Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Future Wars => Topic started by: gregmita on April 12, 2021, 07:19:24 AM
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I got a hold of some of the new Reaper Bones USA miniatures, which are advertised as being produced from a new process, and I took some close-up photos.
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YeyTbeICPGw/YHPW_GB34EI/AAAAAAAABq8/aDNLzh1GwjgiG2-SHJLv3bqxHlYxvfpgACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Death%2BMarble.jpg)
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5HOuYTH3750/YHPW_m0VOSI/AAAAAAAABrA/3KKfyFR18OkqV5agRSdreBGTiXVtsAPXACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Enforcer1.jpg)
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jAMrlqQALmM/YHPW_Ee1dzI/AAAAAAAABq4/tKQvpMAjYXMxW2qbtv2K6Adez2qEakOGwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Darius.jpg)
More info on my blog here: https://172minis.blogspot.com/2021/04/reaper-bones-usa.html
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Good detail on that small wizard
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Interesting! Thanks for sharing that information. I do like the sculpt of that wizard.
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I'm staying away as much as I can from Bones, I really dislike the material no matter the type of Bones plastic. It's all too soft, doesn't hold form on thinner parts (even with boiling water) and doesn't handle paints well IMO. I have so many bones model that go tacky and/or glossy over time. And cleaning them is also terrible. The only Bones models I think are good are the big chunky ones. Here cleaning is a bit easier, they aren't warped badly and they -seem- to take the paint the best.
But if I can I'd rather buy Reaper metals or buy from other ranges...the material frustrated me too much.
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I hear this Bones black is much better. No experience though myself with it, but I wholeheartedly agree that the earlier bones was terrible for small but great for big.
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Very useful, thanks! I really dislike Bones material, its hard to deburr, needs carefull priming and are unsharp, altough the quility is not really steady, some miniatures look quite good in Bones (for example Behir), some are pretty bad (Krug, Hill Giant). But Bones Black is much better, therefor Im curious about the new material!
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I like Bones for what they are - minis that I can paint, game with, and throw in a storage bin without having to worry about padding.
Original bones are...chewy.
Bones Black are very nice - highly recommend.
Bones USA I'm not sure about yet, they feel more plastic resin and I have to use more metal techniques than plastic when working with them.
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I've worked with Reaper Bones materials for years and had fairly good results even with the "white" stuff, but the "black" and "patriot" figs are considerable improvements. Black avoids the bendy issues of the earlier material and is easier to clean up, and USA seems to be the best compromise so far between rigidity, cost, and fine detail, although it's rather difficult to reshape if you get a warped piece. White still has its plusses, notably low cost for larger models and being extremely easy to convert and kitbash.
Old reviews of a couple of the white Bones kits:
https://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/2019/04/dreadful-things-mudgullet-froghemoth.html
https://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/2018/02/dreadful-things-mashaaf.html
And some conversion posts:
https://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/2018/01/dreadful-things-custom-monster.html
https://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/2018/09/dreadful-things-more-custom-monster.html
https://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/2018/07/dreadful-things-tricephalic-helltoad.html
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I like Bones for what they are - minis that I can paint, game with, and throw in a storage bin without having to worry about padding.
Ditto
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I quite like the Bones Black.
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Chief Lackey Rich, those are some nice conversions!
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Chief Lackey Rich, those are some nice conversions!
Thanks. Like I said, one of the best features of Bones "white" (really pale gray these days) is the ease of chopping bits off and sticking new ones on.
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Original white Bones is terrible and Reaper should feel bad....
...They did and came out with Bones Black which is much, much better.
Metal is still superior.
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Thanks. Like I said, one of the best features of Bones "white" (really pale gray these days) is the ease of chopping bits off and sticking new ones on.
indeed, excellent conversions!
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Interesting... looking forward for future releases 8)
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Original white Bones is terrible and Reaper should feel bad....
It's fine on a limited range of subjects, eg big, chunky, high-volume sculpts without a ton of fine surface detail. A lot of terrain, for ex, and big monsters that would be prohibitively expensive in other materials. It sucks on most human-sized stuff, anything with small, bendy bits, and ye gods it's bad at hair and fur and many faces.
Would be nice if they'd transfer some of the more problematic figs to Black or the new USA material, though.
...They did and came out with Bones Black which is much, much better.
Granted, although it's still not a joy to clean mold lines on and some (maybe all?) of the multi-part kits come pre-assembled and often need gap filling.
The newer USA stuff seems even better to me, although it's not quite as firm. The fact that it isn't made in China's kind of a big plus in my book, anyway.
Metal is still superior.
For some things, sure. At least Reaper didn't pull a GW on us and just drop casting metal overnight. They're even still releasing new figs, although the rate they add to the metal ranges has dropped dramatically from the pre-Bones days.
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Would be nice if they'd transfer some of the more problematic figs to Black or the new USA material, though.
Indeed... but, apparently the different kind of “Bones” materials aren’t made on the same injection machines
Granted, although it's still not a joy to clean mold lines on and some (maybe all?) of the multi-part kits come pre-assembled and often need gap filling.
I also think it’s a problem. They should leave the consumer assemble the models himself/herself. It was particularly true for the firsts KS Bones figures. I encounter the same problem with Mantic Terrain Crate II. Some of the pieces have been glued together without being thoroughly cleaned first. This give all kinds of bent or crooked models
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Yeah, the different production techniques involved make it unlikely that we'll see most Bones White figs getting remade into Black or USA - but one can hope some of them sell well enough to justify making new molds for better materials.
Mantic's done the pre-assembly stuff on some other figs as well, eg the Nameless Ogres, and they're prone to poor assembly as well. Very off-putting, especially if you were planning on doing conversions in the first place. I groused about that a few years back over here:
https://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/2018/12/dreadful-things-mantic-star-saga.html
Of course, you're seeing it more and more often from WizKids too, and while they're better about QC they're still far from perfect. Most multipart figs from them need at least some gap filling, although at least they aren't glued on their bases - which are often too small to look right due to them sticking to D&D-dictated sizes.
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For some things, sure. At least Reaper didn't pull a GW on us and just drop casting metal overnight. They're even still releasing new figs, although the rate they add to the metal ranges has dropped dramatically from the pre-Bones days.
Given the price of casting metal at the moment it makes sense that reaper are trying to perfect bones instead.
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This week I recieved my first Bones USA miniature, and Im impressed! Beautiful sharp details, and its much easier to clean up mold lines (there are some really visible ones, even if the tool should be new I think). Its a harder, more brittle material (mine was damaged a little bit), almost like some softer resin. Overall, its a great development from Reaper!