Category Archives: Dungeons & Dragons Monsters

D&D ̶M̶o̶n̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ Hero Manual 89: GF9 D&D Collectors Series – Drizzt Do’Urden, Drow Ranger & Regis, Halfling Rogue

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Dungeons & Dragons Heroes Gale Force Nine GF9 D&D Collectors Series - Drizzt Do'Urden, Drow Ranger & Regis, Halfling Rogue

Today’s post features a pair of “upgrade” player character models for use in The Legend of Drizzt Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Boardgame. This time it’s Drizzt (again) and Regis (also, again) but this time the sculpts come from a Gale Force Nine box of on-sprue HIPS models of the characters, the box being called “Drizzt & the Companions of the Hall”.

Dungeons & Dragons Heroes Gale Force Nine GF9 D&D Collectors Series - Drizzt Do'Urden, Drow Ranger & Regis, Halfling Rogue

Once again, I went with the dark sea green armour for Drizzt, since the brown look does nothing for me. I did obviously paint in some of the larger flaps of armour in a reddish brown, though.

Dungeons & Dragons Heroes Gale Force Nine GF9 D&D Collectors Series - Drizzt Do'Urden, Drow Ranger & Regis, Halfling Rogue

Similarly, I painted Regis in much the same was as the PVC model from the board game. The official base has Regis standing on top of a (treasure) chest, which I get is thematic for a Rogue/Thief, especially for a display model, but it’s a bit too far down the “mobile tactical rock” road for a gameplay model for me.

Dungeons & Dragons Heroes Gale Force Nine GF9 D&D Collectors Series - Drizzt Do'Urden, Drow Ranger & Regis, Halfling Rogue

With that in mind, the big(!) change for Regis was basing him on a sculpted base from the Archon villagers box from their kickstarter instead of the base that he came with. I was lucky enough to find a base with a little sculpted trapdoor, some lockpicks and an open padlock. Perfect!

Dungeons & Dragons Heroes Gale Force Nine GF9 D&D Collectors Series - Drizzt Do'Urden, Drow Ranger

And here’s the GF9 Drizzt alongside his WotC counterpart. Obviously the new HIPS figure is a lot nicer, the WotC figure is at least one of the better ones from the set, so the contrast isn’t as large as it will be with some others – for example, once I get to Cattie-Brie(!)

Dungeons & Dragons Heroes Gale Force Nine GF9 D&D Collectors Series - Regis, Halfling Rogue

Finally, Regis. Looks like he grew a little and fixed his hair. Again, not the worst of the Wizards’ sculpts, but the GF9 is clearly superior. It’ll be a little while before I get any of the others from this set painted, but I will eventually get the more egregiously bad models replaced with these nicer versions of the characters.

D&D Monster Manual 88: Tomb of Annihilation – Chultan Zombies, Skeletons and Skeleton Key

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Dungeons and Dragons, D&D Monsters, Tomb of Annihilation, Chultan Zombies, Skeletons and Skeleton Key Miniatures

A quick and dirty post for today – another couple of trios of D&D models that took me forever to get prepped and then painted in a couple of quick sessions for each set over a couple days – mostly waiting for washes to dry. These first models are “Chultan Zombies”. What does “Chultan” mean, many of you might ask? Well, as a not-really-a-D&D-guy, I had to look that up myself as well.

Dungeons and Dragons, D&D Monsters, Tomb of Annihilation, Chultan Zombies Miniatures

It seems that the Chultan are a society of humans who have sub-Saharan features but dress in a more Northern African style – visually they appear to based somewhat on the Nubian Kush.

Dungeons and Dragons, D&D Monsters, Tomb of Annihilation, Chultan Zombies Miniatures

So… it then appears that the Chultan Zombies are simply Chultan individuals who have foiund themselves in the unfortunate situation of having become dead, and then… undead. Based on the name, I expected something a bit more Cthulhu-esque, but then that’s down to my ignorance of the wider D&D background. Anyway, so with that I wanted to give them pale dusty robes and make their base skin tone a bit darker, but then lighten it up to represent their new, somewhat drier and dustier situation.

Dungeons and Dragons, D&D Monsters, Tomb of Annihilation, Skeletons Miniatures

The second trio of models are simply called ….Skeletons. They have some distinctive armour on them that might mean something to D&D fans. I just painted them (and the armoured tabards) as old, rusty metal.

Dungeons and Dragons, D&D Monsters, Tomb of Annihilation, Skeletons Miniatures

Overall these were painted quickly with a lot of wash action,

Dungeons and Dragons, D&D Monsters, Tomb of Annihilation, Skeleton Key Miniature

 

The final model is called “Skeleton Key”. I don’t know what the hell it’s really supposed to be. My best guess is that it was a bad, cringey, nerdy joke from some D&D writer back in the day that’s survived and been codified over the years – much like the even more fuckstupid “Mon’Keigh” which I’ll never forgive Gav Thorpe for.

Dungeons and Dragons, D&D Monsters, Tomb of Annihilation, Skeleton Key Miniature

But anyway, it’s a Skeleton with a pony tail and a giant key-thing sticking out of the top of it’s head. So …yeah? So with these done, I”ve now got another 7 models done from The Tomb of Annihilation boxed set…