Dark Sword Miniatures
Shifter Monk-Ranger
For a new D&D 4E campaign I am playing a Shifter who is a Hybrid Monk/Ranger. Aside from making life difficult on myself by pulling material from all three PHBs, I also needed to find a miniature that would fit that description. I scoured the internet until I stumbled across Dark Sword Miniatures. They have a massive selection of miniatures, so massive I wouldn’t stand a chance of just browsing through and finding just what I needed. Thankfully they have have Miniature Finder that allows you to specify things like race, gender, weapons, etc. I quickly narrowed down my options and found Male Ranger with Sword/Wineskin Options (DSM7403). Perfect!
As the name suggests, he came with two left hand options: a wineskin and a sword. My Monk-Ranger doesn’t use melee weapons, so wineskin was just fine. The miniature was total of 4 pieces, including the extra hand. So I pinned the hands on, a delicate matter, but not impossible. The miniature is very well sculpted with lots of nice detail, but not so much as to make painting laborious.
I used my P3 paints, but I did prime him white instead of black like I typically do. This made painting all the bright colors easier, especially the orange. I think it helped with the face as well, I haven’t painted a fur-colored face before and having that white base helped keep the whole face bright.
I chose the loincloth area to really express the Monk idea and went with a bright orange/blue combination. The large green cape should be enough to keep the Ranger side concealed in the woods.
Somehow while painting him I managed to break off the back half of the bow at the hand. No idea how I managed that, but I got it pinned back on and it’s unnoticeable.