|
If you are like this reviewer, you have neither the desire, or space, or cash, to ?collect? traditional miniatures. Yet, with the tactical combat systems used in many game systems these days, being able to bust out the battle mat and a set of minis is often necessary. Thus you find yourself looking for a practical and inexpensive option for your miniatures needs. Paper miniatures meet this need. When they are packaged as a PDF, you are provided with a readily available source of minis for your games, being able to print as many of a particular figure as you need, without having to invest too much money in them, or time and effort, in the case of those who paint their minis. In short, paper minis are an attractive option for their low cost and convenience, and are also logical options for "collectors" needing a particular miniature, or several of them, for their game.
The figures in Arion Games? miniatures sets come in 3 styles, ?A-frame?, ?Flat?, and ?Triagonal?. The ?A-frame? and ?Flat? figures can be constructed from the same sheets, depending on how they are cut out. The ?Triagonal? minis are constructed from a separate sheet. These construction choices provide additional options in preparing your minis for use in the game, major characters or monsters can be constructed as the ?Triagonal? versions to provide a more visual flair, and to emphasize their importance. Other figures can be done as ?A-Frame? or flat versions to make them easier to handle or distinguish them from each other, thus providing a functional use beyond their graphical characteristics.
The instructions, which are not included in this PDF, but are available on the publisher?s website, are easy to follow. Assembling the minis is quick and painless, just requiring a bit of work with scissors and some glue. The minis look good, even when printed on plain paper. Each figure is drawn from a 3D rendering (done in Poser using figures provided by DAZED, according to the credits), providing sharp detail and life-like shading, even when printed.
This 8 page PDF (9 with cover, weighing in at a whopping 16 MB) provides a set of 20 paper miniatures featuring monster figures. The figures include a freaky faced Manticore, a well-rendered Centaur, a spiky haired Medusa, a beautiful Unicorn (paritcularly the triagonal version), a Bear with some rather odd looking coloration, a psychedelically colored Griffon, a rather dangerous looking Giant Spider, a ravenous looking Giant Worm, some dinosaur thing called a Tawhak, a Giant Snake with the coloration of a pale turd, two Dragons, a Gargoyle Hound (just escaped from Zuul perhaps?), an Eagle, a nicely detailed Satyr, a skinny spiky Gremlin, a Wolf with a bad dye job, a Hellhound with a plasma torpedo stuck in its mouth, a strangely hairless and almost disturbingly naked Werewolf, and a brilliantly colored Phoenix.
Overall, this is a good product from Arion Games, providing a solid selection of monsters for your fantasy miniatures needs. Adding in the fact that you can print as many as you need, and prepare your own figure sheets, this is excellent value as well. However, the textures and coloring choices on many of the monsters take it down a notch compared to other offerings from Arion games. Still, if you need a good miniature of any of the monsters listed (You can always copy the figure and touch up the colors yourself in a graphics app), this is still a worthwhile purchase.
<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Dragons, Unicorn triagonal figure, Giant Worm.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some bad looking textures and weird coloration choices for some monsters. PDF is on the large side.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>
|
Log In 
