Miniature Monday – Bandit with Dagger & Sword
(c) Reaper Miniatures
“Stand and deliver!” Not as pompous or well-armed as the classic highwayman, this Bandit surely strikes fear in the hearts of many merchants travelling alone on the road. Is he a ragged-clad thug in hopes of some easy money, a prosperous raider, or something completely different? Let’s see what our painters delivered to him.
(posting by Dirk)
The details on this mini are convincing, and there is a lot of equipment hanging on his belt, fitting for a man living (or working) on the road. Perhaps a backpack would have been nice. I especially liked the (wine)bottle. What caught my eye was that he is really tall (as are some of this new grey bonesium minis in my opinion – are they supposed to be this big, or is it a slightly different scale?).
I wanted to have the chance to use this mini in different situations:
He reminded me of a friend playing a henchman for a knight as a LARP character (also a large man), so I decided to paint this mini in the heraldic colors of this particular knight. Base color and shading is finished, but I want to add some highlights and dirt effects. In this way, I can use this mini as a henchman or possibly mercenary, a deserter or some other kind of rogue.
I’m pleased with the results so far, and the red on the knife handle is a nice spot color to complete the color triangle blue-yellow-red. And I also began painting his colleague.
Jim’s highwayman had a long journey to us from France…
He wrote: “My bandit is in semi-Christmas colors. Red and green on top, blue and silver lower down. I intend to go back and paint some silver dots on the leggings for full effect, but it may have to wait. As I painted I started to think of this guy as French. I have no idea why, but I tend to think of bandits, highwaymen and thieves as French. No offense to any French folk who might be reading this! Incidentally, his name is Marcel Pavard. I was watching a game with Benjamin Pavard playing, so maybe that’s where the name came from. Anyway, this mini was pretty good with some excellent detail and some that was a little soft. I especially enjoyed the bottle (wine, of course) and that cod-piece. I tried to give him beady eyes, but not sure how effective they turned out. Overall a fun one.”
Funny, the inspiration for my mini (see above) is also a french character…
Michael’s version seems like a very successful rogue in all his silver:
He wrote: “I thought he might be a little flashy, proud of his silver. I put a bit of purple on his rear left pouch when I saw the clasp looked like a skull to evoke Cyric, the Forgotten Realms’ god of murder and strife. I also put a green wash over silver on the bottle to try to make it look like glass. It worked okay, I think.”
I like the hint to Cyric, this rogue could be a very sinister bandit or even an assassin.
Arjen’s common rogue seems to have a lot of work to do:
He wrote: “Unfortunately my mini painting suffers from a busy real life, but this one I painted two months ago as it is a very handy guy for RPGs and he since made it to the table twice. I painted him slightly better than “playable”: on the table he looks great, up close you see things like the wash on his face is not so nice, paint from the shoes ended up on the trousers and vice versa, but the overall look is exactly what I had in mind in terms of color: enough black to suggest evil, but still the earth tones suggesting a common thug (not a rich elite rogue) dominate. The gold buckles and the bottles make sure this mini is not boring.”
It’s nice to see that the minis actually get into action, and your color selection is really perfect for multiple use as a standard thug/bandit/thief.
Timothy’s rogue is the most saturnine one this week, I think:
He really looks like a man that is not to trifle with. And the color choice (in conjunction with the caged dinosaur in the back) suggests that he also could be a hunter or something similar (and what a courageous one – hunting a T-Rex!).
Is it a coincidence or intention that many minis this week wear christmas colors? Whatever, we wish you all a merry christmas and recreative (and productive) holidays! See you again next year!
This week’s gallery:
Coming next:
01/06/20 Show me your project! Did you paint or craft something over the holidays that’s outside our MM’s schedule? Here’s the place to show off!
I had to remove some of the shop links because the miniatures are not yet in official retail (the shop links showed “leftover” KS packs which seem to be out of stock completely now)
Here is the link to Reaper’s graphic with all the core pieces, but it’s one and veeeery long picture so be prepared for some scrolling. On the other hand it has separate numbers for most of the pieces. I will add individual shop links as soon as they appear!
01/20/20 Bones IV Cyclops (No. 98 on KS picture)
02/03/20 Bones III Vernon, Ivy Crown Knight
I added some first picks from the Bones 4 Core Set, some monsters, creatures and villagers. The adventurers I’ll check next, the group was just too large for a quick pick. Any more suggestions?
–> Since reaper re-organized their online shop recently, some of the links might not be working anymore. Until we come around to fix that you can always use the miniature’s name and use the search box on top of the page.
Caffeineforge 
Antonia – That makes for a good utility mini. Usable for just about anything.
Michael – Very menacing! I think a lot of scoundrels would fit into the flashy category.
Arjen – Another shady character! I like the earthy tones. He looks very business-like and no nonsense. Probably a very efficient killer when push comes to shove.
Timothy – He’s scary enough that I’m actually hoping that T-Rex comes to my rescue!
Not much to add about mine except to say that looking at him now, he reminds me of Gerard Depardieu!