Chris Palmer
This past week I worked on the Ghost Pirates set from the Bones 4 Core Set. The Core Set came with 5 of these figures, and I ordered a second set so I would have a unit of 10 for larger games. I painted the second 5 the exact same way that I painted the first 5, so did not include progress shots of them; but I did include them in the group photos at the end.
I prepped the figures in the usual way; soaking them in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish-soap added and then rinsing and drying. I then glued each one to an unprimed 1" fender washer, with Aleene’s Tacky glue. I then glued the figures to a number of tongue depressors with a couple drops of the Elmer’s glue each.
I began by painting the washers with Americana “Metal Primer”. I then painted the figures completely with Americana “DuraClear Matte” varnish; as I planned to use ink on them, and the matte varnish gives the ink something to hold on to better than the bare plastic. When the matte varnish was dry, I applied a heavily thinned wash of Citadel “Green” Ink to the figures, trying to keep it just on the pirates themselves and not on the “scenery” pieces on the bases.
![]() |
Note, I added a coat of un-thinned “Green” ink to the bottles the righthand pirate is carrying to give them a green glass look. |
When the ink was was dry, I painted their eyes with tiny dots of Americana “Margarita”, and then painted the bases with Americana “Bittersweet Chocolate”.
Next, I drybrushed the scenic bases with a 50-50 mix of Americana “Neutral Grey” and Americana “Mississippi Mud”. This was followed with a lighter drybrushing using Folk Art “Barn Wood”, and a last highlight drybrushing with Americana “Dove Grey”. I then painted the skulls on the bases with, first, Americana “Khaki Tan”, and then drybrushed with Crafter’s Acrylic “Light Antique White”. Lastly, I painted the rest of the base and washer with the Mississippi Mud".
I let the figures dry overnight and the next day I gave them a coat of Americana “DuraClear Matte” varnish. Then, when the varnish was dry, I used some white glue to apply a fine sand mixture to the bases. I decided not to spray varnish these as I have had some issues in the past with the translucent figures getting a little tacky after a while; so I’m just going to go with the brush on matte varnish. I did put a little Americana “DuraClear Gloss” varnish on the bottles the drinking pirate is holding to make them look like glass.
![]() |
This is the original five I painted as shown above. |
![]() |
These are the original five as well. |
![]() |
And here’s the whole crew. |
I’m really happy with these. They turned out just as I had hoped. The translucents are always a challenge to strike the right balance between keeping the translucency and applying shadow and highlight, and I think I hit a happy balance here.
via All Bones About It http://allbonesabout.blogspot.com/2019/05/ghost-pirates-bones-4-figures.html
from Tumblr https://harfordhawks.tumblr.com/post/185174384788
via IFTTT
Nice – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMAo0m4E4Lc
Thanks, Mark! 😀