Bones 4 Miniatures: Green!

Green may be the color of growth, fertile crops, and wealth; but in the world of fantasy, green can also have darker connotations.  Green all around you means that you have left civilization and you are deep in the woods or swamp; danger can come from all sides, and help will be a long time coming.  Green is the color of nature reclaiming the ruins.  Green is the color of moldy rations, putrefying flesh, a sickly pallor, and corroded bronze.  Green is the color of orcs, goblins, frogs, and other reptiles.  Green is the color of untrustable magic.

For my adventurers this time, I chose the bad and the ugly: desperate, bitter mercenaries and amoral thugs little better than murderers and grave robbers.  Four of these seemed to have a family resemblance, so I decided to emphasize that with similar coloring.  I figured the woman (Fruella by Bob Ridolfi) would be directing the mayhem from the back, her 3 brothers (Dreadmere Mercenaries by Bob Ridolfi) would carry out most of the dirty work, and a pair of hired thugs (Hans The Brains and Karl The Killer) would do most of the heavy lifting and smashing.

The first monsters are a pair of Giant Frogs (by Jason Wiebe), followed by a pair of creepy Giant Leeches (by Enos Kline).  I used a glossy lacquer on these four, to make them look wet and gross.

Behold the beautiful but deadly Peryton (Spirit Beast by Julie Guthrie).

And the boss monster is the majestic Griffon; a symbol of divine power, half lion, half eagle.  This miniature was problematic because it's held upright on one (thin) leg and its tail.  It kept bending and flopping over at those 2 points, so I "pinned" it with a solid copper rod.  The rod kept it from bending, but then I noticed that the outstretched wing caused the entire model to fall over.  I might glue lead to the bottom at some point.

Bones 4 Miniatures in Yellow

Yellow can be one of the loudest colors, but also very soothing in the form of beiges and earth tones.  Yellow is also a fragile color, in that it can very easily veer into green or orange, or otherwise get dirty or turn gray. 

The Dungeon Aplhabet reports that yellow can be a bizarre, unearthly color, and that finding yellow creatures or features in a dungeon denotes something unsettlingly weird. 

Stephen King's "Hearts in Atlantis" describes unearthly secret agents with psychic powers disguised as human "Low Men in Yellow Coats."  Do these 'yellow coats' refer to khaki trenchcoats?  Or are they some poor cartoonish alien attempt to duplicate khaki, which appears yellow to human eyes? 

On to the miniatures.  These are all rewards from the Reaper Miniatures Bones 4 Kickstarter.

Bringing up the rear, we have a wizard, clad in arcane and mystical greenish yellow; and a witch or druid (Andowyn Thrushmoor by Bobby Jackson) in a more naturalistic yellowish green.  I don't play with the shapes of these models much, but I CAN choose what colors they are, and I want to improve the ethnic diversity of my miniatures.  When I saw the marvelous cloud of curly hair around Andowyn Thrushmoor's head, I decided to recognize it as African hair, like she's Whitney Houston as a witch.  I was hit hard by the vibrant and talented Whitney Houston's passing.  What a tragedy that we will never get to see Whitney Houston play a witch in a fantasy movie. 

Moving on, we have a whip-wielding rogue or cleric (Amrielle); and a grizzled veteran ranger (Jakob Knochengard by Bobby Jackson), both in muted naturalistic yellows.  Now that I think of it, Kevin Costner is good at playing grizzled veterans, and he did a movie with Whitney Houston... 

But leading the charge is a heavily-armored lady (Ava Justinia) with a proud yellow shield; and a heavily-muscled barbarian with what appears to be a golden fleece.  I almost feel sorry for the monsters. 

Maggots used to creep me out as a kid, especially when I saw their wet translucent wriggling bodies gorging on scraps of rotting meat in our poorly-sealed trash cans.  And the stench!  Yech!  I guess they still creep me out; I don't regret going vegetarian right now.  Anyway, here are 2 giant maggots, ready to eat some adventurers, and then grow into some even more terrifying bugs. 

Or maybe those larvae can be used as bait to hook these terrifying fish.  The yellowy fish (Razormouth by Chris Lewis) reminded me of a piranha, and the greenish fish (Terror Fish by Chris Lewis) reminded me of a "Green Terror" aquarium fish.

The 6-legged wolf sculpted by Sandra Garrity is called a "Bloodwolf," or maybe that's just the name for this particular 6-legged wolf.  I don't know where this creature comes from; I can't find it in any of my D&D books.  I imagined a wolf spattered with blood, with blood pouring out of its mouth, and scary glowing red eyes; or maybe its just a blood-like liquid, like betel nut juice. 

The Displacer (Phase Cat by Geoff Valley) is a classic D&D monster; this was cast in translucent purple to allude to its hard-to-visually-pin-down nature.  I decided to leave it mostly translucent, except for its eyes, mouth, and claws.  I was somewhat inspired by the Cheshire Cat,