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 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