Gloomhaven - "Angry Face" class unlock
My wife and I finally retired our starting characters in Gloomhaven. They served us well, our Brute and our Spellweaver. But it was time for them to ride off into the sunset to live the quiet life. The first class that we unlocked was the “Angry Face” class. If you don’t want any spoilers, this is now your last warning.
So “Angry Face” is the Doomstalker, an archer class. Honestly not what I was expecting, with the angry face symbol I was picturing something like a classic warrior class. However, he has been super fun to play and to be honest I’m glad he is an archer. Having just done fifteen odd scenarios with the melee-orientated Brute, I was happy for the change in playstyle. I’m having a lot of fun loitering in the backline throwing out Dooms and doing crazy damage. But I also think it may have something to do with the fact our Brute and Spellweaver struggled slightly towards the end, scenarios became a race to do enough damage before we ran out of health as neither of us had particularly great heals or damage mitigation. It was also this that led me to starting a Tinkerer character alongside my Doomstalker, it is a bit of a juggle playing two characters at once but I’m more grateful of the healing that he brings.
Anyway, before I go too far off on a tangent; this is a painting blog so let us jump into how I painted my brand new Doomstalker. His artwork is quite muted but he has some rather colourful aspects to him.
As with most models I started with the skin. The Doomstalker is an Orchid, which in the world of Gloomhaven is a bit like a crystal elf. Orchids typically have a purple hue to their skin but the only purple I have is Xereus Purple which is a very rich and vibrant colour. So to mute it down I mixed it about one-to-one with some Matt White from the Army Painter. I then washed with some Purple Tone, which left a bit of a shine so then gave it a quick coat of Matt Varnish. I felt that the skin was a bit dark so I then layered with the same mix as before so that he didn’t look too much like Thanos.
His cloak I painted with a couple of thin coats of Vallejo Night Blue, before giving it a wash with Drakenhof Nightshade. As Night Blue is already quite dark the wash wasn’t too noticeable so I then layered back up with Night Blue again and highlighted the folds with Macragge Blue. Speaking of Macragge Blue, I used it to paint his tabards although I did paint the trim of them with Mephiston Red. His sash I painted with Jokaero Orange, his leg splints with Khaki, his wraps with Skeleton Bone and any leather with my usual Mournfang Brown; each of these areas was then washed with Strong Tone. The sash I then layered with some Troll Slayer Orange to really make it pop out.
I painted his knives and the bit of chainmail on his leg with Leadbelcher and the fletchings I painted with Matt White. The feathers on his shoulders I painted with Warboss Green, Mephiston Red and Thousand Sons Blue. Each area I then washed with Nuln Oil.
For his wooden bow I stuck with my tried and true recipe for wood grain: basecoat of Khaki (or Citadel Steel Legion Drab) followed by a coat of Wyldwood contrast paint. I then very carefully drybrushed across it to bring out the texture.
In keeping with the rest of my Gloomhaven miniatures I based him with some Stirland Mud texture paint, which I then washed with Strong Tone and drybrushed with Tyrant Skull. Lastly I stuck on some grass tufts and he was ready to go dungeoning!
One more model done, it’s not quick progress so far but progress is progress. I am working in the background to get some batch painting done but for the moment I am working my way through the Gloomhaven classes one at a time.
Boardgame miniatures left to paint: 760
Boardgame miniatures painted this year: 6