So,

I got quite a few responses when I asked about what people listen to, now I want to know what you READ!

I mean we can't always be painting minis, otherwise no one would be filling up the forums with questions and pictures....ETC

I am assuming that most folks have read Tolkien, I mean can you be into fantasy minis and games without having read them????

But some others that some people might or might not have read and enjoyed or hated...

Heroes Die, By Mathew Woodring Stover. 

I used to work for B&N, and as my staff recommendation I picked this book with the claim "If you don't like this book, I will buy it back from you out of my own pocket!" I sold a lot of books, NEVER bought one back...

The jacket blurb says "Day of the Jackal meats Lord of the Rings!"

Believe it!

Three Hearts and Three Lions, By Poul Anderson

Just finished it for the Nth time, great book

Thieves World, Edited by Robert Aspirin

This is a 12 book shared universe series. Chaosium Games made a multi game supplement based on the first 1 or 2 books.

The cover art of the first books is AWESOME!

The Eternal Champion Cycle, By Michael Moorcock

This includes Erekose, Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon, etc Really something every fantasy buff should read....

MM also writes music with Blue Oyster Cult, and has /had a band called Hawkwind. A very nice British Gentleman!

Name of the Wind, By Patrick Rothfuss

The best new fantasy author to come along in a very long time! Read it, and the sequel, "A Wise Man's Fears"

Jack of Shadows, By Roger Zelazny

Most folks have read about Amber, This book is as good as the original Ambers...

I will add more as I find time...

Gotta paint now!

8)

George

Here's the official arrival/departure thread for round 3 of the Box of Goodwill.

Remember, no chatter here, please. Do it here instead:

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/63923-the-travels-of-sir-forscale-and-friends-round-3-chatterphoto-thread/

DSmiles---sent Sept 23

DonTheDime--Received Sept 26 Sent Oct 3

DogBL--Received Oct 6, Sent Oct 13.

Klarg1--Received Oct 19 Sent Oct 26

Morihalda--Received Oct 29, Sent Nov 6

Chris Palmer--Received Nov 9 Sent Nov 12

Genghis Sean--Received Nov 14, Sent Nov 30

Melkavar--Received Dec 4, Sent Jan 4

OneBoot--Received Jan 6

Bonwirn--Sent Sept 21

WyvernFire--Received Sept 24, Sent Oct 1

UltraSquid--Received Oct 5, Sent Oct 13.

Talespinner--Received Oct 14

KangaroRex--Received Nov 7, Sent Nov 17

BuckyBall---Received Nov 19, Sent Nov 27

Kadence--Received Dec 2, Sent Dec16

Fanguad--Received Dec 21

Marvin

Ub3r_N3rd sent Sept 10.

BeowulfTheHunter---Received Sept 13, Sent Sept, 15th?

Pingo-Received Sept 17, Sent Sept 28

Inarah--Received Sept 30, Sent Oct 8.

DavidBrawley--Received Oct 10, Sent Oct 24

Wolfie907-Received Oct 29, Sent Oct 31

IzzyLobo--Received Nov 3, Sent Nov 13

Wargamer--Received Nov 14, Sent Nov 16

Marineal--Received Nov 19, Sent Dec 1

Chaos Wolf--Received Dec 8

FroggyTheGreat--Sent Sept 19

Fishnjeeps--Received Sept 22 Sent Oct 21

SGHawkins09--Received Oct 24, Sent Nov 6

GenericFighter--Received Nov 7 Sent Nov 20

FlameHawke--Received Nov 23, Sent Dec 18

Matbar-Received Dec 21

Talae

Marsya

TiniestRhombus

ThesHunter

OneBoot--Sent Oct 3

Robinh--Received Oct 9

Jasperthe 2nd--Received Oct 15 Sent Oct 24

Loim--Received Nov 2, Sent Nov 10

JCG-Received Nov 13, Sent Nov 25

NomadZeke--Received Nov 28, Sent Dec 21

HornedTurtle--Received Dec 22

Hibou--Received Jan 2

DSmiles

Marvin-sent September 16

Pcktlnt--Received Sept 18, Sent Sept 30

DrBedlam--Sent Oct 7

TGP--Received Oct 10, Sent Nov7

VonKrieger--Received Nov 9,Sent Dec 14

Drusander--Received Dec 20, Sent Dec 22

UlfHeathen--Received Dec 24

Tarsemina

Bonwirn

Chaos Wolf-Sent Sept 23

SamuraiJack--Received Sept 26, Sent Oct 1.

Aryanun-Received Oct 5, Sent Oct 13

RobDean--Received Oct 15, Sent Oct 26

Arc724--Received Oct 29, Sent Nov 2

MissMelons--Received Nov 4, Sent Nov 16

RedAmbrosia--Received Nov 23, Sent Dec 2

AlexGates--Received Dec 4, Sent Dec 21

Dilvish the Deliverer--Received Dec 24, Sent Jan 2

Ub3r_N3rd--Received Jan 4

Thes Hunter--Sent Sept 19

Sirithiliel-Received Sept 21, Sent Sept 23

HungerFan--Received Sept 25, Sent Oct 5.

RGTriplec-  (had to drop out)

TerminalMancer--Received Oct 7, Sent Oct 12?

Keianna--Received Oct 17, Sent Oct 26

Korimar-Received Oct 31, Sent Nov 7

AardRinn

FroggyTheGreat---Received Nov 28

Since more people are showing off what they did last year, here are mine:

Minis I painted in 2015. ( seems I have been busy)

I will link them so you can check them out.

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/66228-54mm-maria-roseblade-pirate-queen-by-xherman1964/

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/65908-pumpkin-witches-and-their-house-by-xherman1964/

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/65484-legendarion-hyena-warrior-bust-gebhuza-by-xherman1964/

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/64977-zombicide-survivor-dog-painted-as-my-boxer-brutus-by-xherman1964/

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/63196-bonnie-chonoscope-by-xherman1964/

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/60500-77117-vandorendra-snake-demon-bones/

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/63938-kabuki-bust-ky-ra-female-barbarian-16-scale-xherman1964/

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/61631-xherman1964-paints-a-ral-partha-hill-troll/

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/62215-beloved-of-sobek-by-xherman1964-crocodile-games/

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/61632-stygian-guardian-chronopia/

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/61214-77100-vanja-fire-giant-queen-bones/

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/60959-undead-regiment-in-a-swamp-mixed-manufacturers/

http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/60445-zombie-grenadier-horseman/

This was a fun commission. The client wanted this guy  to look a little like a Shao Lin Monk. 

Has anyone ordered from these guys before? They have some really cool demons right out of the original Monster Manual that I just can't pass up, but I've been burnt a few times recently on unrelated sites. Anyone do business with these guys before?

First two minis of 2016 to get geared up for the Resolutionary Painting Challenge. If any of you are trying to motivate yourselves to paint this year I recommend it, I enjoyed doing it last year and it helped me finish a lot of minis.

Anyways, just a note on the bases. I didn't want to use the rock thing the minis are meant to balance on, so I created these bases. I used cork to make a couple different layers so that their legs could look closer to actually being on the ground. Then used coarse pumice gel by Golden over the top to make it sandy and yet hardy. The bit of statue/ruin is from one of Scibor's basing kits. Thought it might spice up the scorpions a little as if they are climbing over some old ruins.

One of them has accents of orange and the second one has accents of yellow. I had originally drybrushed the ruin to match the sand but decided to change the color so it stood out more.

Thanks for reading, comments and criticism welcome!

Found a bit of spare time to quickly hammer out my take on Silver Sable.

I went with a comic style contrast on her and used some lessons on highlighting dark skin I learned doing a miniature over a few months until I got it right.  As I want to make her psychic (unlike Silver Sable), I don't think I will do pupils.  I also went for a bit lighter skin around the eyes than I normally do to make it seem more "glowy".

Anyhow, comments appreciated even though it is just a speed paint.  More pictures and rambling on my blog.

I've read quite a few threads where people extol the virtues of mixing, for example, Green Stuff and Apoxie sculpt, among others.

I've always been told that the only dumb question is the one you don't ask, so here goes:

How exactly does one go about mixing the different putties together? Mix the two different types together as normal and then mix the two compounds together, or just take all the constituent parts and mix them all together?

I love these so much! Thank you Robinh!!!

Mrs. Melons:

Mr. Melons:

Hi !

After a long time away from my desk, tadam, a little Leprechaun for start 2016 :).

Happy new year all !

Continuing the WIP from http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/64819-lexomatics-fall-2015-wip

I'll be working on my shelf of shame minis, trying some bones 2 anhurians, some outstanding hearthstone minis, and maybe some more animals and skeletons, and ice walls and slimes. Also some zombicide crows (as lots of different birds

This is one of Sandra. Garrity's impressive and dynamic sculpts.  I really enjoyed trying to show

off the dynamic movement, drawing attention to the fine carving, and elements she incorporated

into this miniature.  Was a lot of fun to paint.  I really got into blending and highlighting the figure.

When it came to the base, I chose snow to really bring up the contrast, and draw attention to the figure.

As always; Your C/C are very welcome and solicited.

Leave me a comment please, Its great to get feedback.

So here is Krass Omenthrall, as I see him.

Jay

This is the miniature I painted for SGHawkins09 for the Secret Sophie '15 Miniature Exchange.  She requested Christmas colors, so I obliged.  Conveniently, the same colors as my Koldun Lord.  I gave her a decorative base, which started out with some bark someone gave me at ReaperCon, but I think my attempts to put snow and gravel on it made it worse than just the bark painted up as rocks. 

Not my best face (and of course the super-closeup makes it look worse)... all my army painting recently made it a bit difficult to get back into the groove of painting as nicely as possible.

Leave it to my excitable brain to convince me that I should paint minis as gifts before I've even finished painting my first goblin!  The gifts are for my three dearest friends and my husband's D&D group.

• 77016: Rats - Angel Ratties - This friend lost her two furbabies this summer, so I thought I'd make a tribute for her. This was the beginning of the slippery slope... Now I'm at 6 gifts!
• 02982: Casiatta - Battlemage Babe of House Slytherin - I swear this is my friend in miniature form! She's so fierce!
• 02910: Cheetah Girl - Khajiit Marksman - This friend introduced me to Morrowind, and by extension, introduced me to real video games and fantasy worlds outside of books. Morrowind will always be in our hearts!
• 03445: Drunk Pirate - For their drunken (edit: should be pirate, but drunken works too...) campaign. He'll actually be DM'ing, but I know he'll get a good laugh out of this one, and he'll enjoy still having a mini.
• 03131: Eric Swiftblade - A good swashbuckler mini for the campaign.
• 03646: Barnabus Frost - My better half's pirate mini!

The Progress:

Rats: Completed!

Here they are inside their new cozy home! They'll be in a gift box without a top coat when she gets them. Then I can make sure their markings are correct.

Slytherin Battlemage:

I've had this idea for a few months, but I wasn't sure on the execution, or if I could do what I saw in my head properly. And then! DonTheDime did a Thing (we can talk about it Soon) and I learned from his pictures! So I happily sculpted on a snake. Again, I wish I had looked at some examples first, especially TaleSpinner's two-headed snake. Those scales, man.... And I see that my snake eye is too far back as well, now....

But then I decided that no wizard was complete without a cape, so then a cape appeared... I smushed the inside part of the cape with my fingers a lot so my fingerprints would help it get that crinkled velvet look. I had to make this weird crutch out of folded newspaper bits so the cape would flow the right way when curing.

I really should have added the cape after I painted, but I was just really excited. Now I'm going to have painting troubles... The cape also got stuck to her behind when it was drying, so it's indented there instead of flowing out. I don't think it's too noticeable...

Question: Does GreenStuff really.... stick? I left all the edges around the snake because I was afraid it would fall off without a wider surface area to adhere to the mini.

Added some quick liner to see the details (that really is helpful, wow!!) and started laying down some green.

Another shot of cape, because I'm durn proud of that wiggly cape!

Khajiit:

To be ordered this weekend!

Drunken Pirate:

To be ordered this weekend!

Eric Swiftblade:

To be ordered this weekend!

Barnabus Frost:

To be ordered this weekend!

Thanks for checking it out!

Oh, how I wish I'd bought two when they were available! So much fun to paint. The photos probably don't do him justice; I don't have a photo booth yet, but Christmas is coming, no?

My skills with collages with the new photo shop I got for Xmas are non existent, so I thought I would link my Inspiration Gallery Pics if people cared to look at most of the Reaper Minis I painted this year. There maybe one or two that were done prior to this year, But they are still there....

Also I will link my RPChallenge links as well, some will be the same as the Gallery, just with more pics!

July

1: Cichastus

2:Rogan, Half Orc Rogue

3: Cavern Crawler

4: Escalla the Faerie

5: Winter Wolf

6: Karoak

7:Ral Partha Water Elemental

8: Astrid

9: Bettina

10:7 Kobolds

11:Wind Elemental

12: Citadel Dwarf with No Name

August

Painted this month:

1: Warg 03209

2: 2 Dire Wolves 02415

3: Marbrezuk 02656 (Glabrezu) Type III Demon

4: Thornwart 02644 (Nalfeshnee) Type IV Demon

5. Neroli 02946

6: 4 Kobolds 03064

7. Hell Hound 03609

8. Snar Mangebelly, Kobold King 03295

9. Vourgha the Ogre 02312

September

1. Duergar Golem (02988)

2. Vrock (02532)

3. Exchange Mini- finished but still can't post (9/30) Pics posted 3 Nov Crystal Golem

4.     " Balto Burrowell

5       " Pillar of Evil

6. Duergar Cleric (02988)

7. Duergar Sergeant and 2 Troopers (all different) (02989)

October

1.  DDS 2 Tower  (Tower and Terrain Complete)

2. Candelabra [2] (P02990B)

3. Pillar of Evil (02814)

4. Giant's Spitoon

5. Refinished Hell Hound

6. Xherman (The Were Puppy) (02870)

7. Jack-o-Lantern (02870)

November

1. Well of Chaos (o3569)

2. Sculpey Well (First fully sculpted object)

3. The Gremlin From Familiar pack VI (02870)

4. Ral Partha Efreeti

5. Altar of Evil (77139)

6. Mummy of Hakir (02156)

December

1. Pillar of Good (02094

2. Pillar of Evil (02044)

3. Cauldron (P02904D)

4. Hirst Arts Skull

5. Kanaag, Half Orc (02898 & P02934B)

6. Candelabra x2 (P02580B)

7. Peryton (03702) Secret Sophie Mini (finished but no pics until my partner gets it!)(pics added 12/20)

8. Pillar of Good (02815) New Version

I just picked up my paint brush again in mid April as a form of therapy, to keep my mind off of things better not dwelt on...

Following the forums starting in July has really kicked up my game, as you can see if you start with the earliest minis I posted, and compared them to what I am achieving now..

Getting new GOOD brushes, learning how to use a wet palette and reading things here have been the keys to my improvement.

So many thanks to everyone that commented about anything I posted, you certainly helped me out!

Heck you guys helped me get 2 minis into the STORE!

02656: Demon Marbrezuk

03702: Peryton

Special Thanks to our own "Dark Enabler", Ub3r_N3rd whom I have pestered unmercifully with questions since August when the Fall Exchange went Live! He was (and IS!) a font of good information and advice, and was more than patient with me...

So it was a Great time for me!

George

I spent today working on my Dwarven Forge Cavern terrain. A friend and I split the 5 set pack and then I bought a few add ons. Also, I am using the Game Decor Paintworks paints (the Cavern Stone Set).

What I did today:

• Layout all of my cavern terrain
• Put Cavern Stone Base Coat on 71 pieces (all of the corners, all of the normal floors, some of the other pieces). This step may be skipped later. It just didn't change the color much from the base Dwarvenite (see below)
• Apply Cavern Stone Build Up to said pieces.

The plan tomorrow is to apply the highlight color and then a wash. I may get ambitious and pick out details with another color (maybe green?) but we will see.

Cavern tiles all set on table:

Apply Base Coat to many pieces:

Apply Build Up to same pieces and one test piece that did not get a base coat (bottom right - straight wall with slightly darker shadows):

Thoughts? 

Edit: bottom images is turned. Piece in question is top right due to this.

Finally got a real start on my first wizard destined for Frostgrave. Not thrilled with his face - I'm having a lot of trouble with eyes, shockingly - but I've decided to move on to other stuff. I might come back and try to make his face less weird later.  

He's an elemental wizard, primarily fire, and I thought it'd be fun to do the hair up as if it were flames. I think it's coming out OK finally, but it's taken some tinkering.

So! Thoughts? Things I should change? Did I actually manage to do something well?  

As the title hopefully implies, my objective is to paint some several Zombicide Season 1 zombies quickly (for me) in January.  They are going to be tabletop standard, as I want to use them for my game as soon as possible.  With those goals in mind, I have taken a row from the group (4 walker, 2 runners, and 1 fatty) and begun to prep them up and paint them.  The first one is complete and (in my mind) completely horrible, so no pictures of him.

The 2nd one from my Jan set is another walker.  I've spent approximately 2 hours on her total (including priming, no of lines).  Now I've decided that I will actually do marginal line cleaning.  Which will result in me having to reprimer a few of them.  I base coated her a bit darker than I usually would for her base coat on the skin.  I think on the next I will do that for all the colors.  The rest were done normal mid tone.  I then quickly applied 2-4 highlights where I thought they were needed.  Then I applies a dark brownish wash all over.  Followed by a 2nd wash only in the darkest areas.  Next I reapplied highlights and added some details.  It still needs sealer applied.  But for the time I think it came out ok.  I plan to follow this for the rest of my zombies, hoping that as I gain practice I will speed it up and refine it.  Gore will follow on later zombies.  I wanted a few relatively blood free for variety.

This is my next walker.  I applied RMS black primer as an experiment.  With the (possible) cold winter days of the northeast on the way, I wanted an alternative to spending days cleaning and priming.  I'll see how it goes.

Now follows the rest I plan to paint in Jan:

So a while ago I painted Trista as a paladin with a warhammer I took from Halbarand the cleric. http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/51436-trista-conversion-wip/?hl=trista

It was my first conversion, and she's seen a lot of game time. Now that she's a 5th level paladin, I wanted to make a mounted version of her. Back during the Bones 2 Kickstarter there was a suggestion from multiple people to just take one of the mounted Bones, cut them off at the waist and glue the top half of the mini you wanted a mounted version of.  Since Sir Danel from Bones 2 had some <ahem> issues with his top half, I figured it was the perfect candidate. 
 
There are a few challenges with this project that I can spot so far.  First off, Trista has a very narrow waist.  Her belt is also at a bit of an angle, which will complicate things.  At this point I think I might have to partially re-sculpt the belt to cover the seam where the surgery occurred. 
 
I'm actually thinking I'll start from the bottom up and get the horse painted first.  I'd love a few opinions on what to do with the basing and whether or not the extra bit by the rear hoof needs to stay there for support.  Currently the base is bent and Sir Danel won't stand, so obviously I need to at the very least heat-treat the horse.  I've got a black plastic cavalry base, plus round bases in many sizes. I'm conflicted as to whether I want to make an epic looking base that fills most of a 2" area (for gaming purposes) or if I want to go with the cavalry base for a little stability and easier storage. I'd also like to up my basing game a bit, so all suggestions will be considered as long as they fit with a jungle locale.

Since this is Bones, and for gaming, I'm not going to go crazy with a high quality display level paint job (which I probably couldn't pull off anyway) and I'll be aiming for higher tabletop quality. Saves my sanity.