Reaper Bones 44078: Giant Snake

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Reaper Bones 44078: Giant Snake, Julie Guthrie

I haven’t been blogging or doing as much following and reading as I’d like to. I just haven’t had enough time to keep on on my own blog, my own comments, your blogs and comments. So I’ve been dipping in and out when I can, but I have at least kept up with a bit of painting. Again – not as much as I’d like, but even my leisure time is being stretched a bit more than usual as Marouda and I managed to get hold of a pair of Xbox Series X – and so co-op gaming and painting have taken aa priority over blogging. I mean, I finished this one in the first few days of January, but it’s taken me almost three weeks to get my arse out to take the photos.

The model, then – Reaper’s Giant Snake from the last Bones campaign to deliver. Not the one still outstanding, obviously. This one is cast in the newer “black” version of their PVC (despite being cast in white) and was actually bloody nice to paint. No stickiness, no issues with spray priming, no issues with using whichever paints and mediums I wanted to, no issues with varnish. Now they need to make all of their Bones models in this stuff, including re-runs of the older sculpts.

Reaper Bones 44078: Giant Snake, Julie Guthrie

It’s been sitting around for ages, but I had gone so far as to glue ot to a base. So I did the thing where you see a model on your painting desk and decide to get it out of the way by painting it. I got it done over 2 days, mostly due to drying time for sand and washes and so forth. I googled the look of the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, as it’s got something that looks like a rattle at the end of the tail. Kinda hard to see in these pics, and I mean, it’d work as a generic green snake or whatever, but I sometimes like to use animals as an excuse to practise putting together natural patterns, even if not always pushing myself.

Reaper Bones 44078: Giant Snake, Julie Guthrie

As you can see here, it’s a pretty decent sized model. No idea where I’ll use it really. I guess it works for D&D/FRP games (as does almost any kind of animal) but I could also drop it into post-apoc games as the pulpy-irradiated giant version of the normal Earthly aminal! 😉

It’s also my next submission for Dave’s Paint What You Got Challenge. There’ll be a few more of them over the next few days assuming I can write up the posts. 😉

40 thoughts on “Reaper Bones 44078: Giant Snake”

  4. That’s fantastic mate, looks almost real. I’ve been working on some snake scales myself lately, nothing that compares to that level of complexity in the patterning though – I’m going to have to up my game! Glad to hear the newer Bones stuff is nicer, the miniatures are pretty good but the material in the past has been dire.

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    • Thanks Wudu. You could easily smash something like this, thouygh. On a smooth model, it’s just a ton of dots. On something like this, it’s even easier – just lightly-painted lines in the direction that the scales run, plus a pre-wash, post-wash and drybrush!

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  7. That’s come out really well! 🙂 With you in mind, I’ve not been posting much and what there is is the usual crap, so you can just skip any of my posts (if you haven’t already)! I have only painted one thing so far this year and am waiting for it to stop raining/snowing/blowing a gale so I can get it painted!

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    • Haha thanks John!
      I’ve typically been going to my reader when I can and then doing a bit of a run on the first 2-4 people’s blogs at the top to try and catch up. Good to hear that you’re supporting me by keeping productivity to a managable level! 😉

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  10. That really does look like an overgrown rattlesnake. Taking the time to follow a pattern from nature was well-worth it and that should make for a striking mini to use in your games. I could see that one being handy in Shadows of Brimstone personally. You gotta have some snake enemies in a game like that!

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  12. I have the same mini, and I think what immediately sprang into my kind was “green snake”, haha! So you then go and blow that out of the water.

    Since I haven’t started on mine yet, I should do a little research first. Maybe something like a giant snake from an old Conan comic or the movie.

    I’ve got a few of the dark bones minis, but haven’t tackled them yet. The material does seem nicer and it’s good to hear that they paint up better. There’s probably more than a few sculpts I’ll end up re-purchasing as Dark Bones at some point, just so I don’t have to deal with the old crap.

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  14. When I saw this I immediately knew it was a western diamondback, and you truly nailed the beast. Funny as you Aussies have a plethora of lethal snakes to choose from and you picked the classic western American one (which is potentially deadly but more a cause of morbidity than mortality). None of those near me – as I write this it’s 9 degrees Fahrenheit out and with the wind chill it’s well below zero – our snakes are pretty benign here in New England. Back in the day though I ran into a couple of these when we deployed to Arizona. The biggest was about 4 or 5 foot long and was in our bivouac site. One of my NCO’s dispatched the beast amazingly with a thrown small rock into its head. Then he had quite the belt afterwards . I didn’t get the chance to stop him but I did see the shot he took.

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    • Thanks Mark! That’s one way to get a nice looking belt, for sure!
      This snake has a little rattle coiled at the end of its tail, so I went with the western diamondback because I wanted to avoid “green snake”. And because I enjoy painting the diamonds.
      Rest assured, though – as soon as I have an appropriate snake to paint, I’ll be doing one of our locals – probably a tiger snake. Though I’m not a real fan of them or (especially) the brown snakes we have around here, though.

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