I went through Reaper's online store to find the actual names of the individual familiars, based upon the existing metal releases. Left to right, they are Little Death, Dark Fairy, Fire Elemental, Winged Serpent, Doll with Knife, and Stumpy. I had actually finished the Fire Elemental and Stumpy quite a while ago, but for whatever reason the others never got addressed until now. Since the figures required different approaches, I'll outline them separately.
Little Death: True to his name, I wanted a "grim reaper"-ish feel for the figure, and decided to stick with black, gray, and bone colors. I couldn't quite make out what was supposed to be in his sack, but I painted the the items on his back as scrolls (it seemed fitting that a familiar might carry those for his master). I am extremely pleased with how the non-metallic metal (NMM) effect on his polearm came out; it is easily the best results I've produced to date! On the other hand, the stitches on the hood came out poorly (they were very hard to make out when painting), and the grays on his robe are hard to see.
Dark Fairy: I had originally thought this figure was missing from my shipment, but I later found out it had gone into hiding during my mass-boiling of the Bones I figures (I got knocked under the microwave). So, this figure has a special place in my collection as the one that almost wasn't. I liked the concept of a "dark fairy", though the washes muddled the colors and gave the wings a much more subdued appearance than what I was aiming for.
Fire Elemental: This was a fairly straightforward figure, and I focused on keeping the yellows in the crevices of the figure. Since it is so small, I wanted the figure to have a more orange/red appearance, as though it was not as hot as a full-sized fire elemental.
Winged Serpent: I decided to go with a rainbow effect on this sort-of coatl. I thought about painting the wings with a rainbow pattern and making the body metallic, but decided to switch is around to take advantage of the larger surface area on the body. This was also a straightforward scheme, though it did give me the opportunity to work on color transitions (which I think turned out fairly nice). I like how the figure turned out, and the silver eyes really make it pop.
Doll with Knife: Perhaps the creepiest of the familiars in this pack, I wanted a sort of "Raggedy Ann" look for it. This figure had some odd angles to work around (such as the hem of the dress where the leg is raised), which is much more challenging than normal due to the small scale of the figure. The NMM on the knife turned out nicely, as well (it's not as good as Little Death's polearm, but I think there's also slightly less detail on the knife). I really like the color I achieved for the doll's body, though the button eye could use more work to make it more of a focal point.
Stumpy: I chose a more reddish-brown, and the end result reminds me of the color palette for the island of Zek in Everquest II. It kind of gives a sickly or warped appearance to the treeman, so I probably wouldn't want to use this familiar for a good-aligned druid or ranger without a repaint.
Overall I'm pleased with how these figures turned out, and I'm glad to finally get them done. They're definitely an interesting assortment of atypical familiars, and I'd recommend them if you like variety. You can pick up this entire set of familiars in Bones for the price of one of them in metal, which just shows how awesomely affordable Bones miniatures are!
- M:M
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