This week I don't have one model to show you, but seven! Reaper have two sets of bone familiars - These and these. Caffeine Forge's Monday Miniatures challenge was to choose and paint any number of these guys. I tried to get as many as I could done, however there a  lot of tiny details on these guys and that took a lot out of me. I also wanted to use these models to practice my basing techniques. With these being such small miniatures they needed bases to make them easier to handle when gaming and reduce the risk of them getting lost. I have been wanting to try and set the scene more with bases, or at least help the mini come more alive. I think I have been successful in this.


I am so proud of this mini on so many levels. I am really happy with the details in the wings, I wanted it to be detailed but be able to work well for different birds of prey (Eagles, Kites, Falcons, hawks etc.) and I really think I achieved this. I used a bunch of reference pictures and didn't really stick to one breed, all my reference pictures can be found here. As for the base, this was my first experiment with cork and I am so happy with it. I expect there will be lots of cork bases from now on  because it is such an easy medium to work with.


The dog mini always makes me smile, probably because I have always been a dog person. I went for a generic colouring, something that could be a young wolf or a domestic dog quite easily. I think he turned out seeming very friendly and I liked that for a companion. This base is quite simple (particularly when compared with some of the others) but I think it works well for this mini. It was the first time I have put water on a base, and the first time I have used the tall grass. Both of which I think turned out well.


This model was one of the easier familiars for me to paint and I had a lot of fun painting her. I don't think she is my best paint job but she is a great model and turned our great. I really enjoyed making her lava base, which looks better in person than it does in photos. The one thing I wish Id done better is I should have used sand to hide where the bone base joins with the cork. I can see me going back and fixing this at some point.

Our cat, Serenity

I was least impressed with this model, mostly due to the lack detail in her fur. I did consider painting her a black cat however I felt the whole black cat familiar was far too cliche for me to follow through with so I painted her white - just like our beautiful cat, Serenity. I kept this base really simple as I was worried that if I made it any more detailed you would lose this simple miniature. I think she turned out well.

Another model I am quite happy with, I'm not really sure I have a lot to say about him. The colouring across his eyes hides the actual painted eyes and perhaps I should have made it a little lighter. However the browns seem to be a common colouring with ferrets and I really didn't want to do a plain white one because then it would be easily confused with the cat and get lost in the snow. The idea behind this base is the ferret is about to hunt down that burrow. I am much happier with the snow in this base than I was the last time I tried snow. Last time I accidentally used baking powder rather than plain Bi-carb and it really made a difference.


I really like this mini and I think he came out well though I am not particularly happy with how the base came out. I used oregano, just like on the owl-bear base but it just didn't come out as well. However I am quite happy with Stumpy.


Saving the best for last, this is the familiar I am most proud of. I think he turned out so well and the base really had that forest feeling that I was going for. The little waterfall came out better than I hoped and I am just so chuffed about the entire thing. I spent the longest on both this mini and its base to get all the details to come out. I am particularly proud of the eyes and wings. While I am sure there is still room for improvement, I am just too happy with it to really find the problems.

And that is all seven of the familiars I got done this week. Sorry if this is a bit long and picture intensive!