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Hey everyone! I'm back from ReaperCon and finally putting up the pictures of my finished diorama! I had such an awesome time hanging out with all of you (both seeing familiar faces and meeting new ones!), and I already can't wait until next year! Thanks a bunch to everyone who took my classes; you were a great bunch of students, and I hope you learned a lot! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask me (but, of course, that goes for anyone on the forums since we all just like to talk minis)! I ended up with a silver for the piece in the MSP Open, but I learned a lot about what makes a diorama successful while I was learning to be an assistant judge, so hopefully I can shore up some of my mistakes for next time. My biggest takeaway from watching the official judges do their thing was that the piece would have benefited from being smaller and more focused. Thanks a bunch for looking, and stay tuned for my next WIP in preparation for Gen Con!

This is the third of a series of five dragons I painted in the last two months. (Well, technically one of them isn't a dragon.) It's the Shadow Dragon, one of the two smaller (only about elephant size) dragons from the first Bones Kickstarter set, "Here Be Dragons," sculpted by Sandra Garrity. I painted it up not quite knowing where I was going, starting with aquatic thoughts, adding stripes, and then going over the cliff into total madness. WIP thread here.

I went on a dragon painting binge a couple of months ago. This is Sandra Garrity's Dragon of the Fire (or rather, its more casual cousin the Bones Fire Dragon). I started with some thought of it being a desert dweller and it developed from there. WIP thread here, including a few false starts.

This is the fourth of the five dragons I've painted since February (which, by the way, are the first dragons I have painted since roughly 1985). Deathsleet is one of the bigger ones. I underpainted the entire dragon black. All of the color is from iridescent or interference paints which use the optical properties of microfilms of Titanium White on microscopic flakes of mica. The result is rather like the rainbow on an oil film or the inside of a nacreous seashell, thus I called this an "Abalone Dragon." (There was a wash of turquoise blue pigmented paint early in the process to smooth out some rough transitions. Apart from that, it's all optical effects. Oh, right, and I painted the rocks it's standing on normally.) It is extremely tricky to photograph this paint because the color effects change based on angle and lighting. I have a few shots of the same perspective with different lighting to show how it can change.

This is the last of the five dragons I have painted this spring. I was trying experiments and some worked out and some didn't. Anyhow, this is Sandra Garrity's "Ebonwrath" in Bones painted up as a green dragon. There's something wonky with her left wing. It looks like it was clamped too hard during the manufacturing process and got a bit bent. Boiling and reshaping proved futile. So I think of it as her left pinky wing bone got broken at some point and did not heal properly. WIP thread here. (You can see the "broken" wing bone best in this picture):

02044 Cadwalon by Sandra Garrity completed 3/1. Cadwalon likes you. He wants you to be his friend. He will be your friend if you look in his bag. Won't you look in Cadwalon's bag and be his friend?

And to catch me completely up, my first painted dragon. A Secret-Sophie gift (thanks, LittleBluberry!). Sandra Garrity's Fire Dragon, Bones version. I had a blast with her. Kept it simple as I could with the dragon itself. Had all the real fun with the base. Mashed it out of Super Sculpey and then of course cooked it. Cooked another small piece to set her on better, honestly couldn't believe it worked. Decided to leave her detachable in the end so I could transport et al. Painted brown base coat, then went with gray for rocks. Greens and blues for the stream bed. Added some gravel and sand. And some Army Painter tufts, just a few. The water started out as Mod Podge--was working well but got my hands on some Realistic Water so switched to that to finish. Started with Water Effects but then pulled back. Lot of pictures trying to get decent ones; sorry. Moved the best one, pretty much, up front. Thanks for looking. Comments and suggestions and so on welcome.

This is 02110: Darby Darkleaf, or rather one of a set of three, 03359: DHL Classics: Female Halflings. They are not quite identical, since the individual figure has a larger base than the three in the set. All three halflings in the set are tiny and Old School style, with especially small faces with eyes that are shaped a little difficult to paint. They are, however, very cute. I painted her eyes rather larger than they were actually sculpted. I think this might be the first time in twenty years I've tried to paint a mini red-blonde. I'm not sure how successful she turned out.

Inspired by the January Bones Little People Beauty Pageant, I pulled out some of my metal hobbits and painted them up as well. This is Elia Shadowfeet, Female Halfling Thief. I discovered I also had an earlier incarnation of Elia, much more old-school in style but sculpted, as this one was, by Sandra Garrity. I do like the more modern approach in this figure. She's pretty tall for a halfling, reasonably armored, and packed for a serious expedition. Looking at some of the other paint jobs, like Derek Schubert's stunning version in Reaper's online store, I am struck by how soft mine look. The colors kind of melt into each other and are sometimes ambiguous as to what they are and where they go. This is also almost my first attempt in 20 years to paint a blonde mini (this was the first, and only by a few hours). I do try to make use of the broccoli bases. This one maybe looks a little more tarry than I intended.

This is Reaper 02100: Trissa Cloverhill, the last of the three female halflings in the set 03359: DHL Classics: Female Halflings. They are a cute set of three extra-small old-school-style hobbits. Trissa's legs felt a little bare to me, so I added blue breeches.

This is 02058: Elia Shadowfeet, which came in a set with two others, 03359: DHL Classics Female Halflings. She's a dainty little Old-School thing. To give an idea of size, she is standing on a standard Chessex dice box. There is a later version of Elia who is an amazon by comparison. Both were sculpted by Sandra Garrity. She was sculpted with (probably) bare legs, but I added painted-on breeches because that tunic looked mighty short and drafty. I painted her dark because dark hobbits, why not. Reflections on the short sword are painted on. I think the whites on her sleeves got a bit overexposed in the photos except for the back view. There are a lot of different colors in the shading of those sleeves. Her face was a bit difficult to paint. It is very small, and the eyes had a sort of agressive shape with two pits on the side of a ball. It took a little finagling to make it work.

Hi again. Apologies for the pics, again. This is a repaint of the first mini I ever painted, Sandra Garrity's Dirk, Male Rogue. I painted him up to serve as a tiefling rogue in a short-lived campaign back in the early 00's. Here's what he looked like before: Here he is now, after some fresh paint. I tried to stay in touch with what I'd tried the first time, only in a way that made me want to hate myself less (though like recently mentioned elsewhere, I much preferred taking my pics on top of the fridge at our old place; I'm having no luck at all setting up lights and crap, now): Thanks for looking!

So here's the figure that I was doubting on how long I should leave it dry before putting on the sealant. Well got him finished today, and got photos taken, hope you like. I'm kind of finding that dragons aren't that bad to paint after you get a good solid first coat on them because they don't have metal or accessories, it's mostly just a big monster and a few colors. I do keep getting stuck in that spot that I don't give them an eyeball as I end up, like this one, as well as my oriental dragon and my gold dragon, a single color of eye. There's plenty of space on these to give them a slit for an eyeball or something lizard-like, don't know why I haven't done it recently. A black dragon that I painted quite a long time ago has the eyeball painted. I think this is a figure sculpted by Sandra Garrity, just judging by the style, but I could be wrong. I don't really know off hand how old the figure is, forgot to look on his base before I superglued him to the plastic one.

My take on the Bones Griffin. I was trying to paint it like a half Osprey, half spotted white Lion. C&C are welcome as always

My dear friends. I am taking upon myself a major undertaking. I am painting a mini up for my mother for Christmas. For that purpose it needs to be my very very best, and to that end, I turn to you, my fellow painters, to lend me all the advice and tips you can to bring out a complete piece worthy of giving away. This is the figure I have taken on. Sandra Garrity's beautifully sculpted Angel of Mercy. There is so much incredible detail in the wings, and so many wonderful folds of cloth, It is just a gorgeous piece, and I want to not only do the figure justice, but make it worthy of my mother, My own Angel of Mercy for so many years.

Okay, last one. I swear. Kimberlee the Fair, by Sandra Garrity. I've professed my love for Ms. Garrity's work more than once, so it goes without saying perhaps that I love this sculpt. But I really love this sculpt. Like, if I could bring one sculpt to life and leave my wife for it, this might be the one. Kimberlee the Beautiful. I got the idea for playing the midriff of her dress as a corset-type article of clothing from a painted version of her I found via a Google image search. I don't think that's how it should be, but I really liked it. I immediately wanted to use the Breast Cancer Awareness pink from my Ghoulie Bag and was inspired by another person's painted Kimberlee to match a purple with it--so I guess I really kind of ripped everything about this paintjob off from other people, lol. Oh, and it gets worse--I bought this mini second-hand. It was primed black and based. I rolled with that. Black's not my usual primer, so I rolled with it and I think benefited from it in this instance. And the base . . . well, I never base. So I can take little credit at all with this mini, but hopefully I did her a bare justice on the rest. Thanks so much for looking. Comments and criticism are much appreciated.

Playing by the rules, as they stand now, I have started a Project specific WIP for the Young Fire dragon. My better half saw my version of EbonWrath as a blue dragon and wanted one of her own. While not sure what dragon she wants me to purchase to paint for her... she is still thinkling on this.. I have painted her up the Young Fire dragon. I first boiled the wings to gain some seperation (yay bones) as they were almost vertical. Below is the base coat of GOLDEN Shadow with Some Blue wing bones. Then while waiting for work to complete some system implementations so I could do my part remotely (couldnt leave the computer area), I motored on today and got the wings and body mostly done. I still have not decided on the base for the dragon so I have not done more than base coat the feet. Again I apologise for my poor camera skills.. remember this guy would be a pet for Sir Forscale.. equivalent to a small pony I would say. The white 'Broccoli' base will be coming off once I design him his own custom environments. Suggestions for this are welcome. Also any critiques or stuff you like please feel free to add any feedback. It is a WIP.

Still rolling along, though mostly stripping paint, last few days. First up, Iron Fist: I am super in-love with the green wash on blue thing. And then, I was SUPER happy with how the washes went on this. His basecoat was a lightish gray. Hit him with Reaper's brown wash, and bam. Loved what it did to the fur, but also the bandage-like leg cloths and all, and ESPECIALLY the skulls. I'm not scared and indeed am excited to try some skeletons, now, seeing how these skulls turned out. But then also, I used Reaper's flesh-tone wash on his mouth, as per a suggestion I got from buglips in that question thread I made. Or, well, he didn't specifically say for these kind of monster-mouths, but I thought it worked here. I also used that wash on the tail to redden/pinken it up (with some highlighting later), and I thought I got it a pretty good tone (I was worried about getting too pink). Had a lot of fun with this one, especially when I was geeting to see things work out. At least in part. Feedback and suggestions and tips and so on still hugely appreciated. Thanks for looking.

Another day, another attempt! I'm not happy with the pictures I was able to take AT ALL lol. I was fairly pleased with the way this turned out, at least in part. I base-coated with a bluish gray (all the armor), and then dry-brushed highlights with a metallic silver. I left my homemade wash off this time. Also, big news as per everyone's previous advice: I took a shot at lining. Just used black and hit edges/boundaries. Hopefully it's noticable. He doesn't feel AS dark in person (the purple of his under-shirt-skirt deal isn't coming through at all here, I don't think), but I'm wondering now, looking at the pictures, if I should try a round of lighter dry-brushing. I did a little white, but I'm not sure it worked out. This was my first time using metallics really, too. Once again, advice for improving is supremely appreciated!

So, yeah, hey. I'm trying to figure out how to up my game. I don't know if I'll go back on this guy right away, but I can apply to the next mini, for sure. I figured I'd post my latest and then I can take whatever advice anyone has and build on it in the advice/etc. forum and elsewhere. Hope this is okay. This is the fourth mini I've painted since I fire up again last week, after a flat ten-year layoff from painting (and then I had no techniques going at all, but anyway; I'm basically learning from square one): I primed with flat-white Krylon primer. I mixed all my own paints, basically from primaries, black, white, a couple browns, a gray, a green, and a flesh tone. I'm using a homemade wash concoction (I have the Reaper washes in the mail), and I'm unsure how much good it did (don't think it's sticking well enough, for whatever reason). I'm trying to learn to shade and highlight--I really want to figure the whole washing and dry-brushing thing out. I think maybe I needed brighter highlights or something. Also, if you can see with the lousy pic, does the paint look clumpy or something on the clothes inside the robe? I'm wondering if I'm not watering the paint down enough (I really think this but still haven't managed to stop doing it). Possibly related, my face seem to come out smudged much too frequently (though this one less so than others). Just bad brushwork, maybe? At the same time, I'm childishly super-proud of this! I'm getting better as I go along, and I'd be happy to sete this guy on the gaming table if I still played D&D. But I still want to improve! So any advice/tips/lashings/exhortations anyone has are most appreciated!

Today I finished up another PC for the current D&D campaign we’re playing. This one is for a friend and the scheme is his choosing. He’s a cleric of Pelor. The base is a ruins base from Micro Art (I think?). The cloak’s symbol is supposed to be like this: This is the symbol of the deity, “Pelor” in D&D (strictly fictional). I attempted to free paint this on the cloak, as was asked by my friend. It’s not as bad as I thought it would come out I’m pretty happy. Enjoy!

I just entered this into the Here Be Dragons competition, and I thought I'd post him here for commentary too. This is Viszeralyn, the Oracle dragon that I decided to paint up kind of like a Balrog. In my mind now, he's Charsaug- a magma dragon from the Iron Kingdoms setting. Oh, and I've also posted him to Coolmini for anyone who cares to vote.

Dresses in Red, Sneaks into Houses at night, Has a list of all the naughty and nice, and has a penchant for hot chocolate. Yup, it's Sophie WIP can be found here http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/52609-2002-christmas-sophie/

Well, I wasn't going to do a WIP. Wasn't even going to start this until Monday, but like in a lot of things, I blame Buglips. More than that, I blame how his was coming which is why I went ahead and after primer slobbered on brown liner in a very Goblin-like fashion. As I said, I wasn't going to do a WIP, but the sun was getting in my eyes at my work table so I had to take a break anyway, and decided to snap a few pictures

I'm painting up 77026: Young Fire Dragon as a white dragon for an upcoming D&D game, and I was feeling a little frustrated and wasn't making very much progress, so I thought I'd take a few pictures and toss them up here. I still plan to give special attention to his eyes, mouth, and base. I am considering doing the little wing spikes and tail spikes as boney protrusions in a warmer white, shaded to a pale warm brown? I would especially like opinions on the wings: is the shading reasonable? Are the transitions smooth enough? Also, is there enough contrast on the body? His little cheek-flaps seem especially hard to pick out at a distance. Lastly, does he actually seem to read as white, or just pale blue? Colors are Snow Shadow, Ghost White, and Pure White, so far. (And I acknowledge the double challenge of both painting and photographing white is working against any useful advice I might receive.)