Painting Reaper Bones Spiders SKU77126

CAUTION. THIS POST INCLUDES PHOTOS OF PAINTED MODEL SPIDERS. I'll put the pictures right down at the bottom if you'd rather not look, and include something less potentially upsetting for the thumbnail.

Wallabies, definitely not spiders 

Old Unpainted Minis

I've had these models, designed by K. Williams,  for around ten years. A couple were included in the first ever Reaper Bones Kickstarter, though those particular ones seem to have scuttled off somewhere. These four were included in the second Kickstarter, along with extra beetles and other vermin. 

When I saw that I'd need spiders for the second scenario for Rangers of Shadow Deep, it seemed a great opportunity to finally get them painted.

I had hoped to get another pack to bring them up to the six required (see my planning post) but for various reasons they are proving elusive. So here are the four painted arachnids.

Painting the Minis

I gave them a base coat of black (Vallejo Game Color Black, but any will do) then a drybrush of VMC Scorched Brown followed by VGC Earth, just to accent the various details, especially around the head.

I painted around the various leg joints with VGC Gory Red, trying to leave the crevices of the joints black. I then added highlights with VGC Bloody Red.

The eyes proved tricky. Most real spiders eyes are shiny black, at least the ones I found on the internet are. This just didn't work at such a small scale. I tried dotting in some yellow, but it didn't look quite right. Then I tried VGC Goblin Green, with a dot of VGC Livery Green, which seemed ok.

Finished.  But they looked very drab. So taking a cue from the Black Widow I decided add a patch of brightness on the abdomen.  The mission implies that the spiders' bite creates zombies, at least that's how I read it, so I thought this design was appropriate.  In fact, I sort of wish I'd made the mark bigger.  Maybe for the next ones?

I'm pleased with the end result; there's nothing amazing about them, but they're fine for Rangers of Shadow Deep, and many other roleplaying games as well, and it's good to finally get them painted after nearly ten years. I need a couple more for the scenario, but they'll have to wait, meanwhile, these qualify for the Paint What You Got challenge. 

And leave a comment and award yourself a pat on the back if you recognise the inspiration.

Scroll down for the pictures

Four Reaper bones spiders

Spiders doing handstands

Bitey bitey spiders