Wednesday Wizards Season 2 Premiere- Chimrus of the Lesser Flame and more

I've decided to start painting more wizards on Wednesdays again, so Season 2 has officially begun! I'm not promising it will be weekly, like Season 1 turned out to be, but it may be bi-weekly. 13 more wizards will be painted, and then there will be another break. 

The first Wizard for Season 2 is Chimrus of the lesser Flame. Chimrus is a human wizard who was transformed into a winged monkey, wizard. He retains all his knowledge and most of his power, but he's a little flying monkey Wizard, now. Plus, there are some books and a swarm of rats to add to the spectacle of a new Season for the Wednesday Wizards painting stunt.

For a very long time, this lump of metal sat in a box of other odds and ends minis I haven't yet decided what to do with. This is separate from the various bitz boxes and little project boxes I've tried to stay semi-organized with in recent years. I finally decided it was time to base this sucker up and prime it to see just what was going on. And then it was time for some drybrushing of browns and greys before picking out the skulls and bones. Followed by a wash and then some targeted highlights to pick out a few of the rats. It turned out pretty good for something I had no ideas for.

Next up is a simple stack of books from the Mantic Terrain Crate Library set. It needed a base because it's small enough that I was concerned it might get lost without a base. Another quick and dirty paintjob for this objective marker.

Then another book, this time from Reaper Bones. I had this resin base that was meant to fit a mini I had already rebased to make it my own. There's a large flat section in the center with a few jutting rocks that looked like they might be able to work as a bookstand. So I glued the Bones book on it. But this simple diorama needed a little more. I grabbed a couple of candles from Last Stand Wizarding Workshop (3D prints from a third party). The drill bit I was using on a bunch of recent conversions was just right to fit the candlesticks, so I made a couple of holes to the sides of the book and glued them in. And a nice magical book objective marker came out of the painting. I like how the vague pictures I sketched on the pages turned out. It really looks like there is some detail there if you could magnify more. There is not.

Finally, Chimrus himself! A few years ago, I painted up a bunch of familiars and this little guy didn't make the cut (I have more monkeys with fezzes than I realized). I came across this one while I was searching for bits for conversions and decided his time had come. 

Since he's a wizard, I wanted to avoid using standard browns or greys for his fur. Of course I went with my favorite teal for him and some mystical blues for the bat wings. The fez got a little 'flame' symbol painted on the front to make it a little more interesting.

Now that the Wednesday Wizards has started up again, I need to figure out which wizard will be painted up next. So many wizard minis...