For Christmas this year, I somehow convinced my wife that we should give her cousin and his kids the Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition starter set... and further that I should buy and paint up a set of miniatures to use with it.
Now, this new D&D set is a "theater of the mind" sort of thing (also known as cheap), so no fold out maps, no tokens or stands. It barely has dice. So I really wanted to juice it up for them and make it seem more exciting. Thus the miniatures, and I also made a whole map pack of the Sword Coast for the cousin, who will be the DM of the group. (and that is why I made the
Faerûn t
ravel distances matrix). I went a bit deep with the maps and such, and got about 20 pages of material, including a DM screen that I found somewhere online when looking for travel distances, and I also bought a set of dice for each of the kids.
Anyway, as the kids range from 3 to 8 years old, I knew that I wanted to use Bones miniatures, and began by reading the pre-generated character sheets, which happily are gender neutral. After a few lunch times worth of trawling through the Reaper online catalog, I ordered some miniatures from a seller on Ebay, and set to work. I made a few conversions, mostly to remove the more egregiously bendy weapons, but also to shift them more in the direction of the starting equipment.
Here is the starting group.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitVu2Vo_EHVTZKqNu_WgkJuaana7M13pNsKAGxdhFYHKc1zq2GnwIIeqkp_lsIYj5q-j3cVeiEuiQPWibIB9R_ES8bN3fJ8SxqBEKt9AzEAMIA8wIwRl1RWlneGslpdhziHLK_EqiBxVTY/s640/IMG_20171228_211324569.jpg) |
Two humans, elf, dwarf, and halfling |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi69Gcbgj0R7lwMp-ueNupZ1MmMWuGdLyqiam5zd7-REN6C1sNinYEb2mw9vDKE3AKvxrgxDhlD08Bsuklhht2TJptGN3smUKngc4ZeNZGD5DczOSJcAf8xuRq6wVQOOl6Y-jXL3ARYRo8y/s320/IMG_20171228_211338439.jpg) |
Converted staff |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeyUo3P76TbShkMlXSgfliArhiZXyjOSfVbywI-4NW7I0qlBCN1ywOc7uwSYoUHhC-tGDtgeLyJvJuazgGH8hvihREfCamownbI7Y7mW-hYa7FfwzIOhGk85THiaJXVrJ7GtS7vIjeGEkG/s320/IMG_20171228_211345720.jpg) |
Converted warhammer |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmmiWaUBcJs7tqm-QUCzoefmPQtzglRwIsPTU7kDC2Ic7_Wkbq0Tit5aVcXbe87sj08Y2AsuQanjBDxtJG7-J5SxPrlz15RJ7T7GjrgbtrXPnF3UmHr3nbQgKCtsXuQ3Sp1NNBW2c8BLuB/s320/IMG_20171228_211351326.jpg) |
Sculpted on detail removed, painted on heraldry |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuUi40LCxICXi4MAxvfRw_vxjZyH1fQktTUJ80zT8jfZjbW-o9H7YNc_0QYMVR3Maaa07Bm8FAk7txOu-gFk7NB9jHZUOHBRItiV8WrL_F_kosX8G5qDbUfwby2Plbo2pKcLGfyh-2z64l/s320/IMG_20171228_211419893.jpg) |
Replaced sword with great axe, removed dragon head, replaced with sculpted tree stump |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfFIBDGhBkrm-ndBFSivAsHZVVSXR3ei_ZfzdhN5kFVRGIVI-D7b2AYC8M4Zcy_lWdT_b7Rl3s2F5nsZMx5JSrWqJlxX1gxQ2v1WVkoF0xh5Ks-MdO1cAMMHn6QCFRrEDDCYYzRHf3xCFX/s320/IMG_20171228_211410730.jpg) |
No changes! |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoYgBfvPLGbJ4YYR2WEh5wp1RC34h3rRfCS_VE1RlteCemR5cD2JH9mkEo4vDZBnM646kVDelRfILgsVlszQYc3xu_OnU7ZNP9ye3rKFdpPjCmCR1GFs7OHqGDvvAWYgBVWvcFWuPt5bhn/s320/IMG_20171228_211402397.jpg) |
Replaced bendy sword with plastic |
Now, I figured that my own kids might want to play too, and so they needed their own figures (and character sheets, which I wrote up). So I added a barbarian and a Gnome fighter to the group.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrMwecqGQ-utO7SNia9ofKxZaDT2aQfmwAeauuy9GMadjoYDomXnN0EIWvJEy7xnCctgMQJvRMl7UWiUc_WPpUgCQ6EekDTkGJNVcE1ikD4OP8fPF-vGzZNT3geoMpTIW7GCz4HfymMdYe/s320/IMG_20171228_211251172.jpg) |
Thankfully no changes |
And I also painted up a henchman/torch bearer and a donkey, because every D&D group needs someone to do the dangerous work for them, and I hope that having miniatures for them will help the group to remember this important fact.
I had a pretty good time painting these, although as always it was a bit of a rush at the end to get them done in time. The wilderness type bases were a lot of fun to do, and if you look closely, you can see there is quite a bit going on there.
Anyway, so there is most of my hobby work for the month. What about you, did you make any miniatures to gift?