So, I'm on annual leave which usually means I have a lot of time to paint. This year I've decided to use my time to try and finish painting Descent 2.0. There are seven main expansions and today I present two of them, Trollfens and Manor of Ravens
Trollfens
The Trollfens expansion adds two new heroes and two new monster groups. The heroes are a mage called Augur and a scout called Roganna. Both of these came out better than expected. I'm very happy with the yellow robes which were simple to achieve using a basecoat of GW Wraithbone washed with Contrast Nazdreg Yellow and highlighted with P3 Moldy Ochre. With Roganna I really wasn't sure I could achieve much but in the end the details like the leaves and fur trim really help the model pop.
The monsters in the set are harpies, which again turned out better than I had hoped. I wasn't sure how to approach them but in the end settled for painting them grey and washing them with Contrast Basilicanum Grey before simply just picking out the wings, hair and faces. They aren't perfect but they'll do for tabletop purposes.
The Plague Worms however I enjoyed much more. They were painted almost entirely using contrast paints. I began with a base coat of wraithbone and then primed them with a layer of Contrast Plaguebearer Flesh. Once this was dry I applied a second layer, mixing from Contrast Snakebite Leather, through Plaguebearer Flesh and finishing with Contrast Iyanden Yellow. The consistency of the Contrast paints allowed me to wet blend effortlessly. For the master version I mixed in some Volupus Pink around the mouth.
Manor of Ravens
This set posed me some problems. I didn't particularly like any of the models and when that is the case motivation can be hard to find. The set has two heroes and two monster groups like Trollfens. In this case there is a scout, Thaiden and a warrior, Alys. Alys is armoured, head to toe, which I always find difficult but she turned out okay. Thaiden I think turned out better than I had hoped but I still feel he's missing something.
The bandits are the larger group and they really aren't particularly interesting. Once I cut them off their bases and put them on the sculpted ones I was happier with them.
The Wraiths I was hoping would turn out really well but in the end I couldn't get the results I wanted. I think this may be because of the materials used. The sculpts are a rubbery plastic which is prone to detail loss and mould lines. I think if these hard been a hard plastic (like a GW miniature) then I might have gotten better results. As it was I decided to just power on through and get them finished.
As with all my Descent models I aim to spend around an hour per model. This allows me to get a reasonable finish I am happy with without the entire set taking me a life time to finish. At the time of going to press I have completed 97 of the 160 2nd Edition miniatures and the biggest decision facing me right now is, which model do i paint as number 100?
Until next time, keep on painting...
The Duke
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Discovering Vallejo Violet Ink changed the Duke's painting style forever!