WizKids D&D Minis Get Raw with Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures and Deep Cuts Miniatures

Minis, miniatures — call them what you will, you know Nerdarchist Ted is obsessed with them. We know that most people who use 3-D miniatures at the table are getting them from one of two places. You either have Reaper Miniatures of you have WizKids. (Our our own Nerdarchy store of course!) There are two new lines of WizKids D&D minis. They have unpainted Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures and Deep Cuts Miniatures.

This terrific paint job shows off the umber hulk from the Nolzur’s Marvelous Unpainted Miniatures line from WizKids.

WizKids D&D minis

WizKids offers and has offered for a long time, dating back to 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons, blind purchase packs of prepainted minis with the occasional special mini listed in their Icons series. Trust me, I know. I have a bunch of them. Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures and Deep Cuts Miniatures are iconic D&D monsters in really great poses or sculpts and are fully assembled, primed ready to paint. They did not just use any old primer either, they are primed with Vallejo. All of the professional painters I know prefer to use this brand so I think that was a serious power move on WizKids part. Get rid of the boring step, jump right in and start with the fun. For me priming is boring. Some of my minis I skipped that step just cause I wanted to paint. Oops.

Let’s look a little deeper at some of the selections of these WizKids D&D minis. I have a bunch here and I have yet to acquire the beholder, but from all the pictures I have seen it is a fantastic model.

First up is the umber hulk. This is a beastie every Dungeon Master just has to have in their arsenal ready to throw at adventurers foolish enough to go underground. This guy is hunched over a little too much for my liking but I think it has to do with getting him to fit in the standard size packaging. But every angle you look at this mini from there is plenty of detail to be accentuated by a painter of even limited skill, like me. The figure is sturdy and solid. I did a few drop tests with no issues as one would expect.

These minis are listed as HD mini, so we get high definition, again making them better looking and easy to paint for those with lesser degree of ability but still has everything the expert painter would want to work with.

This mimic keg miniature from WizKids was painted terrifically by our very own Intern Jake!

Each mini has one plastic base that was attached during the mold, but if you are a stickler for base sizes, as I know many DMs out there are, there is a standard size base for the model you can affix so everything lines up correctly. To me, I look at the base as a extra. I am not a stickler, so now I get a base for another model that does not have one. It could be one I make out of clay, other minis or a kid’s toy.

Next up is one of, if not my actual, favorites of the fantasy monsters. The displacer beast — the bane of many low level parties. With its stealth and sick abilities to not be hit it is a dangerous creature. Now you can grab one with ease and not have to worry about blind purchase. If you ask me, I think this is an easy model to paint. Make the base be dirt or grass, your call. Use two colors to make it interesting, like two greens or two browns.

On to the monster. Since it is already primed, paint it black. Get as dark a black as you can. The tips of it claws, its teeth and the sharp part of the tentacles can be white. Use as fine a brush as you can get. Its eyes should be the normal glowing green, so pick which shade you feel is a good fit. Give the black a dry brushing of very dark purple to give the model some depth and shading and finish with a glossy clear coat.

The last model I want to highlight is the set of mimics. Mimics are so much fun. If you watch my game play you might have met Che, a mimic that was not all that bad and was the party’s friend for some time, until things got too dangerous and now he stays in town. The mimics here are your typical treasure chest, which is a lot of fun, but there is also a barrel, or a keg, mimic which could take the adventure to wild places.

I have some of the Deep Cuts as well. There are treasure piles, gnolls, half-orc barbarians and pillars. These are great as well, just as I assume the whole collection is. So if you are looking to get a collection of minis at a more manageable price this might just be the path for you to take. Remember, no one is going to force you to paint them, but no one is going to stop you from doing it as well. To me painting is a stress reliever as I get to focus so much on painting that some of my troubles fade away while doing so.

So grab yours here: Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures: https://amzn.to/2L8R47C

Or Deep Cuts: https://amzn.to/2Jv6gOW

Buying stuff using these links helps support Nerdarchy so we appreciate any purchase you make.  Thanks for reading and until next time, stay nerdy!

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