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I finally got this beast finished. I have a snake god in my homebrewed campaign, Baumol, the Neutral Evil god of corruption, lies, and envy, and really love getting these serpents for him to inflict on my players. Since this is much more likely to be a statute than a creature (though it'll be that, too), I decided to paint it up with an elaborate base. I gouged out the mini's eyes and replaced them with craft store fake gemstones, picked up some Reaper flaming spheres (77081) and cut up the graveyard expansion pillars from Bones 3 (77638) to make braziers, then mounted them all to a wooden pyramid I got at a craft store and covered with cobblestone texture-rolled sculpy. I drilled a pit into the base of the sphere, through the braziers, and through the base, then ran some LED string into the fires and mounted the battery in the base. I'm really satisfied with the result. Baumol's holy symbol is a gold or black snake curled around a red gem signifying a heart, so the cobra's hood has this symbol on both sides, and there's a red oval on the base upon which the snake sits. His favored weapon is a trident, so the inner hood markings are tridents, too... Closeup of the gem eyes. They were clear, but I washed them with green ink and gloss varnish. Closeup on the front of the base. And now with the LEDs on.

So, in my quest to elf up a series of skeletal warriors, it came the time to do a bit of conversion... Just your normal Skeletal warrior, with a nice coating of Brown Liner. And now it looks as if he had an encounter with a short-order chef... Take care to cut at joints so that the cuts will be less likely to cause issues when gljuing it back together. Drill holes through his body, the leg and all the way down to the base. I used a 0.8mm pit for that job. I also drilled up the neck and into the skull with the same bit. Then I drilled in through the eyesockets with a 0.5mm bit. These holes are drilled to intersect the larger hole from the neck up. The neck-hole should end up in eyeheight... When drilling with the 0.8mm, keep rotating it even when you pull it out as you NEED to clear the holes properly. And that little speck next to the 0.8mm drill bit is a LED. It's actually a 0402 SMT LED mounted on a very, very small bit of PCB and have leads attached. All the really hard work is done in other words. (0402 = 0.4 x 0.2mm surface size. While there are people who can hand-solder that, it takes ages of practice and very good eqipment, so buy the ready-made stuff from eBay) Inserting the LED into the skull can be a bit of a pain. Consider using a 1mm drill bit if you have steadier hands than me. Make certain it's facin the right way... And... Thread the wires through the bones down to the base. Tested that it works, and have glued it together and given it a bit of paint. What isn't readily visible is that the skull was basecoated with MSP Bones Dragon Black. You may need more than one coat of that... The elctronics. For battery I'm using a CR1620 because I have lots of them. (CR1620 = 16mm diameter, 2mm thick) You may want to use CR1220, CR 2032 (requires a larger and thicker base.) the BR425 (4.2mm diameter cylinder. Often used in light-up fishing lures) or in the kase of Kaladrax, a pair of AAs... A RED LED will explode if you connect it directly to the battery, so we need a resistor to limit the current. (The thing with the paint stripes) Maths... RED LEDs want 2 - 2.4V, and typically 5 - 25mA to light up. (current tolerances varies, so check the details whne uying them) So, we need to lose 0.6 - 1V and drop the current to no more than 25mA. 1V/0.025A = 40ohm. but testing that gives a very bright light, so use that as a minimum size. (Resistors are available in assortement packs) At 5mA, we get a value of 200ohms. This all assumes that the battery is 3V. But these button cells may be a bit over 3V when 'at rest' and drawing 5mA is pretty much that. So don't be surprised if you need a 460ohm or even a 1KOhm resistor in your setup. The resistor is soldered to one lead and glued to the inside of a base. The other end is going to become a battery pad. The glass tube soldered to the other lead is what's known as a Reed Relay. (A relay is an electromagnetic switch. You energise a coil, and it throws and holds a switch. Release the current and it releases it again. The Reed relay is just a pair of metal plates in a tube. When you introduce an outside magnetic field the will get pulled together. Nice for sensors and stuff) Glue that also down, and make certain the free pin is bent so that it lays across the resistor 'battery pad'. And slide the battery in between the leads... When you hold a magnet near the base you get this: If it doesn't work, just turn the battery the other way to reverse the polarity. Yes, the LED requires a specific polarity, but no, you won't damage it by connecting it the wrong way. That, and the fact that you can never be certain which way the wires are soldered, is the reason why I haven't listed which wire to connect what to. You don't need to use a Reed relay, either. A miniature switch is good, also. Or you can just solder a stiff wire to the other lead to make the second part of the holder, and just insert the battery when you want it to light up. It is possible to do this kind of conversion on white metal, also, but the hole holding the LED must be somewhat larger since the material isn't flexible, and yeah, the LED must be encapsulated in something non-conductive. (Most epoxy glues will work for that) Also, drilling so long holes in metal is a real elf in the ...

This was a difficult piece to finish. Not because how difficult it was, but it is the first mini I painted since the death of my friend. I had already started this and decided to make this in a gift to his widow. She is a very close friend and I wanted to give her something to support her. The text means: "A little light for dark days". It still is a difficult time for me and is a very emotional piece. The mouse is the Dark Sword Mouse Mage. I made a new tail with a lantern with an led light. Behind the moon in the window is another led light. The box I bought in a craft store and I made the inserts. The insert in the lid first had a window, but I changed that so I could place the text there.

Now terminalmancer has received the mini's. This the first one, the bones Nightspectre. I was looking for an excuse to use the led kits I received from a kickstarter. So i made the base a bit higher and put 2 leds beneath the mini and a battery holder and switch on the bottom. The leds give a nice effect, but the camera does not like it. These are the best pictures. The plastic was a bit weird to paint on, the paint did not want to stick on some places. I am happy how it turned out.