Had some fun with reaper figures recently. I’ve been printing and painting MMF models a lot, but I’ve got a huge backlog of Reaper. I’ve ended up using them as test beds and practice pieces, and I have to say it’s been working out great. I don’t care too much if I screw up on them while learning, and I more often than not get something interesting out of them that I’m happy to put on my table.
These knights were inspired by various bugs. This first one was a combination of the blue morpho butterfly and a rosy maple moth. Tried some NMM that didn’t work out great but the colours were fantastic.
Next up, a cuckoo wasp. I’ve been having a lot of success with sponging and stippling armour for a sort of pointillism highlight. More gradual colour shifts and finer points makes them pretty smooth for tabletop play. This time I was trying to get that mottled look so I went with big jumps and big spots. His armour doesn’t read right as armour any more, but it definitely matches the source material.
Last of the completed knights so far, I’ve lost my reference image but I based this fella off a spider. Mostly I’m pleased with the sort of panel lining I managed on his armour with a brown wash. The colour works out pretty nicely, too, distinct and thematic. I might use more browns around copper NMM in the future.
Then I painted up a couple of alchemtists with plague doctor masks, and tried out some more of my new NMM steel technique. Not too bad. Certainly way better than when I started. Colours were picked from manuscript reference images from the 16th-ish century iirc.
