Valiardes Adventures in the Forgotten Realms

Welcome to my new little project!

Inspired by my old video game days of Baldurs Gate and Neverwinter Nights among others, I thought about making some typical Dungeon and Dragon characters in 1/6 scale. I know this isn‘t a new idea - we have some users also (ad)venturing into these dungeons creating awesome fantasy characters– like Ephiane, Lynkhart or Stryker and probably some more I forget  


My plan is to make at least one archetypical character for (almost) every of the 14 different classes and also some small diorama bases along with them if they fit the char. That sounds like a lot of chars, but many are just simple kitbashes or in one case an already existing char.
In the end I hope I will have a great adventuring party on my shelf and a few stories to show after presenting the full cast or in between.  


Here is a list of characters I plan to make or which I already started creating (most of the classes and races and sex are already set in stone)
As soon as I finish a char, I will flesh out its alignment, name and little background story and will post it either in this thread or make a seperate one and just edit the main post here with some details and a link.


In alphabetical class order my list of characters:


1. Barbarian, Human; male

2. Bard, Tiefling; female

3. Cleric, Elf; female

4. Druid, Human; male

5. Fighter, Half-Orc; male

6. Monk, Human; male

7. Paladin, ?; female

8. Ranger, Human; male

9. Rogue, ?; female

10.  Sorcerer, Human; male

11. Warlock, Half-Elf; female

12. Wizard, Human; male

13. Artificer, Dwarf; male

14. Special Char 1


I will update this post with pictures whenever I finish one of the "cast".



Quick Teaser: First character will be number 10: A male Human Sorcerer from the Red Wizards of Thay!
Red Wizards of Thay are a guild of evil aligned sorcerers and here are some typical pics how they appear in D&D settings:




Stay tuned, pics will follow soon.

Looks like a grand enterprise that will take you a lot of time and effort. Knowing your work, it will surely be worth it. In principle, I would advise keeping things in this thread, although, on the other hand, it might become impossibly photo-heavy.

THIS. SOUNDS. AWESOME! Looking forward to your characters. Despite my recent excursion into Westerns, I’m still gathering items for my Fantasy characters.

GubernatorFan wrote:Looks like a grand enterprise that will take you a lot of time and effort. Knowing your work, it will surely be worth it.  In principle, I would advise keeping things in this thread, although, on the other hand, it might become impossibly photo-heavy.  

Thanks for the praise, but my usual work is more into diorama or photography and less into customization of figures. I did some work like rooting or painting for some of these, but most of the outfits you will see are simple bashes.
As for "all in one" or more threads - I will try putting all into this one even if I usually aren't comfty with one big thread. But lets see how it goes.

Stryker2011 wrote:THIS. SOUNDS. AWESOME! Looking forward to your characters. Despite my recent excursion into Westerns, I’m still gathering items for my Fantasy characters.

Hah, glad you are excited for the theme of this thread. I hope it won't disappoint and I'm always eager to see more of your fantasy characters and world building.




So my first character is Vantor, a Sorcerer from Thay.


Here is a quick text from the Forgotten Realms Wiki about the Red Wizards:
"The Red Wizards of Thay, known as the Red Magic Cult, were the notorious and nefarious magocratic ruling class of the inhospitable country of Thay. Historically they owed their power to being cruel slavers, demonologists, and arcane experimenters, before most of their numbers wholly dedicated themselves into creating a nation of undeath."

As you can imagine from that, Vantor isn't a nice or good guy. Rumors have it that he lives in a Dungeons under the Carmic Mountains close to an old Dwarven City. Other say, he is married to a Drow Woman in the Underdark. But like I said, all just rumors.
Anyway, not much is known about him or his aims. Is he an demonologist or more into arcane experiments? Why did he leave Thay? We have to find out, but not now. This post is just about a first glimpse of this character.

So here are some impressions. Some might remember his head I've used it before.

1
2





I hope you like or dislike him  either way, I'm sure he will show up some day in a story and show off some of his magic skills. Or whatever he does. And whereever he does it.

Whoa! That sorcerer fig looks seriously cool! And well equipped with all the necessary RPG accessories like spell books and potions... and a bad-*ss leather belt!

The members of your gamer group are going to be speechless when you show up on game night with this fig. Could this mean the end for tabletop mini-figs?  

Are you going to roll the dice to work up the character profiles?

I'm envious of the awesomeness of your brick wall background, too, both the detail level and the size!

Oh Man, he's fantastic. That's the perfect use for that head sculpt. Love his outfit and accessories. Great photos as usual.

I like that I dislike him, does that make sense? Cool looking guy though, that bright red robe really suits someone like him.

I don't know what is better. Your skills as a customizer and artist or your skills as a photographer and artist. Excellent custom character and presentation.  And I do recognize the head, although I much prefer what you have done to it.

As someone who has dabbled in D&D briefly in the past I can appreciate you undertaking such a project to showcase your take on all of the cool designs for the various races and classes in 1/6 format. Vantor looks fittingly sinister as some powerful and charismatic Blood Wizard, that outfit is very striking and effective for his archetype. I am sure you will do something equally impressive with the other characters...but I am most intrigued to see the Tiefling Bard for some reason!!

Yay you photographed him! This Denetorish face is just somischievous, sorry to the actor.

That's a great project and a work and time consuming commitment. Glad you also planned to use some figures where not that much work is needed, so you can get them finished in a realistic timeframe. Well I know some of the other guys but I won't spoiler, but looking forward for Orc dude the most.

davidd wrote:Whoa! That sorcerer fig looks seriously cool! And well equipped with all the necessary RPG accessories like spell books and potions... and a bad-*ss leather belt!

The members of your gamer group are going to be speechless when you show up on game night with this fig. Could this mean the end for tabletop mini-figs?  

Are you going to roll the dice to work up the character profiles?

I'm envious of the awesomeness of your brick wall background, too, both the detail level and the size!

Thank you davidd! The end of table-top mini figs? Hah, now that would be a great revolution. Every gamer of D&D or other ARPGs getting theit own customized game figure. If you pic up an item in game you need to buy it on ebay and wait for it to arrive from china until the game can move on   But I think having your own "avatars" in 1/6 scale might be really cool for these kind of games

I thought about using some stats on these and I like the dice rolling you suggested just for fun. I might edit it into the main post later on 

Oh thanks, I love the brick wall options I made over the last two years, some with windows and some without so you have interchangeable "movie settings" for the figs. Still need an interior room for my planned story...

Stryker2011 wrote:Oh Man, he's fantastic. That's the perfect use for that head sculpt. Love his outfit and accessories. Great photos as usual.

Glad you like him, I'm also a fan of the outfit. It is very simple but is exactly what I needed (a mix of coomodel and Flash Gordon)

Theboo-bomb wrote:I like that I dislike him, does that make sense?   Cool looking guy though, that bright red robe really suits someone like him.

 it does make sense and Vantor likes it that you dislike him. 

GubernatorFan wrote:I don't know what is better. Your skills as a customizer and artist or your skills as a photographer and artist. Excellent custom character and presentation.  And I do recognize the head, although I much prefer what you have done to it.

Thank you Ian!  And yeah my Denethor lost its head (don't feel sorry for him) and Vantor was born instead. 

AlKelAstra91 wrote:As someone who has dabbled in D&D briefly in the past I can appreciate you undertaking such a project to showcase your take on all of the cool designs for the various races and classes in 1/6 format. Vantor looks fittingly sinister as some powerful and charismatic Blood Wizard, that outfit is very striking and effective for his archetype. I am sure you will do something equally impressive with the other characters...but I am most intrigued to see the Tiefling Bard for some reason!!

Oh cool, nice to see that there are more users that know D&D. The races and classes are a nice incentive and motivation for kitbashing. Ever since I played a group of six and started the hobby I wanted to create something like this. 
I have an idea and some things already ordered for the Tiefling Bard but it won't be the next character I reveal. Thanks for your comment and interest! 

Ovy wrote:Yay you photographed him! This Denetorish face is just somischievous, sorry to the actor.

That's a great project and a work and time consuming commitment. Glad you also planned to use some figures where not that much work is needed, so you can get them finished in a realistic timeframe. Well I know some of the other guys but I won't spoiler, but looking forward for Orc dude the most.

Yeah, after your visit and our set up of the photography table I used the chance to take pics of him (even though he might still need some boots or a smaller body to hide the bare feet). 
I'm not that much into customizing characters like you with everything made yourself and all the little details, but some simplier bashes also work nicely for me. Yeah the Orc, also looking forward how this one will turn out.

Oh YAYAYAY!!!

Your sorcerer looks great, and once again I love your dungeon wall.

Very excited for this project. I miss my old D&D crew, but my DM was too good. A few failed attempts at finding a group as wonderful had me giving up on the hobby. Fun fact: I worked for WotC UK once upon a time.

Ahhhhhh this is incredible! So many details in the clothing and accessories and the background and photography just set it off beautifully! I can’t wait to see the rest of the cast.

I had to laugh a bit though at your list, because my current D&D character is a female tiefling bard, and I’m also intending on making a fig of her! I’ll have to go down the Rit dye road I think though, as she’s blue, and there aren’t many bodies that would suit!

Diana wrote:Oh YAYAYAY!!!

Your sorcerer looks great, and once again I love your dungeon wall.

Very excited for this project. I miss my old D&D crew, but my DM was too good. A few failed attempts at finding a group as wonderful had me giving up on the hobby. Fun fact: I worked for WotC UK once upon a time.

Aww, the excitement is real in this thread - Didn't know so many are interested in D&D figs! And you working for WotC UK is an awesome tidbit. I knew WotC from MtG which was my entrance into fantasy in my youth and later realized they are the company for D&D too.

Lynkhart wrote:Ahhhhhh this is incredible! So many details in the clothing and accessories and the background and photography just set it off beautifully! I can’t wait to see the rest of the cast.

I had to laugh a bit though at your list, because my current D&D character is a female tiefling bard, and I’m also intending on making a fig of her! I’ll have to go down the Rit dye road I think though, as she’s blue, and there aren’t many bodies that would suit!

Thanks!
Haha cool!! More Tiefling bards! I read is is not an uncommon combination but still a nice coincidence. Can't wait to see your avatar of her. Mine probably gonna be reddish.

Nice to know that there are some experts like real players on here. You all probably know more about it than me.  

I was tempted with red, but I liked the idea that she was born to drow parents, so she’s more of a grey/blue colour with white hair. https://www.instagram.com/p/CaLl8URIbQp/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

I’ve only been actively playing for the last couple of years or so, and only regularly in the last five months, but I’ve been watching Critical Role almost since the start of their first campaign so I’ve got some kind of secondhand knowledge of stuff. It’s kinda funny, because I think a lot of people think D&D is all about being heroes and saving the world whilst vanquishing evil and all that jazz, but in my experience half the time we’re all just faffing about and being useless at planning things. To date, I think the funniest thing that’s happened so far is that my bard (a former thief who’s usually good at stealing anything that isn’t nailed down) had her daggers stolen in a tavern, and went downstairs to complain to the barkeep, while the dwarven barbarian (who was the daughter of the clan chief and therefore very well regarded and essentially a princess) asked the DM if the novelty gold dragon egg shaped mini fridge in her room (which the DM had almost jokingly said was there for a bit of flavour) would fit in her Bag of Holding. She rolled high and so she nicked it, and now it’s become A Thing, where whenever we need to stop and rest, she hauls out this bloody egg shaped mini fridge and tucks into some snacks.

Thanks a lot for that amusing little anecdote Lynkhart. It seems like you found a great play group
Yeah, the infamous Bag of Holding, even I know that item and I never played Pen and Paper, just digital games.

Holy crab ! How could I have missed that? I definitely have too many downtimes from the forum. He is pure magic. I can't wait to see the other characters. I tryed to do D&D projects like yours. I can say that putting a group of four dungeon crawlers and a monster they are fighting in a dio to get some shots of them is a lot of work. I hope You will not get crazy by posing four figures in a dio. I made hundred of pictures and one of the figures is in 99 pics not in the right pose.

Let them come !

Stunning my friend, love it!

I recently watched Fringe and have a whole new (or additional) appreciation for the Walter Bishop sculpt, which you put to such good use here.

How did I miss this thread earlier???? What an awesome idea for a project! The red wizard looks FANTASTIC, and I cannot wait to see the others.  

Thanks a lot friends!   Working on some more atm, don't know when they are finished. Some are simpler some need more work.

Oh, is this allowed, Val ? He has such a mean smile.

I meant to ask, did you add the gold trim to the red outfit, or was it already there? Either way it looks great.

He just needs a beard and a hat and then he'd look like evil Santa Claus.

GubernatorFan wrote:I recently watched Fringe and have a whole new (or additional) appreciation for the Walter Bishop sculpt, which you put to such good use here.

Haha I only saw the first few episodes but glad you like the head. It is a real cool character head imo

Ephiane wrote:Oh, is this allowed, Val ? He has such a mean smile.

That is a great effect and of course I don't mind.   Always cool to see what others do with my chars. 
I should use the face app more often too. Makes the figures more real for certain scenes and pictures. 

skywalkersaga wrote:I meant to ask, did you add the gold trim to the red outfit, or was it already there? Either way it looks great.

He just needs a beard and a hat and then he'd look like evil Santa Claus.

 Hohoho evil Santa is making Krampus fight for its job
(Oh and no, I did very little customization here, the cloak is from Ming the Merciless and I changed not a thing)

Well, you put it together, that is at least kibashing. Either way, it's great, and you definitely customized the head. As always, Ephiane brings everything up to a whole new level of life with her special faceapp powers.