Reaper Bones Have Arrived. Fire Up the Paint Brushes!

Last year I participated in the Reaper Bones Kickstarter. I think their miniatures line is awesome, and this Kickstarter was a great way for me to boost my collection for the lowest cost. So I took the plunge, pledged for the "Vampire Level" and added on a bunch of extras. The actual cost of these figures is less than a dollar each!  Given they are every bit as good as the metal models, my only regret is not buying more options.

I've been watching the slow progress of my package traveling from Texas to my home, and I knew it was arriving today. As soon as I got it, I busted open the package like a kid on Christmas morning. Here's what I found inside.

You're looking at my addons, which were mostly large multiple part models, a box of 30 Orcs for the "Orcapocalypse" addon, and two boxes of new Reaper paints. Obviously, the Vampire package box is right there. Already, it looks like a lot to work on, but once I popped open the Vampire package, I was suitably impressed.

The box was stuffed with models. There were six large bags, each with individually wrapped models. So I dumped these out and sat stunned for a while. Then I started snipping the bags to get at the models inside.  Here's my progress after opening the first bag.

That's already a fair amount of stuff, and there were five more bags like this to work through. I was beginning to wonder what I got myself into with this! Will I ever paint all these? As I worked through the bags and looked over these models, I knew that sooner or later I'd paint them all. It may be 2020 before that happens, but I'll do it.

I kept snipping and it took me nearly 90 minutes to get through all of these. Of course, I was studying the models as I went. My cat supervised for quality control.

Once I had them out, I was wondering how I'd make sense of this mess. While the models had been grouped by theme into bags, they were still "free floating" in their own wrappers. So once you dumped them out of the bag, organization was gone. Still it was an awesome sight to see these models piled up.

Since I'll probably work on models as needed or as I feel like it, I wanted a way to store them and be able to retrieve them without sorting through everything I had. The Orcs were easiest; they stayed in their special box. The rest of the models I piled into groups like "Monsters", "Evil", "Good", etc. After that I put them in bags and labeled them. So now when I want to find a good guy to paint, I only have to look through the 30 or so models in the "good bag" rather than everything.

Here they are "bagged and tagged." Everything went back into the Vampire box without any trouble.

My overall impression is very good. The models have some mold lines around them, but these can be shaved back. I will have to straighten out a lot of the pieces. I've seen videos of people fixing that issue in seconds with hot water, so I'm not worried. Some models that I hadn't really been expecting much from surprised me at how good they look.  One or two were disappointing to see up close. The translucent models are strange. Some look awesome and others are undecipherable. I think they'll need some level of paint to bring them out. I'll wait for some one else to devise a solution and copy it!

I think the Orcs are on my priority list right now. I'll have thirty of them, plus a leader and some other "big monster" choices like ogres and ettins to reinforce them. I also got a bunch of goblins to boot. It will be nice to have non-GW orcs and goblins to use in games. Of course, with so much to chose from, I reserve the right to change my mind at a moment's notice.