All

I am thinking about getting into Descent - the game looks cool.

I got a chance to play at the FLGS and it was very fun. What I did notice and it did give me pause - was that on many of the figures the bases were warped. I asked about this and they said that the set they used was a first release and that it may have been resolved.

Has anyone run into this problem or is it more of a one off thing?

Just curious - I love miniatures and plan to paint mine up when I get the chance! The warped bases could pose a problem, however...

Todd

Almost all of FFG's figure bases are warped: it's a side-effect of the kind of plastic they use. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to warp them flat: warm the base up using hot/boiling water, then flatten the base out using a flat surface and set it using cold water. The plastic has a lot of plasticity at high temperatures.

We've got second print runs of all the sets, and the only base we've ever had problems with are the big apes. They're not warped, but because they're giant monkeys on surfboards we had a heck of a time keeping them standing up. Luckily they're pretty rare (I've spawned them once in several weeks of playing RtL).

Followup: though we've never had to unwarp any FFG miniatures, we have had that problem with some of the D&D minis, which seem to be made from similar plastic. The hot water method described earlier works well with those.

This was a huge problem with Doom when it first came out. My copy of Descent did not have any warped bases, however. I don't know if my copy was the first print run or not, but surely the copy you're likely to find on shelves now won't be either. What I'm saying here is this has been an issue in the past, but it is one that FFG has addressed, and more recent products don't see it (at least not as often.)

If you do happen to have the poor luck of buying a copy with warped bases, you can either use the hot/cold water method, which comes highly recommended and is proven effective, or you could contact FFG to ask about replacements. I don't know what their official position is on this particular issue, but they've always been helpful and receptive to me the few times I've had to avail myself of them.

Or, if you're the DIY type, you could do what I did with my Doom minis - cut off the original bases and pin/glue the minis onto GW bases bought separately. That was a lot of work for me, but the results are quite impressive.

Personally, I would never ask for replacements for something petty like warped bases or bent characters because all you do is put them in hot water. Let them sit for a few minutes and usually the bases will straighten themselves out. Or you can push them down on the table and hold them straight in with in like 10 seconds they will cool down and be fixed. Same goes for a bent figure. It just takes common-sense and soaking them in hot/warm water. (my 1st edition Descent set was like this and easily fixed. The figure holding a flag was bent at her shoes at a 45 degree angle and was fixed easiliy)

FFG uses a softer plastic which is good because they don't break as easy.

Games Workshop uses more brittle plastic that allows for much greater-detail, yet they break/snap much easier.