Miniature Monday – Tick Queen
All the creepy crawlies in the world have a queen, and here she is!
(posted by Antonia)
Hello there! At first I thought this mini was rather bland, but look at the varitions you all produced! After showing you all those awful/awesome parasites, we have a question about the future of this blog, so stay tuned!
Dirk stayed true to the bloodsucking nature of a tick:
He wanted to paint the tick black, but chose the “dark grey and black wash” path instead because he wanted the details a bit more visible. A cool detail are the veins on the tick’s back which give the illusion of it being filled with blood – I can figuratively see it pulsate!
As a bonus he painted some of the Bones beetles in a variation of color schemes – I like the fire bug best!
I went into a rather exotic direction:
As I plan to use many of my painted monsters in a tropical D&D campaign, I checked exotic spiders and skin patterns. Since the tick queen is quite large, I figured it wouldn’t have to hide in the ground but instead be brightly colored, perhaps even with warning signs. Therefore I gave it (and its bonus companions) large bright eye-spots on their back.
Arjen chose earthy but contrasting colors:
I like the color gradient on the body, even though Arjen assured us it looks way better in reality – a problem I often encounter, unfortunately cameras just aren’t that perceptive as human eyes. Anyway, nice choice of colors and I also like the spotted legs, those occure quite often in real spiders!
William took his inspiration in real-world ticks and spiders:
He said he wasn’t that inspired by the mini but went through with it anyway (that’s the spirit! Sometimes I’m also less than motivated, but when I’m through with it I’m still happy that I painted something!). William said he stuck to a natural red-and-black with some washes and highlights and added some free-hand veins – great way to give a plain surface some structure!
Jim’s tick is obviously an inhabitant of the prairy:
He wrote he didn’t try to duplicate a real-world color scheme but went on with his (patented?) “whatever” approach 😀 Jim said he liked the mini, and I think that shows – I like how you picked out all the details, even the tiny parts of the critter’s face!
Kylie sent in a shiny monstrosity:
She wrote she needed about an hour for the mini – nice blending on the body! It gives the fleshy sack a really three-dimensional look. She also decided to use some gloss, because arthropods often have shiny exo-skeletons, and I really like the idea. I’ll probably add gloss to my mini too, but since I have bad experience taking pictures of gloss coated minis, it always seems to obscure details. Do you have a trick you can share with this, Kylie?
Now the important question, which you can answer in the comments or per email, if you like that better:
How shall we go on? Did you buy Bones 3 or would you buy some of the minis in retail, if we start with Bones 3?
Would you rather continue with Bones 2, maybe from the Add-ons? Which? Do you even have some favourites from Bones 1 which still need painting?
Tell us 😀
This week’s gallery:
Coming next:
05/08/17 Sqoug Warriors (Swamp Invasion Part I) Core Set
–> Attention: The submission date for photos is about three days before publishing date, to give us a bit of time to actually write about your pictures 
You can of course send in pics later, but to take out a bit of the stress (most pics arrive here rather last minute) please consider the three day deadline. Later pics will show up in an update and won’t get as much spotlight, I suppose 
05/22/17 Imrijka, Iconic Inquisitor (Female Orc Inquisitor) Core Set
06/05/17 Kelpies (Sea “Elves”) Core Set
06/19/17 Female Centaur and/or Male Centaur (both Core Set)
07/03/17 Arran Rabin (Female Thief) Core Set
07/17/17 Mystic Theurge, Core Set
07/31/17 Gauntfield (Grim Reaper Scarecrow), Core Set
08/14/17 Olivia, Female Cleric, Core Set
After that… Bones III? Tell us what you think!
I’m quite impressed with the variety of ticks! I really like Dirk’s veins, I think he did a much better job of conveying the blood filled effect I was going for. Antonia’s colors are fantastic, and the freehand is nicely done. The gradient on Arjen’s is very natural and well done – and do I see veins underneath? It’s a nice subtle effect. Jim captured the detail in the face and legs very well. And I love the slick slimy look that Kylie captured, and the deep reds.
P.S. I’m pretty sure Arran Rabin is meant to be male; the reaper site has “male” as one of the tags. I painted him as male, though it would be interesting to see different interpretations.
Dirk picked out its little eyes very well. William has a nice almost metallic look to the black parts: did you highlight with something brownish or metallic? Antonia’s has the most alien looking one, in my opinion. Kylie did something subtle to the hind body, just like I tried, and I like it, as if something is in there somewhere.
I admit I spent all my energy on the hind body, first shading it with dark tones and then trying to get a red to yellow translucent layer over it. Most of the layer lost its translucency because I tried to hard to also get the color gradient, but there is still one patch left. The rest of the tick…I think it’s a bit sloppy when i look at my picture now.
Thanks Arjen. If I remember correctly, I did two passes of edge highlights on the body: a medium brown, and an almost white light brown.
I think everyone did an amazing job. It always blows me away the amount of variety, especially with such a simple mini.
Dirk – I think your veins are amazing and I love the shading you have done on both the tick & the bugs. The Lava beetle is beautiful.
Antonia – Really original, I love the bright colours and your free hand looks great.
Arjen – Some amazing shading and very natural colours. It really looks great.
William – I really like the veins on yours as well, and the shading on the rest of the body is really well done. I agree that it wasnt a very inspiring model but you did a great job!
Jim – really interesting colour choice, I think it looks great. Awesome shading on the legs & face.
As far as photography for glossy minis, I find even lighting helps a bit, I having a better camera than I used to have helps too – especially since I have more control on the exposure. However I still take 20+ pictures at slightly different angles to improve my odds of a decent picture!
In real life, ticks are probably my least favorite “bug” (they really make my skin crawl), but all these great fantasy versions look pretty cool. I think I like the red bodied versions best and I find Dirk’s to be my favorite of those, but all are very effective and creepy! I just keep wondering how big a host would have to be to have a tick this big attached.
As far as the questions about what direction to go in next, I’m pretty easy and will be happy with whatever (there’s that word again) is decided. I am enjoying someone else choosing some of the mini’s I paint.
With that said, I backed Bones 3 so when we get our minis, I would be fine starting on them. I will take a look at what’s left of Bones 2 and see if there’s more I’d like to see done. Most of my B2 add-ons were big items, like dragons, so I’m not sure if anyone want’s to take a longer interval and try to get one done. I know you all did some “biggies” in the past, so I guess It depends on everyone’s opinions.
I have to admit, I missed Bones 1 but I do have at least some of the minis.