Some more descent Heroes

during our most recent campaign of Descent, we took on the labyrinth of ruin, which led to a few new character choices. my youngest always seemingly picking characters that are hard to play and require a little more oomph to the character building and style of play, she went with...

Okaluk and Rakash

luckily i actually wanted to paint these two up, and was quite happy how they turned out, especially on the wolf. assuming this is Rakash, they kind of suffer from Ant and Dec syndrome to me, i dont know which is which.

For me i wanted to try something slightly different and went with..

Grey Kerr

this guy is some sort of Batman ranger type character, i chose him as a treasure hunter and actually had some great success with him once separated from the rest of the group.

again he turned out ok. and was kinda fun to play, although his heroic trait would be much better fitting for the road to legend app, i still managed to make use of it in one or two places.

sadly we lost out on this campaign on the very last mission, which was a bit of a drag as we had won a large majority of the quests over the entire campaign,

so our next campaign see's us tackling Heir of Blood, which i had to purchase because i have an older print of descent. however its a quite nice little hardback book so it isnt so bad.

so in come some new characters, my youngest daughter wouldnt play until i had painted her character

Xyla

and what a pile of shit she was to paint too..purples and blacks. yup i should really of gotten a little more creative, but i was generally sticking to the character artwork. but should of added some source lighting...truth? i didnt want to paint her anyways!

and then in the end she chose seer kel instead. so i painted a mini i didnt want to paint and it just ended up tossed in the pile of characters.

for myself though, i really wanted to go with a mage type, but ended up going with another character from the warrior class that i havent used yet. so also painting up

Reynhart the Worthy

 sadly he is one of the older design of miniatures and is pretty small. the mini for this guy (who is pretty much a BEAST of a champion) is not worthy at all, but hopefully i have given him some justice at least with the paint job.

at least i was pretty happy. and he seems to be cutting it up after the first quest of the campaign.

ill be painting more of these guys up as we play through. i seem to have enough time on my hands haha

stay safe people

Descent monsters

so its pretty clear i certainly fall within the 'infrequent' blogger category.
but if i am going to take anything from this corona business, then its the fact i will get to spend some extended time with my family. i work hard, so much so i am often too tired come the end of the day to acknowledge too much .
this said the next 5 weeks at minimum are going to be a massive culture shock for me. and a massively tough time for everyone around the world.
but i am going to try and take something from this as a rocket up the backside, stay healthy, keep my family safe and healthy. this also comes with the added notion of 'what the hell am i going to do with myself for the next 5 weeks..or longer?'

well i already found 1 answer

PAINT SOME MINI'S !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Goblin Witchers

over the last year or so i have acquired every single box set for descent. The only things i do not own are a few of the lieutenants and a few of the heroes and monster expansions.

some of this painting will involve dredging through so of the older sets that still have crappy minis, but ill see what I can do all the same.

I'm not going for mega detail on these. i just want to get them painted. and one of the bonuses with descent from my point of view is that the way in which the game is structered, you rarely have too many of 1 type, thus drawing away from the painful mental block i suffer with painting 10 or more of the same unit.

Reanimates

ill be trying plenty of varied methods though and both of the above were simply painted with washes and drybrushing. so were pretty rapid to paint up.

and ontop of that. i have even managed to rope in family to help
"ahh these will be easy, give it a try"
my 6 year old rose to the challenge (with a little help from Daddy of course)

Volucrix Reavers

with about another 100 models left to paint its pretty safe to say amongst a lot fo my other projects that have had to sit on the shelf, there is a very good chance i will have LOTS of hobby time. and i intend to enjoy it with my family,
get a few games in here and there.
and most of all, remain safe and healthy.

and i hope you all do too!

Peace

Descent Fire Imps

nice and simple models here. nice and easy to do utilising a white base coat with washes a plenty building up the white through yellows and oranges

having bought a few descent expansions recently ive got quite a few to get through...but slowly getting there :)

Peace

Descent - Tatianna

Tatianna is a renowned huntress from a secluded tribe of female warriors living in the far reaches of Terrinoth. As civilization encroached on their long-held hunting grounds, Tatianna found her people unprepared to combat the modern world. To ensure the survival of her sisters, she left her home in search of gold, weapons, and powerful magic. With the fate of her people on her shoulders, Tatianna believes she can find some crucial knowledge or weapon in the legacy of the Stewards. as well as being my eldest daughters new character of choice. of course i had to point her up.

what i like with a lot of these descent character designs is that they leave a lot of scope to add the free-hand designs. here being no different with plenty of teenie tiny warpaint/tattoos to be added.

She came out pretty well. and my daughter is well impressed too. oddly though this character is pretty naff as my daughter is now discovering in our current campaign.

Descent - Seer Kel

next off the line from the Stewards of the Secret H&M expansion is Seer Kel.
now this character itself...It's a little odd. shes like some sort of fairy looking thing. and the overall shape and design of the model is something most painters will think "i'll paint that one last!"
and i was going to leave it till last...until that is. my 3 year old daughter proclaimed her "that's my favourite character please daddy can you paint it next"

repeat that over a thousand times over a couple of days. and you now understand why i tackled this one much earlier on.

onto the design. i searched the internet to see how others had painted this. and as i expected. there hasn't been many paint strokes thrown in seer Kels direction.
the overall shape of the model is a challenge to paint. and even though i base my models onto a loose paint pot with some blue-tac. i found myself constantly having to go and retouch up the edge parts of the model. This mini wasn't easy to paint. and i really have very little idea what i was going to do other that attempt to follow the hero card.

so he were go

the challenge here was the obvious focal point of the model is at the back of the model. the skirt thing is huge and what gives her the levitating look. the base artwork had this shown with dark blues. not sure if this was a shadow effect or not. but that's what i went with. and due to the design of the model. what i decided to paint first and get out of the way.

the next challenge was actually ficuring out if this skirt was supposed to be peacock feathers or leaves. i went with a mixture of both.

the final challenge was "what level of detail shall i go for?"
she has some facial/tribal type markings on her face.
and then there are those intricate designs on her leggings..
freehand is something i really want to improve on. so i thought "screw it, lets give it a bash!"

also shes blind..hence the lack of pupils on the eyes.
the freehand didn't turn out too bad. its hard enough painting at this size and then managing to get it completely symmetrical. i tried. and well i think it came out well.

ive given the expansion heroes much more love than the original descent base game. but that said. these are better models in every way. they are actually a joy to paint. and i think that shows with the fact that they can keep my attention throughout.

still got many more to paint. but going strong i think :)

More descent Monsters

having recently gotten back into descent, along with the purchase of a couple of expansions. i've been painting some of them up.

first up i have the hybrid sentinels from the lair of the wyrm expansion
simple technique applied to all of the monsters. base colours and army painter strong tone. thats it. no highlights. no nothing..want to keep it simple on these paint jobs and then make the heroes stand out more by giving them decent paint jobs.

Regardless i still think these work well. they are painted...which is better than not painted right?

Next up we have the Ferrox from The Stewards of the secret hero and monster expansion box

i did something a little different on these. due to the colours. giving them a murky wash of strong tone wouldn't of given the desired look. so these were painted different using various washes over the white basecoat

these however were back to the old strong tone. i gave the bones a wash of sepia and touched the eyes up at the end as i prefer an older looking bone to my skellies

all nice and simply done. and adding a bit more to my collection.
enjoy :)

Nanok of the blade

Descent Descent so many expansions to choose from after being away so long.
of course i go with the one thats got a barbarian in it!!

all games. i wanna be the barbarian.
cluedo...im the barbarian
monopoly....im the barbarian
poker.......yeh im the barbarian

and of course descent. i now have the barbarian. so guess who i'm gonna be?

The guy was really fun to paint. i get a lot of enjoyment in painting fleshtones. and i like the contrasts between the red and yellow/gold.
and just had to try freehand on that emblem.

i also want to add how impressed i am that FFG decided to change the designs of the descent figures. they are a huge improvement.

Descent finally gets some love!

OK I've not been shy in the past on my opinions of the miniatures that came with the base box set of Descent Journeys in the dark 2.0

DESCENT INTO CRAPPY MODELS!!!

DESCENT 2ND EDITION - THE REST

In fact in this household we loved the game and played it a lot. at the time there were no expansions. so this sat on the shelf for a while.
Following the disinterest and quite disastrous reign of Warhammer quest silver tower at our gaming table, this baby was brought back off the shelf.
noticing a whole load of expansions had been released i decided the research a little.
and you know what?
i think the designers have read my blog!! hahaha.
From each expansion the miniatures have seemed to of improved. the miniatures in the most recent expansion released being far superior in design to the original. you can actually see the incline in quality from each expansion.
so much so i went out and bought a couple to put my theory to the test.
the scale has increased from realistic to heroic. which is'nt totally out of place. but it is actually a whole lot better.

so i went back over my 2 previous posts where i pretty much berated 90% of the minis within the descent base box.

was i harsh or was i fair?
I guess opinion may be divided. but regardless I thought "maybe i just did'nt give them any love"
so seeing the massive upheaval in quality i thought maybe i should at least revisit the older minis and try and give them a little love to bring the quality up

so lets start of with Avric. ive decided to put a before and after shot side by side mainly for myself to see the difference that extra time and effort may or may not of paid off. I think it did!

 Leoric of the book.. still smug. but definitely looking much better. i was pestered and pestered to repaint him by daughter #2 as he was her favourite at the point of painting these. that has since changed after purchasing some of the expansions

Syndrael. again another full repaint. toning down the facial features a little rather than trying to over compensate them. not a great sculpt but the repaint brought out a much better overall look i think.

Widow Tarha. i like this character. the scale leaves a lot to be desired. but the repaint definitely brought out more in the sculpt.

Tomble. i didnt actually repaint this one at all. i just painted the base and gave him a nice dulcoat finish. still an improvement i think.

Grisban. another i chose not to repaint. the original did'nt come out that bad. so again i just painted the base and gave him a dulcoat finish. still look better than he originally did

Jain. full repaint on this one. not a great sculpt but was able to breathe a little more life into daughter #1's fave character. i think one of the major flaws with these figures away from the scaling was the mold lines. any of the character facing sideways all had mould lines directly down their faces. which is why in not giving you full 360 images of these! haha

Ashrian...poor Ashrian. i forgot to take a picture of her. but it doesnt matter. because i didnt repaint her anyways. just painted her base and gave a dulcoat finish. but regardless you can see her below with all of her base game buddies!

my eyes are firmly locked on progressing with descent now and fleshing out my collection with more expansions. i now own

Lair of the wyrm
Treaty of champions
Stewards of the secret

so expect to see some posts of my paint jobs on those
i may also possibly revisit some of the monsters from the base game. at least finish the bases on them at minimum :)

oh and happy belated 2017!

Descent 2nd edition - the rest

Now. Whilst this blog is generally anything i like within the hobby. i do tend to predominantly aim most of my focus towards heroquest... i do play other games honest!
but a while back i posted a little review of descent journeys in the dark 2nd edition. part of that review was focused on my distinct lack of liking any of the figures. now ive seen on various forums etc how people have praised these mini's for their amazing detail. but to put it bluntly if i had no desire to give them a decent paint job. there must be a perfectly good reason for that right?
we really enjoy the game in this house..but quite frankly the models really are shit.
up the scale a bit. stop focusing on pointless detail and actual make some cool models..sorry to the sculptor/s but they really just dont do it for me. they kind of look like they have been made with a 3d modelling program and then printed with a 3d printer. has anyone else ever noticed the difference between hand scupted and digitally sculpted? I'm not sure if they were digitally sculpted. but they definately have that feel about them....soulless!
am i wrong? id love to hear if people do actually disagree with me. because im sure my comments must of been viewed by many. infact i know they have, because that 1 single post is the most popular post on my entire blog with more than double the views to its nearest post....that says something. descent is popular i guess. its a newer game..possibly using newer technology to create the models.
anyways i thought id post this up as a little bit of a filler as ive got lots of stuff in the works at the moment but havent really got anything finished. and i havent posted for a few weeks.
anyways...take a bow...the cast of descent!

Ashrian

awful to paint........

 Grisban the Thirsty

definately my favourite of the heroes. and one of the much better sculpts, probably because just like me....he is an alcoholic.......:)

 Barghests

just love the curly bases dont you?

 Dragons.

these deserved a better paint job...but at this point i just couldnt be arsed.

 Elementals.

this are just frikkin weird. I didnt even want to paint these....so i taught my 10 year old daughter how to dry brush...and et voila! not bad huh?

 Ettins

i so wanted these to be better models. i just love how the chin and neck are the same thing. again awful to paint.although they came out better than i thought they would

 Flesh moulders

not even these could remould themselves to be good sculpts

 Goblins

ridiculously small.awful to paint...base colours and army painter were my only friends here

 jain fairwood

not a bad sculpt..again though shitty scale..at this point i was losing the will to live. and just wanted to finish the job

 Leoric of the Book

smug looking git!! nuff said.

 Merriods.

weird sharky things...actually my fave models in the entire set..still not good enough for me to finish the bases hehe

 Spiders

just spiders aint they? you can pick up better ones in the little toy bags for about 50p

Forgotten her name...dont care!

another awful one to paint. some nice details on the armour. but the face is just deformed!

 Tomble Burrowell

came out better than i thought for a 15 minute paint job lol

 Widow Tarha.

i actually like this one....not sure why. still a shit sculpt

 Zombies.

gimme heroquest ones anyday..these are flimsy as hell. i have to move them on the table with a pair of tweezers out of fear of them breaking in half.

Ok there we go..thats all of them. Finito!


ps. back to HEROQUEST soon :)

DESCENT into crappy models!!!

Ok! lets get this straight. I like this game a lot. my family likes this game a lot. but on a whole. the models that come with Descent journeys in the dark 2nd edition. are to say the least...bloody awful.

size wise id say they are about 20mm scale maybe. so they are quite a bit smaller. they lack character beyond belief. and the material they are made out of I think is also used to make car tires..it is barely plastic and feels cheap and flimsy. out of the box I had a total of 3 broken figures and pretty much 80% of them were warped and out of shape. This was fixed by dipping them in hot water for a few seconds. warping back to correct shape, then dunking them into cold water. this worked for the best part. but sadly the models are still crappy.

Rant aside. this is a great game. it ISN'T a dungeon crawler. I've seen many describe it as that. but quite simply. IT IS NOT!

-there is no exploration.

-very little searching of pre plotted search markers.

That to me are two major point of what makes a dungeon crawler. "Lurking through the hidden depths of the unknown, finding an old boot in the dark dank corner of a room, finding a glowing ancient gem that radiates with an unknown glow, as from behind looms an ogre ready to slam his club into the back of the heroes skull."

This sadly will never happen in Descent 2nd edition.

What you do get is a very tightly packed strategic set of plots that feed together as an excellent and fun campaign.

Each quest is set out in a provided quest book and play out, leading into the next quest that can be determined with advantages to the heroes or the overlord (GM) based on who won the previous quest.

this is a great way to string together the quests and give purpose to winning the set quests the heroes enthral!

also quests get chosen in a series based on who won, to give many different and varied ways to play out the featured campaign. kind of like the old lone wolf/choose your own adventure books that I loved in the 80's. for me personally this is an excellent format that not only gives nostalgia to those books but helps the players forge the campaign as they go. take note designers...ill have me some more of that!

so in a nutshell what is descent?

-strategic quest themed board game.

-lots of killing.

-lots of arguments about what move to make (as mentioned its a tight strategic game so 1 mistake could lose you the quest)

-great campaign play.

-nice simple element for travelling to the next quest.

Would I recommend this game?? hell yes its great fun.

what would Improve?? - the god damn awful figures of course! hehe

anyways here's a few shots of some of my painted up figures (they are not fun to paint either, take note of the unfinished bases!! I simply got bored and stopped)

Ashrian & Avric Albright

Tomble Burrowell & Jain Fairwood

Merriod's (don't know the plural)

and hope you enjoyed my first little blog!
hope I wasn't too harsh on the game, but I like to give a varied opinion. slate where it needs slating and praise where its due!
and feel I gave both. if you disagree. let me know your thought please!

peace!!

now go buy the game!! hehe