Make-it Monday: First Bones Painted!

Finished candelabra. For those wondering about scale, the hash-marks on the ground are 1 inch apart.

It finally cooled off enough around Seattle this weekend that I felt like I could take a stab at my first Bones mini without wasting a bunch of paint due to rapid drying in the heat. I decided to finish up the candelabra that I had begun as my test paint for the Bones line. This paint project marked a couple firsts for me. It was the first time I had ever painted a mini over a white base. I had primed all of my previous minis in black. It was also the first time I ever attempted a mini paint scheme that required lighting effects (i.e. painting flames to look like flames.)

Reminder of where we left off last week

I feel like the end result turned out pretty well, and I learned a couple of things about painting Bones that make them different from other minis. First, they don't need to be primed. This is awesome for someone like me, who lives in a rainy area and does not have a suitable space for using spray cans indoors. With Bones, I no longer need to wait for a sunny day when I can prime a bunch of figures in my driveway. However, because they don't need primer, the techniques used for laying down a base coat on Bones are a little different. I confirmed a lot of what I had read about these minis being a little water repellent. It's necessary to lay down an undiluted base coat to avoid poor coverage effects. This is normally not a huge change for me, but it makes painting flames a bit more challenging.

See, the technique I stumbled on for painting flames involves many layers of very thinned paint. In order to make this work on the Bones, it was necessary to first lay down a base coat of undiluted white paint on the candle flames. Painting white on white felt a bit ridiculous, and I had to just trust that I had covered everything before moving on, but having that base coat down let me proceed with the layers of thinned yellows and oranges according to plan.

I also engaged in some non-gaming crafts this weekend. The Fiancee and I sat down with a button maker and churned out almost 500 custom buttons, which will be one of the wedding favors at our reception in less than two weeks!

Just the first batch of buttons we put together this weekend.

I'm feeling a bit more confident with my new firsthand experience with how Bones perform under the brush, and I'm hoping to pick up the painting pace once the wedding is finished. I'm going to have to. I did the math, and if I paint one a week, it will take me about five years to get through the lot of them!