Reaper Bones USA

Finally, I'm doing a post on something other than 3D printing. I've bought quite a few Reaper Bones plastic miniatures over the years, and I'm quite familiar with their advantages (cheap, light) and disadvantages (shallow detail, bendy). When I heard that Reaper came up with a new type of Bones miniature, called Bones USA, using a new production process, of course I had to order some and see for myself. The selection is not large yet, and I ordered a number of sci-fi miniatures and a fantasy wizard.

https://www.reapermini.com/miniatures/bonesusa

This is a "Death Marble", which is a large floating globe drone. As you can see from the shot, the details are very sharp, but some mold lines are visible.

When assembled (just pushed together and not properly glued yet), it looks quite nice, with well-defined panel lines. It looks close enough to my 3D printed drones that I can probably use it as a "boss" drone. It definitely shows sharper detail than typical Reaper Bones miniatures.

Here are a couple of "Viceroy Enforcers", humanoid robots with heavy guns. Again, sharp detail, but with some mold lines. Since these are much thinner than the "Death Marble", I tried bending them. There is some give, but the guns and legs are not nearly as bendy as the white plastic from older Bones material.

The next Enforcer is much smaller than the others, which is kind of strange. Nevertheless it has the same excellent detail.

As you can see with this size comparison, it actually fits more with 1/72 scale miniatures than with larger 28/32mm. With 28mm miniatures, it will be a very small robot. No matter what though, I think all of these will see service in Stargrave.

I also ordered a fantasy wizard ("Darius the Wizard") in the same material. The detail on this model actually makes it quite a bit better than other fantasy Bones miniatures I have, and I especially love the rat familiar which is tiny but characterful. However, in addition to mold lines, you can also see a bit of flash on the top of his hat.

Overall, the material reminds me of the "Ultracast" material from my Battlegroup Northag crowdfunding purchase. It might be the same technology that allows plastic injection into flexible molds designed for metal miniatures. The technology also ties into their name, with the "USA" bit meaning that they are produced at Reaper's home facility in Texas, which means it's something that doesn't require a factory like traditional soft plastic injection molding. This material seems to have somewhat sharper detail, but with the same issue with mold lines.

When I prep and paint these, I'll have to take note to see how easy it is to remove the mold lines, which is always tricky with soft plastic.

Don't worry, I'll be back with more painted 3D prints soon.

Various Fantasy

For the upcoming Frostgrave campaign, I started to dabble in 28 mm fantasy miniatures again. By far, the easiest (on the wallet) option is Reaper Bones these days, although the D&D unpainted line of miniatures is also giving them a run for the money. My miniatures are mostly a mix of these two product lines.

For my Frostgrave warband, I decided on a dwarf-themed group, with a core of dwarves along with other hired "helpers".

My wizard is an enchanter, along with his rather buxom apprentice. Both of these are Reaper Bones miniatures.

In Frostgrave, the enchanter can create constructs, obedient machines animated using magic. In this case, I have small, medium, and large constructs that are supposed to be rock-like creatures. The small and large constructs in the foreground are from the World of Warcraft boardgame, while the medium construct is Reaper Bones.

For some shootiness, I have a couple of crossbowmen. One of them is a dwarf ranger figure, and the other is a derro (i.e. "dark dwarf"). Both are Reaper Bones again.

For cannon-fodder, I mean, more valuable members of the group, here are two more Reaper Bones derros used as thugs.

For sneaking around, these are a couple of halfing thieves. These are D&D unpainted miniatures, which are much slimmer in build compared to Reaper.

Some more extra characters. In this case, they can fill in as a man-at-arms, a templar, and a treasure hunter, respectively, as needed. All of these are again Reaper Bones.

For both Frostgrave and other fantasy games, I also painted up some trolls, in case they are needed. These are actually 1/72 scale fantasy figures, but they are big enough that they can pass as 28 mm trolls.

Here is a size comparison with a 28 mm figure. These 1/72 trolls are still big enough to be a threat to a human-sized 28 mm figure.

I also painted up a Reaper giant worm, just because I like the model. This is a gorgeous piece of sculpting to paint.

The first Frostgrave game is coming up right away on Sunday, and I can't wait.

Still Alive and Some Bones

Sorry that I haven't been updating this blog, but I've been busy early this year. However, I am still slowly chipping away at my Epic Tyranids.

I promised to take pictures of some Reaper Bones miniatures for someone and do a comparison with 1/72 scale miniatures, so I guess I'm back to the proper subject of the blog.

There are some very nice looking Bones (soft plastic) miniatures that can double for 1/72 scale aliens, and I have a few that I plan on using in games. Sorry about the funny colours and lighting in the photos. Bones miniatures don't do so well with lights.

These are Reaper Bones "Kulathi Invaders". They are alternatively armed with one large weapon or a couple of small weapons. I think they're perfect for larger-than-human basic alien foot soldiers. They are next to a couple of Elhiem 1/72 scale metal "federal troopers".

This is a "Bathalian Centurion", a large creature with giant talons. Creatures of this size can probably be used as light vehicles versus human-sized soldiers. This one looks assault-oriented.

This one is a "Bathalian Exarch", slightly slimmer with smaller "hands". Maybe it can be used as a leader of some kind?

The largest of the creatures is the "Bathalian Primarch", with extended head armour. Maybe this is good for an alien supreme leader with psychic powers?

All of these aliens have cthulhuloid face tentacles, and their styles fit together well as different castes of an alien army. I can probably use them in a custom background with the FUBAR ruleset, a good way back into 1/72 scale sci-fi gaming.