Agranzarax from #ReaperMini Bones V

 Friday the 16th my Bones V shipment arrived. Friday the 23rd I took the day off and painted my first mini from the set - Agranzarax the black dragon!

dry fitted Agranzarax next to a glass of whiskey, and a Bones Kassandra mini for scale

As an additional challenge to myself (as if painting a dragon, a BIG dragon in a day wasn't challenge enough...) I stuck almost exclusively to the new paints that came with Bones V. Honestly though, this wasn't a hardship, as the colors that came in it were perfect for painting a black dragon: Black Indigo, Carnival Purple, Wild Violet, and the 3 Oxides (Brown, Red, and Yellow). The only paint I ended up adding to that was Cairn Stone (an off white) and a home made black wash. 

After giving it a good soak in hot soapy water and letting it dry, I dry fitted the parts. I decided to keep the wings and the horns on the head off the figure while I was working on it. They were just too in the way. I also realized that being classic bones material, it was a little rubbery and needed some encouragement to all fit together. 

Specifically:

• I trimmed down the peg on the neck for the head
• I made sure the body was glued into the tail that curls around the tower before worrying about gluing the legs down.
• I glued the back legs, then the front leg to the tower.

Agranzarax with black paint. Conan the Barbarian on the screen behind him

 One it was all glued together (and after I had to go out and buy some fresh glue)I started applying paint. Black Indigo was the base color for the body, and Wild Violet for the wings and the chest scales.

Agranzarax with base colors blocked in, wings and horns seperate

I highlighted the scales by adding some Cairn Stone to the Black Indigo. Some were individually highlighted, others were dry brushed, depending on the amount of detail available. 

Agranzarax with wings fitted in

Agranzarax's wings

To shade and highlight the wings, I used Carnival Purple for the shadows, and a mix of Black Indigo and Carnival Purple for the really deep shadows. To highlight, I added a bit of Cairn Stone to the Wild Violet. Both were applied somewhat carefully in thin washes. 

Highlighting the scales... so many scales...

Then it was time to work on the base. Using the oxides with the black indigo I managed a nice dark grey. I also used Brown Oxide on the claws, horns, and wingtips. I then used thinned mixes of Brown Oxide and Cairn stone to bring them up toward a more bone color. I used the Leaf Bud Green (another new Bones V color) for the eyes, nose, and mouth.

The base still needs a little work, but for 1 day's worth of work, I'm really pleased with how it came out.

Bones V

 On Friday the 16th, my 25 pounds of new bones minis arrived.

 

 

It's as much as a corgi, and more than my baby! I got almost all the expansions, and a bunch of additional sets.

 

 

At this point, I still haven't finished with my inventory. I've been taking it kinda slow, enjoying the process. Mildly annoying is that the Core set and the Daimo set are both in sealed plastic bags, and every individual mini is in another sealed plastic bag. All the other sets are all in small to large ziplock bags. During inventory, if the mini didn't have any extra bits, I took them out of their individual bags, and combined them. It saved a lot of space, but now I need to take the extra bags and go back to the Core set (which I sorted first) and repackage them.

 

Fan Favorites - Random assorted minis. Found the wildfolk to be a bit smaller than I expected. 

Chronoscope - Great assortment of sci-fi and horror minis. I know it wasn't super popular. Maybe next time they'll split it up into a couple of themed Encounter type sets rather than as one larger set?

Brinewind - Pirates, undead pirates, and more pirates. I think one of the shrines was scaled up a bit over the other.

Dungeon Dwellers - If you needed a core set of minis to get started collecting for D&D, this is THE set to get. I love the old school styling of them. 

I also got a bunch of other add-ons, but haven't inventoried them all yet.

Then there's Agranzarax who was the first of the big 5 dragons I saw from the set back at ReaperCon, and, well... I couldn't wait. 

 
But that's a post for tomorrow.

New Spell: Summon Slugs

The frogmen had them surrounded. Sheltering on a dry spot in the swamp that once held a cottage, they had nowhere to run to.

Rathgar grunted as the arrow glanced off his helmet. "Can you pull something out of your hat?" 

"I'm out of spells!" Feris yelled. 

"What about that scroll you found?" Nimble asked from behind a bit of crumbling wall.

"I don't have it in my spell book!"

"You won't get the chance to copy it if you're dead"

Feris groaned as more arrows clattered ineffectively around them. Pulling the stained vellum from the case, Feris read the arcane runes. The scroll dissolved into slime in his hands. The frogmen started croaking very excitedly, and lots of splashing could be heard. 

Rathgar dared to look over the edge of the wall. An impossibly large slug, bigger than the island they were on was currently munching on a frogman. An eye stalk swiveled around to look at the movement. "You have that thing under control, right?"

"Nope! Better run!" he replied, leaping up and running directly away from the monster.

Magic User Spell, Level 1

Summon Slug
Range: varies
Duration: 1 turn every 3 levels
Effect: Summons Slugs

When this spell is cast, the magic user must roll a d20, add their level to the result, and consult the following chart. 

1 (plus level) normal slugs fill the casters mouth for the next 1d4 rounds making any spell casting impossible
2-10 - 1d6 normal slugs appear on the caster
11-15 several hundred slugs appear within 30' of the caster taking up 10 square feet, making the area slippery (like grease spell)
16-20 - Summon 1 giant slug (9HD) within 30' (they are not under your control and are already pissed off)
21-25 - Summon 1 giant slug (12HD or a random slug from Slügs!) Within 45' (they are not under your control and are already pissed off)
26-30 - Summon 1 giant slug (15HD or a random slug from Slügs!) within 60' (they are not under your control and are already pissed off)
31+ - Summon either 1 giant slug (20HD or a random slug from Slügs!) within 90' (they are not under your control and are already pissed off)

#ReaperMini Reeve Irremborg Planomap of Dreadmere

I actually started the Reeve a while back, but didn't get very far with him, but last month I pushed through. I knew I wanted him to look kinda garish...

 

 Here you can see I've got some base colors on him, but you can't see it very well...

Unfortunately I don't remember exactly what I did, but the jacket is a mix of Imperial and Royal purples, with yellow-ish trim and lining. the buttons and other accessories on the coat are the NMM Gold Triad. The shirt is Linen White, the greens are Viper and Peacock. The Red of the shawl is Asmodeus.   Various leather colors were used for the browns

The base is made with a Happy Seppuku base stamp, and painted with the Redstone triad.

#ReaperMini Dark Watcher aka Cacodemon

In DOOM, there's a floating eyeball monster that absolutely has to be inspired by D&D's Beholder. They call it the Cacodemon. It looks like this.

  

Now, Raper Minis makes the Dark Watcher, which looks like this.

 

 Having this mini in my collection I knew what I had to do, even though I can count the number of times I played DOOM on one h

and. 

 

 As usual, I gave the mini a good wash in warm soapy water, and then got to painting. Red liner first, and then I realized I forgot the tongue. That got blue liner after I glued it in. Then I went to work with the paints. I gave it a base of Asmodeus Red then mixed in the Bone for the pink shade. The eye is viper green with some green liner, and sample orange for shadow and highlight.

 

I used Andorian Blue for the mouth, mixed with pure white for the highlights. The Red body was highlighted with Seoni Scarlet. The bone horns were given a glaze with sepia wash. The rock formation was done with a muddy mix of brown and grey. 

And here it is all done!

 

I think there won't be any confusion as to what inspired this paint job!

June in Review

The Pandemic continues… and the Delta Variant is way less exciting than the Loki Variant. If anyone is curious, I still wear my mask anytime I’m indoors and not in my own home. I recommend that you follow the WHO guidelines on that, even if you're vaccinated.

The heat has also arrived, and that’s not fun, but it is summer, so I can’t complain too much.  

Gaming
Nick the Pike continues his explorations of Rappan Athuk (or the area around it).I’m currently caught up on session reports for that.

I’ve also run some more Stonehell. I need to write up a bit on how we’re sharing our worlds, and also fine tune a few details. I did a thing that wasn’t in response to something that’s going on on his side of the campaign, but kinda feels like it is, and I want to make sure we’re on the same page. Co-DMing is a little different. You have to give up some control, which isn’t the easiest thing for a DM to do.  

I still haven’t gotten to play any Stargrave yet… and barely touched the minis. I made some space gnolls, and started to paint them up. Trying to refrain from just assembling a bunch of stuff and leaving it unpainted. I’ve also been working on a bunch of other sci-fi minis, but more on that below. One thing that I’ll be doing this week is printing off the solo rules and finding some time to squeeze in a game.  

Miniatures
Another rather productive month. I painted up a couple of bigger things, including Reaper’s Mystic Circle, a large ape, carnosaur, and a “watcher in the dark” that looks remarkably like the Cacodemon from Doom. But more on those in a couple of upcoming posts.

Next month I’ve got a fun assortment of sci-fi minis to work on, and I’m gonna finish those gnolls I started.

Media
Star Trek DS9 season 5.
Luca
Various netflix comedy specials
Star Trek Lower Decks, halfway through season 1, again.
Loki


Goals - keeping it simple again this month.
Play at least 1 game of Stargrave
Paint some minis
Play some D&D

Rappan Athuk: Owning Castle Calaelen

 Session played on 6/13

Nick the Pike, Fighter 6 (Me)
Lada the Thief (Robby)
Gimbal, Magic User 1 (Scott)
Darryl, Cleric (NPC)
Biffin, Fighter (NPC)
Cassandra, Sellsword
6 Kobolds

After the party makes a circuit of the 2nd floor, checking all the doors, they’re back around to the door with the blood runes scribbled on them. There’s some chanting coming from within, and the smell of rancid smoke…

Kicking the door open, they see a once beautiful temple of healing desecrated with blood and filth. On the altar is the body of a human, and standing near the door are a pair of skeletons. Behind the altar, with the foul book they were told of… is a short fat goblin in an ill fitting black robe.  

She pauses her chanting, and Nick exclaims with disbelief “it’s just a goblin?” Her eyes harden, and she finishes her spell, the body jerking and begins to rise. Darryl destroys the skeletons, and Nick charges in lancing the necromancer goblin with his spear. Biffin follows in landing a killing blow with his sword. Darryl destroyed the zombie before it could cause any mischief. The room was searched, the crude idol to Orcus destroyed, and the book safely packed away.

Further exploration revealed some goblin sleeping areas, the necromancer’s chamber (full of skulls), and some treasure.

With only the basement (dungeon?) left to explore, they headed down, finding a guard room before a series of cells. Only one was occupied by a trader named Mortimer who was the last surviving member of a caravan.

Back to the first level and the locked chamber, Nick and Biffin use a crowbar to snap the chain, and push their way in. The magical shock hurt, but was brief. Within was a study, the contents of which included a signet ring and the deed to the castle (Nick grabbed those) and a set of magic scrolls (Gimble grabbed them).

Heading back to the courtyard, the door to the smithy was open, and within the goblins were slaughtered. Probably the gnoll leader… They douse the fire, and head out.

Camping along the riverbank, waiting for the barge to bring them back to Zelkor’s, Nick is awoken in the middle of the night, wrapped in magical darkness, and a voice asking what his intentions are with the castle.

“To restore it to some semblance of civilization.”

The creature, from the tower, wanted a promise that it’s tower would be left alone, and the inhabitants would be unmolested.

Nick agreed, but asked to know who, and what he was making the agreement with. The magical darkness fell, and in the dying light of the campfire he viewed a 6’ tall humanoid raven. It identified itself as “Afrit”

Nick informed Afrit that he’d be away from the castle for a bit, but if something happened to let him know. They worked out a plan to have the kobolds check the ruined cottage for the signet ring regularly, and if the ring was found, they’d get Nick and he’d come running. Afrit took the ring, and flew off into the night.

Back in ‘town’ the necromancer offered 200gp for the book. Nick passed on the offer.

They also heard some rumors of another set of ruins to the north across the river. A keep with a dwarven tomb… but a warning about the frogs…

Gains: gold and silver, necromantic tome, magic (arcane and divine) scrolls, deed to castle calaelen
Kills: skeletons, zombie, goblin necromancer.
Losses: