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

 

A thing a week 2026, week 30

This week we have some tinted metallics and some other fun stuff. First up we have three pseudo-anonymous folks none of which have links (left to right) Elf Shield Gal, Platemail Vampire Guy, and Creepy Potion Gal. I have no idea why Reaper makes it so hard to find these despite the fact that they have a figure finder. Occasionally the Bones kickstarters will give a hint but not this time! The two plate-havers (clearly) have some tinting going on. This is a mix of Vallejo Metal Color and various glossy Golden High Flow Acrylics. That got the base pinky tone which, TBH, I'm not really happy with. I almost sold it with a coat of Badger Ghost Tint but ultimately I don't think it landed. The potion gal is a study in contrast and focus. While there's quite a lot going on with this fig, The yellow eye-catching bits are arranged low on the fig and there's a single contrast green thing high near her face. Was that enough to keep the focus on her face or would it resolve into a mess? I have my own thoughts, but you should feel free to judge it for yourself.

Next up we have Adrasteia Winterborn, Vampiress, Witchy Necromancer Gal sans link, and Halloween Knight who features more tinted metallics. This one worked a little better and is a refinement from previous blue tinted metallics that I've used here before. Not sure if it's the better pigmentation of the dark blue but I feel like this scheme looks a heck of a lot better. This guy's contrast is a little more on the nose and a little more of the traditional scheme which is 100% intentional and helped by the fact that his head is the sole pure contrast part. Our vampiress is mostly an exercise in shading/highlighting red which worked better here than most of my other attempts and again despite my best efforts, the Contrast Paint lowtones still come through as glossy. The witchy gal is another take on triad secondaries which kind of works. I wanted to do a proper crystal for her orb but clearly couldn't have been bothered. I was in a lot of pain when I painted these so I guess that's excusable.

2026 finished mini counter: 178

 

A thing a week 2026, week 23

And now for something completely different. Bones 5 came with a bunch of spell effects that make sense if you're playing D&D. I'm not, so some of these guys will have far less utility than otherwise. As such, I didn't do much to paint them and it shows. These guys are (I think) Bigby's Interposing Hand, Bigby's Grasping Hand, and Bigby's Fist and like a lot of Bones 5 figs, I can't find links. 

The pinky-magenta ones are washed and hit with a coat of Badger Ghost Tint Magenta and as usual with the Reaper Bones transparent figures and basically any paint: I had a really hard time getting the paint to stick. As far as I can tell, the material itself is hydrophobic and no amount of washing seems to help. These guys are (I think) Wall of Stone, Wall of Thorns, Tenser's Floating Disk, Spiritual Weapon, and Planar Servant. 

Not shown here are the three hand-sized spell effects that I forgot to shoot that I'll use somehow, somewhere. Ultimately these guys look OK in these shots and the majority of them won't get a lot of screen time which is pretty much par for the course.

2026 finished mini counter: 141  

A thing a week 2025, week 49

This week we have the Waspnettle Lizardmen from Bones 6 and a plain 'ol white Bones plastic lizardman warrior because he fit the theme. The warrior is the guy on the far left with the bendy spear. In fact we've seen this guy and two of his pals way back in Week 8 of 2021 because a) the warrior was a freebie that came with a different purchase and b) the other two dudes are good sculpts that Reaper decided to add to the set. In fact, I think the bow guy is also a reprint but not one that I remember buying or painting.

I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted out of these guys from the get go and did some extra work with the airbrush to kick them off and because they had such good texture I hit them with a light drybrush and a wash. The orange armor and orange-y leather bits were built up over many layers.

These three guys I think are new sculpts and I'm pretty sure they're either 3d printed or molded from 3d prints since they have support bits that are pretty indicative of resin prints. I tried to capture the drama of their shields and as is typical, they look better in person than they do in these shots. My only real gripe with these three is that the big guy is maybe too big. His head looks very small in proportion and his armor details look a little soft compared to the other guys. Those are minor gripes, though, and the cyan/orange contrast sells well at the table. These guys were fun and I think they came out well.

2025 finished mini counter: 197

A thing a week 2024, week 24

Two items this week on opposite ends of the quality spectrum. First up we have a treasure pile from Bones 5. It was one of the first figs I prepped from Bones 5 which arrived like three years ago. It's been kicking around my painting table since then. It's not a super complex object but I didn't do as much work with it as I might have. It's mostly phoned in as is evidenced by the poor handling of the chest, gemstones, and non-gold items. The gold is played by Vallejo Metal Color Gold followed by a wash of Badger Ghost Tint Golden Yellow which I'm not entirely happy with.

This is Artisan Guild's exquisitely named Orc Barbarian -D Lady Modular. I have a mess of Ork dudes and almost no Ork gals so I purchased this sculpt to fill that gap though, notably, I did also purchase one of her male counterparts one of whom was featured way back in week 10. I noted then that the fig would hold a higher quality paint job and, well, this would be that. I spent a lot of time on this fig, something like 12 hours, and I think it shows. I could have refined the highlights on her musculature and hair more and done more with the wood on her shield but ultimately I think this is a good result and I'm happy to counter has one of this year's high quality works. 

2024 finished mini counter: 130/204, high quality 12/12

A thing a week 2023, week 29

This week we have a single offering but a large one. This guy is a Wolf Dragon from Reaper and he came in Bones 5 but I can't find a link. Possibly he's not available just yet which sucks because he is very cool. I needed him for a session so he got paint.

Just like last week's griffon, he's a high drama, low effort paint job consisting mostly of zenithal, wash, drybrush, wash, drybrush again, details. I do like this fig and probably should have spent more time on him but a) I don't expect him to get much (if any) screen time (spoiler: the character got screen time but not the fig) and b) I don't know when I'd be able to use the fig again. So he's basic but cool and like many of my favorite paint jobs, didn't take too long. He'll count as the first of the large minis for this year.

2023 finished mini counter: 142/104, large 1/2