My son and I had a great time playing Gloomhaven. I have a blog post from March 2018 about painting the six starting characters, and he and I coauthored an article in Well Played about our play experience. The last time we played Gloomhaven was August 24, 2019, and so I think it's fair to say that we are done with the game. We didn't complete every single scenario, but we definitely finished the main story arc. This morning, we tore down the box, unsleeved the cards, and opened the four character classes that we had not unsealed as part of our two-player campaign.
Since we're finally and irrevocably done with Gloomhaven, I decided that it's time to share my set of painted miniatures. Whenever we unlocked a new class, I would prime and paint the miniature, so that it would be ready to play as soon as another one retired. Many of them were unplayed, and all of them were painted before mid-August two years ago. For most, then, I have little recollection of specific techniques or colors, so the commentary below is minimal.
In case it does not go without saying, there are spoilers ahead for those who are still playing! This post is for people who have finished the game or who don't care about surprises.
 |
| Sawbones |
 |
| Sawbones |
The sawbones is one figure about which I have specific memories. First, the bonesaw in his hand was much too long, so I chopped off a bit of it. Second, this is one of very few figures that I've "spattered" with paint. The card art includes blood splatter, and figuring we would probably never play this character anyway (we didn't), it was a chance to try it. I used the technique where I loaded up the brush with dark red, then I pulled back on it with my finger and let it splatter forward. I quite like the result, it was fun to pull out and photograph this miniature to revive these memories.
 |
| Sunkeeper |
 |
| Sunkeeper |
The Sunkeeper is one of the two characters that we were running when we stopped playing. She was played by my son and had reached her maximum level. I like the contrast of the metallics and the cloth on this figure.
 |
| Quartermaster |
 |
| Quartermaster |
I played the Quartermaster for a while, and he was a lot of fun. I remember having a really powerful card recycling engine that meant I rarely had to rest. My only criticism of the figure is that it's not a very exciting pose. Sure, a quartermaster would occasionally be handing out scrolls and carrying an armload of spears, but it made him look bureaucratic rather than adventurous in the dungeon.
 |
| Doomstalker |
 |
| Doomstalker |
My son and I could not actually remember if anyone ever played the Doomstalker or not, which is strange, because it seems like he would be memorable.
 |
| Berserker |
 |
| Berserker |
I played the Berserker for just a few sessions.
 |
| Plagueherald |
 |
| Plagueherald |
Like the Sawbones, the Plagueherald was never played and for a similar reason: the Sawbones looked like a support character for larger parties, and the Plagueherald--who damages his allies to hurt his enemies--seemed too dangerous for a small party.
 |
| Nightshroud |
 |
| Nightshroud |
This is the character I was playing when we wrapped up the game. The card art clearly shows this aesther as being translucent, but of course, there's no way to paint a plastic miniature to get this effect. I tried to capture the shadowy essence of the card art in the muted palette of a clearly-opaque miniature.
The four classes we never unlocked were Beast Tyrant, Elementalist, Soothsinger, and Summoner, who all looked like they had interesting ideas to offer. I had assumed that the Beast Tyrant would be a lycanthrope from the fact that it had two miniatures and a wolfish face for an icon, and so it was nice to finally have that mystery solved. I don't expect to paint these miniatures and will likely hand them off to the younger boys for family painting time.
I had stored all the painted miniatures in their little boxes for protection, so this is the first time I've looked at them in two years. I really dig the cobblestone bases using the technique I picked up from Ghool. I am tempted to go back to my Massive Darkness characters and add these sometime. It doesn't take too long, and it adds a lot of visual interest... but it's not as much fun as painting the miniature proper. With my large collection of unpainted miniatures, I probably won't revisit those bases.
With the trash man already having come, Gloomhaven is now gone, and so these are my first real orphan miniatures. In a sense, it is a relief. I have a few other games where I have painted the miniatures but not touched the game in years. This gives me some peace with the idea of getting rid of a non-legacy game and keeping the minis. Perhaps it's time to build a wall-mountable display, the Home for Orphan Miniatures. I'll keep you posted.
Thanks for checking out my paintings. Of course, I backed Frosthaven, so I'll be back in Cephalofair's fantasy setting for more painting whenever that wraps up production and gets into backers' hands.
No comments:
Post a Comment