A recent trade with daggerandbrush got me this Reaper Bones Earth Elemental, so I painted it.
During last week I became a bit irritated while painting the models that I had planned, so I put them aside. On a whim I picked up this big goofy thing and painted it instead. It got a reasonably rapid treatment – I wanted the model to be something of a palette cleanser – so I painted it fairly roughly in my painting time over a couple of days.
One thing that I didnt do was try to get the colour scheme that I have been using for my Shonen Knives into the palette. As this was intended primarily to be a “Wandering Monster” sort of affair in various game systems, I didnt think that I needed to bother.
As I painted it I realised that in fact I did have a use for the model in my Shonen Knives force, as a daidarabotchi, which meant that I now slightly regret not trying to tie the scheme in better. Ho hum.
Now daidarabotchi are supposedly gigantic things, larger than mountains and therefore totally impractical to represent in 28mm. That didnt stop the authors of the Kensei miniatures game from incorporating the daidarabotchi concept into their game as a large earth/wood elemental, so I decided that I would do the same.
L to R: Reaper Spirit of the Forest, Hasslefree Mineko, Reaper Earth Elemental
At least the Reaper “Spirit of the Forest” that I painted for hanging around with space raccoons also doesnt match the Shonen Knives scheme, which makes a sense of sorts. It also means that all of a sudden I have more or less entirely new unit of elementals/golems/daidaradotchi for gaming with. Banzai!
“Yusei! Sound the yōkai rampage alarm!”
Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: 2016, Fantasy, Japanese Myth, Shonen Knives |
sho3box 
Very nice work bringing out all of the different colours and textures of the rock(s). I suspect that when I get around to doing that model, I’ll be far too lazy to do the same. Very nicely done!
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Thanks Azazel. TBH I feel like its a bit of a lazy job as is, a little imprecise.
The textured paints helped to add visual… texture… that the model didnt have already.
I could have sworn that you painted one of these before. I knew that you had the “Spirit of the Forest” painted…
Im glad that you like it anyway 🙂
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You make me want to own textured paint by the gallon… this model was a perfect choice for a pallet cleansing ‘quick job’, the sort of model that looks better with a rough touch. It may have seemed like a rocky prospect to grab that boulder of a model but you showed true grit and a big pair of stones and got it done. Respect!
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Sedimentary my dear Captain.
It’s a relief to me that you didn’t slate the paint job, I scree-ched with glee when I saw your approval.
For a while I thought that the colour scheme was going to ungravel as progress was rocky, but I had the sand required.
I only need one ore model to complete the unit now…
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:O
I love this one! I agree, the texture, the feeling… Gorgeous!!
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Thanks Suber. It was a pleasant change from the usual way that I paint.
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Very nice indeed – he/she/it goes perfectly well with the spirit of the forest. Rock on!
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The two models go together quite well really, which is fun. The paint job on the spirit of the forest is better though and the colour scheme on that model is better thought out. The rocking on consisted of a fair bit of trial and error and washing and glazing. Fun though.
Thanks Alex!
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That’s beautiful, and it fits the theme. Has more than a little of a Miyazaki vibe to it, too, and matches the Spirit of the Forest nicely too.
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I had not considered that it might echo Miyazaki – Miyazaki is a bit of a hole in my pop culture cred – but now that you have mentioned it I cant unsee it.
The cartoony, somewhat video game look to many of the Reaper miniatures appeals to me, although it certainly seems to be a bit of a marmite thing.
Nice one Mikko 🙂
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Love it, that’s the kind of models that helps regain mojo. Fantastic and the fact it ties with the treeman is icing on the cake.
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The daidarabotchi certainly did work in that regard Asslessman. Im painting six cavalry at the moment and it has been quite a drudge. I will set myself another reward for when I finish those.
Im glad that you like it.
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You did a great job adding a lot of visual interest into a big pile of rocks with the various stone colours. What texture paint did you use?
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Thanks Mr S.
I used these texture paints:
I was sparing with the Blackfire Earth. It has a tendency to look like baby poo.
The various textured area were hit with various washes and glazes in a fairly inconsistent pattern.
It was a bit rushed so the distinction between areas isnt as strong as I wanted it to be (to few layers of homogenous drybrushing didnt help), but I will happily use that technique elsewhere again, slightly refined.
Thanks for the feedback.
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I do like the larger Reaper Bones monsters, and that paint job is a particularly striking one.
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Thanks GH!
Reaper Bones are 100% my go-to for large monsters. Chunky, durable, rugged and inexpensive – they are hard to fault.
A metal model of that size is the sort of engineering project that I dont tend to enjoy. The plumbing fitting like “Bones” material bypasses that beautifully.
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Nicely done!
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Thanks Warburton. It was a pleasant sub project.
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