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#144: AKA Shardra, Iconic Shaman, sculpted by Bobby Jackson. This one has some glaringly obvious print lines (or whatever those are) up the right side of her cape. I mean: And I even tried to hide them by using a dark colour on the cape and avoiding to highlight the area as much as I could. Still. Strike one for quality control there. Size does matter. Well. Scale does matter. At any rate, I will be doing something else than painting characters for a while as it has been a bit of an uninspired slog as of late. Pathfinder Iconics Bones 4 Core set, 2019 Reaper Miniatures Sculpted by Bobby Jackson Made in Bonesium PVC 30mm bases should be available from reapermini.com some time in the future in Bones, are currently available in Metal.

I have been slightly less of a workaholic in May than in April, so I have been able to do some quartely challenges as well as the monthlies. I am probably not going to be able to paint anything else this month, so here goes. These were all painted for the Reaper challenge league May, and again, squeezed in between work. So, low effort speed painting is the key. which also shows that is it possible to get quite decent results in a short time as long as you accept there will be some rough bits. there are some pictures below

At the Twee of Wuv A simple diorama for the Reaper Challenge League 44131 Tree of Despair with the 77546 Barbarian Mouslings

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Continuing on with the Febuary challenge goals I set myself, (painting at least one of each from the following categories: Reaper Bones, Oathsworn, All Quiet of the Martian Front, Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40.000, Kings of War, Deadzone, DreadBall, Mars Attacks, Shadows of Brimstone, Sedition Wars, Drake, Grendel Productions something or other, and to finish something that currently stands around half-done on the shelf of shame), I have done a few minis over the weekend, As per the resolutionary painting challenge guidelines, I will post them here, and link in my post in the challenge thread. Here goes for DreadBall: This is a DreadBall Extreme free agent known as the Avaran Treebeast, or not-Groot it you like. It is certainly not-Treebeard either. The picture does not properly reflect the many shades of colour on this one. I will have to look into making a better lighting set up for photos. I did the base in the same style as my DreadBall original, that is black with no texture. I am debating myself on whether to texture the base or not, if anything to cover those gawdawful gaps / filler marks that are evident on every single Dreadball mini. Seeing as the Restic shrinks in production somewhat and makes the disk that fits into the hole in the base too small, leaving unsightly gaps and whatnot. Because of the mini itself sticking out of it I usually have a hard time sanding the filler, and it is near impossible to get the base proper smooth as they should be. At any rate, I am not really satisfied with the look of the bases as of now. Maybe a layer of black, unhighlighted sand will be best? Ah, and the coloured /green edging on the base is to denote that this figure is a ...Jack. Oh. I have coloured it as a Striker. It is supposed to be yellow for Jack, Green is Striker (and red is Guard, like traffic lights). And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth! I will need to redo that then. The front shows the three threat zones, and the back is for me the player to see what position it plays as without having to turn it around all the time to see what it is.

more pics below

The Hangry Hangry Hippo 77586 Avatar of Rage (Hippo) From Bones 3 KS Savage Avatars add on Sculpted by Jason Wiebe Bones Classic PVC 60mm base

This is the "Soul Stealer" bust from Artisan Guild's welcome pack on patreon. I printed it on my Elegoo Mars Pro resin printer. This might be the first bust I have ever painted, not counting an Orc bust from the very early days of Forge World that I started but never finished and sold off at some point in the distant past (oh, the Folly of Youth). So why this newfound fascination for busts? I hear you ask. Well, it's the RCL again. "Bust" is a quarterly category, and since Reaper only make a very few busts, none of which are readily available at the moment (there will be a few released after Bones 5 fulfills later this year), the fine folks at Reaper have decreed that bust entries are not limited to Reaper product. Did I mention that the RCL has been a fun way to choose what to paint? It really helps to keep things fresh and to motivate to finish the pieces I start. And now also to paint other stuff than I usually would. I do not buy busts as they are generally outside my scope of interest. However, I do own one or two busts as .stl-files that have been parts of patreon bundles. And with such an extensive library of files at hand, once I decide to do one, it does not take long to make supports and print one off. But what to choose? Tentacle-face or a human face? Do you want to know more?

So we are nearing the end of the road. This is the very last of the 163 miniatures in the Bones 4 Core set! Last but not least! Or more accurately, Last and the largest by far! Who am I? I am known as Millstone Shover, Barrel Drinker, Demon Rider and Camel Puncher! But I am no one when compared to you, O Gauth the Magnificent! Gauth the Golden! Gauth the Tremendous! Gauth the Unassessably Wealthy! Gauth the Mighty! Gauth the Terrible! Gauth the Stupendous! Gauth the Tyrannical! Gauth the Impenetrable! Gauth the Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities! Gauth the Does Not Fit In Standard Shelving! Tommy Too Tall here is about 27cm / over 10 inches tall! I made him a 125mmx100mm base to keep him stable. I had some drooping woes that I have documented in my fixing Droopy The Dragon post back in November of last year. I can categorically and firmly state that the fixes have ....worked! Gauth has been standing tall and proud these last few months with no sign of any renewed droopage. I experimented with removing the knee-brace for a while, but then he sorta slumped, so I put it back. Painting: Black undercoat. Scalecolor Navy Blue all over. When dry, I drybrushed the green parts with Citadel Base Waaagh Flesh, Vallejo Game Color Jade Green 72.026, and Jade Green mixed with Scalecolor Hellbound Flesh SFG-16 in two steps. The Blue parts are done in the Navy Blue drybrushed with Army Painter Crystal Blue and Vallejo Game Color Magic Blue 72.021. This was then mixed with Hellbound Flesh, with pure Hellbound Flesh on the top. The Yellow parts are Vallejo Model Color Khaki Grey 70.880 with Citadel Layer Iyanden Yellow, with Scalecolor Hykey Yellow (a yellowy bone) on top. Plus some small details such as eyes, tongue and teeth in other colours I do not remember which paints I used. So now the task is done! Challenge complete! Achievement unlocked! But the road goes ever on and on... #7 Gauth the Dragon Bones 4 Core set, 2019 Reaper Miniatures unknown sculptor Made in Bonesium PVC 125x100mm base. should be available from reapermini.com some time in the future in Bones.

(unknown code) Bones USA Mangu Timur or Darth Sauron as I like to call him. Or maybe MandaSaurion is better? Sculpted by Bobby Jackson Bones USA 32mm base. This version currently only available as part of the recent Bones USA Learn to Paint Kit.

Your party is travelling through the swamps when you hear a strange croaking noise...it sounds a bit like "wakkawakkawakka...fruit" The giant frogs from the Dreadmere expansion. More pics below

After the Northern Penguin aka Great Auk were hunted to extinction in 1844, the convergently evolved Penguins of the southern hemisphere continue to eke out their existence in the Antarctic. Of course, the reality of the north and south poles being totally separate worlds has never stopped people from making stories and images with, say, polar bears and penguins in them. Or walruses. (Or Pandas). Such as here at the North Pole where Santa lives, we also find Ice Golems using Giant Penguins as guardians on leashes. Sic 'im, Mumble! This is another mini from the Ral Partha Europe kickstarter "Wicked Wonderland" featuring the Evil Santa I painted around Christmas, and some other polar creatures. They are cast in metal, I made a 60x35mm base for them. Sadly, the christmas minis seem to have gone from the RPE webside. Maybe they are only availabe for Christmas? That still only counts as one, since they are connected and on the same base. Hey! I could've sworn you were tap-dancing just now! The three large penguins are from the Reaper Bones 4 kickstarter's Fan Favorites expansion, and released to retail together with the Dire Penguin as the "44104 Penguin Attack Pack". The smaller penguin comes from Reaper "02848 Familiar Pack V" and is made in metal. I painted it as a chick on account of the perfect size. And the Dire Penguin: Because, of course there has to be Dire versions of Penguins too. It craves your fish! This one did not want to be photographed against this background, and turned overexposed and invisible. We'll call it well camouflaged. I had to faff about with global settings in photoshop to make these pictures even viewble. The rest of the photos were unusable. I painted it for the Reaper challenge league's January three colour challenge: choose and use any specific blue, green, pink. together with white and black from Reaper's paint line. Mixing allowed, but only with those specific colours. You can see which ones I used in the picture. I chose to paint it as a kind of wierd Albino Penguin, and only mixed in a small amount of the green for shading. I did not have any other reaper black left, and had to use Nightmare Black which is a very dark blue black. I mean, Dire Penguin? That is some serious Cosmic Horror right there. Where is a Shoggoth when you need one to come and clean up? Featuring minis from: Ice Golem & Giant Penguin Ral Partha Europe "Wicked Wonderland" kickstarter metal - 44401 Penguin Attack Pack Sculpted by Jason Wiebe Bones Black 25mm bases. Penguin from the 02848 Familiar Pack V Sculpted by Sandra Garrity or Michael Brand metal 15mm base. The reaper minis are all available from reapermini.com These minis were finished on Jan 23rd, 2021.

Oh, look a cavern full of valuable crystals. Hm, a tight fit. I am going to take off all my armour so I can crawl in there... From the Bones 4 Darkreach expansion 44049 Stone Lurker Sculpted by Jason Wiebe Bones Black 60mm base I think tentacles are all the more horrid when they are fleshy. This would be a Roper for D&D, in case that was not obvious. A stalagmite-lookalike ambush predator that waits for the unwary to pass by, coiled tentacles at the ready to spring out and drag the victium into its hungry maw. Dungeon delvers beware.

or, Contrast Paints vs Old Bones, continued. A while ago I painted an old Bones model in contrast paint, just to see how it would turn out. Actually, not too shabby was the answer. Now, the thing is that I have a couple of drawers full of minis that are undercoated all in white. These are mainly from the first Bones kickstarter and Drake the Dragon Wargame. (I don’t even remember why I used white primer. Maybe I was all out of black primer spray or something.) I have been rummaging a bit again, and been looking at these minis, to be reminded exactly why the old Bones 1 pc-type minis were consigned to the Drawers of Oblivion™ in the first place. Bendy. Soft. Shallow details. Faces without noses. Hands without fingers. Weapons made for poking around corners…, mould lines that are really diffucult to remove as they need to be carved off...and sometimes go through details. They were doomed to stay there in Limbo forever as I never considered those models to be worth spending time on. Well, I paint to relax. To get the sense of something done. I am not one of those that need every single mini to be the best they can be. That is for a very select few minis. But I do like to have my models painted and on the shelf and not just undercoated and hidden away in some dark drawer. Even the ones that do not capture my imagination. The Plan So, what I have done for now, is to assign ten of my mini holders (=old glass paint jars with a big lump of blue tack on the lid) to "Project Colouring In". This is a long term project where I select ten of the old white undercoated models, stick them on a mini holder each, and place these minis all over my painting desk. Every time I open a contrast paint, or even have some other paints left over on my palette, I will try to get some of it on to one or more of these models as well. What usually happens when I have semi-painted models cluttering up my work space is that over time I get sick of the sight of them and make an effort to finish the offending models. So the idea is to get the older models painted in addition to whatever I am actually wanting to paint, simply by nickeling and dimeing them like this. When one is done, I replace it on the mini holder with another of the old minis. In this way, I should ever so slowly manage to churn through the collection, if given enough time. Maybe this whole plan will go the way of the shelf game (which is, the way of the dodo) and the partially painted minis will just go back in the drawers. But maybe not...and the plan might just about work. We shall see. The key is to get some paint on the models and not be too fussy about anything. Laissez-faire! Sure, it's lazy painting, so what? These are models that would never get painted otherwise. (And they still look better than Mage Knight prepaints. Admittedly, that is mainly because I care enough to paint the eyes.) So anyway. I did three last week. Here are seven more: clicks gets youse pics

From the first Bones kickstarter: I am diving into some more of the white-undercoated Bones 1 models that are cluttering up my Drawers of Doom, models that for some reason or other have been stuck in limbo never to get to painted-heaven. These Bones are mainly painted with Contrast Paints for speed. This is 77119 Sinessa, Hellborn Sorceress. It was part of the "Bedevilled" subset of the Bones 1 Core set. Sculpted by Bob Ridolfi. 25mm base. The Skin is Flesh Tearers Red Contrast with a careful drybrush of thinned Citadel Wazdakka Red Layer on. The Gold is Vallejo Necro Gold and old Chestnut Ink.

I am diving into some more of the white-undercoated Bones 1 models that are cluttering up my Drawers of Doom, models that for some reason or other have been stuck in limbo never to get to painted-heaven. This was painted mainly with the so-called "one and done" method; a single coat of Citadel Contrast paints on a white undercoat, apart from a few details in regular paint, such as the sword and belt buckle done in metals and the whites of the eyeballs. Some black used for blacklining around some of the edges and Vallejo Sand Yellow for the hair. The rim of the base needs a second coat of black. 77164 Elliwyn Heatherlark, Gnome Bard. Sculpted by Derek Schubert. 25mm base. It was part of the "Half Sized Heroes" subset of the Bones 1 Core set.

More pictures and a bit to read below the click (it's a bit dark)

Off the Bones 4 Fan Favorites expansion, the Hell Hounds. Woof woof. Three surprisingly cute massive hellish hot dogs, with lavacracks and all. And they have spiked collars with a massive ring on the top. And very obviously male. Those are the Dogs' Bollocks! Again, these do look better IRL than in the blown up pictures. Much better, to my eyes at least. How to paint lava-look minis: Start with a stark white basecoat. Drybrush the following colours starting with heavy pressure to lighter pressure with the darker colours: Bright yellow, golden yellow, orange or peachy pink, dark red or wine red, dark brown, dark grey/black, pure black. Use a big, soft brush (such as a make-up brush) and make sure to wipe a lot of the paint off the bristles (more than you think!) and build the colours up gradually to avoid streaking. Be aware that when painting light to dark, they will look wierd and as failures almost up to the very last coast. Keep with it! I did the bases with black flock, as they have burned everything to a crisp. Nice doggies? - I put them on 50mm bases. These are sculpted by Chris Lewis and made in Bones Black PVC. They are currently available from reapermini.com These minis were finished on December 4th, 2020.

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Images and words below

Another 3D print today, this time from Lost Kingdom Miniatures current (October 2020) Patreon release. The Canopic Sorcerer More info, pictures and awful puns below.

The full moon casts a pale blue light across the rugged white landscape. Tall pine trees cling to the rocky ground, branches stirring, shedding their cold white burden as the wolves breathe past. The pack is on the move, and the land is trembling beneath their step. They move with purpose, something is not as it was before. There! An affront; a boat pulled ashore, a small group of fur-clad prey around a campfire, round shields and axes in sight. From the treeline the windwolves move, silent, swift, cold gusts of dark shadow, spirits of malice descending upon the men with claws of ice and fangs of doom. A huge load of pictures and musings to be found below

Continuing with the random minis for now: Cavalry. Bones Cavalry that is. Over the course of 4 delivered kickstarters of Bones models, Reaper has released a total of 9 mounted models. (11 if you count the flying saucer from the Bones 2 Chronoscope Expansion and the chopper bike mounted Sophie (the one and only Bones KS model delivered in metal!) in the first Bones kickstarter.) Well, "mounted" is also a theme to use to get something painted, isn't it? And with 9 or 11 models to go for, it should be possible to get done in a timely manner. Here are the first pair of them that I have painted up. lots of pics beneath the

One of the oldest Bones models in existence: Reaper Bones 77009 "Werewolf", from the 2011 O.G. pre-kickstarter Bones lineup. This mini is also available in metal under the name 02747 "Jean Paul DuChamps, Werewolf". I just got the hankering to paint this one. Nothing special. Oui! Le loup-garou! En garde! 77009 Werewolf Pre-kickstarter Bones Reaper Miniatures Classic, blinding white Bones PVC Sculpted by Ben Siens 40mm base. Available from reapermini.com

One of the three minis in the "44036 Dreadmere Females" pack aka "Serena, Dreadmere Rogue" as she is known in the metal version. More like, "Serena, Dark Brotherhood Assassin" if you ask me. Nothing screams secret stealth assassin on a mission to do bloody murder as having members-only assassin guild special shrouded armour that is distinct and different from all other armour types and uniforms... Hm. I thought I heard something... 44036 "Women of Dreadmere" #1 of 3 Dreadmere Expansion, Bones 4 kickstarter 2019 Reaper Miniatures Bones Black PVC Sculpted by Bob Ridolfi 30mm base. Available from reapermini.com