Tag Archives: Gale Force Nine

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.

15mm Terrain Unboxing Review: Flames of War Battlefield in a Box – Train Yard Switching Tower (BB186)

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Flames of War Battlefield in a Box - Train Yard Switching Tower (BB186), 15mm, 1/100, 1:100, Team Yankee, What a Tanker, Battlegroup

Today there’s another terrain review. I know that a lof of the readers here prefer painted minis (naturally!) I still have a lot of terrain to review here, especially given that when I was looking at purchasing these items myself there was little to nothing out there on many (most!) of them besides the box pics and official glamour shots. So it’s like a public service.

Flames of War Battlefield in a Box - Train Yard Switching Tower (BB186), 15mm, 1/100, 1:100, Team Yankee, What a Tanker, Battlegroup

Inside the retail box, we once again have a fitted polystyrene tray for the three main of this set.Flames of War Battlefield in a Box - Train Yard Switching Tower (BB186), 15mm, 1/100, 1:100, Team Yankee, What a Tanker, Battlegroup

…and when removed and opened up, we also have the two buffer stops hidden neatly away inside the building sections.

Flames of War Battlefield in a Box - Train Yard Switching Tower (BB186), 15mm, 1/100, 1:100, Team Yankee, What a Tanker, Battlegroup

Once “assembled” we have the switching tower – which I know Kuribo will love based on his own posting history – and the two stops.

Flames of War Battlefield in a Box - Train Yard Switching Tower (BB186), 15mm, 1/100, 1:100, Team Yankee, What a Tanker, Battlegroup

Reverse shot for completeness. I don’t have any 1:100 scale rail at this point, so I’ll just use the buffer stops as general storage of coal/rocks/etc – probably butted up against a building.

Flames of War Battlefield in a Box - Train Yard Switching Tower (BB186), 15mm, 1/100, 1:100, Team Yankee, What a Tanker, Battlegroup

Inside, we can fit a standard medium-sized infantry stand in each of the floors. No surprise there!

Flames of War Battlefield in a Box - Train Yard Switching Tower (BB186), 15mm, 1/100, 1:100, Team Yankee, What a Tanker, Battlegroup

And finally the scale shot with some armour. As mentioned, I don’t own any railway stuff to scale, but I figure this building can also work well as a pretty generic one aside a factory, or a square of whatever type with an industrial-ish looking building next to it.

As always, I purchased this set from a retailer with my own moneys and have no incentive to say anything good, bad or ugly about them. I quite like this one – it has a nice inherent variety to it with the two floors being different colours and a different outer construction but still feels cohesive. Likewise, I also like the appearance of the roofing, which has a feel of both sheetmetal and asbestos(!) to it, again complimenting the industrial feel and the variety in the one piece. Like all of these sets, it could/would benefit from some easy weathering and some (more tedious) painting of the interior’s featureless black walls. It’s another one I can see getting done in the short-to-medium term, but even without it, this set was relatively inexpensive and while possibly not your first purchase, it’s still one I can recommend if you’re looking to add to an existing collection of 15mm/1:100 buildings.