Category Archives: Reaper Miniatures

Reaper Bones 4: Dreadmere Expansion – 44031: Giant Leeches (Contrast Paint Experiments #18)

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Reaper Bones 4: Dreadmere Expansion - 44031 Giant Leeches

Another quick one here – this pair of Sea-Wormy things – Apparently they’re Giant Leeches – thanks to maledrakh for that! (and no thanks to Reaper’s shitty minis tagging) – came from the Dreadmere Expansion of Reaper’s 4th Bones Kickstarter. They’re …okay models, and a decent size (sorry, forgot to take a scale reference shot, but those bases are 25mm). Detail is a little soft, and there are visible mold lines which I did the best I could without putting in more effort than the models deserve. I couldn’t find the “proper” names of these anywhere on the KS pages, nor on Reaper’s site, so I went with “say what you see”.

Reaper Bones 4: Dreadmere Expansion - 44031 Giant Leeches

For painting I went with a thinned down Contrast Volpus Pink with the usual Contrast Medium added in over what was either Wraithbone or AK Interactive WHite Spray (that part of the job was months ago). Even after the Contrast, it still looked a bit dull, so I drybrushed over it with some Vallejo Model Colour Ivory. Like a lot of the random stuff that comes out of Bones, I have no specific use for these, though I’m sure I can drop them into a bunch of different games as appropriate.

Similarly, as a pair of low-detail Bones models with no specific use, I could have done a lot better with them but went for the quick and easy win combined with learning a little more about how the Contrasts will work on different types of models and different sizes and shapes. These look fine as far as a simple Tabletop quality job, which is good enough for me. I’ve got plenty of more important models to put proper time and care into, after all! 😉

Reaper Bones 77116: Colossal Skeleton (Jason Wiebe) (Awesome August ’19)

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Reaper Bones 77116, Colossal Skeleton, Jason Wiebe, Undead Giant, Bone Giant

Today I have the first of (and maybe only? we’ll see how the month pans out) my submissions for this month’s Model painting challenge – the Colossal Skeleton from Reaper Miniatures’ Bones line. I think it was from their first Bones Kickstarter, but frankly I can’t be arsed to check, as at this point it hardly matters. This model was a nightmare for me (no pun intended) due to the rather horrid properties of the Bones Material, going sticky over time along with ill-defined details. The model is actually heavily based on a metal counterpart, though given the need to glue and join something like that together, I can only imagine it also being a nightmare as well, albeit of a mostly different sort.

Reaper Bones 77116, Colossal Skeleton, Jason Wiebe, Undead Giant, Bone Giant

I started this large, skinny fellow a couple of years ago – which you can easily spot by the use of the Square base – based as he is for Kings of War and Marouda’s Undead Army. So why did he take so long to get done? He’s mostly bone, isn’t he? After all, that’s easy enough to do..

Reaper Bones 77116, Colossal Skeleton, Jason Wiebe, Undead Giant, Bone Giant

Well, the issues I had with the model were a combination of the bone layers becoming rather tacky early on in the project, as well as all of the fidldy little details scattered across the model. The problem with those details is that most of them are pretty well ill-defined and simply …mushy. I found that particular combination rather off-putting, and despite any number of challenges over the last almost-a-year by now, from Dreadtober, Neglected Models, Jewel of July, Monster March… and on and on, I never could get more than a little of him done. In the first few days of this month however, after going to bed, I had a feeling come over me that I would finish the model that weekend. And so, somehow, I did just that.

Reaper Bones 77116, Colossal Skeleton, Jason Wiebe, Undead Giant, Bone Giant

In my little epiphany, I knew that I needed to break down the model into managable chunks. Good thing he was an unassembled multipart model, then – so legs and base, torso with head attached, and two arms. And then I worked on the fucker for most of the two days in my spare time. And it somehow worked – at the end of the weekend, he was done. And varnished both with Reaper’s own brush-on and AK Interactive’s matte. Somehow it’s also not sticky or even tacky. Yet.

Reaper Bones 77116, Colossal Skeleton, Jason Wiebe, Undead Giant, Bone Giant

A scale shot, along with some of his little (aka regular, human-sized) mates.

So now, after at least a couple of years, this big bastard is done, and I’m actually quite happy with it. My problem with him now becomes where to store it, especially since the Undead Army is already overflowing their shelf. Ah well, there are worse problems to have in life.

Now, the next question will be if I can get another awesome model done for August, or if it will remain with just the one completed for the challenge. Either way, it’s mission accomplished as far as I’m concerned.