That wasn't that tough!

  It's not like I'm busy and have things like school and children to worry about.  Every once in a while I get to do some hobbying for myself too.  But just to make sure that I'm never not busy and can procrastinate with legitimate excuses on my stuff, I toss in some work for other people too.  I'm not running a business, but I don't mind putting paint to miniatures for friends and even those willing to throw some pocket change my way.  Plus, this allows me to take my time working on my own stuff.

The last time I painted some models for others...

  There's a group of guys that I hang out with outside the hobby (although they are comic book nerds, so really just a different hobby) and they are well aware of my obsession.  So much so, in fact, that leaving my buddy's house in late November saw a blister pack thrust into my hands and orders given to paint it.  The owner is a burly man that takes pride in his machismo, and the model he handed me is apparently his 'avatar'.  I had no idea and when I asked our mutual buddy about it, I found that the owner has an old tattoo similar to this on himself .  With that, I was motivated to do an even better job than normal.

  But here's the kicker- it's a Bones miniature.  If you haven't worked with these before, here's the deal- Bones are cheap, accessible models for RPGs that are often copies of metal Reaper miniatures.  It's an awesome product line, especially for the poorer gamers among us (the typical miniature is less than $5!).  Considering that character models for DnD typically run you around $12-15 each, a low-cost option is more than welcome.  Unfortunately, the plastic that Bones miniatures use is PVC, not the resinated plastic that higher quality companies typically use.  PVC is not great for priming and painting, even with a hard scrub.  In addition, the detail isn't nearly as crisp as I'm used to, meaning that the ability to pick out those details during the paint stage isn't as easy as I'd like.  But the models are still really good and not so much a bear to paint that I avoid it.

   This particular model is the Avatar of Resilience, represented as a anthropomorphized Rhino.  I searched and dug through the Google Images caches and couldn't find a painted example, so I had to make it up as I went.  I even joked, after such an exhaustive search (that took 20 minutes) that I must be the first person to ever paint the model.  FURST!  But I digress...

  The model has very few details to work with.  No armor, a tree branch holding a boulder as a weapon, and a bunch of leather belts were the only details to break up the tough hide of the Avatar.  That didn't leave me with a ton of options.  When I first started working in the model, I wanted to pour a ton of work into the skin.  I was going to do some green and brown washes under gradual layers of wet-blended gray to give that natural tone and still have depth.  It didn't work.  I had to resign myself to drybrushes upon drybrushes of gray.  I then had to figure out how to do paint the rest of the model and pulled out every shade of brown that I own.  But browns are grays aren't exciting or contrasting, so I was still a bit unimpressed with my work.  And that's when it struck me-

  Cheeta skin!!!  The orange and dark spots would stand out on the model and draw the eyes to something other than the rather prolific belly-bulge or massive head.  That was a blast to paint and I am now trying to think of a way to bring that into something else.  The cheeta-skin was definitely my favorite part of painting this model, not for the technique but for the eye-catching effect it brought.

  After that, it was all about the eyes and horn.  I did another exhaustive search on the Google Images for 'Rhino horns' and 'Rhino eyes' and found some interesting information.  First, the horns are not bone-colored like the comical 40k style leads one to believe.  In fact, Rhino horns are either the same color as their hide OR they get darker towards the end.  Just like the hide, I had grandiose visions of how I was going to paint that.  An attempt at feathering (the old version of that technique, not the amended modern meaning) failed, then an attempt at wet-blending again failed.  I had to settle for just a few layers and be satisfied.

  More surprising was the eyes.  I thought that Rhinos had all black eyes for some reason.  As it turns out, they have very human-like eyes!  From lashes to colored irises, their eyes contain much more detail than I first thought.  I had a bit of fun painting these eyes as opposed to actual human miniatures because, well, they were bigger and much easier to do.  It's those little things (or big things, in this case)...

  I finished him in a matter of hours, but spread over a few months.  There were many other projects that I had to plug through before I got to this one, but I was so happy that he was finally done.  When I delivered him to the owner and my mutual buddy to take to him, I received a text of great appreciation.  And that made the needless struggles of painting the model totally worth it.  It isn't the best paint job or most fantastic model I've ever done, but I'm satisfied with the results.

That Rhino was more fun that the last project I did for this guy...

I do highly suggest Bones miniatures for those RPG gamers that need some miniatures for cheap.  If you're not a Golden Daemon-level painter, these models are perfect for you and won't cost you an arm and leg (miniature or otherwise).  Reaper is even kind enough to provide advise on how to treat these models right on their site!  Check it out here.

Let me know what you think below.  And Happy Hobbying!