You can never have too many undead monsters for your players! Three Barrow Wardens were included in the second Reaper Bones Kickstarter – undead skeleton warriors with heavy armor and weapons. They can be used as advanced skeleton enemies and look really, really cool!

The three miniatures are different from each other, and not just the same miniature three times over like the Snakemen in the Reaper Bones Kickstarter. They are simply called Barrow Warden 1 (77346), Barrow Warden 2 (77347), and Barrow Warden 3 (77348). As with almost all Bones miniatures, they are based on older metal miniatures. I don’t have the original metal figures to compare them to, but they do look less sharp on the edges of their armor. Also, like with many other Bones, the swords are not straight, but bent.

However, considering the price of these minis ($2.99 each) this is all neglectable in my opinion.

Basing and Priming

I removed the standard bases the minis came with and replaced it with 25 mm Ancestral Ruins Bases from Tabletop Art. I pinned the miniatures on the bases with metal pins. Usually, I am too lazy to do this with metal minis (much work to drill and cut), but it’s easily manageable with plastic figures. Priming was done with my usual routine, airbrushing black and white.

Painting

I really liked painting these guys! No need to think a lot during painting 😉 No faces to worry, clear and big areas with different layers of clothing and armor and not much work needed to properly shade them with a wash.

I wanted them to have an old look and feel, but not using a completely rusted armor and faded cloth. So I chose to mix some blue into the (iron) metallic color and used a subtle wash to give the metal armor a blueish glint. I imagine that they would wear higher quality gear/materials that would not rust easily. Basically, I painted them as I would a regular human miniature but used a bit more weathering to bring the shininess down a bit.

What do you think? I am very happy how they turned out! Love these guys!