173 replies to this topic

[Halberkill]

Yeah, stripping these things is not such a good idea. It can be done, but sometimes you lose some of the detail. What I do is just paint over top of the old paint job, it really doesn't loose that much detail in doing so, unless you are using cheap paints painted on thickly.

Halber

[Schmapdi]

I just thought I'd post my experiences with my first Bones mini (reposting from another forum): Overall I'm very pleased with it.

"I got my first "Bones" mini today - (also the Dwarf - my FLGS only had two blisters to choose from) - and while I'm not a particular fan of the sculpt the material itself is very nice. Very bendy and strong (you could probably break the hammer off if you had a mind too - but you'd be hard-pressed to do it on accident). Mould lines were very minimal and easy to clean with my hobby knife (a file worked too - just as a test).

I'm going to try to put some paint on it tonight/tomorrow to test the whole "no primer" thing - but even if that's a bust - this material is great, and I'll be happy to see it spread throughout Reaper's lines. Hopefully like a particularly virulent plague.

The best $1.99 I've spent in a long time. Kudos to Reaper for working to keep the hobby affordable."

AND then a follow-up post.

"An update - I did indeed try to paint him last night - and I'd say the "no primer" thing is a little iffy. Here's my findings:

Reaper's MSP (of which I only have skintones) did seem to go on ok.
GW Foundation (in this case, Calthan Brown - now OOP) also seemed to work pretty good.
"Normal" GW paint (Chaos black) didn't work very good at all. I had to go over areas multiple times trying to "blackout" the metals. Even when I trried to put it on very thick (i.e. no water on my brush).

So I guess the answer to "Do you need Primer" is "it depends." I can see why the Foundation paint worked ok, but the MSP is very thin and it worked pretty good too. I'm not sure why. Nor can I figure why "basic" GW paint did so badly - especially chaos black, which covers pretty good usually.

So for my second test - since I decided to prime him, I put him in the simple green to clean the paint off of him. The results of relatively short soak (~12 hours, I usually do 36ish) are as follows.

The Reaper paint and GW Foundation came off fine - with a bit of Foundation in the deepest recesses of his beard. I'd call it normal.
The black however - despite it's difficulties in going on - didn't come off very well. I'm not sure why. A longer soak might have helped - but also a longer soak might not be advisable becase:

The material seemed to get a lot softer in the Simple Green, as if I had soaked it in hot water. I had to be careful scrubbing it in fact, because I was afraid I'd break the hammer off. (Which also might account for why the black didn't come off so well). Interestingly though - after a bit of time removed from the SG the material seems to have returned to normal. At least mostly - it might be slightly bendier than before - it's hard to say with certainity. I don't think a Simple Green soak will be a problem for most Bones minis - but things like Skeletons could be problematic. And you'll have to be extra careful with weapon shafts and other thin bits.

Overall I remain un-qualmed about Bones though, as the primerless painting was never a real selling point to me. I will be a bit more careful when stripping them though."

[Adrift]

I'm pretty sure that the with the whole 'no primer' thing, Reaper was forthcoming that this feature was optimized for the Reaper paints. I've done a light coating of primer on my Bones figures b/c I'm working my way through using up my Vallejo paints so that I can drop an investment in the Reaper paints.

[cristomeyers]

Just finished painting up my Bones skeletal spearmen. I wish I'd had these when I was first building a Necropolis army for Warlord. Pewter skellies are nice, but awfully fragile. These solve that problem nicely.

These are great: durable, no issues taking paint, great value for the money. I'm already eyeing the Templar knight for my upcoming Crusaders and will definitely be keeping an eye out for more Warlord minis in this line.

[Foxden Racing]

I took the plunge this weekend; picked up an Orcish Warband [one pack of archers and one pack of spearmen] for a grand total of $5. Oh how I miss the days when pewter was that cheap.

I haven't had the time to flash, wash, and paint them yet...but I'm expecting great things. I'll also get to test the 'hot water straightening' method, as one of the spears is bent. I'll keep you guys posted, probably in its own thread so as not to word-tsunami this one.

[Angrydwarfguy]

I certainly love the price on these figures! The casts are also very clean. I have been running into trouble working with the soft plastic. It seems to have a bit too much give. This makes for very tricky business when trying to use an exacto knife on them. I've also run into trouble while trying to drill out the hands for weapon swaps.

[Halberkill]

I certainly love the price on these figures! The casts are also very clean. I have been running into trouble working with the soft plastic. It seems to have a bit too much give. This makes for very tricky business when trying to use an exacto knife on them. I've also run into trouble while trying to drill out the hands for weapon swaps.

I use a dremel to drill the hands out for weapon swaps and haven't had any problems.





Also I find that if you have a flat enough joint, say with the second pic's skellie on the left, where I made a cut at the elbow, you don't need to pin them.

[AngryMojo]

So, when can we expect the next wave of Bones? I heard something about a couple being released in May.

[Reaperbryan]

I am told that there is a good probability of a release of new models at Origins.