Dinosaurs! With laser guns!

How could I not buy these? It's like someone took space, laser guns and dinosaurs and said, "Hey, let's combine these into Matt's ideal childhood dream!"

Thanks to work taking a turn for the worse (AGAIN) and a stinking sinus cold I couldn't shake for the past 10 days, scenery has been on the back burner for the past month. Well, not so much on the back burner as still in its packaging in the cupboard, the top one you hardly look in, right at the back behind that box of couscous you thought you'd try but forgot all about just after buying it in 2018.

In fact, it's just struck me that this year's Season of Scenery has about four days to go, and looking over the state of my work desk kitchen table I'd say it's possible in a very non-possible way that I might just about be able to finish one of the projects I've been making.

Anyway, before I was struck down with the dreaded lurgi I did find time to paint five new figures. Well, I say new, I've actually had them for months but they're new to the painting table. And amazingly these are Reaper figures which I did not — repeat, not — get from Etsy. I know, I'm shocked too.

One thing I settled on before beginning this group was to save time by not painting their clothing in different colours but to make them look more like a team. And what's an easy colour scheme? Black, with some red trim!

After spray-priming all five black, I kicked off with the T-rex looking one (actually called a Blackfoot Suppressor) because why not. I'd already decided that I didn't want to paint them like actual dinosaurs, so I went with a basecoat of Violet with Hexed Lichen, Purple and Pink highlights. 

His clothing/armour was drybrushed with German Grey and Neutral Grey, and I added some areas of Plate Metal just to break it up a bit. His shoulder and knee pads were given a coat of Mephiston Red before being highlighted with Vermillion.

The whopping plasma(?) gun he's holding was originally going to be painted in some metallic shade before I went with White. I just think it looks more futuristic, and I used thinned Thousand Sons Blue and Sky Blue to do the, well, blue bits.

While painting the Suppressor I thought he looked familiar, and I remembered that Roger had painted the same figure back in March. 

Next up was the Bloodcrest Sharpshooter. After sorting out his armour colours I decided on blue for his skin, kicking off with Magic Blue and highlighting it with Electric and Deep Sky blues.

To break up all the blues and blacks I did the underside of his tail with Brown Orange and Tan, which I needn't have bothered telling you about because you can't see it in my crappy photo.

Two down, three to go. I hit the Thunderfoot Commander next, going for a basic grey skin scheme with Neutral, Ash and Ghost Greys and a diluted wash with Nuln Oil. The greys were a bit dull but I added some colour to her (yes, her) by painting areas on her head with Hexed Lichen and Pink.

I had to wait for my new magnifying goggles to show up before I could start on the next one. I set about the Skywing Infiltrator with Park Green Flat and added Beige to highlight it. For some reason despite possessing wings he has a jetpack on his back and that was painted in Black with some Plate Metal highlights. 

Finally we have the Armorback Demolitionist. After getting his armour done I painted his chunky back Brown Orange and then mixed in some Averland Sunset for the highlights. A bit of Bonewhite, Ivory and Seraphim Sepia sorted out his spine thingies and I used more Averland washed with Fuegan Orange on his rocket launcher.

These really are imaginative and fun minis and my only problem with them is their integral bases. Why Reaper couldn't have put them all on same-size bases or, better yet, not have their toes poking out over the edges is a mystery for the ages. All of them got extra layers of matte varnish over their tootsies to hopefully stop the paint rubbing off.

More to come soon!