Reaper Bushfire Relief & Bones 4 Miniatures: Animals!

Most animals in nature have neutral colors which provide valuable camouflage, but which do not fit my "color wheel" scheduling scheme; accordingly, I put several of these animals in their own batch.  In order to bring attention to the devastating Australian bushfires, I have selected models corresponding (more or less) with Australian wildlife.  Also, if you're looking for a thrilling adventure setting for your fantasy game featuring deadly wildlife, consider that many people describe Australia as a land 'where everything wants to kill you.'  Except the people; the people there are great.

Reaper Miniatures is helping Australian bushfire relief efforts with a fundraiser: for each purchase of Hope the Koala Druid by Jason Wiebe, Courage the Koala by Jason Wiebe, or the Australian Wildlife Pack by Andy Pieper, Reaper will donate $7.50 to the Australian Bushfire Relief Fund.  You can find out more about relief efforts by visiting Reaper or the RSPCA.  Australian legends tell of deadly drop bears, which look like giant koalas; when they hear a person speaking in a non-Australian accent, they drop out of their eucalyptus trees onto the hapless foreigners, viciously mauling and eating them.  Sure, they LOOK cute, but they are anything but cuddly.  Kangaroos will also beat the stuffing out of you, if they are provoked or otherwise in a bad mood.  I should point out that the minis I describe in this paragraph are cast in metal; the other minis I describe in this article are cast in Reaper's "black bones" plastic.

I understand that Australia's 'razorback' feral pigs are descended from domesticated farm animals and, although they will attack humans with deadly ferocity, they do not resemble the Dire Boar above.  The big lizard above is a Dire Crocodile, and I have painted it to honor the Australian saltwater crocodile.

For this Gulper catfish by Jason Wiebe, I was inspired by the beautiful colors of the blue salmon catfish (Neoarius graeffei), which actually has a slightly different fin configuration. If a giant catfish doesn't seem very scary, you should know that there are some Australian catfish who won't wait for prey to enter the water before they attack.

You will notice some colored orbs in this scene; these are sculpted as decorative carved pillar tops, but I have repurposed them as color-coded magical dungeon elements (like crystal balls and so forth).  As with my miniature painting scheme, I have used the color wheel as a motif in adventures ("use this ruby to activate the red portal, and this emerald to activate the green portal," for example), because I hope it's less frustrating for players if dungeon stuff has memorable colors, a distinctive appearance, and logical clues.  Plus, Bones 4 included 6 of these orbs, and the 6-spoked color wheel seemed a natural fit.