Another treat in the spirit of the Halloween season! The Spirit (77098) is the first mini of the Bones “Haunts” Set from Kickstarter. All figures in this set are made of translucent green plastic and are looking really really good.

I’m planning to paint all five miniatures of the set before Halloween, so you can expect a new post every couple of days.

Before I start any miniature, I do some research. I found several threads on the Reaper Message Boards on the translucent Bones (e.g. here).  Some people build LED bases for them! How cool is that? Others just drybrushed them a little for better contrast, wheres again others primed the minis black and painted them afterwards. The material differs from the rest of the Bones and it’s harder to paint on. Obviously, there are a lot of possible choices for these miniatures.

I decided to try something in between: I wanted to have more contrast and see details, but still preserve the “glow” of the figures.

Basing and Priming

In preparation, I washed the miniature with soap water and glued it on a 25mm round base. I read that it would not be a good idea to try reshaping the translucent bones, as they are made of another type of material than the rest of the bones: They would discolor. Luckily, all parts of the spirit were where they should be. I glued fine and coarse sand on the base and primed the base with Vallejo Black Primer.

Painting

I read that paint does not adhere very well on the translucent Bones, especially thin paint and washes. To improve adhesion, I gave the whole miniature a “basecoat” of brush-on Vallejo Satin Varnish. I had the impression, that the varnish dried rather quickly. Vallejo recommends to wait about 24 hours to let it properly dry, so I continued the miniature the next day.

I really liked an idea I saw on the Reaper Message Boards. Very early, I think even before the Kickstarter was officially delivered, an unknown painter got hold of the translucent spirit miniature and just painted the skull and the hands of it. So I adapted that look and painted skull and hands in Vallejo Game Color (GC) Bonewhite. After that, I applied GC “Brown Ink”, like I did with my other skeletons.

Next, I used a thin, dark green wash (Vallejo Model Color Dark Green Ink) on the translucent parts of the model.

Finally, I painted some highlights with Model Color (MC) “Lime Green” and further drybrushed the highlights with MC “Green Grey”.

Finishing Touches

After sealing the miniatures with Army Painter Anti-Shine Varnish, I once again just decorated the bases with some withered grass and moss.