A thing a week 2026, week 35

This week we have especially fun stuff and not just because the end of the Bones 5 effort is within sight. As a function of getting a lot of the work out earlier in this effort (notably the big guys and batches and whatnot), I ended up with a lot of really nice figs at the end. I took a bunch of those to a higher than normal quality and these are those!

First up we have Huntress and a sculpt I really like. There's a lot of very soft detail on her, particularly the symbols on her armor and cloak that I didn't want to mess up. I did pick them out with a brush but probably too subtly. They're sold by the later step washes. I recall pushing the green of her cloak up higher into yellows but that doesn't really show here. It's also a lot less glossy in person than it is in these shots which is a pretty good indication that I need to stop using Contrast Paints. The anime white hair was an early choice mostly because I like it and don't think I'd ever painted it prior. The tan pants were an unfortunate choice. In retrospect I should have picked something higher contrast with her fleshtones.

Next up we have Sister Ailene, Female Cleric and she's in the same blue as a bunch of the Bones 5 figs. My only wish is that she didn't have boobplate because boobplate is dumb. I had two real goals here. First, I wanted the linens to not be boring white and to differentiate it with other white elements, notably the border on her tabard. Second, I didn't want to metallic over the entire shield and I wanted real contrast around the details on it. I got both and I'm happy with the rest of it. Probably the highlights on her cloak could have gone higher and up close the blending is a little sus. I put extra effort into lining her armor and darkening down the lows of her gloves both of which work well. 

 

This is Jana Frostwind, Barbarian and since I grew up in the 80s and 90s, I like this fig way more than I should. I put a lot of time into her fleshtones and I think it shows. If anything, the muscleature on her sword arm is too stark. We get more blue metallics, this time tinted way down and apparently I forgot to tint the golds into more orange. Her boots had really awful mold lines over the lacing which I painted over but you can totally tell that it's there. Her hair and fur "armor" were successive highlights and washes ending with a highlight. She took somewhere around eight hours which is on the high side these days and I'm super happy she didn't have more details.

 

Next up we have Tianalise, Bog Witch and when I look at the fig, all I can see is the Everquest Elf Gal which is why I chose the colors I did. A lot of the details on this fig are shallow and soft so I spent a lot of effort keeping and accentuating the shadows to keep the lows and pushed pretty high into the highlights. Alternating washes and highlights did most of the work on her wrap and staff. The crystal at the end sells better in person than it does in these closeups. Probably her abs needed another round but ultimately, I really like this result.

 

 

Last up we have Athanelle, Elf Wizard and she also had a lot of very shallow detail that I didn't want to lose. Speed Paint did most of the basecoat with successive washes and highlights preserving those details. An awful lot of brush blending did everything else. I put a couple rounds of Badger Ghost Tint on the gold thing at the top of her staff which only looks OK. The thing I'm happiest about with this fig is the richness of the blue and magenta on her cloak. I managed to keep the deep saturation of the Golden So Flat Ultramarine which is usually a struggle. The rest of it is the scheme which worked out way better than I'd expected.

2026 finished mini counter:  199, 6/12 high quality

A thing a week 2026, week 34

These are the last of the biggies for Bones 5 which is a relief and they're mostly speed paints. First up we have Hammerfist Catapult and Deathrattle Ballista and I could find links for the latter. They're both really big and were in a gajillion warped parts. I did what I could while gluing them but ultimately they were going to be what they are. As speed paints, they got not very much attention for their size but I did wash the metallics and put some time into the rope-y parts. Ultimately they sell because of their size and I'm fine with that.

Next up we have a big 'ol scarecrow guy also sans link.  He's also helped by being so big which means that my lack of highlighting efforts aren't as obvious. The gloss on the browns sells as being wet which is unintentional but works at least a little in this context. I wanted to do a glow from his mouth and eyes which doesn't super sell. His scythe is pretty badly warped despite my best efforts to heat treat it out and it rubs against his boot in a paint-removing kind of way which I don't like. The white mouse glove just felt right. 

This crazy looking guy is the Overgourd according to the kickstarter material and he sadly has no link. I don't like this guy as he's a) big, and b) I don't know what I'd use him for. I've said that before and worked them into campaigns in the past so that's no guarantor of future performance. On the other hand, a couple of my pals really like this guy because he's so odd and so striking. I got nothin'. I put not very much effort into this guy though I did paint him in sub-assemblies and glued him together after the fact. Here again, I wanted glowing eyes and mouth but it didn't really work out. I got more glossyness out of the Contrast Paint basecoat which I also really dislike. About the only th
ing that worked was the Reikland Gloss Shade on his big 'ol central eye which makes it look bloodshot. 

Last up we have a Gem Dragon painted mostly with Pro Acryl Transparent Purple as an experiment. All three of the Bones kickstarters I've backed has had several figs in transparent/translucent plastic which is what this guy is. Most of the time I wash over them and note that their surface is hydrophobic despite washing. So, too, was it for this guy but I really wanted to keep the translucent properties. The base is primed by brush and mostly painted in washes after that. I don't like its glossyness but don't super care enough to flat it down. For the dragon itself, I struggled pushing washes around which didn't really want to stick until I figured out the trick. Usually when paint starts drying, it leaves streaks and tears and whatnot and is generally not good to work with. Between "straight from the bottle" and "oh jeez, I can't use this anymore" there's a narrow window where it's still mostly paintable and will stick to bones transparent plastic which I took advantage of. It works sort of but didn't shoot super well here. I did more on the body than in the webbing which doesn't super show but ultimately, this is a step in the right direction. Notably, the paint still doesn't want to stick--even the primer, and a bunch of it tore off when I was gluing him together after the fact.

2026 finished mini counter: 194

 

A thing a week 2026, week 33

Three non-combatat characters this week with some fun stuff on the horizon. Left to right we have Money Lender, Noblewoman, and Madame Delia. All three of these sculpts have a lot of character which I like and none of the three were particularly high effort spends though the results turned out pretty good. Probably moneydude's piping would have been better in yellow but I went the lazy route and left it white. the middle gal's gems are particularly good and indeed, I did pick out every one of the little button-y things on her shawl. Delia's gems are much less good because there are so freaking many  of them and they're mostly very, very small. Her hair got a lot of attention and it shows and I did extra work to keep the texturing on her fan. No clue why the magenta went so glossy on these; it's Pro Acryl which is pretty reliably not glossy.

2026 finished mini counter: 189
 

A thing a week 2026, week 32

We're heading down the home stretch for Bones 5 and most of the hard stuff is in the rearview, so that's nice. This week we have Caerindra Thistlemoor, Borin Ironbrow, Dwarf Fighter, Brother Lazarus Plague Doctor, and Sister Hazel, Plague Doctor and for the first time in what seems like forever, I have links for all of them. 

Caerindra probably came out the best and I probably could have counted her as a high quality result this year but I didn't. Probably her shield could have used some freehand and she's notably in the same color scheme as Baran Blacktree from week 19. Borin was a speed paint in the same colors because they were available. Probably the horns on his helm could have been more differentiated and probably his beard could have had more highlights but he works OK. The two plague doctors are a re-do of Brother Hammond's color scheme, also from week 19. I'd planned them with a bunch of browns and linens and really wanted to differentiate them without relying on the same set of paints. I also knew that there would be a lot of black bits and I didn't want to lose the detail on those parts. The black bits are heavily washed which I think sold and the linens are also heavily washed and layered which I think also sells. The cloaks are ok but not spectacular and I have no idea how they got to be so glossy. 

2026 finished mini counter: 186
 

A thing a week 2026, week 31

This week we tackle a couple of the larger figs at the end of the Bones 5 pile. I don't super like painting big stuff as I've said here before so every time I get to one of these, there's a little apprehension. First up we have Garghuk, Ogre Chieftain, Tirika, Succubus, and Gragg Elf Slayer sans link. I'm not entirely sure why I decided on the red for Garghuk but there are red Orks in my fantasy worlds and I knew that the glossy lowtones wouldn't be such a big deal so that part worked. Tirika, I think is supposed to be red so there's no mystery there, though through the highlighting process I lost a lot of her low tones. This blown-out shot isn't really helping in that, either. For Gragg, the glossy red lowtones are still showing through despite several coats of red wash which looks bad but clearly I can't be bothered to fix it. Notably, I know this guy's name because it was in the kickstarter but apparently this resculpt is not available.

Next up we have one of the biggies. He's listed as "three headed troll" with line art on the kickstarter and again Reaper fails me with a link. Maybe you can't buy this guy; I have no idea. I don't use this kind of fig in my campaigns and killing a guy with a teddy bear no matter how fearsome he might be, seems wrong. The paint job sells better than the effort I put into it, mostly because the fig is so large. I got the distinct feeling that he was upscaled in this version partially because his details were all so soft. Ultimately, he sells but won't ever get screen time.

2026 finished mini counter: 182