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Hello/ This is my first post here, as i paint Reaper minis not so often, although i bought almost all girls from master series. But here she is, Monique de Noir, riding her chocobo mount =)

 

You can vote here, if you liked this work

http://www.coolminiornot.com/332099

And here you can see closeups and detail pics

http://www.coolminiornot.com/332101

Hope you`ll like her.

I put together a few documents related to using Bones. I've submitted these to the Craft section of the website, but as it may be a little while before Reaper has the time available to add them, Bryan suggested that I post them here.

 

Bones - Frequently Asked Questions

Bones - Preparation(mould line removal, glue, putty, etc.)

Bones - The First Coat is the Difference (this document)

 

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Painting Bones Miniatures: The First Coat is the Difference

 

One of the revolutionary features of Bones miniatures is that you can paint them straight out of the package. Because this is such a departure from recommendations for painting metal or resin miniatures, it is understandable that this feature raises questions and concerns for painters unfamiliar with Bones. Painters familiar with other types of miniatures will find that there are some differences in how the first coat of paint behaves, or that there are painting techniques or substances that require a little tweaking to use as a first coat on Bones figures.

 

The Bones material is a little hydrophobic, meaning that it tends to repel water. Paint diluted with water, sometimes even just a little water, may display a tendency to bead up or pull away from crevices or higher raised areas. The more water added to the paint, the greater this effect. The first coat of paint applied to the surface can also take a little longer to dry than usual.

 

 

The image on the left is a Bones figure straight out of the blister, the one on the right is a primed Dark Heaven metal miniature. Each was painted with a brushstroke of Master Series Walnut Brown paint of various dilutions. From right to left: undiluted; 1:1 paint water ratio; heavily diluted. On the Bones figure, the stripes painted with diluted paint display beading and pulling away, but the stripe painted with undiluted paint covers smoothly with clean edges.

 

Once you apply a first coat of paint, primer or other appropriate surface preparation to a Bones miniature, you can freely use paint of any dilution and the full array of painting techniques!

 

Painters who prefer to use thinned base coats, those who like to start with a dark wash over white primer, and those who use black or custom coloured primer need not despair! The following information will help you find ways to tweak your preferred techniques to work with the Bones material. It also includes information about brands of primer, paint and other substances that are known to work or not work well with Bones, and tests of the utility and durability of certain of these products on Bones.

 

 

Slightly Thicker Paint Will Not Obscure All the Sculpted Details

 

For years painters have been reading tips and tutorials that exhort them to thin their paints so as not to obscure the detail sculpted into their figures, and to obtain a better quality paint job. While it’s definitely the case that using excessively thick paint can affect detail and paint quality, I think it is also true that some people are worrying too much about this in regards to painting Bones.

 

Reaper Master Series and Master Series HD are produced with a consistency pretty close to ideal for base coats. Several other miniature paint lines are produced in a similar consistency, or require only a small amount of water to reach the correct consistency. Two or three layers of such paint will not clog up all the detail on your model.

 

Also, remember that when you paint metal or resin miniatures, you normally paint over a coat of primer. One layer of undiluted paint on a Bones miniature is equivalent in thickness (if not thinner) than one or two coats of primer on a metal or resin figure.

 

 

The picture above is of four Bones bases. The tiny text relief sculpted into the bottom of these is a perfect way to test whether paint coats obscure small detail. Each of these bases was given four coats of a substance, and then brushed over with a paint wash to bring out the detail. (The bottles of paint and primer used in this test were fairly fresh, no more than a year or two old.)

 

From left to right, the bases were coated with four coats of undiluted Master Series Pure White, four coats of undiluted Master Series White Primer, and four coats of undiluted Master Series Brush-On Sealer. I prepared a second base with the Brush-On Sealer as the wash didn’t quite turn out on the first. The word ‘Miniatures’ has lost a little detail on the base coated with four undiluted coats of paint, but apart from that both it and the primer coated base still have excellent detail. The text is still mostly legible on the bases coated with Brush-On Sealer, but some detail has been obscured.

 

 

Wash Bones Figures Before Painting

 

Many people find that the paint is less likely to bead up if the figure has been washed. Also, if you’ve had your figure out of the blister for a while, or you’ve handled it to remove mould lines or otherwise prepare it, you should clean it before painting, as it probably has dust and skin oils on it that may repel paint or cause paint to chip off after it has dried. All you need to clean it is some dishwashing liquid and an old toothbrush. Give it a scrub, and then rinse it really well to get off all the soap. Let it dry before painting. (You can hurry up the drying with a hairdryer set on low.)

 

 

Black Primer? Custom Colours? Paint One Coat of Paint over the Entire Figure First!

 

Some painters prefer to paint over black or gray primer. Others start with a primer of a particular colour to speed up painting units. For example, you could paint a coat of khaki on a unit of modern army figures and be half way finished painting their uniforms. One way to get the same effect as a dark wash over white primer on Bones is to first apply an all-over coat of white paint, followed by a dark wash. (Keep reading for other ways to do washes directly on Bones.)

 

 

Some Primers Work on Bones

 

Traditional metal or resin miniatures need to be primed before any paint is applied. Paint applied over bare metal does not adhere well, and rubs off with even light handling. Primer etches into the metal on a microscopic level. Paint adheres well to primer, so using it forms a stronger bond. Bones figures do not suffer from this issue! Acrylic paint painted directly onto the Bones surface is as durable, if not more durable, than if you use paint over primer on Bones.

 

If you still prefer to use primer, Reaper’s Brush-On Primer works well on Bones, and is available in black and white.

 

Another product people sometimes ask about is gesso. Fine arts painters use gesso to prepare canvases for painting. Some people have experimented with liquid gesso as a primer for miniatures, Bones and otherwise. People have reported it working in terms of creating a surface that you can paint thinned paint over. Reports vary as to how durable the material is, so it may not be the best choice for miniatures that are going to be handled.

 

For those who prefer to use spray primer, the best option is to use an airbrush to apply a coat of acrylic paint to the Bones figure. Reaper Master Series paint thins well with Golden or Liquitex Airbrush Medium, and maintains its strong adhesion, though I have found that adding airbrush medium does noticeably increase the drying time of the paint.

 

Aerosol spray primers and some spray paints can have some issues with Bones (and with other plastics). The chemicals in some of these primers and paints do not react well with Bones. The main effect seems to be that the primer never completely cures, remaining tacky to the touch. Some will also fail to form a bond with the Bones material.

 

The following is a list of aerosol paints and primers that people on the Reaper forums have reported testing on Bones. Please consider the list just a guide. The best idea is to test your chosen spray by using it on a small Bones figure you don’t care about a lot. After you give the spray time to cure, carefully look over the figure to make sure the chemicals in the spray haven’t reacted with the Bones material to melt or otherwise damage it. If not, test the primer surface by touching it to see if it stays too tacky to paint over. Also, flex parts of the figure to make sure the primer doesn’t crack.

 

Note: Some people have successfully used Krylon primer, and possibly other spray primers that some people have reported as problematic. And other people have reported problems with primers that some felt worked well. One difference seems to be that a light spray rather than a heavy coating is more likely to minimize tackiness. Environmental factors such as temperature and humidity are also always a big variable with any spray product.

 

 

Recommended aerosol spray primers and paints:

Army Painter white and coloured primers

Krylon Dual Paint + Primer

Duplicolor Sandable – slight tackiness possible

Rust-oleam Painter’s Touch Ultra Cover 2x – slight tackiness possible

 

Problem aerosol spray primers and paints:

Krylon white primer – doesn’t bond, stays tacky

Testors Enamel flat black – stays tacky

Walmart Valu flat white – stays tacky

Krylon Primer red-brown – stays tacky

Citadel spray

 

 

Use a Medium to Thin Your Paint or Make a Wash

 

Water is the element in thinned paint that causes it to bead up on the Bones surface. If you try thinning your paint with a dilutant other than water, you may be able to create a mix that is closer to the consistency you like to paint with. Depending on what you use, you can even create something translucent enough to act as a wash or glaze directly on the Bones.

 

 Mediums designed to work with acrylic paints are good products to try. Examples are matte medium, glazing medium, airbrush medium. Reaper’s Brush-On Sealer can be used this way. Note that many of these products are a little less fluid than water, so they may not dramatically change the consistency of the paint (it’ll still feel a little thick rather than watery, but it will look a lot more transparent). You can also test adding just a drop or so of water to your mix of paint and medium to see if you can get closer to the consistency you prefer.

 

 

I diluted some Master Series Bone Shadow with various mediums to make washes. From left to right, the products are listed below.

 

Master Series Brush-On Sealer: I added one drop of water to a large drop of paint and several drops of Sealer. Worked well.

 

Liquitex Matte Medium: A thick product. I added a drop of water. Beads up too much to work well for a wash.

 

Liquitex Glazing Medium: Another thick product, I added a drop of water to my mix. Took longer to dry than the others. Did not sit in crevices well enough to work well for a wash. Very shiny finish.

 

Folk Art Glass & Tile Medium: Applied well, dried quickly. Even application of the colour.

 

Delta Ceramcoat All-Purpose Sealer: Worked decently, seems a bit more inclined to pool in the crevices with less colouring on the surfaces. Shiny finish.

 

ADDEDUM (not pictured)

 

Golden Acrylic Flow Release (undiluted): Applied well. Took a little while to dry. Shiny finish.

 

Reaper Flow Improver: Applied well. Took a little while to dry. Finish is shiny in areas where wash pooled.

 

 

Use a Medium as a Primer

 

Because of how well acrylic based products adhere to the Bones material, it is also possible to use mediums as a primer alternative. Once dry, you can paint over them using thinned paint. These are applied by brush, or possibly with an airbrush.

 

I tested a number of different brush-on products on some Bones Cave Trolls. These were straight out of the package and had not been cleaned. After the products dried, I applied a thin coat of paint to see how it behaved over each product.

 

 

Reaper Master Series Brush-On Primer: Exhibited slight pulling away from some high or curved surfaces, though generally it just required running the brush over that section again to establish coverage. Dried quickly.

 

Reaper Master Series Brush-On Sealer: No significant beading. Dried quickly. Paint was less durable than with the other products, see the durability testing section for more details and pictures.

 

Golden Airbrush Medium: Bubbled a bit when applied, thin enough to pool a bit in depressions. Took more than 40 minutes to dry. This product works well if you use a drop or three to thin paint down for a base coat, although it does increase the drying time slightly. Due to it drying time, this is not the best choice as a primer alternative or for thinning washes that will be applied directly over Bones.

 

Liquitex Matte Medium: Somewhat thick. Minor beading and pulling away. Significant beading when thinned with water.  Dried quickly. When paint was applied, there were still some mild occurrences of paint pulling away from higher/curved areas.

 

Liquitex Glazing Medium: Pretty thick consistency. Dried fairly quickly. The paint coat still beaded a little.

 

Folk Art Glass & Tile Medium: Dried fairly quickly. Paint went on quite nicely. Also works on metal miniatures.

 

Delta Ceramcoat All-Purpose Sealer: Dried quickly. The paint layer exhibited slightly pulling way.

 

Folk Art Blending Gel: Extremely thick. Beaded up too much to use. Not pictured as it worked too poorly to continue to the testing stage.

 

 

Speed Paint Drying with a Hairdryer

 

Whether on a Bones or metal miniature, if you find that your paint is taking too long to dry, you can speed up the drying by using a hairdryer on the low setting on the paint. If the paint you’re drying is a wash, you should let it dry naturally for a little bit, or you risk blowing the paint out of the crevices and depressions you want to darken.

 

 

Testing the First Coats for Durability

 

Once you get your paint applied, you want to make sure that it stays there. In my experiments, the most durable Bones miniatures are those where the first coat applied to the miniature is undiluted Master Series paint. Several of the other substances I tested were pretty close in durability, but it should be noted that there were a few that performed poorly.

 

 

I painted these ghosts in August 2012. They accompanied me to Gen Con and Pax Prime 2012, stored loose with some unpainted Bones in a plastic container I carried in my backpack. Their travels included a six hour car ride and return plane trip. At the conventions they were handled extensively by dozens upon dozens of people, including being tossed on tables. The paint jobs were stressed pretty much equally through the Gen Con trials. The ghost painted only with Reaper Master Series paint was handled a lot more than the others during the Pax Prime trials.

 

The ghost sculpt has some thin and thus particularly bendy areas, most notably on the hood and where it meets the tombstone. I flexed these parts by hand repeatedly to additionally stress the paint. Unfortunately I chose poor colours to easily be able to see all the damage in the photos.

 

After the first coat I used painting techniques of thinned layers and washes with no difficulty and with the same effect on each of the miniatures. From left to right the first coat on each miniature was as follows.

 

Undiluted Reaper Master Series Paint:  Displayed the least damage during the Gen Con trials. Following Pax, has some chips at the flex point on the hood and near the tombstone. Was handled a lot more than the other figures.

 

Reaper Master Series Brush-On White Primer:  A few very small chips at the flex points, and some paint has scraped off a few sharp protruding areas. (Edge of the hood, finger tips on one hand.)

 

Dupli-Color Sandable White Primer Spray: The unpainted base stayed slightly tacky to the touch for weeks after priming. The figure has several small areas where paint was scraped off, but only one chip on a flex point.

 

Testors Dullcote Spray: This product created a good surface for painting, but performed very poorly in the paint durability tests, and I would not recommend using it as a primer substitute if you plan to use your Bones for gaming. Chips formed on the major flex points early in the Gen Con testing, and the paint has flaked off extensively from there. The figure also has some small areas of scraping damage, but those are no more notable than on the Brush-On Primer or Dupli-Color figures.

 

 

I wanted to perform a similar test with the other surface preparation products I tried. First I painted on an additional coat or two of paint. Then I placed the figures loose in a plastic box with some other Bones, a wooden, MDF and plastic base, and a metal figure. After wrapping the box in a towel secured with rubber bands, I put it in my dryer on the air setting for 10 minutes or so. The green painted areas on each figure are those that were painted over the primer alternatives. The brown painted areas are  Master Series Paint directly on the Bones surface. (These were part of tests for methods to remove mould lines.) The brown areas on each exhibit very little damage. Some have none, some have a few small chips or scrapes. (However it should be noted the brown area of this sculpt has far fewer surface protrusions than where the green was painted.)

 

 

From left to right: Reaper Master Series Brush-On Primer White; Reaper Master Series Brush-On Sealer; Golden Airbrush Medium; Liquitex Matte Medium.

 

Three of the four show pretty similar levels of damage. The figure painted with Brush-On Sealer as a primer displays the most paint damage of all figures tested in this series.

 

 

From left to right: Liquitex Glazing Medium; Folk Art Glass & Tile Medium; Delta Ceramcoat All-Purpose Sealer.

 

Damage levels are pretty similar to the better performers above. The Folk Art Glass & Tile Medium and Liquitex Glazing Medium performed the best of the seven products tested.  (The Folk Art Glass & Tile Medium performed better in terms of acting as a primer, and is inexpensive, so would be my recommendation between those two.)

Here he is!  The grayscale troll, aka "I'm still in Kansas!"  The colors are pure white, reaper pro blue black and vallejo dark gray.

I'll probably still fiddle with some of the shadows and highlights-the skull still doesn't show up well in the photo.  If anyone spots anything to fix please let me know.

I sculpted the base (except for a few small rocks) and the bat is my favorite part!

So, in the upgrade, there was an option to suppress the viewing of likes given.  Apparently it was turned off by default.  News to me!  You should be able to see the likes you give posts once again.

@Cmorse - that's got to be the 4th or 5th time you've linked that post.  I was not hiding the fact that we were waiting on more containers, I came out and said it.  In addition, I stated quite openly that there was information I was concealing.  And there still is.  As one example - I'm still not telling precisely which items are in which containers, or how may of each are on each container. There are other facts, too.  I'm not denying it.

 

Were there factors delaying shipments that I didn't mention? Absolutely.  I don't sleep well and haven't for months, (not because of my conscience, as you have implied that I'm deliberately deceptive) because this project is more complex than anything I have ever done, and it is, quite frankly, terrifying the number of things that could go wrong.  There's little things - like paperwork SNAFUs, and big things like containers being late.  I don't think it's necessary to post an update that a part number got inverted on a customs form back in February and there was an hour long phone call to clear that up, and that was not a fun hour, but in the end, it caused a delay that was not noticeable on your end, so why bother?  It just makes people worry, and keeping people from worrying is part of my job.

 

But I don't think that's what you're trying to say.  So rather than beat around the bush, I will answer outright what you have tried to imply.  Yes, I spin.  It's part of my job.  I put as positive and optimistic a face on the truth as I possibly can.  Nothing I said was a lie, but some of it was more cheerful sounding than the reality behind the curtain might warrant.  I am absolutely guilty of trying to cast the most positive light possible on the facts, and trying to push to the shadows some of the less pleasant realities.  I do not now, nor have I ever, denied that.  

 

Even in this very post, I'm trying to be as positive as I can.  Yet, in previous posts, I have openly admitted mistakes, errors in statement and judgement, and so on.  I give you my word that I will be as truthful as I can possibly be, given that some information will always be concealed for internal reasons, and further, I promise that I will always be as positive as I can.  For me, the glass is half-full.  This last update was an attempt to correct the errors of the past.  Dates and hard details about shipping were given, something we had been sly about in the past. 

 

If that means you can no longer trust me, I accept that.  For my part, as those who know me can attest, I will never deliberately lie, although I can be wrong about stuff just as much as anybody else.

So here's a Ral Partha frost giant miniature, nice old iconic figure from the end of the seventies.  I really like the way he came out, even though with the lighting on the photo, a bit of the deeper colors are kind of lost.  One thing I did with this figure that I wasn't expecting was in a lot of the shading ended up using the dark elf skin triad, which gave it even more depth (which once again in the picture isn't sadly too obvious). Being he was a frost giant, I wanted that dead white skin, which is a lot lighter than a previous version I'd done some years before:  http://www.miniature...=Image:Es57.jpg   I was tempted to paint his hair "blond" as per the Monster Manual but kept with a very white and blue theme.  His actual hair started out as pure white and his skin as leather white with lots of washes of different blues, grays and dark elf skin colors.

 

 Anyhow, enjoying a nice, old classic figure.

I entered this one in the Arbor Day Contest.  This is my take on Tinley, a mini I got as part of my Secret Sophie gift exchange.  Thanks again Fanguad!  I painted her partially in homage to Butcher's Summer Lady, but she does look more like a spring lady!  I sculpted the base out of sculpey and green stuff.  The tree is wire, milliput and birch seed leaves.  The robin was painfully small to sculpt.  I might ask for some "spectacles" for christmas...

Sorry to take lots of pictures- still trying to practice my camera fu!

I am genuinely interested in the process though, and the production issues that sometimes interfere with artistic vision.  If it's not against policy, or fear that it may affect how the Reaper brand is viewed or anything like that, I'd love to hear the hows and whys of some of the specific decisions--why cavities are usually filled, some of the special constriction of working with the new material as opposed to traditional metal or resin, things that it has allowed that were not feasible with metal, etc.  Any interesting tidbits for the million ways the manufacturing affects aesthetic choice that haven't been mentioned or even noticed, etc.

I doubt that I'm alone, and wouldn't that be a great way to transform a petty argument into an edifying and educational experience?  I sincerely think this would be awesome.

Probably the number one reason for any sort of filled in space on any mini: undercut. Undercut is the woof-mistress of all molding process, regardless of whether it is RTV, vulcanized rubber spin-cast, or injection molded plastic. Fortunately, the first two mediums have some play, and can be a little bit forgiving, so long as the undercut is minor. Injection molding? Now it is the material that has to give; if the material cast in it is too brittle (i.e Resin-type plastic), you'll never get it out of the mold without breaking the pieces. If the material is too soft, it will be deformed by the extraction. The Bones material walks a very fine line of being slightly flexible and elastic, while also still being reasonably rigid. That's why it works pretty well as a medium to produce miniatures from. Still, the flebility and elasticity of the material has its limits, and in many ways its limits are more rigid than casting metal figures in a vulcanized rubber mold (which has a surprising amount of give, especially once you get the molds warmed up after several passes of hot metal through them).

The other solution to undercut is making the mold multipart to cast it properly. The problem with this is, of course, cost. More cost for molds, more cost for casting time (you are now doing the work ~twice for a model - or more, if it is even more multipart than just 2 pieces), and more time spent in QC, packing, etc.

Take a look at some multipart models you may already own. Find the mold lines on the parts - this will tell you the plane that the model was placed in the mold. All the empty spaces around the model are filled with rubber. Now imagine separating the mold to remove the fully assembled model from it. You should get a pretty good picture of why models are molded the way they are. A voided space inside Kaladrax' chest cavatiy, for example, could never be removed from the mold if it were cast as one piece.

~v

Vince has pretty much hit it.  To understand the reasons you might fill in a cavity or undercut area, you must imagine the molds themselves, and how they bend (or don't bend), how the figures are removed, etc.

In casting a metal object, we use a soft rubber mold, so when there is an undercut or cavity, the rubber will give, flex, and bend out of the way, allowing us to remove the metal without deforming the final product.  In working with injection-molded plastic, the molds are solid steel, and it is the Bonesium™ that flexes.  Small amounts of flexing are fine, because it is a resilient piece, and much more pliable when hot.

However, larger pieces that are asked to flex might be seriously distorted by flexing so shortly after molding. These machines crank out a human-sized figure every 13 seconds, so the figures are only barely cooled below their freezing point when the mold is opened and they are popped out.  In this case, if what is currently the body segment, including ribs, neck, spine, etc. were cast with less fill-in, ie deeper cavities, we increase the chance of two things - 1. that it might stick in the mold, as the friction of the extruded ribs holds tightly to the steel mold.  If this happens, then when the mold goes to close again (remember, this is all done by an automated machine that repeats a cycle every 13-30 seconds) it might squish the figure inside, resulting in catastrophic failure, requiring a technician to clean and potentially repair something.  So deeper cavities is not a good option.  And thing number 2 that deeper cavities might result in is additional deformity.  These figures are cast at over 500 degrees, and freeze near that point, between 400 and 500.  When they come out, they are most vulnerable to being misshapen, and larger figures even more so, because they retain their heat longer.   So these larger (depthwise) rib membranes are hot and very flexible. Every 30 seconds one is dropped from the machine into a receptacle.  That drop, on a soft and unsupported feature is likely to cause distortion if the Bonesium™ is soft (ie hot) enough.  On a sword or spear, which is very small and has very little heat, we see some flex even now - imagine how much worse that gets when we're holding more heat because we have a larger object.

Ok, so that's why the fill isn't "smaller".  But why not cast the ribs as two or more pieces instead of as just one? The most intuitive option would be to cut the piece into two pieces, a left half and a right half.  Each would join at the spine and sternum, and might contain portions of the spine and sternum in themselves.  Imagine, if you will then, that the left half looks like ( and the right like ).  when you join the halves, you get a hollow interior ().  Well, we see now that deformity is STILL a problem - it is with tiny swords and spears, and is going to still be an issue with the ribs.  It's really only not a problem, in fact, on solid chunks.  But the biggest reason this deformity is a problem here is because of the need to reassemble the two halves.  Distorted halves might not fit together well, and this would be a customer service nightmare for us, since unlike metal, we do not yet have the ability to simply make another piece and try for a good fit.

This does not even factor in that a mold has a fixed size, and so there's a maximum polygonal area a part can take up.  Each half, in cross section, is identical to the whole, so two halves takes up twice the square cm are of the mold - increasing the number of molds needed to make it, and as the mold is the most expensive part of the process, drastically increasing the cost.  This in contrast to metal, where the material is the expensive part, so hollow and partial shapes are preferred, as they reduce material used. Were this cast in metal, I would rather it be broken into five or 6 pieces, to reduce the metal involved, even at the expense of 5 new molds.

Then, there's stability.  Bonesium™ *IS* much lighter than metal, but even so, it does have some heft.  Trust me, I have to move boxes filled with hundreds of great worms, and those are actually pretty heavy.  Kaladrax's wings are MASSIVE and quite heavy (relatively).  The weight of those wings is focused entirely on one contact point - the entire left wing balances on the scapula attached to the left ribcage, likewise for the right.  When you have the entire mass of the wing focused on a small contact point, that's a lot of pressure on that rib pair, and only that rib pair.  A hollow bit, especially one with a weak or poorly attached join at the spine (because of small deformities, see above) is highly likely to experience further compression - and distort even more.  To resolve this, the part had to be engineered with a less flexible ribcage, and the limits of the materials and the molds, as described above, suggested a fill-in as the best option of those available to us.  

Now, we recognize the fill-in is not particularly attractive, and this is one of the few times that we have violated protocol.  We got the pictures and the prototype, and were so excited, we showed them.  But at the same time, we have changes we are asking for from the sculptor.  We do not normally show prototypes of greens that are "unfinished", but in this case we felt the coolness of the piece trumped that protocol.  

"What changes?" you ask.  Well, to begin with, we want an open mouth.  That way you can choose as you desire to cut the jaw and close the mouth, but if it is sculpted closed, choosing to open it is much harder.  Not only can a skilled modeler close an open mouth with more ease than the inverse, but we feel an open mouth is more menacing and more intimidating on the table, especially when it is so clearly able to swallow you whole.  Another change we have requested is to have the fill-in with additional texture, as of rotting tissue, organs, skin, and muscle.  

That's a lot of text.  Thank you for reading it, and feel free to ask for more data.

"Welcome to the Dark Carnival!"

ReaperCon 2013 is just two days away.

 

Some of you may have seen the "Reaper Con Sophie green" thread on the Message Board, or noticed her in the Preview Gallery, but in case you missed those, here is my painted rendition of this year's ReaperCon Sophie.  I sculpted her (finished one month ago) and sent her to Reaper for moldmaking, got a first-generation metal master back, and painted that last week.

Tim "Talin" Collier designed her outfit, and drew and colored the concept art.  He also came up with this pose, including the "elephant stand" and megaphone, in a thumbnail sketch that he provided to me.

 

Aside from the two wispy locks of hair in front of her ears (which I added with Green Stuff) and the basing materials (round plastic base, sculpted rocks, static grass, and birch-seed "leaves"), this is the stock figure right from the mold.  Plenty of little details to paint!   

 

You can buy one for yourself at the convention or online this weekend -- it's a limited-time offering. Some people here on the message boards say they'll be buying one and leaving off the wings to make a non-demonic carnival barker or magician.

 

Enjoy! 

And see some of you soon in Denton.

 

Derek

 

Now that spring is here, I finally finished it!

This was my entry into the ReaperCon 2013 diorama category.  Thank you to Corporea, Nameless, and Talespinner for their invaluable insight during this 3 month project!  I couldn't have done it without their input.  The base was scratch built from Legos, 4 million bricks and pavers, spackle and some plastic architectural elements.  Thanks to Jen Kaufman for her water base tutorial and Derek Schubert for his never ending inspiration when it comes to freehand detail.

 

 

I've had some difficulty capturing the scene accurately due to it size and the metallics and water effects, but that is pretty close.

 

Here are the combantants in a bit more detail:

 

 

 

I was pleased I was able to get the assassin's downward gaze:

 

 

Here are some additional details on the base:

 

 

 

 

If you have any questions let me know!

 

And if you are inclined to do the CMoN thing: http://www.coolminiornot.com/331010

 

 

All staff, employees, and volunteers were active and very busy during ReaperCon last week, for both the show itself and the set up of the show. 

 

As a result, our phones and e-mail desk have been unstaffed for 5 days.

 

We recognize that this has been an inconvenience, and are sorry for the delays in response.  

 

We ask that you be patient as we work through the backlog of e-mails and voicemails that occurred during the set up, operation, and teardown of ReaperCon.

 

We are working as hard as we can to work through them, and beg for your patience as we take the appropriate time to deal with each customer who may have requested help before you.  Some solutions will be quick, others may be complex, and we will work as hard as we can to ensure that everybody's issues are satisfactorily resolved as fast as we are able.

 

Thank you for your patience

 

Bryan Stiltz

I think these are the best eyes i have painted to date.
Im sad though, my pictures dont to justice for the red hair.

But Im happy non the less.

CC welcome.

Dude! We have the Kaladrax prototype in. It may be the most beautiful dragon I've ever seen. Witness:







Note the normal-adult-sized snack on the right-hand side of the images. Kaladrax is enormous!

I don't have the retail MSRP on this one yet, but perhaps the most beautiful part of this dragon is that the Kickstarter supporters got it for $10.

I hear tell that we have the prototypes for C'thulu and the Clockwork Dragon on the premises as well.

Hello again, everyone!  I know it's been a while since I've managed to get anything painted, but it's good to be back in the swing of things. 

 

This time around, I managed to complete a little vignette that I picked up over Spring Break a few weeks back.  It was an old Ral Partha sculpt that has apparently been kept in production by Dark Sword Miniatures, and it was patterned after Larry Elmore's classic Avalyne the Life Giver painting.  (You can view this awesome painting at Mr. Elmore's website if you'd like http://larryelmore.com/?s=avalyne )  It was totally the awesome artwork that sold me on the miniature, but I still stubbornly insist on tweaking everything I paint just enough to make it a "Kuro Original."  The tweaks that I made were mainly increasing the diameter of the base (including adding the bottoms of the giant footprints), adding the little critter and bag, removing the healer's fighting gear, converting the healer's chainmail into regular clothing, and fixing up the unfortunately "old-crone-looking" original facial sculpt.

 

When I painted the scene, I tried to use color selection to make the knight seem cold, nearly dead, and out of place in the wilderness.  By contrast, the warm earthy tones of the healer and her little animal friend blend right in with the rest of the scene, making them seem right at home as they heal up our fallen quester.

 

Oh, this was also my first real attempt at NMM, so I obviously still have a lot to learn in that area.  I was fairly happy with how the gold turned out, but the steel was much too bland and life-less.

 

Thanks a bunch for checking out my work, and stay tuned for several more updates in the coming months!

 

Cecilia, the Hefty Halfling is a D&D bard/fighter character I am currently playing.  She once got the party into a fight with killer mushrooms when she tried to collect them for a stew.  And when the battle was over, she still made her stew.

 

This is a Bones figure, with minimal prep.  I didn't use any primer, but I did glue her to a gaming base, and extended the base she came with into more rock and dirt using green stuff.  I missed a mold line or two, but otherwise, she's not too bad.  The surface was not as smooth as polished and primed metal, but for a tabletop mini, that's ok.

 

My friend bought the Vampire Level Bones Kickstarter set, and I'm on deck to paint all the minis for our PCs,  so I'm not putting in a lot of time on each one.  This one took me 4 hours, including prep.  

 

I was lazy about planning a palette, and stole it from a Reaper Paint Crew paint job of another figure.  Bonus points if you can identify which one!  (The Paint Crew job is much better than mine, especially since this is speed paint.)

 

 

And, since I have invited you to converse with me, and you are new to the boards, allow me to introduce myself.

 

My name is Bryan Stiltz. I am the Production Manager and part owner of Reaper Miniatures.  I have been an employee for 11 years, a supervisor for 10, Production Manager for 4, and an owner for 2.  I am an avid gamer, with many wargame armies, many RPG characters, and many many shelves filled with miniatures.  I am in this business because of my passion for the hobby, and as such, I fully understand your passion about your rewards.

 

I look forward to talking with you, should you agree to do so.

 

 

Hey guys, I posted a bunch of these Talisman classic minis here and elsewhere on the web a couple of years ago.   I was commissioned to paint this mini for a Talisman gamer to add to his set and thought I'd show off the results of that work here. even though it's not a Reaper piece I thought some of you aficionados here would get a kick out of seeing this.

 

The color choices were made to match as closely as I could the character artwork from the game card.  His face is some kind of golden mask I believe, from the looks of it at least.

 

Busy busy, until next time, I'll be paintin' like a painty painter,

Sean

Hi everyone, Here's the model I've been working on this week. It's the Snakeman Champion sculpted by Jason Wiebe.

I could find two painted version of this model on the Internet, a blue and green one and the coral snake version of ZILLA here on Reaper's forum. I wanted to paint it differently and since it's a big guy snake, I choose to paint it as an Anaconda. I didn't use the secondary weapons that were supposed to be fixed on it's back. Instead, I added pointy plates to it's armor. I also wanted it's kama to look like Mayan sacrifice knife made of jade and obsidian.

Comments and critiques very welcome!