Tag Archives: Reaper Miniatures

From the Painting Desk #10 – How Should I Base this Brass Bull?

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Not a “proper” update, but something I’m interested in feedback on from you guys

Taking a break from Goblins, I’m going to use this Reaper Bones II Brass (or is it Bronze?) Bull as another opportunity to teach Marouda some basic painting techniques. I’m in two minds on whether to cut it off its Bones base – I probably will remove it as it’s slightly warped, since boiling and then ice watering them doesn’t have a brilliant success rate. If I do that, I’ll replace it with a slate outcrop at a slight angle, as though he’s glaring from (or over) the edge.

Bones Brass Bull on 50x50mm Base

Bones Brass Bull on 50x75mm Base

So anyway – do I base it on the 50x50mm base, or the 50x75mm base? It looks like a 60-65mm base would be ideal, but it’s not on the cards. What it’ll be used for in games will be related to how the basing goes in the end, so I’ll worry about that a little later. The previous Bronze Bull we did from Wargames Foundry went nicely onto a 40x40mm base, but this fellow is a fair bit larger. The 50mm base could be problematic when he makes it into combat with other models, as he hangs over the base on it – could be a problem with pikes and spears!

So… thoughts?

 

Undead Archers – Harlequin Miniatures & Bones Fillers

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Another small unit for Kings of War. Undead archers. Something I’d not even thought of until Marouda told me in no uncertain terms that she wanted some archers for her undead army, so I painted these suckers up.

Black Tree Design Skeleton Archers

Harlequin Miniatures Skeleton Archers

Black Tree Design Skeleton Archers

Harlequin Miniatures Skeleton Archers. Again.

 

The stars of this little show are obviously the single blister worth of Harlequin Miniatures Skeleton archers that I had sitting around from the early 1990s. The company either changed their name or sold most of their stuff to Black Tree Design years ago now. Not that it matters here. These figures are definitely on the very chunky, very heroic side of things, but they’re also very nice sculpts, and while they lack the fine detail of something like the Otherworld Skeletons or WGF’s plastics, there are no worries that these guys will easily break from normal game handling. They’re still available, it seems, but with just the three sculpts in the range, there’s little point in trying to make an entire unit or expand this one using them. For me at least in this day of easily available and reasonably-priced HIPS models, metals are great for individual sculpts and character, but I’ve largely moved beyond buying multiples of the same sculpt to make up units – at least when I can avoid it.

Skeleton Archer Troop for Kings of War

Other angle of the Skeleton Archer unit.

The Reaper Miniatures here are the Skeletal Archer figures from the 1st Bones campaign, and like the others that I’ve shown are good for roleplayers, kids, and unit filler. As usual, I’ve put the nice figures up front so the Bones aren’t as noticable. I also gave the unit early-1990’s style “redwood” bows, which both give the figures a splash of colour (it fits in with the army scheme) and draws the eye away a little from bad Reaper sculpts.