About a month ago, I was lucky enough to weasel my way into someone's Gloomhaven campaign by offering to paint the miniatures inside (the owner didn't even suspect that I also enjoy painting so a double win for me!). I took home the models after a board game night over at his place some time in December and then just stared at them for a while. Some of the models are actually sculpted very well and were nothing but entertaining to paint, but a couple of them had dulled details and horrendous mold lines.
Here is the team shot to give you an idea of how they look together. I tried to both follow their artwork colors while also giving each a unique palette of colors. A few things I noticed were that
all of them had glowing eyes in their art. Now don't get me wrong, I liked glowing eyes as much as the next model painter (they're probably the easiest for me personally, tied with just putting the eyes in shadow) but that seemed a bit boring to do that for all of the models, so I just chose half of them for that. The other problem I ran into is that their art portrait is always in complete shadow or otherwise odd lighting, so I had to be a bit creative. Overall I'd say I enjoyed painting them though, and I'm looking forward to painting the others as they are revealed. I'll put in the title of those posts whether or not they contain a spoiler reveal (they obviously will since I've just posted all of the starting characters). I decided not to base them because I don't like basing. And it could fall off during play, but mostly because I don't want to.
Each character:
Cragheart
He was the first one I painted. The picture (which I know is bad) makes him look far more blue than he actually is. See the group shot for reference. But he was a ton of fun because of all of those shards from his body and the cloth made for a good amount of texture to hold on to.
Brute
I figured out a better picture spot in my apartment (my kitchen). This one is probably my favorite. He is huge compared to the other five, and has texture
everywhere from the fur to the bone armor to the horns. He was a breeze to dry brush and then just pick out the details. I don't think I ever posted them here but he reminds me of a unit of WHFB beastmen that I painted several years ago that also had ice blue fur with red-brown fur accents and red eyes. Might be a coincidence but either way I love the combination so I was excited to see it here.
Mindthief
"I'M MENTOK THE MIND TAKER! BOOOOWEEEEOOOO!"
Except now 60% more rat like.
I must have saved the best for first because these three were the most fun to paint. I couldn't resist a cartoony aesthetic with a giant psychic rat (and his two rat buddies! one on the ground and the other on his shoulder). Minor glowing on his face, which is supposed to be coming from his hand or his brain or something.
Tinkerer
Okay I didn't like this guy much at all. So many little details on such a tiny model (the smallest I think). He single-handedly wore out my detail brush and I had to reshampoo it after him. Not only that but his colors in the art were all just different shades of brown with a blue accent. Not very exciting. I did the best I could (well actually no I just painted until I got fed up) and I'm pretty happy with how he turned out. I doubt anyone will even see most of the details that I had to put on him.
Spellweaver
This model made me realize that I in fact do not own any purple. At all. I thought about buying some but I'm also thinking about buying a whole set of Army Painter colors soon so I just made do with mixing colors (yes, I know, gross). But I think she turned out alright. The flame is cool and the ice is hot. The face however is neither. She is supposed to have glowing yellow magic eyes but by now I was a day before our first game and in a rush so varnish her up and call it done.
Scoundrel
The last and in my opinion the worst of the models. I don't know if it was a manufacturing mistake or just a bad sculpt but the details on her were so dulled and rounded, that my initial wash didn't even show most of them. I had to look up how other people painted her to find them all. Even then I'm sure I missed a bunch. That blue by her right hand is just undried varnish by the way, not paint. I was in a rush as I had to paint her the day of the game so that they would all be done in time. Also she looks like the Green Lantern.
So by now I've already varnished and handed them all over but I still welcome any feedback. I am really looking forward to doing the rest, this has been a refreshing break from the Khador that I have been painting lately.
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