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Painted as a gorgon for D&D, so iron not brass. Quick speed paint. Not terribly much to be done given the colour scheme. Tried to make the floor a bit more interesting. .

Let's talk about monsters for a bit. The name comes from the same root word as "demonstrate" and "monstrance"--attention-grabbing things that draw the mind to greater matters. Like comets, in ancient times, they were seen as more than just malformed dangerous beasts, but as a sign that something was deeply wrong in the world, or a portent of a great evil drawing near. Offenses against the gods, offenses against nature, great upheavals to the realms. It is unclear to me how TSR conflated the Gorgons (women with petrifying glances and snakes for hair; Medusa was only the most famous) with the man-eating red-hot brazen bull of King Phalaris (or perhaps of the cruel engineer Perilaus, depending on how you read the story). But they did! And now there are minis of scutigerous metallic bulls snorting noxious gases. Now, let's talk about the colonial American West. The interior of the country is vast and rugged. Overland journeys by wagon were grueling and dangerous--especially when traveling through the land of people who definitely did not want you around. The advent of the steam locomotive and the railroad was meant to expedite travel. And it did! Ponderous iron-clad engines, belching smoke and steam, whistling like the screams of the damned. On rails laid by slave labor, expendable labor, immigrant labor, cheap labor worked to death, the railways wormed into the interior and crept across the Great Plains. Again, I have to stress the Plains were already occupied, and the inhabitants were not happy to become casualties of Industrial Progress or Manifest Destiny. They were already using those plains! And at full strength they were a terrifying threat, incredible riders and archers who knew the land well. To be specific, the Plains tribes mostly depended on herds of the bison, whose flesh, sinew, hide, hair, and horns provided them with their necessities. And when settler businessmen and governments realized this, they hatched a wicked plan. To aid and unify the genocidal little wars and massacres already ongoing, the colonists would exterminate the bison, and thus starve the indigenous peoples. Mountains of buffalo skulls soared to the sky. The buzzards gorged themselves on the bullet-ridden flesh of enormous beasts left to rot. Displaced and starving, the dispossessed natives were forced off their land or killed in battle. Deep-rooted prairie grasses were replaced by wheat and corn monocultures, undoing the knotted mesh keeping the soil from blowing away. And the iron railroads and their riders advanced on, branching tendrils North and South. This is the sort of cruel and egregious upheaval that creates monsters. And in the Weird West setting of my Bandits and Badlands game, the monster that came forth to demonstrate here is the P'izen Bison. A steel-plated beast of immense size and strength, fueled by an unholy fire, spewing choking gases, bellowing from a rusted throat. It tramples and devours and poisons. It renders the land waste around it, like Catoblepas and Bonnacon both. It destroys the works of man without discrimination. It reeks of sulfur and low-grade coal, burns to the touch, abrades the skin with steel wool. Its gaze paralyzes with dread. It eats men alive. In short, it is a manifestation of all the externalities of Industrial Progress with none of the good parts. Various votaries of the Spirit of the Age, gadgeted up, encased in stoveplate armor and armed with steam-powered fists, have tried to stop it. But that's like trying to stop a spirit of vengeance with bullets, ain't it, pardner? Might as well try to make Old Man Buzzard gag, or try to out-lawyer Old Scratch. *** Nolzur's Gorgon with some green stuff added to make it look more like a bison, plus a couple of smokestacks left over from VROOMgear and some cotton batting. The statuesque lady with the Arkansas toothpick is an Indian Princess from CP's Weird West line, while her elderly companion is their 28mm Victoriana Plains Indian Girl, aged up a bit. Guest appearances from Hellstromme, 91002; Raven 59002, Shaman 59010, Chieftain 50113, and a couple Apaches from Artizan. Also the signpost from Western Sophie. The cacti were just on sale at a hobby store fake plants aisle.

The Brass Bull. out of the Bully for you subset in the Bones 2 core set. This is a not-Gorgon from D&D. I do not know why Gygax would call this a Gorgon, since it really has nothing to do with the Gorgon sisters from Greek myth. But what it is, is a massive metal bullock that has a petrifying green gas breath attack. Even though the Gorgon is described as iron, in that it can be rusty, I did it in bronzey brassey colours. I gave it a bit of green around the muzzle to look like some residue from it's halitosis. More beneath the click

Got a little bored with the half-finished things on my desk (which explains why they're all half finished and over two years old... Or eight years, in one case...), So I decided I'd start on something I've wanted to paint to a high level for a long time. Jeff Grace did a magnificent job sculpting this snake lady, and offering a lot of wonderful opportunity for painters. Although I love love looooooove Marike Reimer's subtly colored studio paint job, I wanted something with a bit more color... Beautiful as they are, Diamondbacks aren't the only snakes in the world, and I like snake-folk that aren't just Brown or green. So I'm talking inspiration from the lovely Redbellied Snake, a small species of the Eastern USA. Maybe too docile a species to expect as a Gorgon, but I don't mind. Look at the color! So the plan is to go with the highly saturated red-orange of her scutes, abdomen and face, the relatively dull brown of her back, and a pale bluey green for her dress (I suppose the dress is more or less a chiton, but the more I've looked at it, the more it starts looking like a peplos with sleeves and a very small himation...I dunno). I also intend transparency on the garment, which is why I stayed inside the lines about as well as a kindergartner on Red Bull. This is about 15 minutes of work, that's all I had during lunch today. I also did not write down my paints, so I'll get that formula tomorrow. I am super excited about that red-orange, though!

Whipped up this fig in about 45 minutes and am really happy with how it turned out. Going to use it as a Gorgon in an upcoming adventure. I feel like I could have spent another hour or two on it, but that probably would have ended up making it look worse rather than better. Sometimes leaving a fig alone is the best bet. Comments and critiques are welcome as always. Thanks in advance!

Medusa is easily among the most beautiful sculpts I've ever painted. My hat is off to Sebastian Archer, he really outdid himself with this one. After I posted the first one, another client asked me to paint her up for him. I mostly followed my original color scheme, except this time I used true metallics in place of the non-metallic metals I used the first time around. I'll need to paint one up for myself sometime. She really just screams to be in a competition. I've posted her to coolmini for anyone who cares to vote. The translucent fabrics make me think I ought to go with links for her: http://www.gardenninja.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/arena-rex/Medusa-1.JPG?i=1414459205 http://www.gardenninja.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/arena-rex/Medusa-2.JPG?i=1968411908 http://www.gardenninja.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/arena-rex/Medusa-3.JPG?i=239197043

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the forums, I'm here to unload another batch of my old enamel paint jobs from around 15-25 years ago. Fire Giant Bonesnapper Satyrs Gorgon Kobolds Umber Hulk Rust Monster Chimera Bulette

I feel like there have been many renditions of Medusa in miniatures. She's even become a species according to some of the older Dungeons and Dragons stuff I have around here. They even had pictures of child medusas (and it isn't like I haven't painted a cute little medusa before). Well, Arena Rex has some brilliant artwork and sculpting behind their line, so I was very happy to get to paint up their wonderful Medusa. The client really let me make the decisions on this one, so I got to create the pallet as I see her. Here's a link to her CMON page for anyone who cares to vote. She's not exactly naked, but I painted her clothing with a sort of translucent effect, so I figured it might be best to just link her. http://www.gardenninja.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/arena-rex/Arena-Rex-Medusa-3.jpg?i=1111592939 http://www.gardenninja.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/arena-rex/Arena-Rex-Medusa-2.jpg?i=1470265540 http://www.gardenninja.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/arena-rex/Arena-Rex-Medusa-1.jpg?i=310168408

Here's a Euryale that I got to paint up for a client's Arena Rex game. I really love the sculpts from the whole line- Arena Rex has some outstanding sculptors working with them. Anyway, here she is (you were warned that she's topless). And here's a link to her CMON page for anyone who cares to vote. http://www.gardenninja.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/arena-rex/Arena-Rex-Euryale.jpg?i=871108513

Admittedly, it is basically finished. Originally I wanted a clean look, but the contrast between the coppery and silvery was too strong, and I did not like ti so clean, so I added rust/verdigris. Then I tried to fix the eyes and other details and screwed up, so now I have to fix it.

Hi all, As of late, I was inspired to convert some of the Bones beasties I have, as mounts for some other minis. So, after Verocithrax as a ridden dragon (http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/63159-77361-verocithrax-as-ridden-dragon-bones/), here is the Brass Bull: And I couldn't resist to make it be mounted by an Ogre (Here a GW Orge). Because no matter how big the Brass Bull is, it looks like a pony when an ogre climbs on top (and I find that quite hillarious). C&C Welcome

This is 77256: Brass Bull, from the Bones II Kickstarter. It's not in the store as yet, apparently it's due for release in June. I wanted a Gorgon, not a Brass Bull, so I painted it in rusty iron colours. Note, that's a D&D Gorgon, not a mythological Gorgon. It was a very quick and easy paint job, but the gunmetal dry-brushing didn't photograph very well at all.

Picking off the easier ones first.

Alright. I was sleepy and bored so I did a very simple paint job of the Brass Bull. Since larger is preferred her are decent sized pictures of the Brass Bull. Colors used

To complete the set, we have the dreaded Chimera and the Brass Bull.

So, GenCon is upon us once more and I'm going. As usual, I have been asked to Repaint a few D&D Minis for DDM Guild events there. So, I present my PlastiCrack Prize Support! A fairly simple Repaint of the Large Gold Dragon. Was the first done so it got a bit of dust on it. I have cleaned that up now. The Horned Devil was originally a dull Gray and black. I've fixed that! Also, added a bit of Freehand work making Tattoos on his Wings and Tail. The Gorgon was completely Steel colored for the stock paint job. I changed that quickly! Used Gamma Shielding Gold and Some steel colored paint for the metals and did a light wash of brown. The Standardbearer had one color of armor, dark steel originally. I could see several Details that were not accented well. I improved that. I did have trouble taking pics of some of those details due to the pose. My Camera want to focus on the sword or the flag when I wanted it to focus on the face or Chestplate. In the end I barely got three pictures to come out good. And the Masterwork! The Berserk Flesh Golem was one of those D&D Minis that didn't look like the average Pre-Painted hordes. Or it would with a Decent Paint Job:P There are a LOT of Details on this sucker! And he looks so much better than before!! I had to get a bit of help with this one, though. I was having trouble with Washes due to this things wealth of details and the fact that I had not used a Blue wash on a non-blue background before. The Owner of my FLGS, Gatehouse Games, kindly vollunteered to give me some lessons after I nearly ruined this guy the first time with that Blue Wash! Tim Gatehouse demonstrated the technique on the Pants and Left Arm, then I finished the rest. Thanks to Tim's help, I got done in time. GF