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This week has been a week of experimentation. I tried my first NMM this week and my first attempt at actually shading hair rather than just dry brushing it like I have forever. I still have free time, so I have been able to keep the production level up. My players will be starting a new adventure soon, and I need a whole new set of monsters. Oh gee, how sad, I have a bunch of new minis that I "have to paint" (He says to his wife). Centaur The week did not start out well. I was cleaning up the mold lines on this bones centaur (which are not conveniently placed) and I almost cut off his nose. This is not a figure that I was particularly excited about so I just slapped together a paint job and moved on. No fixing that nose. Tried to make the base pretty though. Brigands Just like last week, I painted the bones brigands (one more set to go). These were intended more as practice faces and a little NMM on the guy on the left and the ax. I think it didn't come out too bad. and the faces are characterful. These guys will be the random ruffians/bandits that get thrown on the table now and then. Aeowyn Silverwood I had a little success with the face on this one. I also tried to do some shading on the hair. Only after I started did I read that black hair is actually a little tricky to highlight. This was a start. I planned on NMM here but chickened out and moved on. Nalani, Dancing girl Working on skin tones and hair highlights on this one too. The metallics here are so small that I didn't even try NMM. I feel like the highlighting on the hair and the dress came out well. Nemesra, Dancing girl This one was an attempt at translucent clothing on the legs. Townsfolk V Grandmother The face came out as surprise, but that works for me. Nolzurs Griffin Just a fun figure to paint. Humblewood owl Here is the owl knight from Hit Point Press's Humblewood setting. This one is the best of this week I think and he's also adorable. Big shout out to Wickedshifty who I copied for this mini. They did the NMM that I wanted to try and did it so well that I had to copy it just for practice. The front came out good, but the helmet on the back is not quite right. This has given me some confidence for more experimentation. I will probably look around for a mini that is really shiny to try it out on. . I doubt that I can keep this level of production up as I am trying to push my level of painting up a bit. But I am making a big dent in my pile of mini's. Let's see what happens next week.

My work on the griffon from bones 4

or as those Texans keep spelling it, "Griffon". (Texans are lovely people, I wouldn't dream of antagonizing them over their simpleton spelling. These folks have guns. I mean, not even the more common "Griffin"...) I went with the African Bateleur Eagle, as it has a striking black, white and red colouration with large creamy panels on the top of the wings. The back bit is just a generic big cat, with reddish brown hairy bits to balance all the red on the front. This model is made in regular 3rd generation Bones plastic. Which in spite of being much more rigid than earlier Bonesium, is not nearly strong enough to hold any weight in awkward positions over time. If one of its front talons had been sculpted touching the base in some way, this would probably not have been a problem. As it was the talon was involuntarily touching the rim of the base anyway together with the wingtip dragging along the ground. This was discovered and fixed some time ago, and I forgot to take any pictures of the listin' gryphon. Anyway, since it drooped quite a bit after just standing around on the shelf, it was nessecary to brace it. I did this by drilling up into the leg and inserting a 1mm diameter metal rod (I used a part of a paperclip for this) to make it stand up properly and discourage further drooping. The pin goes up into the hip or so from beneath the base. This fix has now held in the several months since I fixed it. A long time being exposed to the enormous monsters from Warhammer has skewed my size perception. For some reason I have been thinking about this gryphon as "the small one". Drybrushed from a black undercoat. Yeah, it is a bit rough in places, but perfectly serviceable. #82 The "Griffon" Bones 4 Core set, 2019 Reaper Miniatures unknown sculptor Made in Bonesium PVC 50mm base. should be available from reapermini.com some time in the future in Bones.

The two minis from the bones IV core set just look like they want to battle, so I made them ;) Griffin, Wyvern ... Bones IV core set Hiding Halfling ... TTCombat Hill ... XPS

Finished another of the gifted old school minis, this one a Ral Partha (sez so on the base). I really like the sculpt on this one, so much detail...tiny shallow detail that would be easy to lose. So I did very little highlighting after the sepia ink wash. Now what to do about the base. I’m going to attach it to a larger base, but I’d like to be able to take that off someday in the future A) for RP verification, and B) to build a better base if I ever get into that. I’m wondering if regular white glue would be a good choice?

Hey everyone, I decided that for my next mini I wanted to do a creature. I saw this ninja griffin warrior and knew immediately that it was the mini I wanted to start with. At first I thought it would be relatively easy to paint a larger mini, and it's nice open spaces made me excited. However, all was not what it had seemed! Dun, dun, duuuuuun.... From the get go I have had a challenging time with this bird! Cleaning all the mold lines (which I know I didn't get them all), filling in gaps, and spray painting to get a nice coverage all seemed to be kicked up a notch. Yet with my husband's encouragement I pressed on! I really wanted my griffin to have the same color theory as Kikuchiyo from Samurai Seven: After showing my husband the fabulous color scheme I had chosen, he went on to tell me that I had picked some of the toughest colors to paint (i.e black, yellow, and red)! Only slightly dismayed over the uphill battle I would continue to have with my mini, I stuck to my color choices and began the process! Kuro Cleanbrush was gracious enough to show me how to paint "black" without actually using black. I used brown liner for his skirt and mixed in different ratios of gray. And then onto the dreaded yellow! This was a tough color to paint because it didn't cover or blend well. I would often get "water rings/splotches" whenever I would try blending, so I did my best and accepted that it wasn't going to be perfect. Any advice on how to avoid that would be greatly appreciated!! So there you have it! All what I have done up till now. I'm learning a ton with this mini and am excited to see how it turns out! Hopefully I'll have it done by ReaperCon! Thanks again for all the encouragement on my last mini! I can't wait to meet you all at ReaperCon!!!

Teifling fighter for my upcoming worldwound campaign. Also, my griffin was pretty bent when I got him so he's more swooping than rearing.

So this is my second fully painted miniature. 99% of the paints and washes are citadel, I did use two Apple Barrel craft paint colors, white and black. The initial basecoat is Charadon Granite. The lion's body and claws and beak were color blocked with Mecharius Solar Orange; the wings alternate between Calthan Brown and Khemri Brown and the eagle's body uses the Calthan Brown. The wings and eagle body was followed up with Gryphonne Sepia Wash while the lion's body, claws and beak was washed with Devlan Mud Wash. I then layered the lion's body with first Tallern Flesh then Khemri Brown and finally drybrushed/layered it with Iyanden Darksun. I drybrushed the eagle's body and wings with Khemri Brown then Dheneb Stone. I painted the eyes with Dheneb Stone followed by black and white. I layered the claws and beak with Iyanden Darksun and the tongue with Mechrite Red. The base was layered with Calthan Brown and washed with Baal Red and the Stones were painted Dheneb Stone and washed with Devlan Mud. I'm unhappy with the lion's body as the Devlan Mud wash gives it a mange look. The second one I'll probably make a wash from Iyanden Darkson to try for a more golden fur look. While not visible from these shots, I went for a heavier drybrush of the Dheneb Stone on the bottom of the wings and eagle body for a lighter look. Trying to replicate features found on some predator birds so that it would be harder to see them from the ground while in flight. Nakos