Category Archives: Reaper Miniatures

77126: Vermin: Spiders, 77128: Vermin: Spider Swarm (Reaper Bones)

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A couple of very simple paintjobs to share today as the first 6-month “Tale of Gamers” painting challenge comes to a conclusion at the end of June. Like many of us gamer-types, I have a shedload of random figures from Reaper’s Bones I and II Kickstarter campaigns. I did back the third one, but skipped the base pledge this time round as Reaper delved deeper into add-on territory and offered less “value” with the base pledge. Especially as I’ve got more than a lifetime’s worth of random bendy PVC fantasy models, as Tarmor can attest to as I offloaded a bunch to him awhile back! With Bones III, I picked a much more “curated” set of figures. But this isn’t a discussion of Bones III. It’s showing off some rather bland and generic figures with paint to match!

Reaper Bones 77126: Vermin: Spiders

These three are the 77126: Vermin: Spiders. Not a bad sculpt to be truthful. I painted them in red tones with yellowish markings because Marouda’s far from a fan of realistic, life-size spiders and because they’ll be used in the Undead army, and red/black with a touch of teal/bronze/etc are the army colours. Their fangs are done with Citadels’ new “Gemstone” paint (the blue one) over a dark metallic base. Mostly because I’d only just gotten them and wanted to experiment with them a little on inconsequential figures.

Reaper Bones 77128: Vermin: Spider Swarm

The next three are Reaper’s 77128: Vermin: Spider Swarms. These are what they are, I guess. Much more for generic roleplaying purposes, but they didn’t take much time to paint up and ink. I used a few shades of ruddy red-browns so as to distinguish the spiders a little. It didn’t especially work, but at least the blobs are varied a little. I could have gone through and very carefully painted eyes and markings on each individual spider, but at the end of the day, these Swarm models don’t deserve that much of my – or your – time. As gaming models for what are essentially trash mobs, they’re good enough. I have a bunch more of the larger spiders and beetles and such somewhere from Bones I that I was cleaning up for paint a year or two ago, but they’ve gone missing somewhere.

Reaper Bones 77126: Vermin: Spiders

Reaper Bones 77128: Vermin: Spider Swarm

All six models were based on 30mm bases I got from Impact! Games, as 25mm rounds are too small, they fit them well enough – and quite frankly I’m buggered if I’m going to use my expensive 32mm Citadel rounds on them. I then made up some unit bases for them from 120x40mm cuts of MDF that I purchased for unit trays – somewhat inspired by Grimdork’s unit trays over on Dakka. The trays are for their main use – as “Undead Army Swarms” in Kings of War. Technically, they’re a unit that is part of the Army of Dust (Not-Tomb Kings) and not the more generic Undead (that covers the Vampire Counts stuff), but I’m in favour of fluff over RAW when it comes to army lists for friendly games. When I paint scorpions, they’ll be much more AoD/TK themed. I noticed after taking the photographs that the grass tufts I’ve added to the bases here are a little dull, so I’ve since added a few in a slightly brighter green.

Reaper Miniatures 03278: Rogan, Half-Orc Thief

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Reaper Miniatures 03278: Rogan, Half-Orc Thief

Tre’ Manor’s Half-Orc Rogue

Something a bit different from the norm again today. A few years ago now there was a time before Zombicide and Borderlands 2 when my gaming group spent quite a few evenings playing through those D&D Boargames. I’ve shown off the odd critter from Ravenloft and Ashardalon here before, but this guy is from the other side. A model purchased to represent one of the player characters. I actually created a huge list of (mostly) Reaper Miniatures to better represent the player characters as I was never particularly enamoured of the PC models that came in the boxes. One such character was the Half-Orc Thief. Needing one of those, I browsed the Reaper online catalogue and saw this guy, a lovely Tre’ Manor sculpt. Shortly afterwards, he was mine.

Since I’m no fan of broccoli bases, I had to base him on something plastic and round. A Proxie models 40mm round base was the best and most appropriate thing I had, if a little large, but with his stature and wide-legged stance, this was the smallest thing I could fit him on.

Reaper Miniatures 03278: Rogan, Half-Orc Thief

Cloak of slightly-harder-to-see-me deployed!

The most important thing was to work out a palette that worked for a rogue, was somewhat realistic (for a fantasy trope) and wasn’t completely boring. That means an all-black outfit was out. It might be the “obvious” go-to for a rogue or thief in some ways, but I also thought it’s the sort of thing that’s very likely to attract lots of attention if he were to be walking down a street or sitting in a tavern. Kinda like a sign saying “YES I AM A THIEF”, or a guy in a ninja outfit sitting in your local Starbucks. So I wanted to use some colours. Secondly, this guy is a Half-Orc, not a weedy Elf, so I wanted to go for muted, natural colours instead of rich, opulent colours.

The result was dark grey leggings, a brown leather padded jerkin, and for a spot colour, red-brown gloves and boots. Pouches in dark grey again, and a natural woodland green for his cloak. The sort of thing that would be dark and dull enough to provide some camouflage in a town or out in the bush. His dual-wielded daggers are painted in the Vallejo colour called “Metal Black” (Or Black Metal!) – which is a really dark, true gunmetal colour. No shine, no highlight, no picking out the pommel or crossguard in bronze, or painting the little skulls on them in bone or gold or whatever. They’re bloody rogue’s daggers!

Reaper Miniatures 03278: Rogan, Half-Orc Thief

He wants YOU!

Anyway, this guy – like so many other figures – sat half-painted and mostly forgotten for a couple of years before I chose him a couple of weeks ago to get done and dusted. Within a day, he was finished. Since we’re not playing the D&D games at the moment and haven’t played Pathfinder in a year or more, now he goes into a glass cabinet until needed at some point in the future. At least he’s done, though!