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At the very end of the Lost Valley, the bossfight: Clubtail! A plant eating 4-ton tank armed with a deadly morning star tail, an armoured hide with spikes, -a fantasy version of an Ankylosaur. The clubtail is larger than the fossil record of Ankylosaur supports. Also the spikes are overstated in comparison. A lot. At any rate, the Ankylosaur was contemporary with the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Triceratops. All are from what is now North America in the late Cretaceous period, roughly 68 million years ago. It needed that armour. The question remains: What did it use the club-like tail for? To smesh predators? Rivals? Trees? An impressive display to attract mates? All of the above? And the clubtail has spikes. Did I mention the spikes? I detest painting spikes. It takes absolutely ages and I invariably lose patience and botch the job. These look OK for tabletop but do not stand up to close scrutiny at all. At least it is done. Together with the entire Lost Valley Expansion! Woot! The Clubtail is, in fact, the distant forebearer of the modern day Dragon Tortoise aka Koopa. I made it a 125mm x 100mm base. 44076 Clubtail from the Lost Valley Expansion Bones 4 kickstarter, delivered 2019 Reaper Miniatures Sculpted by Jason Wiebe Made in Bones Black PVC 125x100mm bespoke 3D printed base available from reapermini.com

Some time in the late 1990s I did an entire lizardman army for the fantasy wargame Raven by Harlequin miniatures. I am thinking of rebasing and touching up this army as a generic, system agnostic one. That army had some smaller raptors and also raptor riders. The paint scheme here is similar to how I painted those lizardmen back in the day, so these raptors should fit right in with this army. 44081: Raptor Hunting Pack (5) The paint scheme is rather simple and quick to paint and does not really require much precision: Deep green over black undercoat, followed by a heavy drybrush with a bottle green, such as Dark Angels Green or similar. Over this a lighter drybrush on the legs/arms and very very lightly on the belly and underside in general with an olive green such as 70.967 Vallejo Model Color Olive Green or the old citadel goblin green. The back gets some reddish brown or terracotta, followed by a sandy yellow/ochre that leaves some of the reddish brown visible around the edges. On this a light drybrush with 70.976 Vallejo Model Color Buff or similar bone yellow colour. Mix in some white for a final highlight if desired. Gloss black on claws, paint in the eyes as follows: the entire eyeball and eyesocket in black or something very dark. The eyeball in buff, then some transparent yellow (or citadel cassandora yellow shade) with some thinned transparent orange in the middle. When dry, a thin vertical line of black, followed by gloss varnish on only the eyeballs. Teeth in a light beige or whatever you like. I made 45x30 oval bases for them. I need to say that the Bones Black material is very good for PVC minis, and far superior to the regular white Bones material. But these minis have some questionable detailing around the hands and feet. Or should I say lumpy bits at the end of the legs? It would seem that the factory has maybe pulled a fast one on Reaper and the QC has let us all down on these specific minis by not spotting this and having it fixed before signing off on them. I don't really mind all that much as the bits in question are for the most part hidden in the basing flockmix, but it is a bit frustrating knowing that they both could and should have had crisper details on the feet and hand claws. Oi you lot! Gerroff my lawn!

Where several of the other Lost Valley dino-beasts have extra fantasy elements to them, such as extra horns. spiney ridges, a third digit on the vestigial front limbs and such, this one is just about picture perfectly based on a real dinosaur: The Carnotaurus. The Carnotaurus lived at some point during the Late Cretaceous period, that lasted from about 100 million to 66 million years ago. There have been found several fossils with bones and skin impressions that show scales, ridges and bumps in the hide. No sign of feathers though. The fossils are all found in South America, which was part of the supercontinent southern Gondwanaland when these critters existed. This is the only raptor-like predatory dino we know of that had horns on the skull, looking like very sharp eyebrows more than anything else really. This model was originally released in metal some years ago, which might explain the difference in design philosophy ("real dinosaur" vs "fantasy dinosaur"). Now it also exists in Bones Black in the Lost Valley. This mini was finished August 18th 2020. 44080 Carnotaurus from the Lost Valley Expansion Bones 4 kickstarter, delivered 2019 Reaper Miniatures Sculpted by Dennis Mize Made in Bones Black PVC 65x35mm bespoke 3D printed base available from reapermini.com

So, is this inspired by Megalania, or is it something else entirely? Megalania was a giant monitor lizard that lived in Australia up to about 50.000 years ago, and might have been about this size compared to a human. It did as far as I know not have a spiney ridge all down the back or horizontally along the tail. Or is this more of a Crocodilian precursor like Dynamosuchus Collisensis that lived a whopping 230 million years ago, at the very Dawn of the Dinosaurs? That one would be smaller though, and still not have the back- and tailspines. At any rate, Hornslasher: Painting beasts such as this is a doddle: black undercoat, heavy dark blue drybrush, then some darkish greenish ochre and assorted sandy, green, and some pale blue grey. Pale belly and undersides. Claws and teeth in offwhite. I did some electric blue dots on the face just to get some colour in. This is mostly a case of throwing some colour on here and there to hint of stripes or patterns in the hide, and then to just stop at some point. A very light dusty drybrush to unify a bit and done. Dark purply red and pink in the mouth. I based it similarily to the Enormous Crocodile I did some weeks ago, with a thin, oval base that was half "muddy waters" going the length of the body. 100x50mm 3D printed base, built up to the left hindquarters with some scraps of plastic and putty. Still large enough to be a serious threat to the denizens of the Lost Valley. This mini was finished August 18th 2020. 44068 Hornslasher from the Lost Valley Expansion Bones 4 kickstarter, delivered 2019 Reaper Miniatures Sculpted by Jason Wiebe Made in Bones Black PVC 100x50mm bespoke 3D printed base available from reapermini.com

Click to witness the magnificence of the Giant Mammoth God!

The third set of humanoids from the Lost Valley Expansion of the Bones 4 kickstarter is the Orcs of the Jade Fire tribe: Featuring an all-female cast of hard bodied primitives, with abs to break rocks on and buns of bronze. The barbaric splendor of these women rival that of the bodybuilder cast of any 80's Sword and Sorcery movie. Apart from the fact that said 80's movies usually feature male bodybuilders with any females being more of the centrefold variety both in body type and costume budget. The burning question would be: what do the male members of the Jade Fire Tribe look like? Do they have the physique of Steve Rogers before or after the serum was administered? Or are they more like bloated ant drones that barely can move while the womenfolk do all the work? Inquiring minds want to know! 44089 Jade Fire Shaman #633 The skin is Citadel Contrast Space Wolves Grey over a greyish white on black zenithal undercoat. Look closely and you will see the spatter pattern a slightly bent airbrush needle tip will leave...I need to buy myself a proper one, the cheap chinese ebay ones I have been using are really not very good at all. Good thing the Vex is coming. 44088 Jade Fire Chieftain #632 aka She-Hulk. Also the one model in all of the Lost Valley with blatantly metal-looking parts. 44096 Jade Fire Champion #636 44095 Jade Fire Warrior #635 Thirty Five dollars and a six-pack to my name! Time to break out that old Black Flag album again. 44094 Jade Fire Spearman #634 Either the naming of the Bones version of this mini is a bit off (especially since the metal version is called "Spearmaiden") or this one has the worst case of Moobs I have seen since Meat Loaf's character in Fight Club. Look, it's the stripper! Wheeee! These minis were completed August 4th 2020 Jade Fire Tribe orcs, from the Lost Valley Expansion Bones 4 kickstarter, delivered 2019 Reaper Miniatures Sculpted by Gene van Horne Made in Bones Black PVC available from reapermini.com

Naturally, the giants of the Lost Valley are Stone Giants, seeing as the Lost Valley is in the Stone Age. FeeFie, Fo and Fum the three Stone Giants. I rebased them on 60mm bases. click to see more pics

What is a faux-prehistoric setting without Cavemen? The stereotypical fur-clad, monosyllabic unwashed barbarian that whacks a woman over the head with a club and then drags her by the hair into a cave? Or at least, sporting the "cave man" look that was popularised in The Flintstones and The Far Side. The reason these types are prehistoric lies in the name. Pre-history, as in "before recorded time". Which really is most of time. We don't really know all that much about prehistoric man other than what can be gleaned through archeology. We do know that there existed several different sub-species of humans concurrently up to about 50.000 years ago. Neanderthals would be one such sub-species, the Hobbits (Homo Florensis) another. Then we (or something) killed off all the others. Some evidence of interspecies breeding is still to be found in our modern DNA. #628-631 These were only shown as silhouettes in the KS. From left to right: Shaman. clubber, spearman, archer. These are technologically advanced cavemen, as shown by their use of the bow. The Shaman. I call him Barney. He succeeded in the Quest for Fire. The clubber, Thag Simmons. He will be known to posterity by the manner of his demise. (Should have stayed clear of the tail end of that Stegosaur.) Fred, the spearman. Used stones of flint to make a sharp spearhead. Archie the bowman. His right hand strategically placed to hide his embarrassing lack of arrows from the others. These were simple and fun to do in regular paints on a black undercoat. I come in search of the answer to the Riddle of Steel! What do you know about it? These minis were finished June 14th 2020. 44086 Black Bear Tribe Cavemen (4) Bones 4 kickstarter, delivered 2019 Reaper Miniatures Sculpted by Bobby Jackson Made in Bones Black PVC available from reapermini.com

The mighty Mumlaaaaaaaak! With an attendant caveman, just to highlight how huge this guy is. I just finished him this morning, and with him done I only have one more model to paint from the Bones 4 Lost Valley expansion. His axe incorporates a nude fertility idol, so I've created a link to the uncropped front view.

Hooray! It's an entire tribe of orc warrior women ready to crack some heads! I rebase all of my Reaper models, but these had such thin integrated bases that I was able to glue them directly onto Reaper's 32mm round gaming bases and still keep some of the original details. You can see this most clearly with the top of the skull on the base of the Jade Fire Champion (the warrior with the two-handed axe) and the bleached ribcage at the feet of the Jade Fire Shaman.

Here's a bunch of giant animals from the Bones 4 Lost Valley expansion: the axebeak (44075), giant snake (44078), giant cave sloth (44079) and cave bear (44082). My typical color palette preferences tend to be fairly muted but I experimented with primary colors on the axebeak.

He's big. He's green. He's covered in spikes. He's your friend and mine: the hornslasher.

I hadn't planned on this purplish skintone for these guys. Originally it was going to be much redder, but I wasn't paying attention to the colors I was mixing, and the basecoat ended up looking lighter and tanner than I had intended. Instead of starting fresh, I made a wash with a lot of purple in it and applied it liberally to their skin, and this was the result.

Here's a lovely family of primitive hominids for your enjoyment. The two cavemen and the caveboy are below, but you'll have to follow the links to see the cavewoman and the fertility idol, since there's some paleolithic nudity involved. Shaman and Fertility Idol (Front) Shaman and Fertility Idol (Back)

I just finished this up yesterday. The color scheme was taken from one of my kids' picture books (How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?); there was a polacanthus in there that was just as spiky as this guy, so I thought the green and purple would look nice.

44079 Giant Cave Sloth (#617) Fossils of Megatherium (which literally means "Great Beast") aka the giant ground sloth have been found in deposits dated to the Pliocene era 5.33 million and up to the Holocene, about 8.000 years ago. Which means it actually may have been contemprorary to early modern humans. Who in turn might even have killed them off. After all, a 4 ton elephant sized sloth might be both easy to catch and good eating. 50mm base. Sculpted by Jason Wiebe. Great Beasts indeed! From the Lost Valley expansion Bones 4 kickstarter, 2019 Reaper Miniatures Made in Bones Black PVC available from reapermini.com These models were completed the 2nd of May.

44075 Axebeak (#608) Axebeak, or Phorusrhacos, was one of the great terror birds of the Miocene era, about 23-2.6 million years ago. Also it is, in fact, the direct forebearer of the modern era Chocobo bird. This Primal Chocobo was rather more bloody minded than the modern one, and would not accept any riders whatsover. The base I printed out for it is 65x35mm. Sculpted by Jason Wiebe Great Beasts indeed! From the Lost Valley expansion Bones 4 kickstarter, 2019 Reaper Miniatures Made in Bones Black PVC available from reapermini.com These models were completed the 2nd of May.

44082 Cave Bear (#624) The cave bear lived from the Pleistocene era (That's the Ice Ages to us normal folks) which lasted from 2.580.000 years ago to about 11.700 years ago. However, it seems to have gone extinct about 24.000 years ago. Which certainly is contemporary with modern humans. Them cave bears must have been delicious. And the shaggy furs kept us warm in those cold, cold caves. 60x35mm base. Sculpted by Jason Wiebe. Great Beasts indeed! From the Lost Valley expansion Bones 4 kickstarter, 2019 Reaper Miniatures Made in Bones Black PVC available from reapermini.com These models were completed the 2nd of May.

44078 Giant Snake (#616) Yeah, snakes have been around since the Garden of Eden. The earliest fossils of snakes we have date from the Cretaceous period, 145-66 million years ago). Snakes seem to be a successful group of animals, still alive and slitherin'. I tried to give it a relatively realistic patterning with colouration that might work on the autumnal flock I use these days. 32mm base. Sculpted by Julie Guthrie Great Beasts indeed! From the Lost Valley expansion Bones 4 kickstarter, 2019 Reaper Miniatures Made in Bones Black PVC available from reapermini.com These models were completed the 2nd of May.

44067 Skywing Stormcaller (#605) Pteranodonman! I modelled the paint scheme after a seagull. This one has a South American Prehispanic vibe going on. Probably on account of the headdress. Not the macahuitl at all. No sirree Bob! 32mm base. These are members of the Sauroid Tribes according to the flavour text. (Assuming the "Sauriod" is a typo, and the later "Sauroid" is the correct name). Each of "these warring tribes are highly territorial and will brook no trespassers on their sacred lands", and they constantly battle both amongst themselves and with the warlike Jade Fire Clan orcs. Cross referencing the tribe names in the flavor text with the kickstarter expansion image we find that each model represents a separate tribe: From left to right Skywing, Bloodcrest. Blacktooth, Thunderfoot and Armorback. So that is five distinct tribes with a totalt of one miniature each available ;P These have been released to retail by Reaper, so they have proper SKU numbers. (# in parenthesis are from the expansion image) You are in big trouble now, little man. 44067 Skywing Stormcaller Bones 4 kickstarter, 2019 Reaper Miniatures Sculpted by Chris Lewis Made in Bones Black PVC available from reapermini.com

44065 Thunderfoot Defender (#603) Triceratopsman! Mostly the same colours as the upcoming Triceratops aka Thunderfoot Behemoth. 35mm base. These are members of the Sauroid Tribes according to the flavour text. (Assuming the "Sauriod" is a typo, and the later "Sauroid" is the correct name). Each of "these warring tribes are highly territorial and will brook no trespassers on their sacred lands", and they constantly battle both amongst themselves and with the warlike Jade Fire Clan orcs. Cross referencing the tribe names in the flavor text with the kickstarter expansion image we find that each model represents a separate tribe: From left to right Skywing, Bloodcrest. Blacktooth, Thunderfoot and Armorback. So that is five distinct tribes with a totalt of one miniature each available ;P These have been released to retail by Reaper, so they have proper SKU numbers. (# in parenthesis are from the expansion image) You are in trouble now, little man. 44065 Thunderfoot Defender Bones 4 kickstarter, 2019 Reaper Miniatures Sculpted by Chris Lewis Made in Bones Black PVC available from reapermini.com

44063 Blacktooth Savage (#601) Tyrannosaurman! Painted in mostly the same scheme as the T-Rex-lookalike Blacktooth Terror I recently painted. Black and red being markers for "evil". He likes to wear thunderfoot skulls as pauldrons. 40mm base. These are members of the Sauroid Tribes according to the flavour text. (Assuming the "Sauriod" is a typo, and the later "Sauroid" is the correct name). Each of "these warring tribes are highly territorial and will brook no trespassers on their sacred lands", and they constantly battle both amongst themselves and with the warlike Jade Fire Clan orcs. Cross referencing the tribe names in the flavor text with the kickstarter expansion image we find that each model represents a separate tribe: From left to right Skywing, Bloodcrest. Blacktooth, Thunderfoot and Armorback. So that is five distinct tribes with a totalt of one miniature each available ;P These have been released to retail by Reaper, so they have proper SKU numbers. (# in parenthesis are from the expansion image) You are in trouble now, little man. 44063 Blacktooth Savage Bones 4 kickstarter, 2019 Reaper Miniatures Sculpted by Chris Lewis Made in Bones Black PVC available from reapermini.com

44066 Bloodcrest Smasher (#604) Parasaurolophusman! Just some old-school dino colours for this one. 35mm base. These are members of the Sauroid Tribes according to the flavour text. (Assuming the "Sauriod" is a typo, and the later "Sauroid" is the correct name). Each of "these warring tribes are highly territorial and will brook no trespassers on their sacred lands", and they constantly battle both amongst themselves and with the warlike Jade Fire Clan orcs. Cross referencing the tribe names in the flavor text with the kickstarter expansion image we find that each model represents a separate tribe: From left to right Skywing, Bloodcrest. Blacktooth, Thunderfoot and Armorback. So that is five distinct tribes with a totalt of one miniature each available ;P These have been released to retail by Reaper, so they have proper SKU numbers. (# in parenthesis are from the expansion image) You are in trouble now, little man. 44066 Bloodcrest Smasher Bones 4 kickstarter, 2019 Reaper Miniatures Sculpted by Chris Lewis Made in Bones Black PVC available from reapermini.com

The second add on tie-in to the Lost Valley: the Thunderfoot Behemoth, for 8 dollars in the kickstarter campaign. An almost-Triceratops, biggest difference is the crest of horns around the rim of it's skullplate that the fossil record does not quite support as far as I know. I went with the same-ish colour for this and the thunderfoot defender sauroid, as they were painted at the same time, and why not? I ditched the original base and made a 125x100mm for it instead. Paint big minis with big brushes! I used a 12mm wide make up brush for most of this mini. On a black undercoat I drybrushed the top half or so with Vallejo Green Brown 70.879 and from the bottom with Vallejo Nocturna Pale Flesh 74.015. I honestly don't remember the other colors...some reddish brown, an ochre yellow, a bone white and a few others. And when the paint was on, I used CItadel Athonian Camoshade to wash the whole thing, taking care to remove any pooling with a brush. After that was dry, I carefully drybrushed the main colours one more time to lighten them a bit. The horns were done in the pale flesh with the camoshade, and then drybrushed with two different off whites. Details like the eyes, based and done. Also consider for a bit what kind of environment that promotes the evolution of this kind of size, armour and weaponry in prey animals. This is a twelve ton herbivore. with armour-piercing horns! in comparison, a heavy modern day Rhino clocks in at 2.2 tons. A triceratops could be more than five times that! Yeah, it figures it would not have them if it did not need them...T-rexes and Triceratops did live at the same time and the same place...the late Cretaceous period, about 68 million years ago in what is now North America. This is about 75-80 million years after the jurassic period...so that park has a lie for a name. A triceratops would be around 3m tall and 9m long, so the Thunderfoot is not far off it would seem. up to 12.000 kilos. That's a solid "oh HELL no!" on the fluffy scale. Thunderfoot Behemoth an add on in the Bones 4 kickstarter, 2019 Reaper Miniatures unknown sculptor Made in Classic Bonesium PVC probably available from reapermini.com soon

44064 Armorback Barbarian (#602) Anklyosaurman! I found a picture of a tortoise with this colouration, so I went with it 32mm base. These are members of the Sauroid Tribes according to the flavour text. (Assuming the "Sauriod" is a typo, and the later "Sauroid" is the correct name). Each of "these warring tribes are highly territorial and will brook no trespassers on their sacred lands", and they constantly battle both amongst themselves and with the warlike Jade Fire Clan orcs. Cross referencing the tribe names in the flavor text with the kickstarter expansion image we find that each model represents a separate tribe: From left to right Skywing, Bloodcrest. Blacktooth, Thunderfoot and Armorback. So that is five distinct tribes with a totalt of one miniature each available ;P These have been released to retail by Reaper, so they have proper SKU numbers. (# in parenthesis are from the expansion image) You are in trouble now, little man. 44064 Armorback Barbarian Bones 4 kickstarter, 2019 Reaper Miniatures Sculpted by Chris Lewis Made in Bones Black PVC available from reapermini.com