Unboxing Reaper Bones Kickstarter Part 1

It came! My Reaper Bones Kickstarter pledge came today, and I'm pretty damn happy. I've been painting all these months to get back in the swing of things for these minis... and they're here... and they're awesome! I've taken apart one of my two vampire boxes during breaks from a remarkably successful night of patty-cake with my baby. Which is not off topic! I justified getting all these minis partially because of her! Back in October, back before we knew the sex or were telling anyone about the pregnancy, I thought, "What the hell, get some extra minis for the kid, it'll be a great thing for dad and child to do together!" She can't clap her hands yet, so she probably doesn't have great brush control... Luckily I got a pile of minis big enough to lay that long!

Tonight I unbagged my first Vampire box and laid them out on a printout from the website to take inventory.  Out of 238 in the box I'm missing one, a ghoul. But I got two extra spider swarms! Here's the proof:

Unboxing Descent Labyrinth of Ruin

My painting tonight was in single digit brush strokes, but I did open a package containing the new Descent expansion, Labyrinth of Ruin. The sculpts are excellent all around.  On the hero side we've got a female alchemist who's a gnome-looking dwarf, very cool. But the witch is my favorite, a great design that straddles fantasy and superhero aesthetics.

The monsters give us a crab-spider and a dragon-snake, which are just okay. But we also get four goblin witchers, great looking goblin casters! My brush will first new applied to the Tyranid-like Volcrux Reavers, which look better than the previews. Overall, great set, I wish I could get started tonight!

Paint Club WIPs: Does this look wet to you?

At the end of Paint Club tonight I picked up a paper bag that I brought chips in, and it was heavy with moisture. "Oh," I thought, "that explains it." That's why I was working on 5 projects at once; that's why all of the paint I put down. Would. Not. Dry. You. Guys.
So Yochlol, Dritzzt, and Drizzt's panther Guenhwyvar are all done, and I'm pretty happy with my progress on the Drow Priestess and Athrogate. Progress is good, new minis start arriving in the mail tomorrow!

Monday Night WIPs: Legends of Lankhmar!

Tonight I did Wulfgar from Legends of Drizzt. How great is this as sculpt? I mean, it's not that great, kind of all in one plane, lacking a certain dynamism. But still, it's all fur and flesh, it was a blast to paint.

He's one sword away from being Fafhrd.

Sunday Night WIPS: The Southern Dandy! (and friend)

I was a little down on painting after yesterday's goblins; I think I really savaged those goblin archer faces. I forged ahead, however, into the Legend of Drizzt characters, and I'm glad I did so, because painting these guys was a hoot! Here's Jaraxle the drow and Artemis the human assassin!

Jaxaxle is dressed entirely in cloth, with lots of cool folds. I tried to ink instead of wash, applying thin dark lines to the folds instead of dipping him in a black wash. I needed to reapply the base (I think this is a glaze?) to blend things but it turned out looking like I wanted it to. I was also able to pull an expression off of this facial sculpt even though he's painted in Drow Black... I like the level of purple highlights applied, making features visible while leaving him with black and not purple skin.

Jaraxle has a big feathered hat that the mini doesn't wear. Lamestorm!

I figured Artemis Entreri here was the sidekick to the Drow, but wikipedia tells me it's the other way around. He's an assassin, so I wanted to do more black than not, letting metallics define him like Priest-era Black Panther. I couldn't resist giving a sword-and-dagger rogue type a grey cloak though. I have a problem... still, he and Wulfgar are going to make plausible Leiber-heroes! Hmm, maybe I'll do him next...

Saturday Night WIPS: Goblin Horde

I had enough time today to knock out the ten minis that sat untouched all week while we had houseguests. This is three GW Lizardmen and the goblins from Legend of Drizzt. I really like the headsculpts on the Goblin Cutters and boss, I hope I did them justice. I feel like I punted on the faces of the archers, but that the bow in the middle of the head gave me less to work with than I'd like.

As for the Lizardmen, I'm happy with how they turned out. I think these are from some old Warhammer box set, but I really like them, especially their stomachs. They are missing Aztec swords, though, so I guess I still like the modern Sauruses better.

Monday Night WIPs: That Ol' Green and Brown

I wasn't able to paint on Sunday but I got a half hour tonight to start new projects. These Lizardmen are a gift from Matt, they came with a Citadel paint starter that he got years ago, and he gave me their three sprues on the first night of Paint Club. The goblins are from Legend of Drizzt, my next D&D set, and I've got the basecoats at various stages of completion.