D&D ̶M̶o̶n̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ Hero Manual 93: Tomb of Annihilation – Dragonbait, Saurial Paladin & Birdsong, Tabaxi Bard

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Dungeons and Dragons, D&D Tomb of Annihilation Heroes - Dragonbait, Saurial Paladin & Birdsong, Tabaxi Bard

My final pair of D&D models for the month are a pair of heroes from the Tomb of Annihilation Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Boardgame.

Dungeons and Dragons, D&D Tomb of Annihilation Heroes - Dragonbait, Saurial Paladin & Birdsong, Tabaxi Bard

Well, technically we have the final D&D model I completed in May (Dragonbait). That’s the lizard man in case you hadn’t already guessed! Alongside the first model I completed in June (Birdsong). Birdsong is the Tabaxi (cat-man) Bard, because of course a cat would have a name like Birdsong… :/

Dungeons and Dragons, D&D Tomb of Annihilation Heroes - Dragonbait, Saurial Paladin & Birdsong, Tabaxi Bard

The painting state of my D&D Adventure Boardgame boxed set painting is in an odd spot right now –

The next of these games chronologically – Temple of Elemental Evil has:

All heroes completed

5/7 Villains completed (just the Ettin and Black Dragon to go)

and 3/30 (28?) of the Monsters painted (those Hobgoblins)

So either 30 or 31 models still to be painted…

 

Following that is Tomb of Annihilation with:

2/6 heroes painted – (these two)

6/9 Villains completed (3 human-ish models to go)

and all 28 of the Monsters painted since I finished those Sheletons and Zombies the other week.

Leaving 7 more models to be painted.

 

Finally (not counting that Campaign expansion thing), there’s Dungeon of the Mad Mage with:

None of the 5 heroes painted.

8/10 Villains completed (2 human-ish ones left)

15/30 (26?) Monsters painted – the easy ones, though.

 

So.. kind of a mess. I feel like I should focus on the 7 ToA models since it’s the closest to completion and it scores me another completely painted boardgame, but maybe I should grind through the lower-effort monsters from ToEE first instead? Maybe mix in some of the monsters and heroes/villains from Mad Mage with whatever else I do here and there to just slowly get those numbers down?

And it’s probably time to try to find and paint the couple of ignored hero models from the first two games – Ravenloft and Ashardalon. For completeness sake if nothing else…

23 thoughts on “D&D ̶M̶o̶n̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ Hero Manual 93: Tomb of Annihilation – Dragonbait, Saurial Paladin & Birdsong, Tabaxi Bard”

  4. Great work on both the models, and the many you have completed from all the different sets as well. As far as what to finish next, I think it needs to be what you feel at the time, as I know you have struggled with some of the models from these sets.

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    • Yeah, a lot of them have been trash, but at least with such low-stakes models I don’t usually get analysis paralysis or intimidated on what to do/not getting them perfect.
      What I really do like about these D&D models is that the number of them is very finite to finish these boxed sets, and unlike, say, Warhammer models or MCP or FoW there’s not always a ton more.
      Even though I’ve got a bunch of Nolzurs/Reaper and other D&D Branded figures, they’re not part of the sets and are more upgrades or alternates and things like that, but they’re not part of these sets so can be painted whenever.

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  6. Nice job on these! I’ll have to write WotC a personal complaint about Dragonbait! He looks nothing like the original one, who had a really unusual sword and looked more like a Dino-Man than yet another Lizardman. That’s a shame. I think I’ve heard of Birdsong, but not sure where from. As for what to tackle, I think I’d finish off Tomb since you’re so close. Then it’s one less thing to keep track of. But that’s advice from the guy who just derailed his whole mini painting goals for a month or so, haha!

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    • I actually have (had?) possibly the original Mini for both Dragonbait and Drizzt by Ral Partha from the late 80’s or early 90’s. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to track down either of them in the last few months. Drizzt is still unpainted, and I think I rebased and started Dragonbait but never finished him.
      Since I wrote the text for this post (I was queuing up a bunch of them last weekend) I’ve started on a bunch of the ToEE monsters since they looked pretty simple – enough so I could do a bit on them each day after work while tired, so at least the next few will be from those. Long weekend now, though! So to decide if I keep clearing the D&D/boardgame backlog or paint something more interesting and fun…

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  7. I didn’t realize that D&D had so many anthropomorphic species in the game. Its cool to see these two and they look like they’d be fun to play as well. Its interesting to see your tallies for the unpainted versus painted. Is there any rhyme or reason to it, you reckon, or do you just go where your painting muse takes you? 🙂

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    • I’m pretty sure that D&D is much more expansive than both Warhammer settings combined when it comes to the bestiary, and they’ve likely got pretty much every anthromorphic species thrown in there as well.
      When we see the Kerrans in EQ or the Khajiiti in TES or whatever weird and wonderful creatures in most RPGs they probabaly were probabaly already in or have a direct analog to something inside the D&D universe(s)!

      As far as which models have gotten painted – it’s pretty simple – unless there’s been a compelling reason to paint models from a specific game (like my recent Drizzt run) or wanting to add some more heroes into the previous time we played these games in 2020, then I’ve been choosing the ones that look like they’re the quickest or simplest to get from start to finish and slotting a few in amongst the other models I paint.

      Going full-bore on D&D as I am right now is simply using the momentum (for want of a better term) that I got from playing the Drizzt game recently and the endorphins/positive feelings from finishing models in general to get through as many more of these things as I can before that momentum and motivation runs out. Which it will – and likely long before I finish these three boxes!

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      • I can believe it on D&D being more expansive. Since it is an RPG, the richer and more varied it is, the more appealing it is to players (or at least that is what I would think as someone who has only played digital RPGs).

        That makes sense and is kind of what I was guessing but I wasn’t sure. You’re definitely on a roll so you might as well keep ’em coming! 🙂

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      • Yeah, for most if it’s existence, Warhammer had 2 overall main settings, and while the 40k Universe is a big place, most worlds are just populated with humans, orks and eldar, etc. Because tabletop wargame is only concerned with armies. Even smaller more intimate settings like Necromunda are mostly filled with humans and a few pets. Then the WHFB world and AoS Mortal Realms largely recycle the same humans orcs/orruks and elves/allies for a good chunk of the factions. Of course the Warhammer settings are filled with lots more in the shadows, but in D&D the shadows are lit up with statblocks since you don’t even need models for all the weird creatures. D&D also takes wholesale from our world’s myths and legends on top of all their own stuff and all the weird shit people came up with while stoned in the 70s through to today… 😂

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