ReaperCon Wrap-up

My second ReaperCon has come to an end. The bags are unpacked. The pictures uploaded. The swag put away.

While it's only my second ReaperCon, that feeling of coming to a family reunion full of people you actually like and have things in common with only felt stronger than it did last year. Even more so, since I've been spending a lot of time hanging out and painting with a bunch of them on Google Hangouts.


Wednesday was flying in, and attending the meet and greet at the convention center, followed by staying up way too late at the firepit!









Thursday and Friday I ended up spending most of the time painting, desperately trying to finish my entry. I did, though only with a half an hour till the entry deadline...

Buglips getting his first taste of Taco Bell!

Saturday I took Fluid Filled Objects as my class for the day. It was a great class, and I'll be practicing the technique going forward. It's interesting how I don't think I learned something new exactly, just learned a new way to look at painting and a way to tweak techniques I already know. Or at least know in theory... Definitely need practice though.



I also played some Lord of the Rings SBG. The guy running it had set up a Laketown scenario with the 13 dwarves defending the townsfolk from an attacking Kraken. The things you come up with when you have a cool mini and no other use for it... I also spent a fair amount of time enjoying the small arcade that had been set up. The Ghostbusters pinball machine was particularly challenging and a lot of fun.






Saturday night the results of the painting contest were announced. Rather than judge the dragonborn sorceress, they went with the King in Yellow that I'd only just finished painting. I got Bronze again, but from what the judges said I'm getting closer to a silver. Kuro Cleanbrush said that if I can get the rest of the mini up to the level of the robe, I'll be good! Goals for next year.. I'll admit, I was a little bummed, but super happy for my friends who did amazing work.

Sunday I took Red & Yellow Leather and Monster Skin tones. Because Sunday is a shorter day, the afternoon classes start earlier than they do the other days, so I showed up late to the leather class, much to my shame. There were only 2 other students, so the teacher was able to give me the condensed version without taking away from the others. I haven't painted with sponges or stippling on a mini ever, so I got to practice 2 new techniques, which both gave good results for distressed leather. Monster skin tones was interesting, and was the class I took the most notes in. It's also the one that I'm going to have to digest the most. Of the 3 classes, this was the most advanced. The other 2 were very much "here's how to achieve this one effect" while Monster Skin was much more theory based with examples showing a whole lot of different things.

One class I didn't attend this year was the Bones Conversion class. However Reaper Bryan (who taught at least one session of it this year) dropped this former paladin, now sith lady at my table, and I managed to get a bit of paint on it before we wrapped up.

After the classes wrapped they held the auction. Unlike other auctions, you could only use funny money at this one, specifically Reaper Bucks which are earned by attending various events throughout the Con. I managed to snag some modular mini display/transport cases, and I got to snag 1/4 of a set of faction pint glasses that a friend won. Sadly my faction, The Bonehenge Covenant lost this year, and won't be returning next year, which means this was the last time I'd be able to get a glass with their symbol.

After the auction it was back to the hotel, and then to the steak place for one last group meal. We thought ahead this time and made a reservation for 30 instead of just showing up en masse and waiting for an entire section to clear out. We should have made the reservation for 40...

And then it was time to go home. I managed to hitch a ride to the airport once again with Matbar as she was heading home, giving me a few extra minutes of ReaperFamily time until next year.