More Necropolis & Zombie Survivors

I finished up all but the skeletons for my Warlord Necropolis force. This week I painted the Bones versions of Necropolis gargoyles. Besides being inexpensive these models were completely assembled. The only issue was their wings had been compressed to fit into the blister. A quick dip in hot water reset them to original condition.

Though lightweight, the wings make their balance precarious. It's no big deal for a plastic model to topple, but still is aggravating. I ended up putting a small nail through the base bottoms to keep the gargoyles from falling off the base while the glue set. It ended up balancing them as well.

These were easy to paint. Basically prime black, then dry brush warm grays, wash with black, then highlights. I'd considered paint splattering them for extra texture but I don't think these are going to see a lot of play time. So the effort would be not worth the time and mess. I like how they turned out.

Last week I took some horrendous pictures of the other Necropolis models. One that I think people would have an interest in is the translucent plastic ghost model.  I took a better picture of it this week.

Lots of people don't know how to approach painting this model. I've seen people who just prime it and paint like any other model, and those who just fill the recesses with a dark wash.  I opted to paint directly on it without priming in order to preserve the translucent parts. Overall, I think it came out okay. The picture is still not as good as the model appears in person. The translucent effect is lost here, but I think you get the idea. It does look ghostly to me, and that's what makes this model unique.

I had a few models sitting on my desk as I pondered my next project. These are modern / zombie survivor type of models all from the Bones Kickstarter. I gave them all a quick paint job so they'd be ready when I might need them. My favorite is the zombie hunter with chainsaw. I liked the hand clinging her to pant leg!

Anyone who paints as many Reaper models as I do will eventually realize these models have their quirks. One that consistently aggravates me is clothing. Reaper models exist in a bizarre dimension where sleeves appear inexplicably from nowhere, or one side of a hand appears to wear a glove and the other side of the same hand does not. All sorts or extra-dimensional clothing exists in Reaper's world and can be a frustration when painting, particularly where layers of clothing appear and disappear on a whim.

However, no figure is more of a disaster than one I found in my Bones collection. I was looking forward to painting this guy, since he appeared like a thug with a sawed-off shotgun. What a unique model, I thought.

Well, unique is right. Check this out.

What the hell is going on with this guy's jacket? That's not a torn sleeve. One sleeve is full-length and the other is short. Model ruined. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. What is the logic here? The short sleeve is so defined that even a paint-over won't cure it. They modeled a flippin' wristwatch to drive the point home. Besides, I can't stop seeing this now that I know it's there. So I left the model mostly in primer black, quickly painted some large areas, and am now undecided if I toss it in the trash or keep it in case mix-n-match sleeve lengths ever becomes a fashion.

So that's this week's update. I've got a few new ideas brewing, including a few larger projects. Stay tuned!

Warlord: Necropolis

I've been on an undead kick these days, though this particular project had been planned far in advance of "zombie fever."  I'm just getting to it.

This is the start of my Necropolis army for Reaper's fantasy miniatures game, Warlord. Thanks to the collections of models I have from the Bones Kickstarter I have a solid base for most of the factions. Unfortunately I put most of these on round bases and Warlord is particular about its base sizes.  That may actually put me off the game, since most of the Bones models don't fit on the base sizes they're assigned.

Well, this force is all Vampires with supporting undead staples like zombies and skeletons. The undead must've possessed my camera as all the pictures came out like total crap. I'll have to retake them, but here are a few examples.

First the overall force and the only halfway decent picture.

I took detailed shots of each unit but most were out of focus.  Here are the few OK pictures to give you an idea of what some of these units look like.

Judas Bloodspire is the warlord leader and wearing the red cloak. The other is a hero, Malek the Hated.

More vampire heroes, Naomi Mistress of Wings (Bones variant), a Bones proxy for Sir Gauren the Wrathful, and Elsabeth Briarkiss. She is the only non-Bones character in the army.

Every other picture I took was way out of focus.  I have units of 8 zombies, 3 burrowing zombies, 3 chattel (humans that the vampires can eat to regain health), a bat swarm, a ghoul captain, and a ghost. I'll have to retake those pictures when I finish up this army.  I still have gargoyles and skeletons to assemble and paint.  I'm out of 25mm square bases, so I've got to order them before I can continue.

Not sure what I'll be working on next. I'm a little burnt-out on painting minis. Maybe time for a break!

Reaper Bones and Warlord Thoughts

I took a short break in the 20mm WW2 project to paint more from my pile of Reaper Bones. No matter how much I pull out of that box, it is still full. I'll be getting another box just like it this Fall too! Anyway, I rummaged around for some Elves and here's what I found.

I just felt like painting bright and colorful, so High Elvish heroes fit that bill. I got hold of a pot of GW's specialty paint for creating a patina on metal, and you can see it on the Elf King's shield. It worked out nice, though it needs to be applied with some thought. I sloshed it on, which was okay but not as good as it could be. I imagined he's carrying some ancient, magic shield. It was a great excuse not to paint the detailed peacock.

What I didn't realize at the time was the two females are Warlord hero models. I have been giving a lot of thought to trying that game, particularly because I love the figures. I've also heard second edition was a huge improvement over first. As I dug into it, I realized not only do I have a ton of Warlord models in my collection, I actually have a complete Black Orc faction fully painted and ready to go!

Without realizing, I also have a functional Necropolis army (undead) that only needs a few more models to reach the recommended 1,000 point game size. I have almost all of it in Bones, too, or in metals that I painted for Song of Blades and Heroes a while ago.

The only challenge is I have a mix of square and round bases. I don't think it will make too much of a difference, really. Visually it looks a bit weird. I'll live with it.

I found the beta test rules and walked through them. The game is pretty solid, though there's some strangeness in the way troops are organized and activate. I really liked it and ordered both books (2nd Ed rules and Savage North expansion). I will also start building toward some other factions. It fills that niche LotR SBG vacated when it got screwy new books that jacked up the game. In fact, this has a higher fantasy feeling than LotR, which I love.

For now it's back to building my 20mm WW2 Americans. However, expect more Reaper Bones and Warlord updates interspersed.

Quick Update

Been a slow few weeks for me, and I haven't had a ton of enthusiasm for new projects. Therefore you see my production has dropped off. Fortunately I always have a gigantic stack of Reaper Bones and other Reaper models to work through for when I don't know what to do next.

Here are some odd models selected from the pile.

I really like the detail on these models. They're not all Bones, though; the Orc is metal as well as the little tree dude (forgot what it's called).  In any case, you cannot tell the difference between the two once painted.

The Orc and Warrior took quite some time, as they're overflowing with detail. Here's another shot of them to give an idea.

In any case, that's what I've been working on recently. I enjoy painting Reaper models, and have a ton more to do. I'll keep posting what I finish, but honestly all of my Reaper Bones and model posts are the least viewed articles on my blog. So I get the feeling I'm pretty much talking to myself here! Ha ha! Anyway, that's all for Reaper right now.

I've moved on to completing my 15mm Russians, which will be a large project. After that, I've teed up more WW2. Stay tuned!

Nova Corp Security Force

As promised, here are the Reaper Bones models I worked on last week. I got an extra set of these models with the Kickstarter, figuring they'd make some good generic sci-fi models. I think I added a blister of three extras to beef up the size of the squad to fourteen.

The color scheme was inspired by a Ford Mustang I see in the parking lot at work everyday. It's black with a vibrant blue stripe running through it, and quite impressive. Anyway, I swiped it for these models, adding in some dark gray for the fabric portions of the armor. They have something that looks like a bedroll on their backs. It was really strange, and not having any fluff to fall back on, I really didn't know what it was. I painted it a green-brown color and called it a day. Who know what it really is?

Weapons all seem the same, though several models are in unique poses. The bare-headed guys can be squad leaders and the dude pointing can represent a senior leader. I gave the pointing guy a different colored badge to denote a different status.

Not much else I can say about these guys. I don't have any immediate plans for them, but felt like tackling these models as I work through my Kickstarer box. At this point I realize it won't be finished before the next one arrives, but I still plan to take a good bite out of it before it does.

That's it for now. After taking a break from 15mm WW2 I think it's time to start working on my Operation Bagration stuff. I've got a lot to work through on that project as well.

Big and Bad: More Reaper Bones

In an effort to put a dent in my Bones collection, I worked on a few of the larger creatures that came with my Kickstarer. I haven't got around to the giants and dragons, but I've been thinking about getting them together soon.

So here are the big and bad boys: a gnoll archer, ettin, and ogre. Click for a larger picture.

These models had an amazing level of detail and were very crisp castings. I think they were all Tre Manor sculpts, but I could be wrong. The blue stuff hanging from the ettin's belt are two fish, which I though was a characterful touch. The ogre's shield is interesting, and I imagined that he covered it with tanned hide, probably human!  The gnoll is a nice addition to the other Reaper Gnoll.

I imagine these guys could serve as bruisers and tanks for my orcs and give a little variety to the force. I'm looking forward to trying them out together in a game of Savage Showdown.

After completing these models, I wanted to keep going. I have so many other projects in the pipeline, I felt a little guilty for it. However, I couldn't resist giving these bruisers something to beat on. So, here are three models that I'm planning to use as rangers.

I've actually painted these models before in metal, except for the middle one which was a new sculpt for Bones. Painting them again did not bother me, and provided a chance to re-base them and do a different color scheme. I did these in analogous forest greens and browns, trying to make them look more like a "unit." These will serve as leader and hero figures for the "good guys."

To give a sense of scale, here is the group all together.

Now you can see how meaty those big guys are! I'm pretty satisfied with these models. However, I've got to get moving on other stuff. I'll come back to my Bones collection soon.

Up next will be 1/600 scale planes for an up-coming Guadalcanal air war campaign. Check back soon for the first installment of US planes.

Reaper Bones Heroes

The nice thing about having a giant pile of Reaper Bones from the first Kickstarter is that I always have models to paint when I just want to work on something different. The bad thing is that no matter how many I paint, the pile still looks unchanged. Of course, so far I've only painted 37 of the Kickstarter Bones, so I guess I shouldn't be too quick to complain.

I've been on a WW2 jag recently, and I don't think that's going to change. So to break up all the military colors I pulled out a handful of models from my pile of heroes and painted them.  Here's what I've done this week. Click for a larger picture.

So this is a bit of a mish-mash in terms of theme. From left to right, I've got two casters, then an elven pirate, a female warrior, and finally an Elf ranger.  The ranger I have actually already done in metal before, which you can see here.  I like both, but am partial to the way this one came out and I prefer the round base.

As with most of my Bones, I didn't prime these but just went straight to paint. I've never had much problems doing this, but this time the female elf pirate (in the center) was hard to paint. This one resisted the paint, even after washing all the models. I scrubbed her again, and it made no difference.  Also, her sword had a lot of flash and just poor casting.  I considered replacing the sword blade, but then I don't know if this model will ever see the light of day after this. So it wasn't worth the effort to me. Well, no big deal, but I was a bit surprised at the difficulty of this particular model. The others were fine.

So, I've got some miscellaneous WW2 on the painting table, and I'll be building my Samurai Battles models. I won't be painting the Samurai Battles figures, since I have so much else I can do, but I'll post up the finished game when it's done. If it was not 20mm scale, I might have been tempted to paint them.

Reaper Bones II

My wallet is going to take a hit. Even though I've got tons of stuff to work through yet, in three days I'll be signing up for another round.

Completed Pathfinder Iconics

I finally polished off the Pathfinder Iconic characters last night.  Normally it wouldn't take me so long to do so few figures, but I'm busier than ever and lack time to paint. Anyway, there's my excuse.  These figures are not Reaper Bones, but metal models. I ordered the metals to complete the set needed for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. The only exception is the Bard model, which is Bones.

So here they are. Click on the picture to expand it.

From left to right, Droogami the Snow Leopard, Lini the Gnome druid, Lem the Halfling Bard,  Sajan the Monk, and Harsk the Dwarf Ranger. The final model is a Gray Maiden figure, and not one of the Pathfinder Iconic class models. I just liked the model and ordered it to bring my total high enough to qualify for Reaper's free shipping.

Here are some close ups, and front / back shots. The models have incredible details.

So that's supposed to be a Snow Leopard. It was looking fairly white / gray until the end where everything ended up tan.  Well, crap. I'm not repainting it. The paints looked warm gray on my palette, but turned out too yellow. So now it's a Sand Leopard. Problem solved.

The Monk models is pretty cool, though his knife hand snapped off and had to be glued back. So while people complain about Bones models being warped, we have to remember that metal is often not much better. I tried to match the iconic paint schemes but had to give the bard a pink shirt. It just says "bard" to me.

The Ranger is carrying a crap-ton of stuff on his back. It was confusing to paint and I think I got some stuff wrong. Still, it looks cool now that it's finished. The Gray Maiden was fun to paint, and I was really pleased with the blending of her red cloak. So you can imagine my horror when I found a huge part of the cloak paint job chipped off over night. Again, people complain about Bones not holding paint, but it was my metal model that chipped. I had washed the bare metal, but I guess I must've missed a spot. Anyway, since I had the triad colors, repainting was easy. The chip did leave a mark and you might be able to see it in the picture.

That's enough fantasy for me. I've got six skeletons I've primed, and I'll do those. Otherwise, I want to push to finish off my 15mm Pacific war project. I was hoping to start the next WWII campaign soon, but am far behind schedule.

Pathfinder Iconics

Here are seven more Reaper Bones models that I've painted recently. These are the Pathfinder RPG iconic character classes. These all came with my Bones Kickstarter.  For those unfamiliar with Pathfinder, all of their books contain persistent characters to represent different classes. These characters appear in all their supplements, usually in chapter page artwork where a bit of narration accompanies the illustration.

Click on the picture for a larger image. The characters from left to right are:Ezren the Wizard, Seelah the Paladin, Merisiel the Elf Rogue, Seoni the Sorcerer, Kyra the Cleric, Valeros the Fighter, and Amiri the Barbarian.

I still have other Pathfinder Iconic Class figures to paint, but they are metal and not Bones material. The reason I wanted all of these iconic models is for the new Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.  It's a great adaptation of the RPG to a card based system. You still roll dice and gain levels like the RPG, but the combat and loot mechanics are different. The game gives you cards to represent the characters, but these models will look a lot nicer on the table.

A Few More Bones

This kind of post is going to become a lot more common for me.  I've worked on a few of the 200+ Bones models that I have, and took a few pictures. Generally speaking, I like to complete a project and then post up everything at once. However, with Bones it will be an on-going project and not a lot of "theme" to it.

Having said that, here are three "good heroes" I did this week. These were not primed in any way, just washed in soap and water then glued to a fender washer.

My favorite is the middle guy, who is a typical holy warrior. He could pass as a Priest of Sigmar for all you WHFB fans. My son and I have been joking that he is actually a medieval Billy Mays. He's got the beard for it.  In any case, I've got a ton more "good guys" to do.

These are all done in Reaper paints, too, and the triads are magical for the doing the robes. Not all the triads blend so well, but these colors were great for it.

Next I'm moving back to my 15mm WW2 project. The US Marines are cleaned and mounted, and now just need basing material and primer for me to start painting them. A Marine platoon is a surprising amount of models; there's over 50 models with HQ and I haven't added MGs, mortars, or anything else.

Reaper Bones: Big, Mean, and Green

A few weeks ago I celebrated the arrival of my Reaper Bones models. I wanted to dive right in and decided that beginning with the Orcs from the Orcapocalypse box would be the way to go. These guys are big and need 40mm bases to fit them.  There's a perfect level of detail on them too, neither too little nor too much. I figured painting them would not take too long. I didn't want to bog down in a big project, seeing how I'm in the middle of working on my 15mm WW2 Pacific forces.

Here they are. Twenty-six Orcs, five of each type and one leader. They make the perfect sized warband. I like how these models turned out.

I'll give some details of each troop type below. Working with these models was a breeze. The weapons on many of them were bent, especially the spears. I just dipped them in hot water, then cooled them in ice water, and they reset. Quite easy to fix. I primed them black, just because of the colors I wanted to use. Bones don't need primer. Orcish color schemes are easy, nothing too bright and make them look dirty. 

Reaper models are some of the best out there. My only complaint is they don't make too many "troop" type of models. They all tend to be heroes or individual models. Their Warlord line sort of addresses this, but the troops are usually just three model poses. In the case of my Orcs, there are five different types, but all of the same pose.  I guess I can't complain, since all you see here was just $10!

Here are the different troop types, starting with the leader.

He did not come as part of "Orcapocalypse" but as part of the regular Vampire level box. He was a natural for a leader model. Below are his troops: soldiers, spearmen, berserkers, bowmen, and great weapons.

Once Reaper puts these up for sale I'll probably buy a few more of each type so I can add variety to the force. What I really should've done was add another box of 25 during the Kickstarter!

The Bones I have remaining will give this group all sorts of cool allies, from ogres and trolls, to gnolls and bugbears and other monsters. Now these guys need some Dwarfs or Elves to beat on!

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.

Fantasy Interlude

I bet that title made you wonder what I have planned for this post. Well, I hate to disappoint, but it's just a few figures I painted to break the monotony of military themes. While I'm waiting for the final month of the the Bolt Action challenge to roll around, I've pulled out some fantasy figures.

These are all Reaper Bones, and are not included in the Bones Kickstarter that I'm expecting soon. Again, I don't really have specific plans for these models, but I enjoy collecting them. It reminds me of the "good ol' days of D&D" where I had a collection of random monsters to use in games. However, I almost never had the right model for the game.

I really dig this Bugbear. He looks seriously mean, and he fits in with the gnoll model I have as well. Maybe they're working together for an evil wizard?  Could it be?!

I didn't want another brown giant spider, so I went with green. He hangs out in forest and jungles. Of course you can't get a sense of scale from the picture, but he's on a 50mm base. The funny thing is on the side of his abdomen, toward the bottom it says "Made in China." I didn't see it until too late!

Ah ha! So these bad guys are all actually working for an evil Mind Flayer! I just knew it. I love those crazy octopus-headed dudes. This one came out pretty good.

That's all for now. On the workbench: Infinity!

Reaper Bones Video

I'm stoked about the Reaper Bones Kickstarter, It looks like things have been progressing on that front, and I should  have my models in March as promised.  The graphic I posted previously doesn't do justice to everything the $100 pledge receives. Here's a three minute video from Reaper that showcases the models in the Vampire pledge.



I'm getting all that plus the options I purchased, which includes a bunch of giants, dragons, demons, and other large models. I can't wait for March!

Bones Kickstarter

The Reaper Bones Kickstarter is over.  I'm pretty excited about being part of this. The final count is something like 224 models for the $100 pledge, plus options to get some nice stuff at really low prices.  The amazing thing, for me, is that there's not a single model in the package that I can't think of a use for! I updated the graphic on my previous post to the final rewards package.

This ended up being the third largest Kickstarter to-date.  Wired.com ran an interesting article on this.  Check it out here.

Reaper Bones Kickstarter

So I'm a little late to the game with this, but I actually joined Reaper's KickStarter campaign for the Bones models. Reaper is currently at $1.2 million raised.  It goes without saying that they're getting a lot of support. I know I'm excited to see some of their best models converted to cheaper and lighter materials.

The Bones models are excellent quality, just as good as the metals. By joining KickStarter now you can get a ton of models for a very low price. I personally did the Vampire level, which delivers a lot. It's well worth the money.  Check it out below. They keep adding to this package as their pledges increase.  The campaign only runs until August 25th. So if you're thinking about it, better act fast.