avin
First Post
That's good news for me. Most people I know buy it for DDM, I'm glad to hear that I'm an exception. And these people I know don't care too much about sculpt and painting, they want übber stats.
Demonweb - preview 5 is up
- Thread starter Matrix Sorcica
- Start date
That's good news for me. Most people I know buy it for DDM, I'm glad to hear that I'm an exception. And these people I know don't care too much about sculpt and painting, they want übber stats.
I agree that the paint jobs are pretty bad and totally lacking depth. BUT they still look better than unpainted minis AND they're cheaper - especially the Large and Huge ones.
I've got a lot of Reaper minis I hardly ever use any more since I started collecting DDM.
The DDM simply work better when using them to play D&D. It's not as if I'd buy them to put them in a vitrine as a piece of art. First and foremost they're game-aids just like dice and tiles. If they look good that's a plus - no more.
Fifth Element
Legend
Well said.
El Mahdi
Muad'Dib of the Anauroch
Wow, I didn't think one little post would get so many people up in arms.
I'll humbly admit that my post was a little strong in how I said what I did, and may have exagerated the impact of the quality of the new set.
Sorry
Oh well, nobodies perfect. Yesterday was a bit rough.
Let me retry this:
For me, these seem to be some of their worst paint jobs yet. I only use D&D minis for RPG's, not DDM. And I have so many metal minis (of which I'll grant that most WoTC minis sculpts look better than most of my metal ones) that I really don't need a lot of monster minis anymore (for that matter I don't really need PC minis either, but I just . . . can't . . . resist). However, really good monster minis, if they are ones I don't have versions of, always catch my eye. To me, there just seems to be fewer and fewer of the good ones.
Also, except for the first couple of sets, it seemed I could rely on them fairly well to have good PC figures (although the really good ones always seem to be rare and therefore pretty expensive on the secondary market). The good PC figures seem to be getting rarer also. I wonder if the individual minis (if they do actually start selling individual minis*) are going to be just individually packaged versions of already existing minis, or an entirely new line?
IMO, I've only seen a couple of minis in this set that would make okay PC's, and only a few good monster minis, but none that really make me want to buy them, so far. Granted, we haven't seen the whole set yet.
However, there are quite a few minis on the teaser page that are way better than the ones WoTC has chosen for their previews. I really have to question the skills of whoever is selecting the minis that have been previewed. Even if you don't agree with me that there as bad as I think they are, I think most people would probably agree they haven't previewed the best of the bunch.
*(I thought WoTC was just testing the waters about this - and I haven't heard anything new.)
I'll humbly admit that my post was a little strong in how I said what I did, and may have exagerated the impact of the quality of the new set.
Sorry Oh well, nobodies perfect. Yesterday was a bit rough.
Let me retry this:
For me, these seem to be some of their worst paint jobs yet. I only use D&D minis for RPG's, not DDM. And I have so many metal minis (of which I'll grant that most WoTC minis sculpts look better than most of my metal ones) that I really don't need a lot of monster minis anymore (for that matter I don't really need PC minis either, but I just . . . can't . . . resist). However, really good monster minis, if they are ones I don't have versions of, always catch my eye. To me, there just seems to be fewer and fewer of the good ones.
Also, except for the first couple of sets, it seemed I could rely on them fairly well to have good PC figures (although the really good ones always seem to be rare and therefore pretty expensive on the secondary market). The good PC figures seem to be getting rarer also. I wonder if the individual minis (if they do actually start selling individual minis*) are going to be just individually packaged versions of already existing minis, or an entirely new line?
IMO, I've only seen a couple of minis in this set that would make okay PC's, and only a few good monster minis, but none that really make me want to buy them, so far. Granted, we haven't seen the whole set yet.
However, there are quite a few minis on the teaser page that are way better than the ones WoTC has chosen for their previews. I really have to question the skills of whoever is selecting the minis that have been previewed. Even if you don't agree with me that there as bad as I think they are, I think most people would probably agree they haven't previewed the best of the bunch.
*(I thought WoTC was just testing the waters about this - and I haven't heard anything new.)
Last edited:
avin
First Post
I do think this set is better painted than the previous two, but I am trying to make the next one as good as I can.
What sort of monster figures catch your eye? If you could create your own miniatures, what would you pick?
(PC ideas are also welcome, but realize that I'm from 18 months in the future. Time travel's a pain.)
That would be me. Which ones would you have preferred that I preview?
Bad
Good
Then.....
No shadings, no highlights, just stale and looks plastic. Take the knee pad for example here or the coat seems in the first Strahd image. A little bit of highlights would go worlds to make them look much better.
the Cyclops facial details are in the right direction, but they are so small compared to the rest of the figure that they are overlooked due to the blandness of the overall figure. Also they are just too shiny. I seems like a gloss varnish was applied, or the paint was in the mold causing the heat that stuck it to the mini also tempered it too much to cause the shine. They need to be a bit more flat colors rather than the semi-gloss look, and just a little bit of added depth so they don't look like flat (2D) images from AD&D aventure modules that gave the character pictures.
you probably already know the axe for the cyclops could use some NMM work, but that is probably too much to be done for mass produced minis, but something needs to be done to not make it look like a sheet of copper is covering the axe. Maybe some patina or something near the recesses.
For scultps the minis are getting better looking than the Hydra. You can clearly see the cyclops features, but the hands lose a bit there.
The Mezzodemon looks like it is a crab/tree hybrid. Again probably due to mass produced painting, so the depth of the sculpt is loss in the thick coat of continuous color.
The previous article #4 has the Bugbear looking like it is doing some kind of performance dance and is working his jazz hands. WAAAH!
He has good detailing in the preview image, but the paint gets lost here by the funny pose.
Preview 3 was just bad looking minis. Like just plastic with no color, and the proportions seem to be off.
Deathcap looks great from #2, but the pure white spots detract from the great sculpt and other detailing work on the stem.
Shadow Flayer tentacles.....well....and the Solamith looks like it is wearing Silly Putty breeches. Too much of a solid color. Again probably hiding what details there is in the sculpt.
So are the previews the mock-ups, or the actual production models? I doubt those are your initial pieces of work as there seem to be some mold lines showing, so the problem is probably in the mass production and getting the sculpts to come out defined, and enough color to show something more than a quarter machine toy man.
If you made each mini by hand, then there would be little problems.
Good
Then.....
No shadings, no highlights, just stale and looks plastic. Take the knee pad for example here or the coat seems in the first Strahd image. A little bit of highlights would go worlds to make them look much better.
the Cyclops facial details are in the right direction, but they are so small compared to the rest of the figure that they are overlooked due to the blandness of the overall figure. Also they are just too shiny. I seems like a gloss varnish was applied, or the paint was in the mold causing the heat that stuck it to the mini also tempered it too much to cause the shine. They need to be a bit more flat colors rather than the semi-gloss look, and just a little bit of added depth so they don't look like flat (2D) images from AD&D aventure modules that gave the character pictures.
you probably already know the axe for the cyclops could use some NMM work, but that is probably too much to be done for mass produced minis, but something needs to be done to not make it look like a sheet of copper is covering the axe. Maybe some patina or something near the recesses.
For scultps the minis are getting better looking than the Hydra. You can clearly see the cyclops features, but the hands lose a bit there.
The Mezzodemon looks like it is a crab/tree hybrid. Again probably due to mass produced painting, so the depth of the sculpt is loss in the thick coat of continuous color.
The previous article #4 has the Bugbear looking like it is doing some kind of performance dance and is working his jazz hands. WAAAH!
He has good detailing in the preview image, but the paint gets lost here by the funny pose.
Preview 3 was just bad looking minis. Like just plastic with no color, and the proportions seem to be off.
Deathcap looks great from #2, but the pure white spots detract from the great sculpt and other detailing work on the stem.
Shadow Flayer tentacles.....well....and the Solamith looks like it is wearing Silly Putty breeches. Too much of a solid color. Again probably hiding what details there is in the sculpt.
So are the previews the mock-ups, or the actual production models? I doubt those are your initial pieces of work as there seem to be some mold lines showing, so the problem is probably in the mass production and getting the sculpts to come out defined, and enough color to show something more than a quarter machine toy man.
If you made each mini by hand, then there would be little problems.
mac1504
Explorer
More salamanders please. The versions from previous releases are a bit pricey on the secondary market now. It would be nice to have a lancer, an archer and another noble released.
I think Demonweb looks real good; I was hoping for more duergar (couldn't you have bumped the
Dire Bear Mauler
) but the selection looks nice. Keep up the good work.
mac1504
Explorer
Not sure if you read the other thread regarding the DDM line, but my suggestion in that thread was for heroic, epic and paragon versions of PC minis. Each level would get more powerful with armor, weapons, garb, etc.
Of course, if I was in charge of the line, I'd make the heroic version of the PC mini common, the epic version uncommon and the paragon level rare
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