D&D Starter Set: Heroes of the Borderlands Review and Thoughts

Greetings Adventurers! Today I want to share my thoughts (a slight review?) on the new D&D 2024 Starter Set: Heroes of the Borderlands. 

If you want an unboxing video, I suggest Jeff’s fantastic The Gaming Gang’s unboxing video. He does a great job and I’m not going to attempt to replicate that. There are also many fine reviews of this product from Professor DM, Bob Worldbuilder and, of course, Jeff’s full review from The Gaming Gang, just to name a few. Again, I’m not going to try and break down or review this set for quality, components, value, or usability. Others mentioned above have come before me on that and I think their opinions are solid. What I am going to do is give 30+ years of playing Keep on the Borderlands from the perspective of a Grognard who played the original back in the 1980s, revisited it as Return to the Keep on the Borderlands in the 2000s (converting it to 3e) and finally brought it back from the dust with Goodman Game’s Into the Borderlands for 5e. That version started my current 5e D&D campaign that I’m running with my group right now (They are 7th level and way past the ole Caves of Chaos and are now running amok in Dyvers!) I’ll compare the content of the new version to the classic and let you know the major changes between the two (the classic 1979/80 and the new 2025 version). 

Anyway, let me start out to say the components are well made, the layout is easy to read, the language used is easy to understand, the artwork is catchy (but a little bit woke for me at times, compared to the OG KOTB.)

What is an evil drow doing with the Castellan?

I would also say the writing of the content for beginners who have never played a RPG is “spot on” to get a group rolling d20s and interacting with characters and monsters. For any players out there- SPOILER ALERTS abound in the following review! With that said let’s get into the lore and content of this beautiful, boxed set. 

The booklet of The Keep itself. While reading this the feel of The Keep seems more of a safe haven than a gritty outpost as previously presented in the OG version. The writing paints it as an idealistic, almost quaint, little castle. It’s not quite the last bastion of good keeping the monsters and forces of Chaos at bay as the original module depicts. Missing is the description of the desperate struggle the forces of good are having at staving “off the darkness that would overwhelm the land.”  I think this is a bit of a lost opportunity, as well as a miss at setting the stage for gritty adventure. However, rather than the bland descriptions of The Keep and it’s buildings and businesses from the original the new version adds a nice touch. All of the main NPCs have been named and fleshed out. The Castellan is now Winvarle, the Provisioner is now named Ruckus and the Tavern is now The Drunken Dragon run by Umbrusk, etc. This is a nice touch. Another nice feature of the new version is that almost every location in The Keep has some sort of mini quest for the PCs to complete, if they choose to. Most of these are non-combative which I think is a great addition allowing for lots of roleplaying with a bit of “roll-playing” thrown in. The NPC/people of The Keep have been fleshed out a lot and my overall take is both good and bad for this. Some I think are great: like in the Bank, Inn and Tavern. Others…not so much. Some of the people have been made “cute” like Cornflower and her prancing goats from the stable (The Common Stable is now the Barn) who now offers the party a mini-quest to find some lost goats. Not sure if they are going for the “my little pony” audience on this or what, but it’s there. 

A little too "cutesy" for me

Gone is the sly priest of Chaos hiding in the open at the apartments. The elf Advisor (formerly a male elf with questionable ethics called Marevak from other editions) is now an elf woman, Elandra, with very lawful agenda of quests for the PCs. I liked this slightly sinister underbelly of The Keep from the original. I thought it added another level to the location, rather than just a “goody-goody” rest place for adventurers as they raided the Caves of Chaos. Overall, the new Keep is a great spot for PCs to have as a base and a place to rest and buy supplies for the wilderness and the Caves of Chaos (COC). The only thing I’m a little sad about is the severely shortened lists of goods and services available at the establishments.  The Provisioners Shop has a paltry 11 items for sale compared to almost 50 in the OG. The Smithy has no list of available items for sale and the Trader only offers 3 sets of armor, a shield and four weapons. I will say that having handouts for most of these is a nice touch though.

The Wilderness booklet. This pretty much lines up with the OG. Lizard men, check. Spiders, check. Bandits, check. The Hermit is now a lady, the cool tree house is now a simple hut which are strange choices and making her banned from The Keep an even stranger choice.  Several other encounters are added which I think are welcome additions to help a DM see how varied wilderness encounters can be. Sadly, there is no mention of Quasqueton (or of Rogahn and Zelligar for that matter?) Or even a nod to any further locations (dungeons) for a new DM to try their hand at crafting. I think that the designers missed out on a great opportunity here. This would be a great spot to showcase an area for the DM to create or add to. A page about creating a tiny dungeon or simple encounter using components already in the box would have been a really nice edition here. 

The Caves of Chaos booklet. I really think that this is where this product shines. The maps are beautiful. The simplified encounters are perfect. The tokens and the cards make it easy to understand where things are and what the monsters can do. All these components really make it easy to understand the flow of an adventure and how to run the encounters. Each is very compartmentalized, and I think it works. The COC is smaller, but the classics are still there. The Kobolds, The Ogre, The Owlbear, The Minotaur, and of course the Cultists. A few are missing like the Orc fraction but overall, the feeling is there. I’m not a fan of the “humanizing” of the Orcs that WOTC has done. These guys are classic monsters right out of Tolkien and should be the barbaric, raging hoard of evil striking fear in the hearts of PC and NPC alike. An army of Orcs should be terrifying not your next trading stop. Anyway, my thoughts. Back to the COC.  I like the way they linked the encounters to player level, so a new DM knows what the PCs are getting into (either “spot on” or “in over their heads.”) The encounter areas themselves are smaller than the OG but I think it works so that it is easier to understand how much the PCs can take on before having to leave or take a long rest. I also love the way that the PCs can only take a long rest in The Keep. This prevents the “sleeping in the dungeon” problem and avoids the PCs being slaughtered in their sleep. Unfortunately, keeping the encounter areas compartmentalized creates a slight downside that there is little interaction between the areas. Like in the OG you could pit the Hobgoblins against the Bugbears or form an alliance with the Goblins etc. There were rivalries within each fraction, and this provided some cool options for the PCs if they wanted to explore the “parlay” option rather than the “murder hobo” technique so frequently employed by beginning adventurers. I do understand why this bit was omitted but it was a neat option in the OG. 

Final thoughts. Wow what a great starter set. A few changes I’m not wild about but overall, a great product. I really wish I’d had this at the start of my 5e campaign. It would have been everything I was looking for. The old school meets modern that I wanted when I started my campaign. Reading through the booklets made me really want to run this and while I was looking at the maps I was thinking of ways I might use these in my campaigns or one-shots. The maps are just that cool. If ever I run into a situation where someone approaches me and wants to “Learn D&D” this will be my go-to. The components are very “new-be” friendly and I absolutely love that it sticks to the old school classic Fighter, Thief (ok Rogue but I'm an old Grognard!), Cleric, Wizard for starter characters. I made the mistake with a group who had never played D&D giving them all the character class options and it was a nightmare trying to get “newbies” to understand the nuances of playing advanced classes like Barbarians, Bards, and Warlocks. I have the D&D 5e Essentials Kit from 2019 and it is ok but a bit overcomplicated for newbies, the Rick and Morty one (it’s fun but more of a novelty than a “working” product), and I’ve looked at the D&D Starter Kit: Dragon’s of Stormwreck Isle (2022) and both Stranger Things ones and I think that this one is the best out of all of them for 5e. Sure it’s not “Redbox”, Moldvay or Holmes but I think it will do. Is it worth $43.99 on Amazon. Yes. For sure. If you want to learn modern D&D 2024 in an easy to digest box this is it and it takes you to third level. Now, if you want to really play an old school feeling game like you're playing D&D in the '70s and early '80's go get you a Dungeon Crawl Classics First Time Fan Kit for $50 at Goodman Games. 

You get the rulebook (508 pages! but don't freak there only like 30 pages of rules), dice, Judge's Screen and the unbelievably amazing Sailors on the Starless Sea Adventure (and a few others in the main book) and it is the FULL game taking you to 10th level (the equivalent to 20th level in D&D) or if you're scared of that mega huge rulebook check out the DCC FREE quickstart. That takes you to 2nd Level (D&D 4th level equivalent.)  

Feast of the Cyclops Con and some BIG Announcements

 Greetings Adventurers! Well, I’m back. The surgery went well and now I’m recovering from a week in the hospital. I’m home now and it’s nearly been a month since my open-heart surgery. It’s been a rough road in recovery and I’m in a lot of pain, but it is manageable. It’s been a bit hard to concentrate and work on my writing but I’m getting better each day. Sadly, it’s also hard to paint minis due to the pain in my chest so that is on hold as well. The big news here at Hydra Hobbies is that I’ll be playtesting some upcoming adventures during the online Feast of the Cyclops Con put together by Goodman Games and my good friend GrapeApe. This means that the cat is out of the bag, and the BIG announcement is the first two products from Hydra Hobbies for DCC. The first being The Tower of the Mad Mage Mazdor™. It’s a first level adventure for DCC and will be the first product for HH. TMMM is fully written, laid out, has all the art complete, proofread, edited, and nearly ready for submission to GG. This will be the final playtest before publication. I’ll be putting up a product page soon here on the blog and it will include this one AND the next big announcement: The second product! 

The second product for HH will be The Dungeon of the Tormentor. This one will be a 2nd level adventure for DCC, and I’m nearly finished writing it. Feast of the Cyclops Con will be the first official playtest of this one (other than when it was run as a D&D 3.0 over 20 years ago.) Both adventures will have pre-gen characters available right here on the blog for those who sign up to play. I have the TMMM pre-gens complete and just need to set up the page here on the blog for them. I’ll be working on the pre-gens for DOT this week and should have those up soon as well. Hopefully I’ll finish writing DOT before Feast of the Cyclops Con that starts Nov 14th.  I would say I’m about 95% complete with the writing. I hope you will join me for this very inexpensive online convention hosted by Goodman Games.  If you do sign up for any of my games not only, will you get playtest credit, but I will send you a copy of the .pdf and a physical copy, upon approval from GG and publication. Registration is open and games are filling up, so if you do plan to attend, I suggest you sign up soon. I’ll be posting my review of the new D&D Starter Set: Heroes of the Borderlands soon and then after that I’ll have the review of the beautifully illustrated The Adventures of Conan tabletop game. AND a little teaser: The next review will be for a newly reprinted Space Empires 4x from GMT Games (and all three supplements) which I’ve punched out the chits and clipped them (well over a thousand chits!) I’ve gotten this one to the table and had a fun solo play. This game is deep and has so much to it, yet the rules are surprisingly simple. More on that later. 

Well brave adventurers there is lots to do, and the clock is ticking. I’ve got a whole lot of cardiac rehab ahead of me and in between that a lot of prep work to get these two playtests to the table. I hope to see you online for Feast of the Cyclops Con. Until then sharpen your sword and battleaxe and be ready to slay some enemies!

Going To Be Out For A Bit

 

Greetings adventurers! 

I've some sad news. I've been diagnosed with a heart condition and I am about to have open heart surgery. Things are looking good for the double bypass and I'm hopeful that the surgery will go well. I'll be in the hospital after the surgery for a week then when I come home will be recovering and going through cardio-rehab. So with that said I may not post anything for awhile. It will be a 6 to 8 week recovery. I will be channeling the strength and endurance of Conan and I hope my years of lifting heavy weights and keeping myself in shape will pay off. 

Hopefully, when I get better, I can return to my hobbies and projects and maybe even get in some gaming while I'm recovering. So to leave you with a little teaser. Work is nearly complete with my first product and I hope to put something up on the product page in the VERY near future. For another teaser I am also going to try and put up some game reviews here on the blog. The first two will be WOTC's Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set: Heroes of the Borderlands

The next will be Gale Force 9's Adventures of Conan Tabletop game WITH the two expansions 

Nemedian Chronicles and Queen of the Black Coast Expansions (as well as the included solo play mode!)

Until we speak again adventurers remember what is best in life: "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you. and to hear the lamentations of their women!"

Miniature Stamping?

 Fashion Nail Stamping for Miniatures?

Greetings Adventurers! So, I saw this on YouTube. Man does it look cool. I read an article about this and how it will change the hobby. You know I’m a sucker for making my mini’s life easier. Back in the day I bought those water transfers for fantasy miniatures from The Armory. 

You know the ones! Like you used plastic model airplanes? The ones you dip in water and transfer to a plastic model you built? They don’t scrunch down right and look all jacked up, right? Those ones. They rip, don’t transfer correctly and fall off or get touched and come right off. Yeah, those. Back in the late 80’s unless you were some sort of art savant and expert painter with a hand so steady you could make G. Gordon Liddy (look him up kids he’s famous for a lot of stuff least of which was his steady hands) blush there was no way you were going to paint a skull on an orc or a King Richard lion on a shield. The thought of putting stripes by hand on a mini or a model, let alone a pattern? NO. WAY. Well, now you can. You don’t even have to use those troublesome wet transfers that you had to clear cote, varnish and seal with a bazillion products. FYI, I even bought some “snuggle down” a product designed to make the little buggers lie flat. It sort of worked. Check out this knight my greatest success with these.

Not bad. The Dragon looks pretty cool for a wet transfer.

There is a new kid in town. Stamping. Stamping came about in the fashion nail industry, putting tiny intricate designs on lady’s painted nails to make them look cool. It started out with stickers but those were junk and came off. Then someone got really smart and developed a way to “ink” a transfer of a pattern on nail polish from a metal plate to the human nail on a finger. Vola! An industry was born. So, some guy (it has to be a guy right?) saw his girlfriend do this and thought “What if I take one of those patterns and put it on my miniature figure?” I bet it was a warhammer guy. Some of those guys who do kit bashing make some really cool stuff and are very innovative. Anyway. Zingo Zango tiny image perfectly put onto a shield. So, I saw this and I’m in. I’ve got to do this. I have several minis with shields and flat spots that just are dying for this. Well, along came two mini’s guys who formed Goblin Hobbies and took the nail stampin stuff and made the plate designs specifically for miniatures. They sold out like the first iPods. I missed the bus. Well, I got on the mailing list and Bingo Bango they are available again. I went all in (like my usual, some call it lame-brained self) and now I’m the proud owner of the “All-in Stampin’ Kit.”  

Expensive. Perhaps, but boy do the designs look cool. TEN, count them, 10 gleaming plates chock FULL of designs! There are like 50 or more designs per plate! Flaming skulls, web patterns, ancient texts, runic symbols, numbers, heraldry, zodiac, lidless eyes, a crazy amount of different skull designs, sci-fi, fantasy, historical, another crazy amount of patterns (like zigzags, squares, writing, etc) symbols of law, neutrality, chaos, and so so much more. More than I’ll ever really need but they look so cool. I got a double-sided stamper, a square stamper, and six colors (Black, White, Red, Blue, Yellow, and Grey) and all sorts of accessories. 

Let’s see how these come out. 

I followed the instructions included and watched their videos on YouTube. I did a few practice runs on paper to get the hang of the stamping process. 

I know white on yellow paper but you get the idea. 

I have a monster with a cool orange shield I painted about ten years ago. He needs his belt painted and some final detail work but basically good to go. All except his boring orange shield that has been sitting unfinished because I had no idea what I could put on it. None of my “model transfers” fit a monster. They were basically all heraldry stuff. On to it. 

I hit up my mini with the stamp...and I messed it up, of course. But I used a tiny bit of acetone, and it cleaned up the not yet so dry white mistake. It only took off a negligible amount of orange paint. I didn’t even have to touch it up. I tried again and…STAMPO!

Wowie Zowie that looks good. I can’t believe how good that looks. Only my second try and it looks like I’m Squidmar or Ninjon! Look at this skull! So cool. That is not a sticker, folks that is nail polish paint. I sealed it all up with varnish (only two coats) over the shield and he is ready for the table (once I finish his belt and a few small details, of course.)

Check out this Warhammer practice shield

and this Viking.

Before

Whoa!

This Knight.

With the terrible wet transfer and varnish

The new hotness with Greyhawk inspired heraldry (Mountain Lions) and speedpaint chainmail touchup

Oh boy. I’m really in on this. I just watched another of Goblin Hobbies’ videos where he uses silicon tape with a crafting tool to get into a hard to reach spot. I’m going to have to get some of that. There are some really cool designs on my plates that have runic and magic writing that I want to get on this scroll. 

Verdict. This product is cool. Very cool. Expensive? Yes. Worth every penny? For sure! I now have a lifetime of designs that I wish I had 30 years ago and the ability to use every color known to man (nail polish color selections are virtually unlimited and span every color in the universe and then some.) I’m going to practice with this a bit and really get down the process. Once I’ve got it, I’m going to go through ALL my minis (yes, even the ones that are already painted) and redo every shield and design that I botched and thought “Eh, good enough.” I’m even going to add as well as fix some patterns and the like to some areas that I “freehanded.” This product needs more media/press and more publicity. Other mini painters need to know about this.  I mean check out this Warhammer Knight, mounted and unmounted.

 Speedpaint 2.0+ Not so Final Thoughts

Greetings Adventurers! It has been a rollercoaster ride with Speedpaints 2.0+ and Speedpainting, in general. I LOVE a lot of the colors. I’m disappointed in some and I actually hate a few. Overall, I’m sold on the speed and the way it covers a miniature. I mean it really moves across a miniature. I had been given a Christmas gift of a pretty sweet Nolzur’s Chimera and I purchased a Nolzur’s Manticore. I did the Manitcore awhile back completely with acrylics and I really liked the way it came out. Took me about 5+ hours to do this guy. 

Then I Speedpainted (and acrylic finished) the Chimera in about an hour. Whoa, that was pretty amazing. 

I had a tough time with the acrylic coverage of the Manticore wings but when I hit the Chimera wings with the Speedpaint Bright Red I got a complete ONE-COAT coverage in like 10 minutes and that is for both sides! I also am a fan of the Speedpaint metallics for the flow. When I do armor with a regular acrylic metallic it is a chore to move the paint and if I thin it down with water I don’t get the coverage. The Speedpaint flows right out of the bottle all over the armor and into those hard to reach chainmail parts and joints. Beautiful. I’m also really fond of some of the strength of the colors. I really like Pallid Bone, Hardened Leather, Magic Blue, Maize Yellow (oh so good for blonde hair), Charming Chartreuse, Desolate Brown (which is actually a fantastic Olive green), Shamrock Green (an awesome plant leaf color),  Raging Sea, Orc Skin (which is great for not only orcs but goblins and lizardmen), and I do like the Pastels. I struggle with the purples, all the blues, browns, and reds. It’s hard to figure out which ones are the exact shade I’m looking for. I also have a hard time finding a tan color I like. I also really liked either Fire Drake or Frost Giant Orange for red hair but I don’t remember which one was the cool looking one.  

Now on to some serious issues. One. The whites. They are bad. Really bad. None of them are white. They are all grey and they look bad. The blacks. Only Grim Black is a good black. The others just feel like a black wash. Second some downers. Familiar Pink (yuk just look at it!)

Piggy is going to get an acrylic redo!

Ochre Clay is a weird color as it dries shiny like it is wet but I found it great for mushrooms and icky slimes so it is sort of good and sort of bad. This is the only color I remember out of the 90 that I found that dries shiny which is strange (well the metallics but those have metal flakes in them.) Satchel Brown. Ugh, I have a love hate with this one, mostly hate. It is not good for satchels. It is a VERY dark brown and it streaks. Look at this cloak.

I’m tempted to redo this guy because of it. I wish I had found Hardened Leather before I tried this one on a whole bunch of straps, belts, and slings. Ugh again. My huge last ding. The human flesh colors. All of them are bad. Really bad. They don’t look like flesh at all. 

Crusader Skin on the left and Peachy Skin on the right.

That is one coat over an off white primer. The pic seems to make them actually look good but in person they are bad. Peachy skin is a horrid light orange and doesn't look like skin of any kind at all not even a monster’s skin. Crusader Skin, Warrior Skin, and Noble Skin are all just different browns. Not flesh looking at all. Not for Caucasians, not for Arabians, not for Africans, not for Nubians, not for Asians, not for any skin. They are just different shades of brown or a washed out orange and don’t match any skin pattern. Not suntan, not barbarian, not elf, not dwarf, not fair maiden. Sorry, but for some reason Army Painter just doesn’t have skin tones right, even with their Warpaints. I’m sticking with Vallejo here. Sorry. 

My not so final thoughts.

Pros: Aside from the black and whites and the fleshes these colors rock! The shades of color pop. I love the way they go on. I love the way they dry and I love the speed I can paint with them. They are bright and they look great on a finished miniature. The end result doesn’t really need a wash or highlights. If I can pick out the colors I want I can crank out a mini really quickly. Like in an hour. For sure. The cleanup is amazingly easy. Just wipe out your dry palate with a paper towel and it comes right off like melted plastic. I really like the look of the finished Speedpainted miniature. They really stand out. I can’t explain it. The formula of the paint causes it to collect in the recesses, and this collected paint dries a different color than the paint on a flat surface and it really looks cool. I don’t understand how, I’m not a mixologist or chemist but I dig it! Check out this “Green Wizard” I actually painted him in like 5 minutes!

Yes, that is Vallejo flesh with warpaints flesh wash. 

Cons: The type of coverage. If you have a bright color and cover it with a darker color you are out of luck to fix it, with a Speedpaint. Period. If you get blue Speedpaint on yellow Speedpaint there is no way to use the yellow Speedpaint to cover the blue. The only solution is to paint that area white (with an acrylic white not Speedpaint white!) and then re-paint it and even then it doesn't look quite right. The flow. These paints are like a wash and they flow. If you want to do a fine detail like a belt buckle, a ring, or gem there is practically no way to just “dot” something. For this you MUST use an acrylic. If you want to get into a nook like under an armpit to paint a part of a shirt behind a sleeve or behind an arm to paint a dagger. Good luck. Speedpaint flows and you are bound to flow right into where you don’t want that purple or metallic on your light blue or pastel orange. Cuz if you do, you now have purple or silver where the light color should be. Get out the white acrylic and try again. Lastly, the paint dries fast. If you put too much on your dry palate and let it sit it will become a sticky mess and you will waste some expensive paint. Use a few drops, add more drops, use a few add a few. Repeat. 

Ok. The big elephant in the room. Are they worth it? At almost $5 a tiny bottle? To me yes. I think it will solve my painting issue if I can just do one mini at a time (I’m still struggling with this). If I could go back and try all 90 of the colors again and just pick the one’s I like it would be a far better purchase; but you can’t do that. Will it get all my unpainted minis to the table next week? No. Will it speed up my painting? Definitely. It is a great tool in my painting toolbox and I will use them like I would a trusty screwdriver or hammer. It will be my go-to for all my base coats. Am I abandoning my acrylics? No way. Am I going to go out and buy that newly released “One with Everything” Warpaint Fanatic Complete Set...the 216-color acrylic paint set that Army Painter just released? No, no I will not. Not for $800+. Too pricey. I have realized that this 90-color Speedpaint set gives me too many colors and 216 choices for the Fanatic set is just far too many for me. I’m sticking with my 60 trusty acrylic warpaint colors enhanced with Vallejo and some leftover Citadel’s that I really paid too much for per ounce and didn’t know better at the time.

Aw man. I just got my Goblin Hobbies “One with Everything Stamping Kit.” Well, I know what my next article will be about. 

Smiley’s all painted now. What do you think?   

     I made him a bit goofy in colors as the sculpt (back from the 80s) seemed to call for it.

 

Speedpainting Woes

Greetings Adventurers! As I am experimenting with Speedpainting and the Army Painter Speedpaint 2.0+ line. I’m beginning to understand how the paints work as well as what techniques really work and what doesn’t. I’m still on the struggle bus with some mini’s taking me an hour to paint (my success with the Zombie Ogre) 

and others well… really no different than with my acrylics, sigh. I’m stuck in the loop of painting the base coats then switching back and forth to other minis to use up the paint. Then I go back to do the details with acrylics and trying to use the paint on my wet palate, so I don’t waste this expensive stuff I go back and forth between minis. This back and forth is really eating up time, I need to find a sweet spot with Speedpainting the base colors and just using acrylics with washes for the details. Also, I need to do ONE mini at a time so I can actually finish one!

Now on to my biggest woe. Zenithal Priming. I was watching a bunch of ‘how to’ videos on YouTube and almost everyone was saying that this Zenithal Priming is the “thing.” So, I figured I’d try it out. Now, most of my mini’s are all primed either with a grey primer or a white one. My newest purchases were primed with white and my oldest with a darker grey, and some in between were primed with a light grey. I found out that a light grey (as opposed to the darker grey) works best so that is what I’m going to go with in the future...but more on that in a little bit. Unfortunately, I don’t have any ‘new’ minis that need priming, and I don’t just want to re-spray already primed ones with a black primer (whew I’m sure glad I didn’t do that!) and do double work. Ok. I'm weak. I bought a few minis on Amazon that I wanted to replace my original Dungeon Dwellers that I had lost or actually threw away (Ugh, I threw away the Thief and the Elf because the casting was so awful and I really wish I hadn’t done that. I lost the Wizard.) 

The Heritage Models "Thief" and a far better casting than the one I had.

So, I picked up replacements from the Reaper official Dungeon Dwellers modern re-launch line. They are extremely well sculpted re-dos that basically have pretty much the same poses as the original Heritage ones. I got some metal ones, plastic ones, and even a cool Hyborian Sorcerer that was a 3d Printed one (yeah, I got one or two that I just thought were just cool and maybe not exactly Dungeon Dwellers. Like I said I love minis.)

Back on track, I promise. I assembled what needed to be assembled and read the backs of the cards. Hm. Some of them said they are good to go without priming? Ok. Strange because they didn’t look primed like the Nolzur’s. Ok so no matter, I hit 'em up with some black primer then dry brushed them white (well, I didn’t wait long enough to dry with the thief, so he got a little grey. More on that in a bit). I followed the Zenithal Priming instructions and hit the highlights real good with the white dry brush. They looked like the videos so I began with the Hyborian Sorcerer and a plan.

I grabbed the colors I wanted to use and set them aside, this was a new process for me. Usually, I start with one color then hunt and pick the others. This time would be different. I knew I wanted a cool red robe thing as base so I’ll Speedpaint that (I did some color testing and found that Fire Drake was actually brown and Bright Red wasn’t really bright but it WAS the color I wanted: a sort of dark red), my Vallejo Flesh (called Bronze Brown 72.036 for those who are interested in THE best flesh color ever! Near perfect with a flesh tone wash), Gold, Silver, Black, Fire Drake (the brown for the booties), Skeleton Bone for the skulls, Emerald Green Metallic for the Skull’s eyes, white and some flesh wash and strong tone, for the skulls and chain. Ok I figured 30min to get this guy DONE. Well, I found out some stuff.

Anything that wasn’t white stayed black…black black. Even after a few coats. Anything that I hit with the acrylics could not AT ALL be covered with the Speedpaint, even after multiple coats. I made some mistakes with the flesh and gold metallic. As you can see they are still mistakes so I’m going to have to figure out how to color match that red to fix them or they will stay there. That black that wasn’t dry brushed white stands out. A LOT. I immediately went back and re-dry brushed all the others so that only the shadows have black in them. I was to learn that this wouldn’t even do it. The Hyborian Sorcerer is still a work in progress.  

I hit up the Thief and, same deal, that black is blacker than black. Ugh. Although, the areas that were light grey looked really good, hm a discovery.

You can really see where the "black" really stayed "black" 

Next, I tried a full Speedpaint on the Elf with two shades of green following the painting instructions I found on the Reaper website (cuz I liked his look and wanted to see what the speedpaint version would look like.) Note the "Zenithal drybrush" in the first pic. The overall result: Oh no! A big mess.

Ugh, the darkness!

Jungle Acrylic Disaster

The greens when applied were not bright, they were very dark with that black and it looks terrible. Judge for yourself.  When I did my test swatches with those colors they were bright! Then I tried to use acrylic Jungle Green to re-do the cloak. Nightmare. That black is just not letting any color work right. Lessons learned NO WAY Zenithal! I’m going with my standard. That light grey primer with no drybushing. Check out these tests. 

The first is Bright Red and the second is Fire Drake. JUICY! The pic really doesn’t do it justice. I’ve hit up some Speedpaint tests on my grey primed and partially painted villagers that I’m going to use as Zero-Level DCC Funnel minis and they look SO GOOD. 

Bright rich colors and so so fast to paint too! They are still very much a work in progress but the start looks great. That elf is going to get the spray and a redo! I completely re-did the elf with a white/grey primer and look at the results:

Much better and he is still a work in progress. Painting them first with Speedpaint over the light grey primer for the major areas then going back and doing detail work with my acrylics seems to be the winner. Everything but the flesh (again a Vallejo: Dark Flesh 70.927 not really dark but I love it for maidens, elves and gnomes) and straps is Speedpaint. I might have my solution but it just is going to take me a little bit to figure out how to use these new colors. One thing I have done is I've painted a very small portion of the tops of the bottles of Speedpaint with the color inside. This, not only makes picking out colors easy but I can see what the dried "real" results are on a dark grey (all the caps are dark grey) prime. I've also started to do this with my regular warpaints as well so I can see what the dried result will look like. I've seen many pro painters do this and was adverse to this in the beginning as I thought it looked sloppy. Function over fashion on this one. It really does make it easier. One last major woe is that if I paint a light area with the dark Speedpaint color by mistake it is very hard to fix without going back to covering the error with white acrylic then painting it with the desired lighter color. I can't even just go straight to the lighter acrylic color to cover it. Notably, I'm still trying to break my habit of one color at a time and painting multiple minis at once and not finishing any single one. Sigh. It will take time. My continuing thoughts are I really do like the Speedpaints now that I'm getting comfortable with them. I’m still very much in my “it’s new” phase with them. In my next post I'll get some pics of finished minis ready for varnishing so you can see the Speedpaint results then share my "not so final" thoughts on the Speedpaint 2.0+ line. I really do hope my investment will pay off and I can get ole Smiley to the table along with about a hundred of his friends.

“Don’t mess me up like that elf, buddy, or I’ll disintegrate you!”

Speedpaint 2.0+ My Initial Findings

Hello Adventurers! So, I just received my wonderful Speedpaint 2.0+ Complete Set (90 colors!) and

I’ve begun to paint with the colors and try them out. It is a bit of a learning curve. I’ll share some pros and cons with my actual use and beginner’s (well speedpainting at least) thoughts. If you don’t want to read further. My initial take. Yeah, I think these will work and speed up my painting times. Can I get down to under 30min a mini?…maybe not but maybe less than an hour? Not sure yet. I’m still learning. Is it worth it? Not sure. Time will tell, but I think I like them. 

Pros

This stuff flows really well. The consistency is very much like watered down acrylic paint or a wash. 

The dried coverage is unique and does a good job of acting like a wash adding depth.

A little seems to go a pretty long way. I only used about 5 or 6 drops to do the entire Ogre Zombie skin and that was with 2 coats and it is a rather large mini (almost 3 inches tall). I maybe used 2-3 drops of paint (each color) for the elf (1.5 inches tall) and I had paint left over.  

The colors look cool. Some are very bright and others are very dark. It is hard to tell which they will be from the bottle graphic, the wet liquid, or even the initial coating until they dry. Right there is the biggest learning curve especially when picking colors. 

I’ve not had any “reactivation” issues unless I wanted them.  I even tried painting over previously painted areas after only less than a few minutes drying time (just when it didn’t look wet) and I didn’t have any bleed.

They clean up really, really well. On my dry palate, once the speedpaint dries, it becomes almost like a liquid plastic putty. It lifts right off with a fingernail or paper towel. Acrylics dry HARD on the dry palate and have to be scraped off, not so with these. 

I tried out these paints on several minis with varied primer types. I tried them on a flat white, a flat light grey, a flat dark grey, and pre-primed Nolzur’s D&D. All came out with very similar results. All of them good.

That minotaur's body is actually the "Gravelord Grey" and not the "Grim Black" but it is VERY BLACK. The "Grim Black" is SUPER BLACK. The horns, axe head, axe shaft, and base are all Army Painter Warpaint acrylic. The body and belt are speedpaint. The sandals were painted with speedpaint brown and the color did not cover and later I used an acrylic to paint the leather of the sandals.  

Cons

It does not do “coverage.” If you put a darker shade on and mess up. The regular lighter color will not cover it. I’m having to “shade” match my acrylics to the speedpaints to cover mistakes. This sea hag's brown loincloth is one coat...very white.

The colors can be really dark when they dry. Also, some can be very light when they dry. This medusa I kind of wanted the opposite of what I got. I wanted dark snakes on a light face and hands but I picked poorly. Again need to get experience as to what the final colors will "really" look like. 

You must be VERY careful with the application. This stuff flows like water and it should be put on with a smaller brush than you would think you would need with standard acrylics. 

It pools. It REALLY pools BUT it dries lighter in the pools than you think it would. 

One coat and done doesn’t really work for a lot of the colors. Especially on textured parts of the mini like fur or wraps etc. The ogre's wraps would not get darker. I'm going to have to use an acrylic and a wash to get the effect I want on these.

It’s not for detail work. Because of the flow It does not seem so great for belts, rings, pouches, belts etc. Use a small brush and be careful where you put the paint.

If you are trying to get paint into a small place (like a gash or hole) don’t think it will flow in and not leave color paint behind. Use a small brush and be very careful if the color is dark and you are painting next to a light color. Note: See the right and left gashes near the armpits.

Speedpaint dries pretty fast on your palate. Put one or two drops then add more when you need more. If it begins to dry it becomes a goopy mess like melted plastic.

Findings

The paint goes on fast and dries, looking great. Sometimes you will have to do two or more coats to get the color you really want. Detail work must be done with acrylics. 

The verdict is still out on the metallic colors. I don’t hate them, but they don’t seem to give the same intense coverage that the Warpaints Metallics line does. Maybe they could be good for armor and chainmail to create that darkness in the textured part without having to use a wash? More experimentation needed. Looks pretty good on his belt once it dried.

I got a really BIG bottle of Speedpaint Medium and a regular sized bottle. Not quite sure why they included this much “mixing medium.” I read on their website that you can “thin down” the Speedpaint but gosh it’s really thin right out of the bottle. I need more research on what the Speedpaint Medium is used for. Can I make my acrylic Warpaints Speedpaint by adding the medium? Whoa that would be cool. Stay tuned. Oh, and if you are wondering “Smiley” is still primer grey. I’ll get to him soon enough! 

NOTE: Smiley is a 1980 Grenadier AD&D lead miniature from the #2012 Dwellers Below boxed set. I have the original box, foam, insert and have 7 of the 9 miniatures fully painted. Just “Smiley” the beholder and the Yuan Ti remain unpainted. The Yuan Ti is base coated green but the rest of him is primer grey! I really want to do a good high level job on “Smiley” and decided he wasn’t a good choice for a paint experiment.