Just a little inspiration piece for the Halloween season. The minis are made from leftover pieces and bits cobbled together. The uniting feature is the pumpkin heads, which are just little lumps of Crayola Model Magic clay. Not the best mini sculpting material for detail work, but just fine for pumpkins. The stems are just bits of spear shaft, bent a little and stuck in the clay. I did punch out holes for the jack o'lantern faces, but nothing too detailed. The actual details of faces are drawn on with a black fine point sharpie -- the holes just give it a smidgen of depth.
The paintjob is basic black primer with the pumpkins in orange, and only minimal highlighting of other parts. The headless horseman doesn't even have anything but the pumpkin painted. All the other minion details are drybrushed lightly. I put a double layer of matte primer on them, first, because people love to grab and touch little weird things like this all the time, and also because the extra thick coat highlights the details in the pieces without drybrushing.
Sooooo ... got some old minis that need a new look? Muahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
The Grim Reaper figure (What? What Grim Reaper figure? ... You didn't mouse over the picture yet, did you?) is also pretty basic. If you have skulls available, just put one on top of any figure, then wrap it in pieces of napkin. I like the basic paintjob rather than the more elaborate versions, all black with just a little off white for the skull and hands.
If you don't have skulls available, you can if you do any modeling. For skulls, I like to use Knedatite ... the Green Stuff. As opposed to some of the generic formless stuff I advocate Model Magic for, I think you want a little control and detail on a skull. Usually, I don't sit down and have a skull session (muahahahahaha ... puns worse than rotting flesh!) to make them though. I have a little list of "small things" -- detail pieces -- that I know I will need sooner or later. Skulls, books, vials, birds, etc. Just whatever little detail things will really spice up a piece. Then I wait until I am making a "serious project" with the Green Stuff. I always have a little left over, so I whip out my list of nice details, bang out a few until the clay runs out, then cross them off the list. Well, I almost never cross things off the list, I just move them to the bottom of the list to keep my supply of nobbly little pieces fresh. That way, I have a skull at the ready if suddenly feel the need to make ... say ... a Throne of Bones from a cheap Halloween necklace.
