Search the Community

Bones V dreadmere ranger. Submitted for the Feb ‘23 RCL in the ‘something shiny’ category. His sword slowly got bendy again, I should have been more clever in photographing him. Still, a great subject for OSL practice. Comments and criticism are welcome!

Here he is, Mr. Oman Ruul charging up a grapefruit. Let me know what you think of the OSL. I did a few multishots so you can see angles. Overall I think he came out pretty good. I was trying to only hit where the light would be coming from the glowing grapefruit of doom.

Happy Wednesday everyone, here are pictures of the Tabletop World Townhouse I've been working on for a week. I painted it with Reaper MSP and Citadel shade. (Once the model is varnished, I'll add lichen and moss to the roof and wall). It was a very pleasant model to paint. I painted light effects around the windows and on the shingles. I also added rust to all metal parts and added Woodland Scenics water to the bucket by the door. The furnitures are also from Tabletop World.

A project mostly done just to get painting, so it's far from perfect and I didn't take time to blend it out at all. Focus was on playing with some OSL and then I decided to try sculpting a base, so this is a huge step forward despite the lack of blending on it. Unfortunately, I used some liners to give character to the stone and haven't sealed the mini, so it's pretty shiny along the walls and you can't see any of the subtlety there. I'll hit it with dullcote and see if I can get better pics and update this post later, if so. And though my intention was to not blend, I /may/ go back and do just a minor blend pass on the blue OSL highlight on the wall because that's bugging me :) Hope you enjoy! WIP here

Hey everyone, here's a 02172, Cerberus I completed last night. This Dark Heaven Legends model was sculpted by Sandra Garrity. I was inspired by Simon Eckert's artwork for the choice of colors.

Hey everyone, here's 03292, Almaran the Paladin sculpted by Bobby Jackson. This is the metal version, it's also available in Bones under SKU 77058 and chibi version sculpted by Gene Van Horne under SKU 77714.

Painted as a deep gnome in the Underdark. .

I got this guy through the ReaperCon Live 2020 swag box. I originally started painting him during ReaperCon Live that year, following along a class on how to paint a starscape cloak. I failed that class miserably since I didn't actually have the paints I needed(Reaper Clear paints), but I decided to redo it now with my own technique(and also with those paints, now that I have them). Most of the clothing I painted back then, using some shades of blue. The hood piece/cowl I painted up with a brighter blue, to separate it from the rest. I've mainly used Reaper paints for this miniature, but also some AK paints for the skin tones. The Magenta Reaper Clear paint has been heavily used for the OSL. There is some stuff I would've changed if I hadn't done half the painting a year and a half ago, but overall I'm quite happy with how he turned out.

Some may have seen it in the Facebook Group already, but I am working currently on a spelunking diorama that is a study in OSL. My first serious attempt at OSL it turned out to be a daunting and mindbending affair. I established the base colours and lighting via airbrush and then went back in with brush. Still a few things to fix, but it is getting there.

This was my entry for the quarterly contest. I decided to paint him as though he was in a cave with maybe some luminescent crystals or mushrooms. I love the sculpt and will probably eventually get another to paint "normally". Or maybe not since I have hundreds of other minis to paint!

Took a shot at the ol OSL. This model is from my youth that I'd always been afraid to paint because i didn't want to mess it up. Years later, now I feel like my skills are better and it was worth a shot. Not only did I take a shot, I did it with a real challenge applied to it. I was either going to mess it up - or REALLY mess it up. BATTLE REPORT! Wins: * Using the colors red and purple seem very wizardly. Felt like a strong combo and happy with it. * The OSL I did was using a dry brush and sweeping it from the main source and only moving in that direction. * After the initial area had been 'zoned' I went in and brought up the colors further. I had a difficult time identifying what would be lit or not. Misses: * The highlight on the face is way too much. I wanted a light cast to it, but Iwasn't thinking like sitting in front of the sun. Help. * What colors to use for bringing up a light source? I was thinking some kind of fire getting cast away. I went Orange, Yellow, White, but only hitting white up close and fading to deeper colors farther from the source. * The shading in the cape and undercape - I didn't do anything but feel it does need something. Does it look strange without it? If I were to base this one, I'm wondering how I can really knock this light effect out on the base, too. I may end up just leaving this as is and thinking fondly of it as a first attempt at OSL. I also think having taken a challenge piece from my childhood and honoring it with something fun to do in my adulthood felt...redeeming.

Hello everyone, now that the event is over, here are some more pictures of my entry in the 17th Quarterly contest. A big thanks to everybody that voted for me. This is a 77752, Female Minotaur sculpted by Jason Wiebe. It was a fun model to work on and I challenged myself painting object source lighting (OSL) on it. I made the fire with pieces of popsicle stick and Liquitex heavy gel medium.

Finally varnished and ready for the table: Sepp, Brunhilde and Urs. I painted them up to kick off my Rangers of Shadow Deep Project. More infos and a bit of backstory can be found in this WIP. Those three are my first attempt at OSL. Luckily, I did not have to make this journey alone: I'd like to thank @Geoff Davis for a great class at RVU and an even better private lesson via zoom. Enjoy, C&C very welcome!

A Hellcat Hacker for my Corregidor Nomads team for Infinity.

Hello everyone, here are pictures of the last Dark Dwarf I painted for my Duergar squad. I converted a 44109, Enlarged Dark Dwarf Smiter sculpted by Bobby Jackson to make it look more like a Striker. I changed the original hammer head for a 3D printed two sided meat tenderizer and added the eye patch. Thanks to Derek feedback, I really pushed myself on this one. I think I spent something like 3 or 4 hours on the beard only. It is standing on a 2 inches square base. The ball and chain are made of Milliput and a 3mm hobby chain. Your comments are welcome. Group pictures coming soon.

Enlarge! Hello everyone, here are pictures of the 44109, Enlarged Dark Dwarf Smiter I completed last night. The size of this model allowed me to add more texture on the leather. I also added light effect on the face and the shield rivets. For those of you who may wonder, Dark Dwarves (Duergar) can once a day use their spell-like ability to enlarge themselves. This Bones Black model was sculpted by Bobby Jackson.

I’ve been going through BONES I mostly in order, doing several WIP. This was the next. I wanted to try to improve on my OSL so he got a green magic glowing gem. Still not great, but the idea comes across. Link to WIP. https://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/92763-darcstaar-vs-bones-i-ep-10-satheras/&tab=comments#comment-1965284 I didn’t bother trying to paint his eyes due to the extreme shadowing...

This one was done for Season 2 of the Vancouver Miniature Painting Club. It is Jexx the Small Bomba by Big Child Creatives. He's a 75mm scale figure, but he's smaller as a little goblin, perhaps 40mm in height total. Most folks got a good cast of the goblin. Mine was terrible. Ear was chipped in two places, and I only found one part to glue back. The ankle had deep cracks in it, and indeed, did break at one point and I had to repair it. Had mold slip and really bad mold lines. The edge of the hat had crumbly resin. He had a huge blob of excess resin on his nose next to an air bubble - that took a knife, filing, and filling to get to normal goblin nose. So.... I wasn't super into this one. But it was good practice on OSL and non-human skin tones. I did similar to the box art on this one too. Leaned into warm hues with the torchlit side, and blues on the non-torch side. Had a rough image in my head that the pants were originally white, but he's a goblin and peed in them regularly. Overall turned out fine. Still not my favorite. Pictures are "sufficient", although again I wish I had my buddy to take better ones! Unlike the other projects, I did TMM on the bombs and buckles, since I was too lazy for NMM.

For your consideration I present my take on the Wizard’s Workshop. This piece was created in response to a challenge issued by a Twitch streamer that I follow. The challenge was themed Fatherly for Fathers Day 2020. I spent several hours searching for the right model until I came across this piece. Inspired by Alexi Z’s example on the Reaper website I decided to try OSL for the first time. (Using an airbrush is almost cheating lol) I wanted to find a unique base for this project and settled on the Shattered Ritual 100mm base by Secret Weapon Miniatures. In addition to the Wizard’s Workshop I also added 77318: Bookshelf, 77248: Crates (Large and Small) (2) and 77249: Large Barrel Small Barrel to the scene The Glowing effect was created by adding LIT Green Glow Pigment by Culture Hustle and mixing it with the acrylic paint and applying it with the airbrush. C&C welcome

This model is a Dark Sword Miniatures masterpiece of a sculpt by Jeff Grace. Never before have I seen so many tiny etchings on plate armor, especially on a figure that is barely 1.6 inches high. I feel a bit let down by my red OSL, but then again, this was only my second real attempt at the process, which is surely one I need to practice more.

One of my recently finished miniatures, and my first attempt at doing some object source lighting. Truth be told this was all a bit of an experiment and as such the ghost was very rushed (She was 100% drybrushed), most of my time and effort went into the base and trying to pull off a convincing OSL glow effect. It is far from perfect, but for a first attempt I am fairly pleased with the result.

This mini took forever to paint. Not really because anything I did with him was all that challenging, but because once I did one thing I realized that more stuff was needed. I couldn't figure out why the demon was holding a rock, so I decided it must be a spell effect. I liked the crackly rocks of the base, but decided it must be cooling magma. Then I decided that his base wasn't stable enough for his huge wingedness (the mini is metal and thus VERY top-heavy), so I extended it. Then I dithered about whether to just paint the lava or apply a resin of some kind. And on and on and on. Eventually I forced myself to be done. Here he is :-) C&C appreciated as I've definitely never done this many techniques with one mini. :-D

This was my Secret Sophie gift to Inarah. I had a lot of fun painting it, though I was cranky there wasn't much room to play with freehand! Let's see... the crystals are a combination of sculpey, green stuff, sprue cut into crystal shapes and actual small quartz crystals. You can buy them cheap online in bulk. Great for terrain projects. The colors are nightmare black, clouded sea and mint green, then after I was done highlighting, I glazed the whole thing except in the light effect area with pthalo green. It knocked down the highlights a bit and I like the more teal look it gives. The fire was pure white, sun yellow, marigold yellow, fire red and spattered crimson. I think I used some Golden brand carbon black for the deep shadows. Anyway, enjoy! I didn't do a lot of WIP stuff for this one, sorry! er, and my camera was dead so I had to use my phone. The balance is always funky. I decided I wanted to work on OSL, so I planned ahead of time while painting the miniature. I find this helpful for OSL. I decide where I'll have the light effect and then up the highlighting on that side keeping in mind the spread and direction of the light. Then when I add the colored effect, the highlighting is already done. I think where I see folks fall down on lighting is one of two things: remembering that light is brightest at its source and lessens outwards, or thinking that light is color rather than brightness or higher value. Meaning we have to highlight first before we add the light effect, or it just looks like paint, not light. If you take a black and white photo of a mini, you should be able to see the light and effect is closer to white. If done incorrectly, the light effect will disappear. You also have to darken shadows elsewhere to sell the effect. It becomes complicated, but in all honesty, you can do OSL with drybrushing, as long as you remember to highlight first! Enjoy! C&C always welcome! Here's what I mean with the black and white photo- see how you don't see the color of the light, but you still see the light?

Male Dwarven Cleric with Warhammer from Dark Sword Miniatures.

Good day everyone, here are some pictures of my latest Dungeon Dwellers sculpted by Bobby Jackson. I painted 07008, Luwin Phost the Wizard Reaper’s MSP acrylic paint, I shaded with Citadel inks, sealed with Vallejo Acrylic Matt Varnish and 3D printed the base. It was a very fun model to work on, with all the right gear for the adventure.