A thing a week 2026, week 20

This week in addition to the normal junk, we're gonna go over a little color theory. Boring stuff first: these are the Dragonfolk add-on for Bones 5 split into Dragonfolk Wizard and Cleric, Dragonfolk Bard and Thief, Dragonfolk Fighter and Ranger and I'll leave figuring out which is which as an exercise for the reader. No back shot for the first three because I'm a doof and forgot to shoot it. You can probably guess what's going on by context. Anyway...

These guys had some really lousy mold lines which I handled very poorly. They also had a lot of really nice contrasting texture that I didn't want to lose so I started exactly the same way as you might expect: dry brush over speed paint base coat. I put some extra effort around some of the highlights and rather than doing a lot of tedious blending, I left most of the color jumps a little stark which lends a bit of a cartoony effect which I kind of like. Overall these are pretty good sculpts for the most part though I don't particularly like the fighter. It wasn't clear whether he was scale in which case he's weirdly proportioned or armor in which case the details are confusing. Clearly I went scale.

Color theory time! These guys are split complementary with the first choice being their scale color played by Akhelian Green Contrast Paint which is probably one of my favorites. When I realized that purple was one of the other potential splits which put yellow as the complement, well, I couldn't say no. Yellow and purple are a pretty good complementary scheme by themselves and while I'd intended to push the yellow more into an orange to be more technically correct, I still think these guys came out well. Everything could have used another level of highlight but I kept the nice darks from the contrast paint which was a goal. Done in about ten hours all told, I think these are a good result.

2026 finished mini counter:  115

A thing a week 2026, week 19

These guys are more or less only grouped together because they were painted in the same pseudo-batch. The blending here is a little sus mostly because I couldn't be bothered to do more. The ultramarine here is Golden So Flat and for whatever reason, I've always had a rough time blending it. That sucks because it's a really nice shade. Left to right we have: Brother Hammond, Traveling Monk, Grundor Hoardtaker, Barbarian, and Baran Blacktree, Veteran Warrior. Baran's shield really wanted some heraldry but I clearly couldn't be bothered. Probably his armor needed another metallic coat and additional shading. Grundor's base red played by Flesh Tearer's Red Contrast Paint is still surprisingly glossy which still surprises me every time. Brother Hammond's nice dark brown basecoat got kind of lost and I either needed to go higher on the highlights or bring the darks back down. 

These three mage-y dudes are left to right: Erebus Nalas, Evil Sorcerer, Young Mage, and Luwin Phost, Wizard. I am super bad to use whatever colors are on my palette at time of painting which is why these guys are all the same color as Baran's cloak. Also, I generally think that wizened mages should look like Gandalf which is a really hard thing to break away from. Nalas's OSL doesn't really cover up the weakness of the fire effect or the patchiness of the color fades. Young Mage came out really well to the point that I have him as a high quality fig (#1 for the year) but forgot to do a turnaround shot. Probably the lights could have gone higher regardless, and the orb on the end of his staff is pretty weak. Luwin's OSL looks a little subtle in these shots but they sell pretty well on the table.

Overall, a pretty OK offering for the week, IMO.  

2026 finished mini counter: 109, high quality: 1/10 

A thing a week 2026, week 18

And now for something completely different. With the mechs complete, I'm moving on to the next big phase: Bones 5 and I don't have a fancy theme for it. 

These eight dudes are the Henchmen option from Bones 5 and slightly more than half of the Henchmen and Hirelings pack on the Reaper store (the gals will arrive later). These guys were done mostly as a batch with a little bit of extra OSL effort on the lantern bearer, torch guy, and fire thrower. They didn't take super long at about twelve hours all told but I certainly could have doubled that easily as the sculpts can certainly take higher quality paint jobs. The read a little better in person than in these closeups, I think because my lighting washed out some of the detail. 

It felt a little weird going back to characters after so...many...mechs which are mostly a paint-by-numbers kind of process. Still, these were a good step back to more "normal" painting.  

2026 finished mini counter: 103