Fishmen! (First in an occasional series)

So, as my D&D game takes to the waves and I get excited about playing some Strange Aeons again, my thoughts naturally turn to fishmen. Let's take a look at some of the many, many aquatic bad guy minis I own. Today's contestants are from the Reaper Miniatures Bones line and I think they look rather nice.

These are your rank-and-file types. The models are identical, but I painted them probably a year apart. I didn't prime them (supposedly you don't have to with Bones), but laid down a base of GW Hawk Turquoise, then highlighted up with that plus VMC Sky Blue and some patches of VMC Emerald. I picked out the eyes and light with VMC Fluorescent Green and Yellow Green, then gave the whole model a pair of washes. The back and the upper part of the head got a green wash, while the body got a blue wash. The result was to make the upper part of the body a bit darker, which was nice. For very quick models, I think they look rather nice, although I think the bottom one, which is the first one I painted, came out better. The fin on the back looks better and the striations on the scales are more visible. The wash on the second guy also dried a little glossy, which is not a deal-breaker for fishmen. 

This is the champion from the same line, with more of a coelacanth look to him than the anglerfish the others resemble. I reversed the colours on this guy, with a blue wash on the crest and armour plates and a green wash on the exposed skin. Again, a quickie paint job but I think he looks not bad.

The four arms on this leader are a dead giveaway that he's meant to be a D&D Sahuagin Baron, but again I think he'll do nicely as a monster in lots of other games. I was getting a bit impatient with painting seashells by this point -- impatience is my besetting sin as a painter -- but I still think that overall he looks good. I'm pleased with the limited palette of the group in general.

Now, as I said, these guys might turn up in my D&D game, but I'm also putting together a little Vikings-and-sea-monsters game to celebrate my putting my mythos-in-the-dark-ages novella, The Barest Branch, up for sale on Amazon. (It's also still on DriveThru if you want to buy it there.) So hopefully I'll have a little more of a review of the characters I'll be using for that game soon.