Reaper Bones III

They're doing it again. Reaper's third Kickstarter for their much-favored Bones line of plastic minis launches tomorrow morning. I had some fun live-blogging the first day of their last Kickstarter; we'll see if I have time to do so this time.

Update (7/7, 10:05 am): It's live! Already some interesting small minis, animals, and giants that would fit my purposes. They're saying that minis in different sizes will be a focus this time, so this may be very interesting to me. PS: it's already funded, of course.

(10:48): Okay, I backed it. Wave 2 shipping! They're behind on their updates, understandably, but there should be more to come. I've decided a day at the zoo with the little one might be better than hitting refresh on the KS page all day. I'll be back later.

By the way, you can help me justify my expense by taking advantage of my sales page :).

(1:55): I'm back! What'd I miss?

Hey, rewards updates! None of the add-ons seem too amazing yet. I like the yetis in the core set, and the torture room stuff is promising. Scenics seem to be a bit undersized in Bones, so they might be adaptable to the Scale of Choice.

(9:40 pm): New rewards! I'm sort of tempted by the Stonehenge scenery, but it's a little rich for me. We'll have to see.

Does it seem like the new rewards aren't coming as quickly this time around? Either people are bidding more slowly, or Reaper has spaced them out a little more. Not complaining, just an observation.

(7/8, 10:57 am): A new day, a new stretch goal. Hey look, ogres! And they're core! Interested in these.

Stonehenge, I just noticed, is huge, dwarfing even Sir Forscale. Way too big for 1/72, so I feel okay about passing.

(7/10): Any future updates I'd like to make will be in a new post, I think. Stretch goals are certainly slower than I remember; a quick comparison between this and the last Kickstarter on Kicktraq shows that pledges are indeed coming more slowly this time, which I guess is not surprising. So it's not as exciting to watch, but they're still set to clear $1 mil by the end of the day, which by any standard is still excellent.

By the way, I like the arsenal update. Even though the weapons may be oversized for my purposes, I can think of enough uses for them that I may even spring for two sets.

Spidermen, spidermen!

Check out my sales page, now full of cheap 1/72 scale sprues suitable for fantasy, in addition to Reaper Bones figures and other goodies.

Spidermen! No not that kind, this kind:

Driders, or "drow-spiders," or spider-centaurs. Dark elves punished (or rewarded, depending on edition) by their spider-goddess Lolth with an aspect of her spidery form. One of those curiosities from D&D that's somehow stuck with fantasy gamers. Recall that these are mostly Alliance elves patched onto "jorogumo" figures from Arcane Legions.

Melee guys above. Archers and sorceress below; the sorceress bod is a Caesar elf. I worry that she looks either like Mrs. Santa Claus via the Brothers Grimm, or else a Star Trek bridge officer after a teleportation accident.

Side views, showing off the spidery livery this crew is wearing for some reason. Not the greatest freehand you'll ever see, but looks okay on the table.

Let's check out the larger drider figure, maybe an alpha drider, or possibly an avatar of Lolth herself. It's a Reaper Bones "Spider Centaur" archer figure. I swapped her bow arm with a Skink bit—should have either swapped both arms or else just trimmed the bow from her original hand. Looks kind of wonky. I also regret that her face is a bit obscure. Should have put more black around the mouth. I think it's not too bad overall, though. It's actually a smaller figure than you might expect, pretty close in body size to Sven the 1/72 comparison viking.

The spotted pattern on the back is loosely inspired by actual black widow spiders, which also inspired the general red-white-black colors of this squad.

This was a fun project. I'm really pleased how the mods turned out on the 1/72 figures. Painting was a quick and dirty affair for the most part, but I like the overall look. They'll be a nice addition, or counterpoint to, the drow figures I painted a month ago.

Coming soon: demon legions, and other hellish beings!

Homemade gelatin

The gelatinous cube, a creature genetically adapted to graph paper, remains one of the most iconically ridiculous monsters in the D&D canon. It's simplicity, in addition to how expensive commercial miniature representations of it tend to be, invite all sorts of homebrew miniature solutions. EY's recent post on using plastic ice cubes as 1/72 gelatinous cubes prompted me to finally finish my own homebrew version of the geometric critter. Tada!

The core of this project is this thing:

It's an itty-bitty, 2"x2"x2" display case made for golf balls. I got a six pack of them from Amazon, but I bet you can get them individually at sporting goods stores for under $2.

The chief draw for these is that they slide apart,...

...because the fun of a mini for a clear monster whose main power is engulfing PCs is in actually putting hero minis inside.

I could have used these as is, but they are a little too platonically cubic. I wanted some sort of texture to show that it was made of organic goop of some kind. I considered substances like clear caulk, but instead I finally decided on Gloss Gel Medium, a finishing product for artists made by Liquitex that dries clear and with a textured surface. $6 after the requisite 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby for a fair sized bottle, which I decided was cheap enough if I use it for other modeling projects. I could use it for other oozes, for example, and it seems like it would work for choppy water as well.

Separate the cube as shown above, then sand the surfaces you plan to treat so the Gloss sticks. Wash afterwards to remove plastic dust and allow to dry thoroughly. I painted both sides of the bottom face with several coats of black paint, then added the gel medium to the top face of the black surface (which is to say, the "floor" inside the cube).

I had glued the 2" fender washer to the base before sanding and washing, but I recommend doing so afterwards instead. The washer makes the cube much more stable.

I also added the Gloss to all the clear outside surfaces. Try not to get any medium on the bevelled edges, so the two parts slide apart as easily as possible. You may want to run a knife over these edges as well, so the fit isn't quite so snug.

A layer of Future shine or some other finish on the bottom is a good idea to keep it from scuffing. You could paint Future on the rest of the mini too, but it's not really necessary; the Gloss Medium is shiny and resilient enough on its own.

Large enough to comfortably accommodate one comparison viking!

One downside to this approach: Even after shaving the bevelled edges to make the fit a bit looser, it's still sort of tough to separate the two halves of the cube. I'm thinking of some sort of tab to make separation easier. Still, I think it looks pretty good, and it's pretty easy to make.

Since I still have five of these golf ball display cases, I can make more of these things. Would anyone be interested in getting one as a trade, or possibly some sort of future giveaway?

Fences

Quick post of some scenery items I've painted recently. There are other scenery bits I've done lately as well, but I've got one more I want to finish before featuring the rest.

These are fences, from Imex's excellent Battlefield Accessories set. Only two of each fence type per set, but I lucked into getting three sets cheap on eBay, so I have six each. There are also "broken" versions of each type, but I haven't painted those. Pretty simple to paint: prime, base color, drybrush, wash.

Wooden split-rail fences. I see now the bases need some touching up! The fence pieces are pretty thin, which made painting just a little tricky, but not too bad overall.

Stone fences. The small washers make pretty good, solid bases, especially on these pieces. Some sort of metal strip might have been better, but this was a pretty cheap method.

Overhead view of the stone fences. There aren't enough pieces here for large wargaming scenery, but for small RPG-type scenes I believe I have more than enough.

Kris just did a post about making similar stone fences for 28mm; his technique may be adaptable to 1/72 scale. He's done a lot of great posts in the past year about cheap do-it-yourself scenery, often for 1/72, that are worth checking out; his scourpad trees in particular are on my bucket list.

More new soon!

Fire and water

I finally got around to painting the Reaper fire elemental I messed around with last year. And since I now have the similar clear blue plastic water elemental from the newest Reaper Kickstarter, I painted it up as well.

I don't know why I put off painting the fire elemental, because painting was actually pretty easy. I started with a wash of yellow paint mixed with Future shine, then some drybrushing with red and a bit of dark red, then another coat of undiluted Future shine to seal and keep everything at a fire-like gleam.

The water elemental was a similar combination of washes, drybrushing, and a final "wet" coat of Future shine. The texture on the mini made this light work, giving the crests a nice foamy look.

I discussed the light-up base I made for the fire elemental previously. Here it is in action. While I would have liked it if both halves of the figure lit up, it's still a nice effect.

I've had lots more time to paint lately than I have had all year, so there should be more posts coming very soon!

Alliance Amazons, pics, review

Hannants surprised me by shipping my recent order with them in just a week, so I have lots of interesting swag to show off. Most novel are the Amazons that Alliance just released. A shortage of female 1/72 minis has just been relieved, but is it worth it?

I'm judging these safe-for-work, because after all they are unpainted small-scale plastic figures. But there's definitely plenty of bare-chestedness going on in these figures, to an arguably gratuitous degree. Yes, yes, there are certainly precedents for nude figures in this scale, both male and female, and I don't want to gainsay anyone's tastes or preferences in this regard. But maybe you can see what I mean here. Some of these costumes, if not quite PG-13, make sense for a race of warrior women, but others are rather more, shall we say, eye-catching that practical for life on the battlefield. I haven't shown the backs of these figures, which are even more ridiculous: either these outfits have very, very tight breeches, or they are quite drafty. In other words, it's not just that these figures are too sexy; in trying to be sexy they've turned out a little bit goofy as well.

It's too bad, because the sculpting is actually pretty well done. These Amazons are a bit on the tall side, but not too tall; the poses are lively even if a bit flat, and there's lots of variety. Some of these are obviously suitable for quasi-Greek campaigns, but others are more generic. Besides, the crests of those Greek helmets can easily be snipped for a less Hellenistic look.

Anyway, I promised pics. There are currently two sets, a foot set and a cavalry set. The first is 40 figures in 10 poses, the second is 12 unique figures, plus 10 horses (not the cool mounts shown in this preview, alas!). Here they are:

Melee figures from the first set, mostly spears. The Greek-looking figures especially are leaving little to the imagination, though with some paint and perhaps a spot of glue here and there their dress could be a little more modest.

Archers from the first set. These are a bit more realistically dressed IMO.

Riders with swords plus two command figures, from the second cavalry set. I don't have much use for cavalry, but I think I can make some leg swaps and still use these figures.

Spears and archers on horseback. The infamous spiral armor makes an appearance here. By the way, while it's not obvious from the front, the cavalry figures mostly seem to lack pants, which is especially goofy if one considers the deleterious effects of saddle-soreness!

I'm perhaps letting my focus on the whole goofy/sexy design of these figures make this review sound overly negative. Really, they're pretty good figures, and it's great to have more female figures in this niche-in-a-niche of a hobby. I just wish the focus was more heroic and a little less gratuitous. Still, it will be an interesting project to mod these a little more to my tastes.

Drow! You stabbed me!

An extraordinarily busy March and April meant that I put off painting the dark elf figures I put together months ago. But they're done now!

Pretty simple painting; a lot of grays with some purple, which looks more washed-out in these photos than in person. Because of the dark color scheme, I did a lot more drybrushing than I usually do, with light gray on the clothes and pure white on the face and hair. These are pretty typical drow colors, though I suppose the blue hair might be a bit unusual. I think it works though; with the heavy drybrushing, the blue almost looks like a wash, so it's more of an accent color.

Below are the sword guys. The figure on the left is an unmodified Caesar elf. The rest are Alliance elf heads on various bods, mostly Caesar. The female fighter has an Arcane Legions body, while the one in the middle has one from a Hat Celt leader.

Next are the archers. These are mostly unmodified Caesar elves, though I swapped the "conehead" elf head with an Alliance head for the figure on the left. The running archer has a bod from a Hat "Robin Hood" figure.

A couple spellcasters. On the left, a Caesar elf head with a Caesar "Adventurer" body. On the right, an Alliance elf head with a Twilight Creations cultist bod.

Here's Sven the 1/72 comparison viking with Salogel of the One Inch Guild, with his counterpart from the Realm of Lolth.

But which one is the real you?!

I decided to finish these guys first before working on the driders, also featured in the first drow post. They're next!