Reaper Mimic "The Luggage"

I had actually bought this miniature several years ago after reading Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic, which features a sentient chest known as "The Luggage". (If you haven't read the book, it's quite good). In pursuit of something quick and fun to paint to enter in this year's Crystal Brush, I pulled it out and painted it in between doing other projects for Adepticon.

The wood is basecoated in Territorial Biege with just a hint of Pewter Grey added for weathering (it's almost impossible to see after the wash, unfortunately), then highlighted with successive layers of Reaper Amber Gold and Reaper Golden Blonde; then washed with GW Flesh Wash (which provides a more reddish tone than brown wash, accentuating the highlights). The "metal" parts are basecoated Pavement, with highlights of Pewter Grey, and edge highlighting of Pewter Grey, Granite Grey, and just a little Pure White.

The fleshy parts were tricky - I wanted to give the appearance that these were growing out of the wooden parts. As such, I basecoated them as I did the wood, gave them a wash of Vallejo Grey (to accentuate shadows without the harshness of a black wash), and then began steadily blending in Tentacle Pink until the furthest parts were pure pink and then I blended in some Cool Blue at the very tip of each appendage. The mouth was done in the same way, but to give it more depth I gave it a wash of GW Blood Red wash. The teeth were also done in the same way, but they "grow" from Biege to 50/50 Biege/Tentacle Pink to Pure White. The eyes are VGC Scarlet Red with some highlights of 50/50 Scarlet Red and pure Orange, with a wash of GW Blood Red wash.

The saliva strands are stretched clear plastic sprue, cut to length and superglued inside the mouth, then given a liberal coating of Vallejo Gloss Varnish.

The base was a resin one I had in my bitz box - not sure of the manufacturer. Mud is Brown Umber and the skulls are blended layers of Biege and Pure White. Disgusting!