I have started playing in a new campaign recently, and that means new miniatures. I really love painted minis for D&D games, I feel it adds a new level to the game as I have mentioned before in previous posts.
This time, I am playing a half-orc monk. There is also a rabbit-person (I cannot remember what they are called in game) and a human warlock. We are playing a bunch of police officers and shall be investigating the goings on in Waterdeep.
The minis have turned out really well. I particularly liked using purple to shade the orc skin and I will definitely be looking at doing something like that again to refine the technique.
There is also a bonus witch, who I finished at the same time!
While we were on holiday – more of a people stay at ours for the week and we nerd out – we played a couple of Dungeons and Dragons campaigns. One of them was the regular Curse of Strahd, which was both terrifying and hilarious in many ways.
The other was a ‘One Shot’ fill in when one of our friends couldn’t make it. We already had the characters and I’d painted these to go with them, so we played a light hearted campaign with the daftest characters I have encountered. A Kobold Alchemist who had all the potions, A goblin Sorcerer who was also a fortune teller and My Gnoll Druid who eats everything she can.
It was a lot of fun, and these are some of the minis I painted so we could enjoy the game in full colour, not grey resin!
At the weekend, we finished our long running D&D campaign. I’ve posted about it before on this blog, but now it has come to an end, I want to give it a send off. We played this campaign for ten years. A decade. Myself and one other player had the same characters from level 1 to 20 without dying. There were some near misses of course, but I feel as though I have achieved something here.
It has been a monster journey! It all Started before the new edition came out!
I cannot pinpoint one single moment as there has been so much to look back on, but here are a few events that stick in my mind:
The deck of many things – one character getting shoved off to another plane and then his soul trapped in a prison on another. Another character becoming a lord. Gaining stats, losing most our fortune and death turning up to try and claim my character only to be cleaved in half.
Going back in time to resurrect an ancient goddess so she can kick the ass of another ancient god.
A new paladin turning up to try and save the party only to have the party rush forward and smash the thing he was trying to save us from – no one else gets to be the hero. There were very real consequences.
The belt of gender change.
One of the players having his house smashed up by a lich in revenge for him smashing up the lich’s house and taking his smoking jacket – it was the ultimate in petty.
Fighting in a major battle.
Sending a Pit Fiend and Balor to guard the commissar without him knowing, only for them to thwart an assassination attempt on him by other demons. Those other demons got wrecked, and we got into trouble.
In the end, we destroyed the book that was trying to draw evil back to the game world. It was a hard fight, it was a good fight. We worked together to get the job done, despite mind controls, huge demons and stupid tentacles. My Barbarian struck the final blow, thus bringing the campaign to a close. She opted to return to Ptolus, while other party members decided to take different paths.
I thought it a fitting end to her. She returned to a city she knows and loves. She will protect it until her death. She also had a thing going with the prince of the city, so I like to think she became the ‘Pope’s’ wife too. There was a castle the party were building and she’ll spend her time training new adventurers and fighting off any new threats that might come at the place.
I finished the large D&D miniatures today and dropped them off at the store. It was quite the project, and it took a good while to complete, but here it all is.
It wouldn’t all fit in one shot so I had to take a couple. This doesn’t show the small bits either, like coin pouches or levers. It was fun to work on, but I will admit that I am glad to see the back of it now, and to have the space back in the hobby room as well.
This set of miniatures is a lot better than the others. There was much less warping of the plastic and the mould lines were far smaller. Detailing on the miniatures was still not amazing, however it was more defined than the other ones. I definitely preferred painting this group and even got to experiment a bit with different skin colours – purple, blue and green. I don’t know who the characters are really, so googling them to find out what they were supposed to look like was also rather fun. Perhaps I should give the show a listen.
Anyway, here they are in all thier D&D type glory…
I have spent the majority of the past two days painting bits of the large D&D scenary commission for Stronghold Games. Mostly what I have done is wooden items – barrels, beds, chairs, tables and that sort of thing. While it is not the most interesting thing I have ever had to paint (that’s Ahriman and the Ahrimen if you want to know), it has been fun. Most of the bits don’t take that long to paint, so it’s a ‘quick’ win in that regard and I like the idea of people using the bits to create scenes for their games. It will add a big visual element to playing and I know that is a good thing as I have done so myself.
I created a small scene in the light box using some of the bits I have painted today and one of the Mighty Nein who is awaiting basing!
I really like the plush looking chair, though I am not sure how comfortable that bed would be!
One part of the Dungeons and Dragons Scenary kit was a dragon. It required some assembly and wiggling to get the parts to fit in well but all in all, it wasn’t too bad to put together. Once this was done, it was a sizeable miniature to deal with. I’ve never painted a dragon before and I think this might be the largest miniature I have painted and finished (I still feel a pang of guilt over Magnus…). Having the airbrush to basecoat the fellow made this a lot easier to paint I think as I wasn’t quite so daunted by the size.
I went for green, as this was the colour on the box, though I did have free rein from the client who it is going to. Anyway, here is the finished dragon. It was a bit too large for the lightbox as well, so I’ve had to be a bit careful with the angles of the pictures:
Pleased with how he looks at the very least, and I know he will see some use on the gaming table as well.
I have been commissioned to paint a lot a Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures for the local games store. The majority of it is scenary, which differs greatly from what I usually paint. It is a welcome challenge, and there is a great deal of it. I started with the two sets of Dark Lord’s Tower – it is all made by Mantic – and decided to have a bit of fun with some neon pink paint…
I had no idea how well the pink would go through the airbrush, but it turned out pretty well. I had to spray it over white to get the vibrancy I was after, and it took a bit of thinning to prevent it clogging the brush up. The glow effect from the portal looked pretty neat in the end though and I now know those neon paints can be airbrushed.
One of the other packs is a lot of treasure, so I have spent some time painting piles of gold, silver, armour and treasure chests. Not the most exciting thing I have ever painted, but they do look good when they’re done!
Heretic Deb! 