Ben's Miniature Gallery

Wolves added Sep 23, 2005
I was lacking any long minis to use for 5'x10' critters (except for riderless horses, which look pretty lame), so I picked up these Reaper wolves. Nothing terribly special about the paint jobs, though one of them is based on a friend's dog.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Sister Marie, Battle Nun added Sep 23, 2005
How could I resist a Battle Nun? She doesn't get used much, but she's always a good conversation piece.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Tristan Loremistress added Sep 23, 2005
As a costumer, I have always liked the fact that Sandra Garrity's ladies usually wear real clothes. I think this was one of the first Reaper minis I bought.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Sir Justin, the Green Knight added Sep 23, 2005
I got this figure on a whim, but I never got in the mood to paint him until I needed to test out some heraldry to see if I liked it.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Oskar Dunmesser added Sep 23, 2005
This is one of the best examples of my recurring flame motif.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Sarah The Seeress added Sep 23, 2005
This one was actually painted by a friend of mine as a learning experience. When she was done learning, I went back and did some touching up. In the end she ended up looking pretty good. I may strip her down and repaint her again someday.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Orc Warlord added Sep 23, 2005
This Reaper mini was the first part of my orc repopulation project. Not much else to say about him.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Mihari the Seductress added Sep 23, 2005
I had picked this Reaper mini up to use for a tropical island campaign that never took off. I didn't get around to painting it far a while. I finally pulled it out to use for a chaotic sea priestess character who used a war fan. That character never got played though. She may be pretty, but I think she might be cursed.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Kobolds added Sep 23, 2005
I don't remember why I got these Reaper kobolds, except that I didn't have any good small humanoids. They ended up looking a lot more menacing than I'm used to kobolds being. They are also very resilient -- one of them survived being sucked up by the vacuum before he was painted. Aside from a pronounced lean to one side, he suffered no ill effects.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Highlanders added Sep 23, 2005
These Reaper Highlanders get quite a bit of use. They were the height of my plaid phase.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Garish MacRae, Highlander Shaman added Sep 23, 2005
One of my excursions into plaid.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Garish MacRae, Highlander Shaman (in progress) added Sep 23, 2005
This Reaper mini was the closest thing I could find to a farmer.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Female Elf Fighter-Mage added Sep 23, 2005
Maybe she's a cleric. Who knows? At any rate, despite her charms she never gets any use.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Faramere Of Vestonia added Sep 23, 2005
Nothing exciting about this one. He's a good solid ranger and gets occasional use.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Eldarion added Sep 23, 2005
A friend of mine painted this mini as a learning experience, but since I was planning to use it for a character of my own I stripped it down and repainted it. Unlike most of my minis, this one has seen a lot of use.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Erik Redbeard added Sep 23, 2005
I picked up this mini primarily because I didn't have enough cash on hand to get the mini I needed for Auresh and needed to make the $5 minimum to use my credit card. He does, however, fill a Viking-shaped gap in my collection.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Dreya Suuni added Sep 23, 2005
This mini will be used to portray my wife's Irda cleric in the Dragonlance campaign. I started painting her a few days ago, but I had no purple to do her cloak. I've had awful luck trying to mix purple from the paint I have, as it always turned out sort of grey and muddy. I've tried many different brands of paint, and I was less than enthused with the prospect of shelling out the cash for yet more expensive paints that would dry up during one of my painting lulls. I decided to try using the Americana acrylic craft paint that I could find at the local craft store. It was only 99 cents a bottle, so I went ahead and got a selection of basic colors. I must say that I'm quite impressed with these paints. they come in flip-top squeeze bottles, so I can squeeze out a little blob at a time without having to worry about having an open bottle dry out (even if it did, though, the stuff's so cheap I could just go get more!). The colors are vibrant, they mix and thin beautifully, and the base consistency is just right. I haven't tried any of the metallics yet, but the Ral Partha metallics I've had forever are still in good shape.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Diva The Blessed added Sep 23, 2005
This was an example of painting complex patterns to make a mini last longer.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Dancing Girl 1 added Sep 23, 2005
I got this mini for the ill-fated tropical island campaign, but didn't get around to painting it until I ran out of other unpainted minis. I decided to experiment with some more obnoxious patterns.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Cecelia The Trickster added Sep 23, 2005
I was really happy with the shading on this mini. A blue wash on white gives a very clean look.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Cave Troll Champion added Sep 23, 2005
I painted this Reaper mini for a friend of mine, but it lives in my collection. This was a really fun piece to paint, especially the knick-knacks hanging from the belt.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Callus Darklore added Sep 23, 2005
This was one of the times when I made a character to match a mini instead of the other way around. Azuna Sanshorn was a failed cleric turned necromancer/undead hunter. He was a pretty successful character despite dying fairly often. Even though I don't play him anymore, this is still among my favorite minis.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Female Bounty Hunter added Sep 23, 2005
This is a Reaper mini by Werner Klocke. After getting mostly done with it I wasn't really enthused about the blue armor, but I decided to go with it anyway.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Balto Burrowell, Gnome Illusionist added Sep 23, 2005
For some reason all gnomes seem to like pointing.
category: /reaper | permanent link

Auresh of the Red Robes [Aramil, Evlen Mage] added Sep 23, 2005
With a new campaign comes new characters, and therefore some new minis. The current game is using the Dragonlance setting, and I'm playing a freshly-Tested half-elven Red Robe wizard. I didn't have any minis on hand that really fit the character, and I used that as a flimsy excuse to spend money on a new one. I did a minor conversion to start out with, which was to hammer the end of the staf flat and cut and file it to portray the Staff of Magius. You can see the original staff by following the link in the title. Fortunately, it was a big, chunky gnarled staff, so I had plenty of material to work with. I may go back and add a tiny bit of putty to do some carvings on the staff head, but that can wait until later. I had originally intended to just get all my new minis glued to their bottle caps and primed last night, but I ended up staying up and finishing this one completely. I knew he was going to be wearing red, but I wanted to make sure there was still some color variation. I decided on a red/bronze color scheme for the robe, since I thought gold would be a little too flashy. I followed the same scheme for the "apron", with the tunic beneath yellow. I did a black wash on the robe and then built the colors back up with the base red mixed with yellow. I took my time and was rewarded with what I think is a very nice blend. I did a red wash on the yellow tunic, and highlighted again with yellow. I also tried to bring out the folds at the hem of the tunic and apron with more highlights. The bronze lining of the robe was highlighted with a little bit of gold just to give it some shine. It actually looks much richer than the "wings" on the shoulders that were painted pure gold. I was quite impressed with the sculpting of the head and hands, even more so than with Sandra Garrity's usual fine work. There were even sculpted fingernails, though they were easier to see on the hand holding the staff. I did a fairly simple paint job on the flesh tones, and painted the hair yellow with only a light brown/black wash on the braids and white highlights. I had done a black wash in the eye sockets, and only tiny dots of white remained at the center of the eyes. I was going to paint the eyes white and then add irises, but instead I decided to just paint the light dots the appropriate eye colors. The end effect is more like glowing dots of light in each eye socket, one red and one green. The red/green eyes were the "mark" left on him by the Test of High Sorcery, so I decided to leave the creepy eye efffect as it was to make them a little more distinctive.
category: /reaper | permanent link