Monthly Archives: February 2022

D&D ̶M̶o̶n̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ Hero Manual 69: Adventure Boardgame Heroes – Vistra, Barrowin, Cattie-brie & Thorgrim #Fembruary 2022

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Dungeons and Dragons D&D Adventure Boardgame Heroes Vistra, Dwarf Fighter (Wrath of Ashardalon), Barrowin, Gold Dwarf Cleric (Temple of Elemental Evil), Catti-brie, Human Archer (The Legend of Drizzt) and Thorgrim, Dwarf Cleric (Castle Ravenloft)

Today’s post shares a group of four heroes from different D&D Adventure Boardgames. We have Vistra, Dwarf Fighter (Wrath of Ashardalon), Barrowin, Gold Dwarf Cleric (Temple of Elemental Evil), Catti-brie, Human Archer (The Legend of Drizzt) and Thorgrim, Dwarf Cleric (Castle Ravenloft). Now two of these models are decent boardgame models (Vistra and Barrowin), one is a …passable boardgame model (Thorgrim), and one is complete trash (Catti-brie).

Dungeons and Dragons D&D Adventure Boardgame Heroes Vistra, Dwarf Fighter (Wrath of Ashardalon), Barrowin, Gold Dwarf Cleric (Temple of Elemental Evil)

I honestly wouldn’t have gotten any of these four done if not for Fembruary. They’ve all been sitting on the painting tray for a long time.. since we got into playing the D&D games which was around the middle of 2020.

Dungeons and Dragons D&D Adventure Boardgame Heroes Vistra, Dwarf Fighter (Wrath of Ashardalon), Barrowin, Gold Dwarf Cleric (Temple of Elemental Evil)

The two female dwarves are detailed nicely enough, though they do appear to be from either two different fantasy races or from two entirely different miniature ranges. Barrowin looks like a halfling compared to Vistra – who in turn has an odd hunched-neck pose almost as though she’s a Citadel orc.

Dungeons and Dragons D&D Adventure Boardgame Heroes Catti-brie, Human Archer (The Legend of Drizzt) and Thorgrim, Dwarf Cleric (Castle Ravenloft)

After completing those two, I decided to knuckle down and basically get rid of the other two heroes from the Tray. Thorgrim is basically an uninspired model that I just had to force myself through, and Catti-brie has to be the worst model sculpt I’ve made myself paint in years.

Dungeons and Dragons D&D Adventure Boardgame Heroes Catti-brie, Human Archer (The Legend of Drizzt) and Thorgrim, Dwarf Cleric (Castle Ravenloft)

I did my best to smash that one out, though I’m not entirely sure why I bothered – one more towards completeness for that set and OCD, I guess. I know that the Drzzzzzt books are very popular out there (I read and enjoyed the first couple, but I don’t remember a lot about them besides Driders) and as such, Catty-Bree is pretty popular, but this model is pure trash and there’s no easily-accessable good model of her out there for some reason.

Dungeons and Dragons D&D Legend of Drizzt Adventure Boardgame Hero Catti-brie

Quality Sculpt.

There does now seem to be a decent prepainted one up for pre-order, so I’d probably get that set if there were an unpainted/pre-primed version available.

Colonel Schaeffer’s Last Chancers – Warrior Woman #Fembruary 2022

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Colonel Schaeffer's Last Chancers - Warrior Woman

A part of the Imperial Guard kit, Schaeffer’s Last Chancers that came out way back in 1999 that has since had both Colonel Schaeffer and the unit themselves become part of 40k legend, Warrior Woman here is a model that had gotten started, then stopped twice in the past two decades. With the Impetus of Fembruary this year, I decided to knuckle down and finally get her painted and completed to a standard I’d be happy with. While the Last Chancers themselves are a Penal Legion, based very much on The Dirty Dozen for inspiration (I laughed when I saw them called “…the Suicide Squad of the 41st millennium”!)

Colonel Schaeffer's Last Chancers - Warrior Woman

Now, me being me, I never really liked “Named Characters” or “Named Units” in 40k, based on the whole “How do legendary leaders of epic armies like Marneus Calgar and Eldrad Ulthwe manage to fight each other so regularly, and only with 20 men and a transport in tow?” thing. So when I bought the Last Chancers box, I bought it as a way to get more variety of models to incorporate into my pretty-much anonymous Imperial Guard squads. Warrior Woman here didn’t exactly fit in with a uniform that actually worked in a standard metal IG squad. It wasn’t until much later that I picked up some extras (not that I’ve painted them) but now I’m pretty sure I can paint the whole lot of them as their “actual” roles.

Colonel Schaeffer's Last Chancers - Warrior Woman

The biggest problem with Warrior Woman was working out how to paint her. She was clearly very much based on Xena, Warrior Princess with a Cadian helmet of the day plopped on her head, but neither of my previous attempts to paint her as an Escher didn’t work, nor whatever I was thinking in the bright green that this model was basecoated in at one point.

Colonel Schaeffer's Last Chancers - Warrior Woman

Now, while I’m thinking I’ll probably paint up the full set of Last Chancers, Warrior Woman’s scheme there isn’t exactly inspiring, either. In the end, I want with a dark outfit, inspired by Xena alongside a skin tone, hair and half sleeve inspired by both Sasha Banks and Mercedes Martinez‘ new look.