The most important part of Tatble Top RPGs that help bring the world to life for the players is not just the terrain, an awesome set of dice, or a super creative imagination… it’s the miniatures who take on the soul of the players. Miniatures are the lifeblood of TTRPGs as players assemble, paint, and come up with the backstory for each tiny character they work with. Some miniatures are strictly used for certain game series but many players have chosen to be chaotic and bring different miniatures into their worlds, and one group of miniatures is perfect to bring a bit of dark chaos into your tabletop world. Meet CounterSpell Miniatures from 1985 Games the same awesome folks who made the VHS Dice Sets!
These miniatures are from the world of Shadewood, a dark forest world where wonders and horror await adventurers. I’ll admit right now, I’ve never worked with Miniatures before, so the results how the final products look may be the result of my shaky monkey hands. I was sent three miniatures that I feel showcase skill levels ranging from simple, intermediate, and advanced.
The miniature I had little problem assembling is the 35mm Spirit Guide, a large cat creature that holds a lamp in its mouth. Overall the assembly of the cat was relatively simple, but the only major hiccup I had with it was the lamp, the handle of the lamp was so thin, it snapped off with little effort, BUT, I’ve found a quick fix for this I plan on doing at a later time of attaching craft wire to the lamp and to the Guide’s mouth.
The second miniature required a little bit more skill to handle, and my personal favorite is the 84mm Bone Wyvern. This undead (zombie) creature will really stand out on the board with its gaping chest and tattered wings.
The third and possibly most difficult miniature is the Shadewood Couching Werewolf. This miniature comes in at an eye-straining 18mm! Though the miniature is awesome, it’s best left to experienced players to work with, or people with very steady hands. I had little issue assembling it but again, my inexperience showed up as one of the toughest pieces to put on the miniature was the lower jaw of the werewolf. Why the lower jaw is detached, I don’t know but what I do know is that it’s a pain to try to glue in place which I have stopped trying and will go back to it later but if I keep having issues, I may end up Kitbashing it.
For those not in the know of the world of miniatures, assembled parts may leave gaps, these can be easily fixed by using Greenstuff OR Miliput to fill in the gaps and blend them into the miniature before painting. The greatest thing about these minis is that there’s no set rule of how to paint them, leaving it up to the players to paint them however they wish! Each miniature has pre-made stat sheets OR can be customized to fit the world players want to add them into.
Either use them in a game or paint them up and put them on a shelf, these miniatures are pretty awesome, especially with the thought behind them to make them fit wherever you want to put them (game-wise) and make them however you want with the only true limitation being your imagination.
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