Kalanzar the Wicked part 2

I finished painting Kalanzar a long while ago now, and forgot to circle back around to show off how I did it and how it looks all finished off.  You did get to see it in the Year in Minis post from back in 2023, but here's a detailed look at the process. 

 

I wanted to keep the palette somewhat limited, both for consistency across the mini, but also for my own sanity, so this was the selection of paint I picked.   

I started with the wings... 

 It looks really bright here... and it is, but this is just the start. 

Then it was off to blocking in the colors on the body. You'll notice the head is missing. I neglected to take work in progress pics of the head, but it was painted separately from the body. 

 There were a few small gaps, but it was big enough to bug me, so I filled them, and sculpted some kinda matching scales to blend it all in. 

More work on the body, deepening the shadows, trying to hit all the highlights. So many scales... 

I regularly plugged the wings into the body to make sure everything was still looking good. I didn't paint with the wings attached both because they got in the way, but also because it was really difficult to try to keep hold of the dragon without them. 

More highlighting...

 

The foam on the base was obviously the wrong texture, so I coated it with mod podge and sand. 

Then I got to painting the lava. Oh, and there's the head. 

And checking how Kalanzar fits on the base... 

 Turns out it needed some extra support. I added some more foam bricks and chunks and then gave them the same mod podge and sand covering.   

 And here it is, all finished up! 

Rappan: The Death of Immarassrath

Session 287 was played on 07/03/25

Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 8 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (Cindy)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)

The party pauses, and Koltic returns to the surface to raise a few zombies to act as distractions/meat shields while the party again paused to bind wounds and catch their breath, and make sure Aroon’s body was safely stashed to the side.

Up on the surface Koltic encountered a little problem with some of the bodies he was trying to animate being hijacked by some overly mobile vines. Koltic has to use his brawn as the vines don’t turn as undead. This takes a bit, but he eventually gets there, and finally can raise the bodies as zombies for his own use. They begin to slowly make their way back to the stairs.

Meanwhile the party hears a lot of jingling and the movement of a LOT of metal, and then the dragon’s voice “Oh, I found it”

Sure, that could have been a trick, but the party pressed on, and hoped Koltic would be able to deal with the aftermath. Down a long tunnel the party came upon another broken vial, and then beyond a large throneroom. Blotto and Borumar were in the lead, and took a fireball to the face, followed by another a few seconds later. Borumar dropped, and Blotto wasn’t far behind. The remaining meatsticks charge in. Nick again throwing his spear, Jameth shooting his crossbow, while Morgana drops an ice storm on the dragon.

Koltic and his zombies continue down the stairs.

Immarassrath smiles and says “my turn.” and throws yet another fireball from its necklace on the party dropping Lor’Koth and Jameth. Nick, and Blotto charge in, both cutting into the dragon’s thick hide. The dragon lashes out with his claws and fangs, while Morgana drops another ice storm on the dragon.

Koltic and the zombies near the bottom of the stairs, and begin to hear the rumbling of fireballs and the roar of a pissed off dragon.

The dragon tosses the bodies of Nick and Blotto to the side, and throws another fireball bead at Morgana. She takes it full on, but still stands, and blasts it in return with yet another ice storm from her staff. The dragon’s rime covered body falters and fails under the onslaught.

Morgana checks the bodies of her fallen companions and quickly realizes that they are beyond her help. Thankfully Koltic, zombies in tow, finally arrives. They collect Aroon’s corpse from further back and prepare the bodies for resurrection and recuperation. Over the next week, everyone is returned to life, and Morgana and the zombies sort through the treasure. Eventually Morgana is able to teleport the party back to the manor to complete their recovery.

Gains: A literal dragon’s horde.
Kills: Immarassrath
Losses:

Kalanzar the Wicked part 1

 It's time to paint another dragon! This time I'm going with another of the Bones 5 dragons, my favorite, the red!

Just look at that beautiful sculpt!

 

Out of the bad though, I wasn't as thrilled with it. Sure, it's unpainted, unassembled plastic, but that base... It just doesn't give me the proper feeling that this big dragon deserves. First off, 3" is just a little tight, so digging through my bigass pile of bases, I grabbed a 4" round and... realized it isn't just about the diameter, it's about the height. 

It's a little hard to tell, but the feet aren't really in their slots. There's a little warping, and unless I want to do a lot of work to get it all to fit together, and I don't, I need to scrap the the included base. 

That's better...

 And it better matches the base height of Aganzaraxthe Foul too. 

More to come!

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.

Nathavarr The White at #ReaperCon

Last week I finished Nathavarr the White, and entered her into ReaperCon's painting contest, where she earned a bronze medal.

In celebration, I got her professionally photographed at the con!

I also learned a lot about what I need to do to get better. Having the judges there after the awards ceremony to chat with was an amazingly beneficial thing, and I am so thankful that Reaper has the con set up that way. And honestly, the artists/judges were amazingly giving with their time and advice the entire con, not just after the contest.

Painting Nathavarr The White (part 2)

I got a bunch of work done on the head. The plan for the head matches the rest of the body... but the eye, I wanted something special. I did a search for amazing eyes or something like that...

This picture ended up being my inspiration.

I used Grass Green as the base color, with Sun Yellow, Peacock Green to do the speckling.

Very pleased with the progress. Now I need to actually get to work on the body... and the wings...