Reaper mini: 3362 Kjell Bloodbear

Ahh, I managed to finish something nice. This is a conversion of Reaper's Kjell Bloodbear barbarian mini. I've clipped the two cleaver-like swords he was holding in each hand. In his right hand, I drilled a hole to as steep an angle as I could (for what I was about to do) and inserted a weapon shaft. At this point, I wasn't sure what sort of weapon I would give him. I rattled around my bits boxes to see what options I had. My final options were a hammer, a spear and an axe. It came down to the spear and axe.
In the end, as you can see, I settled on the axe. I would have preferred the spear, but I didn't have a spearpoint with enough mass that I could drill a hole into it with which to attach to the shaft. I'm still happy with the large axe- He definitely looks the barbarian part holding the large axe and glaring at whomever off-frame.
The shield is a spare viking shield I had from Foundry. I do like Foundry's viking shields; I've used them for different fantasy mini conversions (as well as for wheels for a hotdog stand ((see under my pulp links.)))
I can't remember right off who I stole the idea from, but I liked the mammoth motif on the shield. Following that cro-magnon inspiration, I kept all the colors very earthy except for the armor and fur (though the fur is still natural.) The back of the cape is somewhat blue, but I started with Reaper Propaints Walnut, then added successive highlights of Foundry Blue 21B. In fact, most of the darker colors started with a base of ProPaint Walnut to which was added highlights of something else (usually a Foundry paint.)
The flesh was a basic 1-2-3 layering of Foundry 55A, 5B and 5C.

Note: This mini, though not sculpted by Mark, reminds me a lot of Copplestone's minis, not in style, but in the way it was sculpted; There were a lot of flat areas bereft of inscribed or carved detail. This is NOT a bad thing; I like the style because it gives the painter more of a blank palette on which to paint. This is one of the reasons I love Copplestone's minis. They're not void of detail, they just have plenty of space on the mini for you to let your brush glide more freely.
Incidentally, Kjell Bloodbear was sculpted by Matt Gubser. Matt's other Reaper sculpts have the same paintable style as Kjell. Matt, to me, is the new Copplestone of fantasy minis.
I need to return to painting figures not for games, but because I like the sculpts. Games can always be filled in later. Time to go to the store and see what Gubser sculpts are on the Reaper racks!