Vastaryous’ Lair is an epic expansion for Sword & Sorcery, containing 4 quests that has you fighting your way through the fierce orc tribes of black queen Island, and to overwhelm the drakonic guards protecting the lair of the great wyrm. This box comes with new powers, armors and items that will help the heroes rise to the peak of their ability, with Vastaryous, the hydra creature a unique boss style opponent, classed as a side mission with your heroes levelled up, where each hydra head an intelligent being in itself with different attacks and powers.
This expansion is one of the best end boss game monsters and scenarios that i have encountered for a general dungeon crawl. In fact, i would class it as a favourite dungeon crawl model that i currently own, and the way the tail wraps around the torso, with five heads and large wings is just really amazing. Whilst it may not beat many of the epic Warhammer large models, for a general dungeon game encounter this one is excellent.
A summer 2020 project, I wanted to try and do the model justice when painting it, and to keep it believable as a dragon creature, so i kept the colours generally quite muted, but giving the five different heads a unique look, with the main head a mix of brown scales to blend in with the back, then a red and yellow match for the torso, a green scaled, a black and white serpent head, and finally a mix of purple with a touch of blue. Some painters have even tried to emulate the fiery core beneath the scales, and all credit to them, but i preferred to make the scales look simple and as realistic as i could. I went with a dark red torso and brown wings, simply because a red dragon just works well.
I am really happy with how this one turned out, and to be honest it looks better in real life than in my poor photo as it is a bit darker than this lighting suggests. It is the highlight of my gaming collection, and here it is completed with three of the drakonian guards to show the scale of this dragon, where i tried to fit these guards into the general colour theme of the main beast.
I do love it when an expansion box is complete.
