Goal Achieved, Its been a good year.

Well I am pretty excited, I have finished my goal for this last year to paint 52 miniatures in 52 weeks. I am happy that I finished, but I do have a couple of WIP pieces that I wasn't able to complete. One of those a large red dragon is only 3/4 done and still has quite a bit of work left to be done on it. Well here are the piece that I completed. This includes all the terrain that they are displayed on.

Thanks to those who shared their support and followed my progress when I was posting earlier this year. Keep checking in to see what's going on with my blog in the future, I have good plans for projects this next year. 

Fixing Bent Reaper Bones

A lot of people who have purchased bones miniatures have probably seen that swords are bent, figures don't stand up as well sometimes because they are warped on the bases. Soft plastic miniatures unlike metal figures, cannot be simply bent back into shape. There is a way however to get your figures to look straight and perfect again. If you take boiling water (doesn't have to be a rolling boil) and a container of cold water (ice is recommended but not necessary). Grab the bent figure with tongs. (Warning hot water can scald you and steam can cause 1st and 2nd degree burns.) Dip the bent figure in the water for a few seconds. Generally 5-10 for thin parts and 10-30 for thick. Take the figure out of the water and bend it to the way you want. Most of the times the plastic straightened up without me having to adjust anything. Once you have bent the figure the way you want, place mini in the cool water. This will cause the plastic to stiffen up again.  Here are some examples of figures I did with this technique. 

Some things I could not fix totally with this method. But out of the 30 figures I straightened out. Only 2 couldn't be fixed. One figure was to thick to fix. And the other can be repaired by basing it on a different base. 

#13 Bones Ogre Chieftain

This week is a pretty simple post.  I finished this bones figure of an Ogre Chieftain sculpted by Jason Wiebe.  I have mentioned before that I did back the Bones Kickstarter I picked this guy up before the kickstarter (still haven't received my minis).  I had based this guy for painting before I started my skeleton archers that I posted about 2 weeks ago.  I am still on track with my goal, although only 1 week ahead now instead of 2. I have a bunch of projects on the go right now.  I bought myself a copy of A Song of Blades and Heroes rules and I am hoping my D&D friends will want to give it a try.  I am trying to get a warband of minis together for that to paint.  I have a bunch of GW lizardmen that I am currently modeling and basing.  I might start painting those after this next week if I can get the bases done.  I also picked up a bunch of old Granadier and Ral Partha miniatures off of my local kijiji classifieds and I am really excited to paint those minis up as well. Ok the thing I really liked about this paint job was how the hair on the legs came out.  I found it looked really natural and blended well with his skin.  Something that I think I could have done better was the wood club.  I kept it kinda dark because of all the other brown tones on this miniature, but I think I could have done a better job highlighting. One thing I will say about the bones minis is although they are cheap (this figure was $2.50 while the pewter was $11.49), the mold lines on them can be terrible and really hard to spot. Thanks for checking out the blog again and feel free to leave comments below.  

#6 Eldessa, The Necromancer

Six weeks in and still going strong.  This week I chose a miniature that I had started over a year ago but never finished painting. Although she was partially painted before I redid most of the figure except for the metallic shoulder pad.  It was an interesting mini to paint, lots of skin and robes.  To be honest I think I need to get my eyes checked because I see a lot of details in my photos that I don't think I can pick out while I am painting.  I'm sure it is time anyway since I haven't had my eyes checked in over 10 yrs.

The part I liked most about how this paint job came out had to be the purple robes.  My biggest dislike was the sword.  I probably rushed it a little.  Some of you may be wondering why my bases always seem to be a little glossy.  I use Vallejo Glossy Black on the edges of my bases to give it a finished look.  This mini had a base sculpted to it but I thought she would tip over to easily so I pinned her to a simple square base.



Links:
Eldessa, Necromancer Reaper Mini
P.S. TGFRFF (Thank Goodness for Reaper Figure Finder) I couldn't remember what this one was called it was so long ago I bought and opened it.

#4 Another Blood Sucking Vampire

I know I did a vampire miniature last week, but wanted to do the other one I had for this week.  I think it turned out better than the last one did anyway. This miniature was a real challenge for me.  There is a lot of detail on the figure that I wanted to capture and really express with different colors, one was the imp. I had completely finished the vampire but hadn't painted that little devil gripping his leg.  I thought that a fire imp theme would look really cool and cause him to pop out in the figure. It almost makes you wonder why they are together when clearly the two are so different.  This figure is again done by Reaper Miniatures and I will include the link for him below.  There are two sculpts for this guy, and honestly if I had seen the other figure first I would have bought it instead. Something I liked about this pant job besides the imp was his robe.  It came out really nicely and contrasts well with the red shirt.  I think I could have done better work on the writing of the book.  I touched up a place where t     he black lines were pretty thick, but I could have spent more time in the area doing some really cool detail.  

 One last thing.  I am using a Cannon Rebel t3 12mp camera to take my photos, but I was wondering if anyone had some tips for helping me improve my photos.  I know lighting is a big issue for me because I am taking my photos in the basement where I paint, but I was wondering if someone out there has seen tutorials for photographing miniatures that have worked for them? Again thanks for checking out my blog, and post your comments below.

This picture has no flash.

Links:

Reaper Miniature: Morrdha Vampire Lord

Epic Morrdha Vampire Lord Sculpt

#3 Damien Mundo

The Vampire Lord Damien Mundo

One of my favorite creatures to throw at my friends when playing dungeons and dragons is a vampire. I think they are one of the best villains you can put in a campaign. They allow your cleric characters feel powerful when they hold them at bay with their religious symbol. They cause your fighter absolute horror when they become dominated. But my favorite thing is when your PC's are just about to finish the fight, they turn into a gaseous form allowing them to escape only to turn up later for revenge. The main vampire we have used in our adventures I named Damien Mundo. I bought this miniature specifically for this character, and every time I put him on the table for game night it has always been a memorable experience. That being said, the thing I liked about this mini was how his armor turned out. I haven't done a lot of non metal colored armor and I should try to do it more. Something that could have been better was his cape, I feel like I kinda rushed it and maybe I will go back and fix it a bit. Overall this was a good mini except for a bad mold line that ran right though the left side of his face. All in all I am glad I finally put some color on this figure.

Links:
Reaper Miniature Vampire Gabriel Darkblood

#1 January 20-26 Cave Troll

First miniature on the board, and its a good one.  This is a Cave Troll Reaper Miniature code: 77004 from the Bones line. I picked this as my first miniature because I wanted to see if you could skip the primer step with the new Bones miniatures.  Turns out that you can, but it took an extra base coat just to make sure that you couldn't see any of the white plastic that the miniature is cast in. Overall the paint looks good, I think the purple lower lip really added a lot of character to the face of this little guy.  Something I will work on for next time is skin tone highlights. I haven't been very good about painting flesh in the past and tend to get lazy with it. Let me know what you think of this little guy, and give me some suggestions of adventures where a group of PCs might encounter this fellow. 

Link to the miniature:

http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/troll/latest/77004