Reaper Bones 77310 Water Weird

This is a Reaper Bones Water Weird glued to a LED tea light. I wanted a straightforward project after the grind late last month of getting Kaladrax Reborn done by Halloween. I didn't quite achieve that goal, but close enough.

The yellow LED works better at simulating fire, but the effect isn't bad on the table.

This figure was introduced as part of the Reaper Miniatures Bones II: The Return of Mr Bones Kickstarter. I deliberately didn't get the core set for Reaper Miniatures Bones II. The amount of miniatures that showed up with the first one left me with little need for more. Instead, I picked out a few that looked interesting. That was the last Reaper Bones Kickstarter that I participated in. These days, I figure I'll pick up whatever Bones miniatures I want after they become available on the Reaper Miniatures website.

This isn't the first time I've used a LED tea light to modify a transparent plastic miniature. I basically copied the process I used for the Large Fire Elemental. As with that previous project, I'm treating the LED tea light as a thick base for the miniature. I considered modifying the electronics to create a shorter base. Unfortunately, that would take the "straightforward" right out of this project. I also like the ease of replacing the battery by unscrewing the bottom.

Water Weird miniature on a conspicuously tall base.

LED Tea Light Base Cover

I removed the plastic flame and the cover from the LED tea light. The plastic flame went to its new home in my bits box. I spray painted the cover black to serve as the base for the miniature. Once the paint was dry, I glued on the Water Weird figure.

Water Weird Well
The well portion of the Water Weird figure got a black undercoat. This was the toughest part due to the LED. I fitted the LED back on after every layer of black paint to make sure that no light would show through the well. It ended up taking four layers of black paint. Only after that did I apply a layer of gray to simulate stone. The Water Weird itself went unpainted.

Basing
The top of the base was textured with a sand/glue/brown paint mix. Once it dried, I lightly brushed on a little sandy colored craft store paint. I brushed on a little of the same paint to highlight the well.

Testing
The final touch was screwing into the electronics and see how everything worked. No light was showing though the well portion of the miniature and the light could clearly be seen. The yellow flickering light produced by the LED works better a flame, but the effect still works.