A Song of Frost and Gravy, Part the Fifth - Warband in Progress!

Well, who'd have thought it? I've actually managed a semblance of momentum on the Frostgrave project!

Here is the warband so far; our two Enchanters, an Infantryman and a Ranger.

"Enchanters Assemble!!!' 
"Shut up, Ilmar."

And here are the new recruits, still in the preliminary stages. First up, an Archer and a Crossbowman to add to the mix; this will add some more much-needed ranged support.

"Riiight, now stay calm, finish painting us, and nobody gets hurt..."

Then we have four Thugs - stout fellows all, expendable and cheap. That's maxed out the numbers to the ten members allowed. Spot the conversion!

"Wait up, didn't you used to work in Mordheim?"
"Nah mate, you must be thinkin' o' someone else."

If our Wizards play their cards right, they might be able to afford to swap out for a Mercenary Captain to whip their motley crew into shape, or some more muscle in the form of a Barbarian. In any event, they'll need all the help they can get to fight off competitors and the assorted monsters, both mundane and magical, which roam the ruins of Frostgrave.

And speaking of which, here's the current state of play with the bad guys;

Hmmm... I think we'll need a few more than this lot. Better get prepping...

No, no, no! Paint the warband then you can prep more monsters! Finish what's in front of you!

Ye gods, I'm sounding like my Mum...

That's all for now, stay tuned!

Ev

A Song of Frost and Gravy, Part 4 - The Compleat Enchanters

Surprise, surprise! My Enchanters for Frostgrave are now complete!

Vaino the Enchanter and his determined young Apprentice Ilmar are now ready to venture into the ruins of Felstad in search of treasure and glory.

Here's Vaino, the brains of the outfit;

and here's Ilmar, the muscle. A diligent enough student, though far from the sharpest tool in the forge.

Of course, only a fool would go into Frostgrave alone, and Vaino will have to haggle with the assorted mercenaries and ne'er-do-wells who have made their way to the camps and shantytowns which have sprouted like mushrooms as the glaciers retreat.

Who will be the first to join their warband? We shall see...

That's all for now -stay tuned!

Ev

A Song of Frost and Gravy, Part the Third; Glacial Painting and Works in Progress (of a sort)

The thing about glaciers is that they move very slowly.

So you'll have to forgive me for emulating their progress when painting a subject as wintry as the ruins of Felstad... But Millsy has kept the blog fires burning admirably over winter!

Remember the Reaper Bones Ice Spider? Well, he's all based up and ready to go.

The usual baking soda and PVA snow mix, given a little shading here and there with some diluted blue ink, completes the basing. Can't play Frostgrave without monsters, so he'll join the Ice Toad, the Snow Leopard and the Golem in the menagerie of menace.

But what about adventurers? I have an Infantryman and a Ranger both finished, but without wizards to boss them around, they're not really doing anything much at all. So I bit the bullet and made a start on an Enchanter and his Apprentice last weekend. I've roughed in the main colour areas, but the detail still has to be finished off, so they really are works in progress (at last!).

Here's the Enchanter, Vaino,

and his determined young assistant, Ilmar.

Character names courtesy of the Finnish national epic, Kalevala, after the magician-heroes Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen; it's an homage to two of the great enchanters of legend. And what could be more appropriate for these two than a snowy landscape in which to perform their daring deeds?

The North Star Frostgrave figs are decked with a wealth of detail, and if your eyesight is a little hazy in the close-up department (like yours truly), you might miss a strap or bottle or whatever, but they certainly repay the effort.

I hope to have these lads completed next weekend, and then it'll be on to some more hirelings to bulk up the warband. Plus there's the prepping for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - cleaning and undercoating in advance this time!

That's all for now - stay tuned!

Ev

Normans and Submarines and Man Flu... oh my!

I've got a virus. It *could* be man flu. I feel like hammered sh1t. As a consequence the photos attached to this post are serious contenders for some of my worst ever miniature photography. Please just bear with me, the items shown do look better that this in real life, honest....

One more project "complete" this week with a final point of hearthguard added to my SAGA Normans, bringing me up to a solid 6 points plus options. Unlike almost everything else around here these only arrived last Sunday so there's an element of the unreal in seeing them completed. I was spurred on by the copy of Age of the Wolf that arrived with them though so perhaps not such a surprise?

These were started during Paint and Chat with some lads from the AHPC and the genial atmosphere saw them more than half done in one session. Nice!

The Kingdom of Britannia fleet continues to swell with completion of all the submersibles as well. All that is left to do now to close this off (OK, for the time being) is a couple of fliers. I'm not 100% sold on the colour of the ocean but I needed something that would contrast with the blue of the hulls so I deliberately overstated the green a bit.

That's it for now. [cough][sniffle]

Cheers,
Millsy

Another Dystopian Wars - Kingdom of Britannia Update

Not quite so much progress to report as last week I'm afraid. Having said that, the aircraft carrier appearing below is a BIG bugger and took the equivalent of three capital ships plus some more in terms of effort to complete.

All that's left to do now is a couple of bombers and some submersibles. All things being equal I should be winding this project down next weekend.

Cheers,
Millsy