Miniature Review: Willow Greenivy, Witch (Dark Heaven Legends)

Willow Greenivy, Witch (Dark Heaven Legends)
Publisher: Reaper Miniatures
Sculptor: Bobby Jackson
Cost: $5.99
Release Date: 11/17/2014
Get it Here: Reaper Miniatures

The same time I picked up Christmas Knight (who I reviewed yesterday), I picked up some more Reaper Miniatures including this particular figure. As she came out less than a month ago, I figured I’d do a review of her too.


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Here’s a look at the unpainted sculpt directly from Reaper’s website. You can’t really tell, but she’s wearing a smock over her turtleneck dress. That changed my mind on how I was going to paint her. I bought this figure specifically for my wife. She likes witches and I wanted to paint something for her so this felt like a good fit. I asked her what colours she wanted and she replied with “Purple and Black,” so that’s what I went with.


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So here we are with the figure partially painted. Like all metal figures, paint flakes off really easily compared to resin, restic, Bones and plastic figures. You can see evidence of that in this shot here and there. The base is also unpainted. It’s VERY tiny compared to most bases miniatures have so I would end up getting a leftover slotted base from a Space Marine to put her on. I used ten different paints on this figure – all Reaper Master Series Paints. They were: Imperial Purple, Pure Black, Honed Steel (For the belts), Peacock green (pupils), Pure White (Irises), Fair Skin, Lonestar Leather, Stone Grey (the eventual colour of the base), Muddy Brown (staff) and Fresh Blood (lipstick).

Even though Ms. Greenivy hasn’t fully come together here, you can see most of the aforementioned colors on her at this stage. I still have to do touchs ups, paint a sash, fix the flaking and because these are Reaper Paints, smooth out the unevenness. Reaper paints are far more liquidy and runny than most others and so they can be a nightmare to work with. I was going to do her cane handle in new gold, but just a dab of that ran down the figure like expensive urine and almost ruined it. I’d end up using Fresh Blood instead. So yes, Reaper Paints are not my first choice to work with, but I have a ton thanks to the original Bones Kickstarter (I did not make that mistake with the second one) and since this is a Reaper miniature I thought I’d try the paints with them. They do work and they look really nice if you take the time to do two or three passes with a colour instead of the one you normally do with other paints like Citadel and Vallejo, and you can start to see the model looking very nice.

Last but not least, I am SO HAPPY about the eyes. I’ve only been painting for a year and most of what I have done has been monsters or things without normal eyes like Space Marines or fantasy characters with helms. This is the first figure with normal eyes where I’ve actually been able to do the irises and pupils decently. I just don’t have the fine motor skills to make those happen. Somehow I pulled it off here – probably because this was for my wife and not my gaming table in general.


Here’s Willow with a coat of Stone Gray on her base, half of her sash painted blood red and some more definition between her belts, robe and smock. You can still see I need to do touch ups and fix the flakes, but she’s coming along nicely.


Here is the finished product, sitting on the Space Marine slotted base I mentioned earlier. I haven’t glued the witch to the base yet because I have to do something with it. I just haven’t decided what. I just don’t want that SLOT to be visible on the finished base. I might put some shrubbery or a pile of bones there. What do you think?


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A look at the finished product from a different angle. Again, Willow GreenIvy, Witch was really easy to paint. There were no tiny little details you’d need to be a Golden Demon to get to and everything part of her was clearly defined. Willow would make an excellent first miniature for someone to learn how to paint on and I heartily recommend her to anyone who likes to paint and is looking for a witch figurine.


Finally, a show of the witch’s back (side). I’m really happy with her and Willow joins the Giant Bones Cthulhu and a Bones Lizardman as my favorite things that I haven’t painted. It’s just too bad metal figures flake their paint off so easily as she’d see regular use in gaming dioramas or on my table. Still, a great figure at a very reasonable price.


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One response to “Miniature Review: Willow Greenivy, Witch (Dark Heaven Legends)”

  1. […] was happy with except for the eyes. Of course, I’ve never gotten humanoid eyes right save for Willow Greenivy who I’m very happy with. After being so successful with Willow Greenivy (for a first year […]

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