I have been eyeing The Drowned Earth for a while. To be honest though, that is true for a lot of games. đŸ˜‰ I have not jumped in yet, but I did get the chance to paint one model of their range, the joyful hippo man Mattiu. It was given to me by Mac, one of the host of the Indie Invasion podcast, which I recommend if you enjoy indie games and a positive view of the hobby.
The game setting is cool, the miniatures are superb, and when you add the amazing boards full of colourful jungles and DINOSAURS(!), it’s hard not to be interested.
Back to the hippo of the hour, Mattiu. It’s my first model of the line, and I was impressed by the sharpness of the details and the casting quality. 3d sculpted models sometime are a bit shallow and less interesting to paint, but this wasn’t a problem at all for the hippo. I kept close to the art, and tried to make him quite colourful, so he could still stand out on a board full of bright plants and critters.
I’m not super happy about the arm tattoos, but they are as fine as they’ll ever be without repainting the whole arm. I painted the skin tone slightly darker than the art, and the contrast was a bit lacking with the ink colour I first picked. After multiple passes with dark or vibrant turquoise, I ended back where I began, just with lines less sharp. I’ll know better for the future.
Enough chit chat, time for some pictures.
I have some other games in the pipeline to try before this one, but an order for the rest of Mattiu’s corsair friends is in my near future for sure.
