Bones III the long search for Mr Bones.

I've been quiet lately between baby preparations, house hunting a friend's wedding, work and life in general I haven't had much time to paint.  Ariana's pregnancy is going well but my poor wife is exhausted and I have been handling some of the tasks she normally takes care of so she can focus on growing our daughter (its tough being a dad but tougher being a mom) 

Well about one week ago a big package was dropped off at my office (I have all large packages delivered there as a precaution). This package was a long time coming Bones III launched in the spring of 2015. Reaper promised (or projected) delivery last August and for a while it looked like every thing was running smoothly until they discovered that items they thought were listed as complete by the manufacture in China were actually just "scheduled" or something like that.  From that point on Reaper (or its partner in China) got increasingly vague about how much was done etc. Reaper did a good job communicating and took the blame but honestly much of my enthusiasm for this set of miniatures and goodies as sort of dissipated.  Any way lets take a look.

Lets comment on the excellent packing job here (thanks Mac!) lots of padding and two separate boxes.  Yes several pieces were a little bent form being stuck in the box but they straightened out nicely after a dunk in boiling water followed by a plunge in cold water.

Granted not every one needs this but they included a nice little booklet regarding how to paint your Bones.

The core set, man they packed a lot of miniatures in here.  I'm sure I'll use a good number of them for Frostgrave and Dragon rampant.

Man they crammed a lot of miniatures into that box!  Lots of them will see use I am sure.  The Yetis will probably be on my first to paint list.  The Lizard men will make a fine Dragon Rampant unit as will the Ogres. 

I also got the Graveyard expansion for the excellent terrain and constructs (for Frostgrave) the undead will come in handy too.

 you can check out a video of the set Reaper made.  One cool change the crypt/temple and walls are actually made form a new gray harder version of bones its very nice.  Only complaint I have is its hard to remove the roof quickly for easy game play.

Th stone circle was a must have for me as soon as I saw it.  Great terrain piece for so many games.  It breaks down into 4 pieces so you can pack it away easily and/or scatter the pieces around the table if you want. 

Another must have add on for me was the dragon Mathrangul he came in pieces and I was impressed that none had deformed in the slightest.

You can see him put together here with the grave golem form the grave yard set. you can see some more pictures here

Another nice item from the set is the 5 "invisible" figures they are table ready and will probably see some use in Frostgrave before to long. Buying figures and getting them almost two years latter was a frustrating experience. One factor for me was it kept me from picking up other smaller purchase because I knew someday I would get a big box of miniatures and that one of them would probably be just as good.   I did Bones II in a small way and went big with Bones III I probably won't do Bones IV.  Bone II had its problems and similar (not identical but similar) problems surfaced in Bones III.  They came down to the supplier in China not being reliable when it came to communication and fulfillment on the planed time line.  I fully expect every kick starter to be late, when they said August I figures I would get them in time for Christmas.  I have a high opinion of Reaper as a company and I will continue to patronize them but they don't seem to have a handle on their Kick starters.  I might change my mind if I get WOWED by the stuff in Bones IV but for now I have plenty of stuff.