Reaper Miniatures
Reaper generously provided Game Cryer with a selection of miniatures from it’s more popular lines: Dark Heaven Legends and Chronoscope. The Dark Heaven Legends line is meant for use in fantasy games, while the Chronoscope line of figures is meant for modern/sci-fi gaming. I am reviewing three figures: Damien, Hellborn Wizard; Hellborn Troll; and Bathalian Exarch. The Bathalian Exarch is usable with Reaper’s Warlord game. These figures are all unpainted metal and all require some assembly. The larger figures also required some use of ‘green stuff’ filler material as well.
All of these figures are very interesting models. They are well cast and have a lot of detail for artists to spend time on. These all are very playable figures as well. Most Reaper figures I’ve assembled tend to be on the large size, and these three are no different. The Troll and Exarch look like fearsome, large monsters so the size adds to their charm, but the wizard figure is larger than most standard 28mm figures. I’ve not had the chance to paint them up, but I’m looking forward to seeing how they look when finished – I’ve always been pleased at the look of Reaper figures when painted.
First are the two Dark Heaven Legends figures – Damien, Hellborn Wizard by Derek Schubert (03321) and Hellborn Troll by Ben Siens (03407).
Damien is a mage figure and comes as a main body with three left hand options: staff, wand or orb. It is taller than the standard 28mm figure, as it’s 35mm tall. It’s a fascinating figure and takes its cue from the Dungeons & Dragons “Tiefling” race, with demonic features of a pair of horns and a spiked tail curling underneath a cloak. He’s performing some sort of spell action with his right hand and his left hand can hold a magical implement – I chose the orb for my assembly.
This is a very nice looking figure. It can easily be used as a Tiefling for the D&D 4e crowd or a suitable demonic mage figure for other games. A base is required – the curved small base didn’t give me the confidence that it would stay standing during use, so I ended up using a washer.
There wasn’t much flash on the figure and it was easy to clean up for assembly. I found it difficult to mount the hand with the orb as it didn’t seem to make a good fit. A little extra glue and a bit of greenstuff fixed it all up.
The Troll comes in three pieces: legs and lower torso, upper torso and arms, and head. It’s a hefty figure, approximately 75mm tall from foot to upstretched arm holding the boulder. It has a very wide 40mm stance and it’s open hand/arm hangs down. I found it to be an awkward figure to mount, given how it seems to lean over and to the front. It does require some experimenting to place it correctly and you will need a wide base. I used a large metal washer and will use spackle to fill the hole in.
This figure also had low flash and the mold lines were easy to remove. A good amount of green stuff is required to fill in the gaps at the torso in front behind the belt buckle where the two pieces meet. For the rest of the torso, the strategic “split” at belt line hides most of this. The head also required green stuff, but mainly at the head/neck ridge, and it was fairly invisible once I primed the figure.
There is a lot of detail on this piece, from the spikey back to the wide open mouth with huge teeth to the bulging muscles. The boulder seems a bit man-made – I’m not sure if it’s meant to represent a natural boulder or something else. The detail is very nice overall, and once painted, it will make a very nice piece.
Last is the Bathalian Exarch by Kevin Williams (50062) which is from the Chronoscope line. It is an alien creature with many tentacles and a scaled/armored body. It comes in six pieces – body, head, two arms, and two additional ‘tentacles’. It is a large, heavy figure – it boasts a 35 mm “body” length, is approximately 56mm tall, and 50mm wide. Like the Hellborn Troll, it will require a big base, and just like the troll, I used a large 1 1/2 inch metal washer.
The tentacles had the most amount of flash at the mold lines, but it was easily scraped off. Assembly was tricky. I put the arms on the body first, then attached the tentacles to the head, and finally assembled the head to the main body. It required a fair amount of green stuff for arms, tentacles and especially the area where head joined on the body. Even though the head “shield” hid most of the neck/head area, I had to put in a fair amount of green stuff to give it a more natural flow that followed the rest of the curves of the model.
I really like this figure. It has good, clear detailing. The ribs on its head area are well done, the eyes are very well created and will be easy to detail. The armor scales on the body are a nice touch. The model can easily be used as a strange tentacled sci-fi alien, a Cthulhu-like creature or a strange otherworld fantasy figure. I can’t wait to put it in front of my players.
I’ve never been disappointed in Reaper’s figures, even if they do come a little larger than I prefer. These three will make nice additions to anyone’s game table.