[...]

It's very possible that Arvel's height is supposed to be closer to some of the shorter female figures in the Descent range. I don't know. [...]

Did you bother looking at the two pieces of artwork of Arvel, the previous model, and compare it to the artwork and models of other heroes?

Because then you'd know.

The difference in proportions between Arvel and the other women is not one you'd see in human beings. Taller people generally do not have much larger heads, hands or fingers. Differences in proportion between adults are generally small, and I want to stress that Arvel is an elf, to boot.

A female elf, previously depicted as relatively short and lithe, that is so big that she doesn't fit on her base, with a head, feets, hands and fingers larger than practically any human or orc male.

Next to the others, she looks very much like an civilized half-ogre.

The first figure that I really noticed it on was Nanok but then got Shards of Everdark and they are all big, having said that I prefer them as I also like to paint and there is more detail and they are a little more of an action style. On the game board they aren't so much larger that they look odd but if you were asked to pick these figure out of line up with out already knowing then I suspect you would get 5 out of 5. I'm not sure why Nanok was the only 1 from that set in this style but I'm guess that he was the first to be remodeled this way.

I think the painters will be very happy, the vast majority will probably just comment that they are nicer looking and a few might complain that they are styled different.

It only seems to be the heroes though as I can't see any scale change with the monsters although again they are more detailed.

Next to the others, she looks very much like an civilized half-ogre.

I've seen the Ogre Minis and Arvel looks nothing like them. Not even half of one.

Next to the others, she looks very much like an civilized half-ogre.

I've seen the Ogre Minis and Arvel looks nothing like them. Not even half of one.

It was a reference to her grotesque size, not her looks. She looks like a half -ogre, after all. I pity her poor elven mother and can only pray that the father is not Bol'Goreth himself. Either that, or she somehow developed a severe case of a gigantism in latter years.

just so everyone knows what you mean when you talk about the head i thought I'd throw these head illustrations in to help. Not sure how scientifically correct they are considering race but just for a framework for discussion. I think the girl I'm with is beautiful, and I always wanted to see how many times I could take her head and stack it one on top of the other until I reached the top of her head. I'm not sure if that number has anything to do with how appealing she is despite popular artistic interpretation of appealing proportion. In the last season of the Bachelor I think he didn't pick the Russian girl because he liked taller women so maybe you like mini gnomish dwarfs or maybe you like gigantic dwarfs but either way if the base is 25 mm all you can do is consider which proportions are appealing to you. If they are that far off you can always throw down a token. lol

I've not really had an issue with model size, after all you're imagining scenes made out of tiles on a board and the models are always in the same pose anyway (with a few exceptions where I use proxies that fit certain situations) so some of it has to be in your head and the models just representations. One really clever thing about the new figures is they've used a method sometimes used in photography where the subject 'breaks out' of its frame, this technique gives life to what you're looking at. I like this 'coming atcha' feel of the sculpts.

I'm used to using proxies in fantasy themed games so can live with slight scaling imperfections, can see how they are a problem for some people and the issues of things like 'my, what big feet you've got ' ) but they're great for painting and other manufacturers are moving to such more detailed figures so maybe it was also to keep up. Just pretend they're higher up than other figures that are smaller scale or you're more zoomed in lol.

They may also be more durable, for example One Fist's weapon handle seems less flimsy than some past items, even Arvel's bow is quite sturdy.

I like these improvements, and would rather have them there and live with the differences.

Does anyone know how the scales relate to those of the Runewars miniatures?

The newer figures match the runewars scale.

9 hours ago, mulletcheese said:

The newer figures match the runewars scale.

Both useful and interesting to know, thanks for the info. Realised another benefit of better, stronger figures- two of my other games (surprisingly also both FFG ones) have figures that are very poor in comparison even to the earlier Descent figures, some of these arrived broken which has never been the case with any Descent items and like I say the newer Descent figures are even sturdier, so again I feel it's better to have a line's figures improved even if it means a bit of a mismatch than to have them stay the same when technology has progressed and many companies are also making better quality pieces now. In my opinion the new D2e pieces look great and are really well designed which is a good thing, I've been impressed with all the D2e figures but even more so the newest ones.

And no game should have pieces that break way too easily so hopefully FFG will improve these other games in future (or pack them in a way that protects the more fragile pieces). It's not a big issue as bits can be repaired or left as a happy accident (war wounds/damage!) but I'd rather have to pay slightly more and get quality than perhaps pay less and get something that could be argued to be a bit 'cheap' and not very resilient, although sometimes better quality pieces can need better protection against damage as well as they can have more intricate detail so good packaging may be the main factor.

To be fair to FFG I don't think these other games have been tweaked for a while and there seems to be a trend for improving figure quality so I'm still happy with the games in question.