WizKids WK73554 Deep Cuts Miniatures Wild Boars (D&D Monster Manual 84)

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WizKids WK73554 Deep Cuts Miniatures Wild Boars

So not exactly heavyweight monsters from the old Dungeons and Dragons catalogue this post – instead we have a pair of piggies. The WizKids Deep Cuts Wild Boar Miniatures to be exact.

“But why..” You might rightly ask “..are you buying and painting piglet models?”

The answer is pretty simple – it’s part of my “shoring up” of the Drizzt set before I plunge back into the depths of painting the next of these D&D Adventure System Boxed sets.

WizKids WK73554 Deep Cuts Miniatures Wild Boars, Athrogate

As regular readers will know, I’m not exactly a D&D lore expert, but it seems that our Dwarf friend Athrogate from the set has a friendly boar companion that the Drizzt box provides in the form of a card token. As I’m sure you’ll understand, I could not let such an affront stand, and so I spent a few bucks on this set of Two Little Piggies so I could, erm, plug that gap.

Apparently Athrogate’s Boar is AKSHULLY called “Snort”, is summoned from something called a figurine of wondrous power”, is large enough for him to ride on, and is actually a summoned Hellboar. And yes, I did read all of those details after purchasing and painting these two. All I can do in response is point to these models and say the words “Look! Piggies!” I mean, still better than a cardboard token, amirite?

Cthulhu: Death May Die – Mary Diaz & Elizabeth Ives

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Cthulhu: Death May Die Miniatures - Mary Diaz, Elizabeth Ives, Cthulhu Investigators

Today we have May’s (first?) pair of Death May Die investigators. First up, hailing from Caracas, Venezuela, Mary Diaz. (Think about that name for a moment or two… there’s something about it…)

Our second investigator comes from London, England, the Flapper, Elizabeth Ives. I wonder why Flappers haven’t made a comeback in the 2020’s? With piercings and tattoos and plugs, of course – I guess there’s still time… Speaking of time, I have no particular artwork or sculpt complaints about Mary, though Elizabeth is a different story…

Cthulhu: Death May Die Miniatures - Mary Diaz, Elizabeth Ives, Cthulhu Investigators

For Mary I wanted to try a “light olive” complexion, as befitting both the artwork and her Latina heritage as well as the link to her clear inspiration making me go lighter. Along with that, the art suggested dark blonde hair, so I started from a darker base than usual. Her red dress has orangey highlights in the art, so again I tried to emulate those on the model.

Cthulhu: Death May Die Miniatures - Mary Diaz, Elizabeth Ives, Cthulhu Investigators

Elizabeth’s art is generally fine, though the colour choices (bright yellow with blue and green!) aren’t exactly what I’d have chosen. Still, with all but one of these models (to come sometime later) I do intend to stick with the artwork reasonably closely. No, the problem with Elizabeth was with the digital sculpting – her pearl necklace & bracelet as well as her facial details were clearly sculpted with an artists’ PC screen and large renders in mind rather than an end-painter – so they suffer from being very fine and shallow. I mean – I like to do a good job on these, but I’m no Angel Giraldez, nor am I willing to invest hours into detailing the pearls on this model.

Still, I’m happy enough with the end result – not sure what that dot on Elizabeth’s dress is – I’m just seeing it for the first time now, so I’ll go and check it out a bit later – hopefully it’s just a bit of fluff stuck to the model (along with that hair!) 😮