasure trove (aka hoard) and dug them out to paint. I'm sure his kids will love them.

So this one was kind of a quick paint, especially for me and especially for a dragon, but was still fun. Did a lot of experimenting with color here, trying to be brighter and bolder than normal.....

Greetings! Here is my War Mammoth from Bones V. This took me what seems like an eternity to complete (I think I started it in winter 2021...). Being a big beasty, I had endless problems with paint rubbing off because I had to handle him a lot (and also, I opted not to prime him...🤦‍♂️) so I was forever doing retouches. I also should have probably painted him in sub-assemblies. Anyway, here he is, ready to stomp, crash & paaaarp! Thanks for looking!