Category Archives: Board Games

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.

Fantasy Flight – Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth Heroes – Elena and Beravor #Fembruary 2022

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Fantasy Flight - Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth Heroes Elena, Elven Bard and Beravor, Dunedain Ranger

Today’s post features a pair of Lord of the Rings models from FFG’s Journeys in Middle-Earth core game. Now, you might be thinking… I’ve never heard of either of those names before, and you’d be right, as both Elena the Elven Bard and Beravor the Dunedain Ranger are FFG creations that did not feature in Tolkien’s writings. There’s an incresing number of these non-canon characters being added to the game via expansions, and while most of them are female, I’d say this is because there’s already a ton of male named characters to add in and include.

Fantasy Flight - Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth Heroes Elena, Elven Bard and Beravor, Dunedain Ranger

Since it’s Fembruary, I thought that I’d prioritise getting this pair of Player character models done first, though there’s a ton more of all kinds yet to come. These player models were a nice surprise in comparison to models like the Wargs that I painted recently – nicely details but not over-detailed, cleanly cast, minimal mould lines, good quality PVC – so cleanup and prep was nice and easy. They’re easily on the quality of a lot of metal models I’ve owned and own. They’re not “boutique resin” quality, but yeah – surprisingly good for boardgame PVC.

Fantasy Flight - Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth Heroes Elena, Elven Bard

Elena has an interesting pose – looking over her shoulder somewhat behind her. To get the full effect (and to see her face more fully) I decided to show the additional angle.