Budget Painting Handles

For a long while I've used bottle tops as paint handles. They do the job, but as my hands get older I'm finding it painful to hold them for long periods of time.  Recently I used an old toothpaste lid which was taller and more comfortable to hold*, but top heavy; fine for light minis (like the goblins I painted here, check out the first photo of the third goblin) but not ideal. However, turned upside down they were much more stable, but with no upper surface. Clearly I needed to fill in the void.

The obvious material was hot glue and I added a metal nut for extra weight and stability. I finished it off with a milk bottle cap, which I trimmed down once the glue had cooled.  I'll use blu tac to hold minis in place.

The raw materials, just add hot glue

All stuck together

Trimmed and finished

This works fine for minis with bases, but if I'm preparing minis for clear basing I remove the broccoli base and glue wire into the feet.  In the past I used crocodile clips to hold the mini for painting (as with the Apache band here), fastened to BBQ skewers, and stuck in holes drilled in a block of wood. This tends to be a bit unstable and fiddly.

I decided I might as well upgrade these too, and thought about just filling in with hot glue around the skewers. Then I tried the bolts that came with the nuts I used earlier and they fit nicely in the tops and the clips screwed onto the thread. Much better!

The raw materials, again, just add hot glue

Clip screwed on to the bolt

Two completed painting handles

So two different model paint handles at very little cost. The only outlay was a pack of eight nuts and bolts from the local 'cheap stuff' shop. 

I've not used them much yet, but they are bound to be more comfortable than the old caps or the skewers. 

I'm sure other toothpaste lids would work, or indeed other lids or tops. They just need to be relatively tall compared to the width to keep them stable.

EDIT:  Crocodile clips are easy to get hold of online, 5 amp clips are sufficient.  The nuts and blots were 40mm long M4 bolts, which are just the right size for the clips and long enough to attach the clip to, but not so long as to be unstable.

*I've been saving these for a while simply because they have an interesting shape.  I have used them as rocket exhausts in scrap piles.

D&D Adventurer Magazine parts 5 & 6

I'm continuing to look through these.  It's now possible to work out roughly where they are heading and what they are covering by looking at the Hachette website.  They are starting a new Adventure in issue 12, so I'll probably finish with issue 11 (always assuming I can find them, they are getting thinner on the shelves - which is normal for partworks).

Both issue continue to develop all four of the sections, and I'm getting a better idea how these are put together now.  

Issue Five

Sage Advice covers the Three Pillars (exploration, social interaction and combat) in a very general way. A nice touch is suggestions for including aspects of one pillar within another. 

Then there are pages covering the different ways time passes in the game and how different light levels affect characters. 

Finally there's a section on damage resistance, vulnerability and immunity.

Character Creation covers the fighter class. As with the previous classes, there is a page of background and a page on first level features.

Lore covers the Neverwinter Wood. While it would have been nice to have details of potential wandering monsters, there is a very useful map of the region. This is the same area as the big map in issue two, but has the adventure locations from both Lost Mine and Icefire Peak marked, along with short paragraphs describing them. 

The second Monsters page looks at skeletons. No stats unfortunately, it looks like these will only ever be included in the Encounters.

The freebie in issue five is another set of dice, the third so far.

Issue six 

This issue is mostly concerned with levelling up. 

Sage Advice is a single page looking at magic items and discussing attunement. 

Character Creation is a large section, with an overview of levelling up and giving details of hit point increases. 

Then a page about Orcs as a character race followed by four pages detailing the new stuff the four classes covered so far gain at second level. If you're building up the collection in binders, these pages slot in after the relevant class sections covering first level abilities.

Lore continues the orc theme by looking at the Kingdom of Many Arrows.

Issue six also includes another dice tin and set of dice (two tins and four dice sets now, plus the bigger D20) and four more character sheets promoting the pre-gens to second level.

As previously, I'll look at the Encounters at the end, so you can avoid them if you don't want spoilers.

Summary

Honestly, for me the Encounters are the draw in the magazines. I've found useful stuff in nearly all of them. I will also be sharing the relevant class information pages with any new players in my campaign, though so far this covers only the options chosen for the pre-gens. 

It's interesting to see how the information is presented, and also how things have changed since fifth edition was first published. The inclusion of orcs as a player race so early in the run marks quite a shift. Previously, you had to wait until Volo's Guide to Monsters for this.  It emphasises the shift towards treating the different races as all essentially neutral, with certain individuals, perhaps, giving them a bad name.

The page on levelling up confirms that the Adventures use milestone XP, but does mention XP points as an alternative method.

The features at second level are designed specifically for the pre-gens. Whilst this is fine, and only what the starter sets do, I'd hoped that the collection would build up into a complete set of rules. There is a suggestion that other wizard schools will be covered in future ( the halfling has abduration), but there's no option for readers to make different choices. Of course, D&D Beyond is an option, though it isn't specifically mentioned here.

Given the total cost of the collection, I was hoping that more choices would have been covered.

The Encounters

The Crypt of the Elf Lord is almost brilliant.  It's another one I'm stealing for my campaign.  Briefly, the adventurers follow a lead from Carp Alderleaf, who, judging from his role as 'finder of concealed places' in The Lost Mine of Phandalin, must be a bit of a tear-away.  The crypt  is the last resting place of an Elven king and his crony's.  There is a trap, a puzzle, potentially a couple of combats and a nice treasure.  

However, the crypt is accessible for 'a few nights' only,  and characters can get trapped in it if they remain for more than eight hours.  The Encounter gives no method of escape, meaning a potential TPK. It's relatively easy to address this though, here are a few options that immediately occurred to me.

Extend the time limit and warn the players; Carp got trapped in the crypt for a day, only able to escape the following evening.  Thus he can both inform the characters of the location of the crypt, and warn them that it is likely to be difficult to get out (though he won't know that this is the last chance for a year).  The characters could even start the Encounter by looking for Carp after he fails to return home rather than the hook as given.

Foreshadow the danger; What if others managed to get into the crypt but fell afoul of the transitory nature of the entrance?  The remains of a couple of adventurers will show that there is some danger.  Maybe they are the ones who conveniently placed the silver coins in the goblet, but were unable to solve the rest of the puzzle.  One of them has a bundle of papers that note star constellations, especially Lavarandar's Lantern, with a mention of the dates it should be visible in the night sky.

Make another exit; If we assume that the crypt exists on both the material plane and the Feywild, presumably it should be possible to exit into the Feywild at other times.  The actual exit might only be present in the Material Plane, but the characters should be able to dig to freedom with appropriate Strength checks.

Queen of Scars has yet more orc action. It's an interesting Encounter, presenting a problem with several ways of solving it, though it's clearly intended that the problem be talked through rather than fought through. I'd have liked to have seen the titular Queen being a bit tougher, but that would make a violent solution much harder (its already very tough to fight to a win here). 

It's nice that the Encounters are demonstrating that there should be non-combat Encounters as part of a balanced Adventure, and although the writer discusses various ways of solving the problem, this is not prescriptive.  There are also repercussions to the solution chosen, which should influence the way the characters are viewed in Phandalin going forward.

Vallejo Xpress Paints Three Goblin Trial (77445)

Long time readers may know that I've tried Citadel's Contrast paints and Army Painter's Speed Paints with varying results. I struggled to get the Contrast paints to really behave as I wanted, but the Speed paints were much better.  There was the issue of reactivation, but I used this property to help blend colours.

When I heard Vallejo were doing their own equivalent I had to try them.

Since I used Speedpaints to try and reduce my unpainted Reaper Bones mountain, it seems a fair test to try Xpress paints on more Bones.

For this test I'm painting some of the more recent Bones goblins, and I'm trying three slightly different methods with a limited number of paints.  All the goblins had the metalwork painted first with Vallejo Game Color Chainmail Silver and then washed with thinned  Vallejo Xpress Color Black Lotus.

Goblin 1

The first goblin is painted using mostly colours straight from the bottle straight onto the white Bonesium.  The flesh is VXS Imperial Yellow, the loincloth is VXS Plasma Red and the various leather bits are VXS Wasteland Brown.  The shield was a roughly 50:50 mix of the black and VXS Templar White.

I also dabbed a bit of the thinned brown on the face to see if it helped define the features.

Goblin 2

For the second goblin, I mixed colours a bit more, especially for the skin tone.  This was a mix of three parts yellow and one part brown.  to take the brightness out of the red for the cap I added a bit of the skin mix to the red.  On the photos the cap and the loincloth on goblin 1 look very similar, but the cap is darker in real life.  The skirt is VXS Dwarf Flesh, which gives a surprisingly good faded buff colour.

the bracer and fletchings are black and the leatherwork is the brown.  I went over the rope with a thinned black to give it more definition.

Goblin 3

The final goblin has an all over base coat or wash of Wasteland Brown thinned in a 1:5 mix with Xpress Color Medium. My hope here is that this helps accentuate the shadows, rather like Reaper's own brown liner. 

I then used pretty much the same colours as I used on the first goblin. 

Results

I'm a huge fan of Vallejo paints, but I feel the results are mixed.  I'll admit to sometimes not shaking the paint well enough (Army Painter put mixing pellets in the bottles to help, I'll have to add something to these).  Also, the goblins are lovely minis, but the detail is fairly shallow.  I like the last goblin best; the initial wash helps define the shadows, and darkens the colours slightly.  If I could get a thinner wash that collected more in the shadows it would be better.  A final drybrush of Vallejo Model Color Ivory would also emphasis detail, and of course I haven't done anything for the eyes or teeth, both things that would improve them.

Based properly (this is just one coat of VXS Orc Skin) and they would do for hordes of goblins in a roleplaying game, and they are certainly better than unpainted minis.  

Final Thoughts

Some of these paints are really nice, Wasteland Brown is a favourite at the moment.  All go on Bonesium very well, with no difficult patches.  I want these to give a reasonable result for as little effort as possible, so I'm prepared to sacrifice quality to a degree.  I'm not sure the above test minis quite work yet, but I'll give them a drybrush, paint in the facial detail and base them to match the rest of my D&D mini collection.  They were very fast to paint though, so they certainly meet that requirement.  

I suppose I should try another goblin with Speedpaints for a fair comparison as well.

What do you think?  Are they disappointing or acceptable for what I'm looking for (i.e. a fast way to get the Mini mountain reduced?  Please leave a comment, especially if you've tried them.

Dungeons and Dragons Adventurer Issues 3&4

I've had the chance to read through the next couple of issues of Adventurer magazine. You can see my thoughts on issue one here and issue two here. 

This time I'll  give a briefer overview and try to share my thoughts as to the suitability, or not, of the part-work.

As I've done previously, I'll cover the adventures at the end, so you can avoid spoilers.

Both issues use the familiar artwork with different spot colour. I wonder if they'll change this when we get to the second adventure?

Sage advice covers Conditions and Spell casting times and range.

We're starting to get more detail on spellcasting now, useful as the Character Creation sections look at clerics and wizards.

Character Creation covers Skills, Elves, Halflings and Dwarves, so we have general information for all the pre-gens races. There are introductions to wizards and clerics, much like the rogue stuff in issue two. 

As with rogues last time, a page of rough background before we start to look at actual class details and features.

Lore gives an overview of the Sword Coast and the start of two new sub sections; Factions, introducing the Red Wizards of Thay and the Zhentarim, and Monsters, looking at Vampires.

Unsurprisingly, they are filling in the Forgotten Realms world here.  Given the importance of Phandalin in the first adventure (or series of Encounters) I'd have liked to see more on that region, the town especially.  I should note that the Encounters (see below - or not if you even intend to play in them) use information from the Lore section as background.

The 'Freebies'

Issue three includes 'flats' of the four pre-gens. These are very nice, sturdy and clearly printed.  

As I said previously, if these had been around when I started playing D&D I'd have been building up a collection, but by now I'm too much of a minis addict to quite now.  I have, in fact, used card 'flats' before.  For adventures where I couldn't find anything quite matching the monster I was looking for, or for large numbers of minion types.  One Monk is a great source (among others) of these.

Issue four includes a big d20 and a pouch to hold it in. While not essential, it's nice to have. I keep mine ready for secret rolls when I'm running online games. 

The cheapest big die I could find on Amazon was around £8, so I guess this pretty much covers the cost of the magazine?

Summary

The part-work is starting to build up some useful information, but there's still a long way to go before it's even close to products such as the Starter Set or the Essentials Set.  There's a nice match up with the lore and the adventures, both encounters feature factions covered in the new Lore sections.

There are several examples of incomplete information. For example, two of the conditions are missing, though they are mentioned as being covered later. I appreciate that space is an issue, but I feel there are plenty of instances of inessential artwork which could have been omitted or reduced in size to give more room for text. Rather than keep all the definitions together, they will be spread throughout the part work.

On a related note, the DMs Tips are generally very useful, but the presentation is space wasteful. 

If you want more information about where the magazine is heading, check Fauxhammer's articles which mostly cover the freebies (mostly dice sets apparently), and Hachette's website, which gives a brief rundown of the contents of the next few issues.  This last is very useful for working out how the series is likely to progress, for instance, they will be levelling up the pre-gens, and introducing a new one, a gnome bard, all before issue 10.

And finally, the Encounters

The magazine refers to each issues six sides of Adventure content as an Encounter, but they often cover multiple locations with different groups of creatures. They remind me in scale of some of the encounters in the Essentials set adventure Dragon of Icefire Peak. I suppose Encounter has now replaced what I would call a scenario.

The Tower of Iron Will is billed as a mystery. There is a necessary combat, but the players will have to work out what has happened in the tower in order to succeed. I really like the concept and I'm certainly stealing this, with some changes, for my campaign.

Unfortunately, there are some issues with the clues, and there are aspects of the mystery that didn't, to me, quite make sense. It won't take much to knock it into a workable scenario though, especially by giving more options and reducing the linearity. There's also another mistake in the map numbering, but reading the text should make this obvious.

Daylight Robbery is more an extended encounter, though with the potential for expansion to something a bit meatier. Unlike the Tower, I found it very linear. There are few meaningful choices for the players (apart, perhaps from the 'open the box or take the money' choice). It also features an ambush, which I'm not keen on, but that's just a personal opinion.

Both 'Encounters' use milestone XP, or I assume they do, as there is no mention of XP. I believe that the pre-gens will level up to second level by about issue seven. As an exercise I tried calculating the XP available. Issue 1 gives 155, issue 2 gives 240XP, issue 3 gives 1300XP.  Issue 4 is hard to calculate, as the Boss Monster is a lower level variant of a D&D classic, so I'm not sure, though I'd guess she's about Challenge 3 or 4?

This is assuming no additional XP granted for completing a mission, though monetary rewards are given. By my reckoning the characters are second level by the end of issue three. However, this would require more information for both players and DM to handle, which won't be available for some weeks yet. 

The adventurers will also have amassed some treasure by now, but the only thing given a price so far is copying spells into spell books, and the Encounters haven't yet included any extra spells for this purpose. It would be trivially easy to include Shezayda's spell book in the Tower of Iron Will.

I do like the adventures. They are more than just a series of combats, and, as such, are a good guide to new DMs designing their own encounters. I would like to see more background and detail of Phandalin to help the players become more involved with the town and it's inhabitants. Four NPCs from the town have been mentioned, but with little more than a name and gender. Again, space issues may be the reason, but see my comments above.  My main complaints are lack of detail, though again, encouraging the DM to improvise is great, although few actual guidelines have been given, and the linear nature of some of the Encounters.