(Don't Paint) The Reaper

I must warn you, it's a long one ;)

As a proud man, incapable of ignoring a personal challenge, I found the gauntlet well and truly laid down when my Dad returned from a market with this amazing piece of tat.

Sporting genuine, fake plastic, gemstone accents, only the finest Chinese sweatshop paintjob, and molded from space age materials, including onlyjustametalium; this statuette would make the perfect addition to every misunderstood 15 year old's eldritch den.

A few more glory shots:

The challenge was simple. Since we both like this kind of thing when done well, I had to give this abomination some class or, failing that, at least make it a little less tacky.

First things that had to go were the "gems", so out came the Dremel (genericised trademarks ahoy) and a little later, out came the plastic.  

There we are, a million times better already.

There was a little issue with drilling a little too far through one of the reaper's eye sockets but that was solved through a little careful layering of pva glue. Next step, primer.

Halfords Grey Primer: The best a man can get.

 The next step was the first real trial for my airbrush and compressor combo. I would highly recommend these for anyone covering large areas, i.e. miniature armies or large models. Even if you aren't skilled enough for really artistic stuff (like I'm not right now) you can really get a a lot of stuff covered. I shudder to think how long this would've taken with a brush. It also has the advantage of leaving no brush strokes, and with the thinning needed, I found it less wasteful of paint overall than using a brush.

I thin my paints with methylated spirits, because it works well with all the acrylics I've tried it with, including water based ones, and also because its a hell of a lot cheaper than branded thinners. I also discovered that it has the useful effect of matting certain colours. For instance, I used Games Workshop Chaos Black thinned with meths for the cloak. Chaos Black is usually on the glossy end of what I'd consider a "satin" finish, but with the meths it really became matte, which I think really suits both the look of cloth and the sombre look I was trying to go for with the Reaper.

 

This is now Death's "artistic" Facebook profile pic

With the lion's share of the basecoating done, I switched to a normal brush for the rest and immediately realised that I'd already got use the the speed and coverage offered by the airbrush. Sadly I got really into it, and didn't take as many photos going along as I should have. I used the standard, for GW at least, method of painting bone: "Bleached Bone" paint with a brown ink wash for shading. As for the Green Ranger Dragon-Shield looking thing around the neck, I hate the fact that its there but cutting it off and re sculpting the model was a little too involved for a £2 model. I looked to tone it down by leaving it dark and covering the molded detail in purple, I added a grey pinstripe around the edge to show that I hadn't just forgotten to paint it, but no more than that because I still resent it. 

Blurry photos and wonky eyes, looking good.

 As for the scythe, I basecoated the shaft in a flat brown, then went back over erratically with a mix of

a couple of browns and a magenta, the names of which I can't remember as I made up the mix by eye on the fly. I also added some faint dark lines to simulate a grain, but I'm not all that sold on it. Still, for my first painted wood effect, I'm reasonably happy. The blurry photo (macro-fail) above doesn't really show it off well though. On a similar note, I blackened the "eyes" on the reaper because I felt that it should go beyond being a skeleton, I wanted the "eyes" to have a depth. Sadly the pits of dark infinity that I wanted are a tad difficult to paint, Also irritatingly, the eye sculpts are wonky, likely because they were never meant to be visible, which makes the eyes look even worse.

From this stage, the rest was fairly simple: The scythe blade was layered different greys and metalic highlights, with black washes to dull it down between coats. I personally imagine a Grim Reaper's scythe to have an almost perfect blade or even be somewhat intangible a la Pratchett's Death. But we work with the hand we're dealt, so I tried, and I think succeeded, to give the blade a worn but not knackered look. In a similar vein, the shaft of the scythe was given numerous chestnut brown ink washes to both give a richer colour and to give it something of a gloss as any well used scythe will naturally gain a sheen as the friction of use polishes the handle.

Time for another big jump: it's the finished article

 The original paintjob had green grass, I felt that this didn't fit so instead made it dead, again, not perfect but it was my first go (a recurring theme) at painting dead grass, and I don't think it came out too bad. The pic also shows off the highlights on the robe, rocks and texture of the tombstone.

More finished pics:

 Overall, I think it looks better now, and that I've succeeded in the challenge. However, it definitely has its issues, I have no illusions of being a good painter, but the whole point of this is so that I can see my progression, as I have the intention to become a good painter. That said, given my skill level, I'm happy with how this turned out, especially as it forced me to be creative to paint texture effects that I've never had to before.

Having done this, I have seen a true Pratchett Death model on eBay, and as that is my favourite depiction of the Reaper archetype ever I will eventually be doing one and hope that I'll have progressed to the point that it'll blow this one into the weeds! Anyone that's stuck in this far, thanks, later.