Today we will take a closer look at the Heroes of Avendora characters by Thundercloud Miniatures. Each of the four characters miniatures are designed to be used as heroes in the Avendora skirmish game were they will lead infantry units into battle!
Avendora is a skirmish, squad-based wargame played with forces of between 4-to-30 miniatures, the beta rules for Avendora can be downloaded on their website these are still at Beta stage. Set in the fantasy world of Avendora the game launches with 4 factions, The Edimen – certain of their superiority. The Hiskari – who despise anything that goes against nature. The Shadow – who seek nothing less than the destruction of all life, and finally the mysterious Alacalean, who saved mankind in their hour of need, but their actions since then prove that they may not be the saviours they appeared to be. Avendora has a rich back story, more information on this can be found on the main website here.
The Miniatures
The Thundercloud Miniatures - Heroes of Avendora heroes are supplied in ziplock bags without further internal packaging. These individual bags however are well-packed within their shipping box so no damage was noticed when I received the miniatures.
The miniatures are casted in high-quality durable resin and sold as 30mm scaled character miniatures. Thundercloud Miniatures notes the following: "Individual miniature heights varying to reflect their background description. This was a conscious choice as we have always found it odd that in the world of wargaming everyone is always exactly the same size…In Avendora, if a creature is a hulking brute or a diminutive wretch, you’ll know about it!" To show this I have added the following scale comparison pictures showing the miniatures alongside each other and flanked with miniatures of other known manufacturers.
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| Thudnercloud Hiskari Scout - Acacalean Warrior - Ediman General - The Faceless |
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| Northstar Frostgrave Soldier - Thundercloud General - Games Workshop Empire Soldier - Reaper Wizard |
Each of these individual characters consists out of multiple resin parts which you can see in the pictures below along with the constructed miniature and a short description of the character. The following hero is named the Acacalean Warrior and is actually an alien manning a deadly machine of utter destruction, armed with a huge blade protected by a sturdy shield arm. Not much is known about the Alacalean, the shun contact with the other factions. What is known is that their arrival was vital to halting the advance of the shadow and thus saved both the Edimen and Hiskari from annihilation.
The first step is to clean the casting flash and casting supports which you can see in the pictures above (note the casting support at the blade point as example). As with all resin miniatures or terrain, I always thoroughly recommend washing all individual parts with soap and warm water to remove casting residue. The further assembly of this hero was straight-forward as all parts fitted extremely well. I first started with assembling the legs and attaching the body. After that I added the arm supports which you can see in the upper left of the picture. After that I attached the actual arms and the alien pilot. First I was not entirely impressed about the look of this character but now looking back at him, I really like him much more and he will certainly feature on the tabletop leading the Acacaleans into the heat of battle!
The second miniature is named the Ediman General and is one of my favorite characters! Trained from childhood in the finest military school in the Empire an Ediman General knows that to lead from the front is to forsake the rank of General and become little more than a common foot soldier. A General is far more useful directing his troops; scouring the maps and missives to exploit his foe's weaknesses – and with the help of the Messenger and Horn Player he is quickly able to send orders around the battlefield – orders that can change the course of a battle and the fate of the world.
As you can see in the picture quite a lot of fiddly bits with this particular hero. After cleaning and washing the parts, I started with the assembly of the table featuring an individual helmet and shield decoration. After that I glued on the legs of the general looking down at his battle plans. Following that I attached the arms leaning on the table which was already glued in place on the base. This character is both useful as an actual wargame model or vignette to further decorate your wargame table!
The third and only female character is the agile Hiskari Scout. Scouts have a special place in Hiskari society. Being a nomadic people the ability to scout ahead is vital for the societies survival. Long ago the Hiskari discovered that women make better scouts, and as such girls who are chosen to become scouts are taken from a young age to begin their training.
The third model is the Hiskari Scout of which I managed to snap off both the arrow point and part of the bow. Note this was due to some rough handling and not the cause of the chosen resin material. The arrow point was easily glued back in place, the part of the bow was not glued back in place as it was way to fiddly. After I had glued the miniature on the base, I noticed that the left foot was hovering above the ground, not entirely sure if I have managed to assemble this miniature wrong but nothing that can't be solved with some small pebbles during basing! So moving on to the last and my personal favorite miniature, The Faceless!
Last but not least is the impressive The Faceless. The Faceless were men once, men who sold their soul to The Shadow for the promise of greatness. Twisted into a form more pleasing to The Shadow, and granted a martial skill far beyond that on normal men, these creatures now seek nothing less then the destruction of all life.
The Faceless character was very easy to assemble as all parts fitted well. As you can see in the picture a large number of the parts are intended for the scenic base which is a large part of the figure. This miniature looks to be hovering above the ground by some kind of whirling magical fog which is very nice! I'm sure this particular miniature will feature in many of my fantasy skirmishes and probably most in the upcoming Frostgrave Thaw of the Lich Lord expansion!
The conclusion
As you can see in the pictures these resin character miniatures are both high-quality and also feature some rather unusual types such as the Acacalean Warrior and planning Ediman General which are not easy to find in other miniature ranges. Next to this you can already grab these and prepare them to lead the upcoming infantry units scheduled to be released next by Thundercloud Miniatures. Almost forgot to mention, these characters are now also sold at a nice discount during the Kickstarter!
Interested in grabbing one of the fine heroes? Help Thundercloud Miniatures bring Avendora to market by helping to fund their remaining hero class models as the Kickstarter ends in less than 48 hours! Check the Kickstarter here and join the epic fight for Avendora.
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