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. 

#15 Its a Purple Worm!

Here it is, a Purple Worm.  Not a very exciting miniature.  It was an expensive one though.  I ended up getting a speeding ticket in the mail that I got on the way home from picking this guy up.  From what I could find on the internet this is a 1982 Giant Worm miniature released by Citadel.  I guess I can add the Games Workshop tag to my post now right? Any ways what can I say about this other than its a terrible sculpt.  I only say this because I know I can do better than this, and I have.  It wasn't fun to paint, just layering purple, then purple with black wash, then layers of more purple.  The base I made out of Hirst Arts Castle Molds. It looks like the base is 3''x 3'' but its actually about 1/3 smaller than that.  I thought it would look weird if I based him on to large of a base since the mini isn't as huge as it is supposed to be.

The Hideous Maw of the Worm

#14 Granadier 1984 Vampire

I know I said in the past that I have painted to many vampires but here is another. I think this one might be my favorite. Also, I know I am far behind my goal, but I have another couple minis I have painted that I will be posting soon. I think sometimes the pressure of putting together blog posts scares me off of finishing projects. I have about 13 different minis on the go, but I think I have gotten a little bit of a second wind. I feel I can catch up and finish my goal by next feb. They say us Albertans are getting an early winter this year, sounds like a good excuse to spend time inside painting. Any ways here's the figure. Let me know what you think. 

I know its been a little while.

I know its been a little while since my last post, and I wanted to assure all of you that I am still painting.  I have been working on a bunch of lizard men for a Song of Blade and Heroes war band.  Happy news, my bones figures finally arrived, I want to do a post fully of all the ones I got.  I am really impressed with them all, especially how firm the larger models are.  Anyways if any of you are wondering why I haven't posted in a while lots of things have been happening this summer.  I am still excited to finish my goal, just have a little catching up to do.

WIP Lizardmen

So my post yesterday I talked about my Lizardmen war band I am trying to put together for A Song of Blades and Heroes. I thought I would try out the paint scheme that I came up with for them. Let me know what you think so far. FYI this is a wip, I know the pictures are bad and I am not even close to being done with the blue.

#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.  

#7-12 The Bones Brigade

So 6 miniatures in 3 weeks turned into 6 in 4. I know it's been a while since my last post, but in this time I have been able to do some other things with my time than paint (Skyrim, LoL). I doubt I will try to do this many at a time again. It's not that I cant it just begins to feel like a chore. It's probably the reason I didn't get a lot of my Warhammer 40k miniatures painted when I used to play. Although it does feel good to be 2 weeks ahead of my goal.

Alright now for the skeletons. These guys come from the RAFM box set Shambling Death. I have quite a few RAFM miniatures for 2 reasons. They are readily available at The Sentry Box where I buy a lot of my miniatures and hobby supplies, and they are cheap compared to a lot of the other companies out there. This box of skeletons only cost $22 and came with 18 miniatures. I painted the robes on them different colors so that when I use them for D&D I can tell them apart on the table.

Things I liked about these paint job was the blue and green clothing. I think I am going to try and work more with these colors in the future. I didn't like the bone color. Particularly the brown ink. I think in the future I am going to prime white from now on with skeletons.

Let me know what you think, and if you have suggestions for future minis. I might do a sci-fi figure in the next couple of weeks maybe even a GW model.

Taking advantage of the warm day to clear coat and prime my minis.

 I need to start editing my photos so they don't look jumbled like this.