PUBLISHER: WIZKIDS | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
As you may have gathered, we are rather fond of fantasy miniatures over here at the Secret Starburst Gaming Thunderdome. Those lovely people over at Wizkid Games produce models specifically for Dungeons and Dragons, including Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures, a range of models that are assembled and primed but not painted, allowing gamers to add their own unique style to the pieces.
Wave 13 comes with some rather interesting models, all of which can be purchased in separate packs. Let’s take for example, the Froghemoth. In D&D terms, this is a huge monster that attacks with its tongue, tentacles and bite. It’s a scary beast and the model for it is rather fun; it’s sculpted in such a way that it’s skin looks rough and unpleasant, it’s huge mouth is lined with nasty looking teeth and its tentacles are nightmarish. Just what we wanted.
Also in the range is a Goristro, a huge gorilla-like demon thing, that looks like King Kong and Satan had a baby and it grew up to be absolutely huge. This fiendish minotaur is a potential party wipe out, and the sculpt is very satisfying, with huge clawed hands, an expressive (and angry) face and many, many spikes. Like the Froghemoth, it’s primed for painting and you will need to take care when painting where the limbs meet the torso due to the way it’s sculpted.
In more traditional ‘monsters’, Wave 13 brings us Efreeti & Djinni. Both sculpts tread the line between ‘looking human’ and ‘clearly awe-inspiring supernatural beings’. Like the rest of the range, they’re solidly put together and well-detailed. They have enough detail to be fun to paint without being too busy; nothing that can’t be painted by shading or drybrushing. Those with stronger painting skills will find there’s plenty to do as well.
Winged beastie wise, the range features a nice broad set. We found the juvenile Bronze Dragons rather adorable, especially as you can pose them pawing over their first treasure chest. Their wings ‘look’ awkard (as you’d expect from little wyrmlings) but are sturdy and easy to paint. One of the packs features a Deva and a Erinyes. Both winged humanoids are striking. The ‘energy whip’ on the latter looks like a challenge to paint as it’s made of translucent plastic, but one that’s well worth the effort.
One of our favourites from this range is the Alhoon & Intellect Devourers. The latter are spooky looking brains on legs, the former is basically a squid-faced wizard. Mind Flayers are a great D&D monster and the Alhoon is basically a wizard version. The sculpt has wild facial tentacles with the piece in a ‘spell casting’ pose. Better yet, tentacles are shooting out of the model’s base, adding to the effect.
The range has a lot of normal, person sized adventurers and lot of them are casting spells. Wizkids have included the ‘translucent plastic’ effect into a lot of these sculpts, so the adventurer looks like they’re actively casting magic missile, shocking grasp or any number of D&D spells. These are cool and it most cases easy to paint.
Overall, a great range of models to add to your games.
