Skull & Shackles: Dissapointed


Miniatures

Liberty's Edge

I've bought at least a brick from the other sets and picked-up a case of Runelords as I was planning to run that AP, and with S&S also begging to be run I invested in another case.

And I'm very disappointed by the paint jobs in this set. Especially the quality in many of the rares.

The paint on Tessa Fairwind was sloppy and not well detailed.
Lirianne was almost as bad with her head being particularly poorly painted with much of her detail obscured (the skulpt doesn't help). It looks like it received an individual red wash.
The paint around Seltyiel's neck pooled and looks terrible.

But Isabella Locke is the crowning achievement of failure. The mini is covered in bits of flash and small imperfections (rough spots) all conveniently over her exposed flesh where you'll be looking at the map. Her eyes are embarrassingly crooked and the paint job in general is one of the sloppiest I've seen (and I've bought something from all the WotC runs as well.)

While I have many other average and below average paint jobs, most of those tend to be confined to uncommons and commons where I can pick the best to represent that NPC or they're mooks who don't need to be detailed. Not potentially someone's PC or the centerpiece of an entire chapter.

I really feel like the painting in this set has gone down in quality. I don't know if WizKids sent this set to a different group, reduced the QA, or it was just bad luck. But for the amount I paid, I really feel burned by this purchase and it's really going to affect my decision to buy bricks, let alone cases, of future sets.


I too wondered if WizKids changed suppliers on this set for the same reasons. I had lots of below average paint jobs. The QA was bad and/or the quality levl desired shifted down. I would not be as hard on them had the past sets already hit a mark much higher than I expected. This set was below my expectations for generic mass produced PPMs.


Jester David wrote:
The paint on Tessa Fairwind was sloppy and not well detailed.

The 2 I got seem to be fine.

Jester David wrote:
Lirianne was almost as bad with her head being particularly poorly painted with much of her detail obscured (the sculpt doesn't help). It looks like it received an individual red wash.

I think yours looks better than mine. It looks like there really was no face detail to paint on the sculpt. Mine has red blotches all over her face. The flat featureless face with red blotches makes it look like a face on a Russian nesting doll. The quick dabs of paint here and there on the mini clearly do not do it justice compared to the other iconics.

Jester David wrote:
The paint around Seltyiel's neck pooled and looks terrible.

Mine doesn't have that effect. There is a silver line representing a necklace around the neck of mine, so I'm uncertain if that is what you are referencing as a "bad wash" on yours, or just a poorly painted necklace. Overall I think the mini is okay, but mine looks like an albino with its white skin. (Is Seltyiel an albino half-elf?) I know he appears lightly hued in the art I have seen for him. I think a little darker of a flesh tone combined with a decent wash (which an Iconic deserves) would have really made this mini pop out -- something I will be doing when my 2nd one arrives.

Jester David wrote:
But Isabella Locke is the crowning achievement of failure. The mini is covered in bits of flash and small imperfections (rough spots) all conveniently over her exposed flesh where you'll be looking at the map. Her eyes are embarrassingly crooked and the paint job in general is one of the sloppiest I've seen (and I've bought something from all the WotC runs as well.)

Yours sounds pretty disappointing. Mine is well painted and the eyes are aligned properly. The skin is smooth on mine with none of the imperfections you mentioned. The tattoos are all crisp and clear on mine. It sounds like you got a real lemon.

I did receive 1 Sandara Quinn and 1 Arronax whose faces look like they took a bad beating. Other than that, I don't really identify any overall theme that would suggest to me that the mini painting quality has dropped -- other than for the Iconics which I feel have definitely dropped.


my mini-brick was fine

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