More Frostgrave Zombies, or A Song of Frost and Gravy

Some more work on the jaundiced ice-mummy zombies of Frostgrave. You'll remember how I did the skin tones on the test fig; well, here he is with his mates, suitably bloody and looking like they've been dragged through a glacier backwards.

Now all I have to do is get some snow on the bases, and complete another nine or ten zombies, and we should be right for a game...

Oh! And I'd better paint up a warband...!

Stay tuned...

Ev

Paint Table Saturday - 40K Commission Time...

This week I've been back at work on a whole-army commission I'm doing for a mate - a Dark Angels Space Marine chapter for Warhammer 40K.

The last seven days or so have seen me painting a small 5 man squad of Veterans, an Apothecary and a Dreadnought. It's chucking down rain again and quite dark for 6:00pm so the pics are fairly ordinary but they give you a good idea on progress....

Weapon arms on the Dread are all magnetised with the ubiquitous rare earth numbers and can be swapped out as desired.

Just the Chapter Master to go in this batch and I can get back to my own stuff for a while.

Thanks for popping by...

Cheers,
Millsy

Catachan XXVII Regiment a.k.a. 'Gator Bait'

They're done! Another infantry army is fully painted! Say hi to the infamous Catachan XXVII Regiment, a.k.a. 'Gator Bait'...

These guys have been, like almost all of my megalomaniac projects, a loooong time in the making. Here's a pic I took quite a few years back now (maybe 3-4???) when I had collected a fair chunk of the intended army and decided I simply HAD to undercoat everything in sight, including an old garden bench...

Snow White and the 110 Dwarves on parade

Sick of them taunting me from their boxes in the Cupboard of Shame I've put my head down and painted hard over the last 12 months or so, pushing onwards through the endless tide of bulging biceps and camo pants. This progress is in no small part thanks once again to Curt Campbell and his Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. It's the gift that keeps on giving I tells ya!

With only a few vehicles left to paint I thought I'd properly document the formation of the regiment.
That done I'm happy to report they now look a lot less white and a lot more like this...

They even have their own regimental flag, lovingly crafted by yours truly with a little assistance from my work Shutterstock account [ahem!].

For those who care about the structure of things, here's a plan of the regiment in all it's glory (including the vehicles which are currently in progress)...

110 infantry in four platoons plus command

And now for some snaps of the individual platoons and such...

Company Command, special characters, Echo (Ogryn) Platoon and Alpha (Veteran) Platoon

Colonel "Snappy Hand" Strachon, Colour Sergeant Biff "Neckbeard" Johnson and Ty "Greta" Garbo

Bravo Platoon - 25 grunts plus mortars and snipers

Charlie Platoon - 25 grunts plus missile launchers and heavy bolters

Delta Platoon - 25 grunts plus lascanoons and autocannons

The non-Ogryn miniatures are all wonderful Michael Perry sculpts, so much nicer and with oodles more character than the current plastic range with their disturbingly odd poses and strange anatomy (even for a Catachan!).

Now I realise that a small section of the community will cry "Catachans?!?! But you have lascannons! Shame! Shame!" and if I was running a purely Deathworld style army that'd be a fair criticism. The fact I wanted a full collection of all the miniatures produced pushed me into a more traditional IG regimental structure and to be honest a more competitive list overall. That also allows me to have a couple of tanks in addition to the ubiquitous Sentinels.

Once the vehicles are done I'll do another post covering them so stay tuned. Until then, may the Emperor watch over you and keep the grim dark and it's evil minions at bay...

Cheers,
Millsy

Frostgrave Zombies - Skin Tones WIP

Here's the progress to date on my mighty undead horde for Frostgrave (all three of them).

I found myself on a bit of a roll, and decided to begin painting one of the Mantic Zombies while I was still feeling motivated.

For the test fig, I went for a base coat of mixed GW Nurgling Green and Bleached Bone, since the wonderful old 'Rotting Flesh' has been discontinued. More Bleached Bone was added to the mix for highlights, and the models were then given a wash of Agrax Earthshade to grubby them up and bring out the detail.

Open wounds were painted in GW Scab Red, and some more highlights picked out in pure Bleached Bone. I decided to go for a compromise skin tone, something suggesting corruption as well as mummification - sort of an 'Ötzi the Iceman with jaundice' look. And let's face it, Frostgrave zombies have been trapped inside a glacier for centuries, so they will look a little bit like our Tyrolean friend!

Hey, kids, it's everyone's favourite Chalcolithic Ice Mummy, Ötzi!

So, one quick coat of yellow glaze, followed by a wash of Reikland Flesh to give the skin a russet tone, and voilà!

Still have to get to work on the clothing, base, and facial details such as eyes and teeth, but I think this test figure is about right in the skin department.

More later, stay tuned!

Ev

Perfunctory Stab At Zomtober (Part the Second)

Remember this fellow?

That's the Reaper Bones Lich I painted up for Frostgrave. Well, I tried my hand at a spot of snowy basing, and I think he's come up OK - just mixed equal volumes PVA Glue and Bicarbonate of Soda, and piled it on to the base. I waited for it to set, then gave it an undercoat of GW Ice Blue before dry-brushing layers of white over the top and finishing with a couple of layers of gloss varnish. I think the Christmas Lich (aka Father Lichmas, Santa Claws, etc) now looks suitably wintry, and yet somehow festive...

Obviously, in view of the season, he'll need some suitably necrotic minions to assist him in his nefarious activities, so at last, here's my first proper go for Zomtober (Ghouls don't count!); actual zombie figs. Pity I only got around to assembling them just today...

And yes, I did what I said I probably wouldn't do; I cut away the bases of three of Mantic's excellent Kings of War Zombies, and stuck them onto the Secret Weapon 'Corpse Field' themed resin bases. They were such nice figs, I thought I'd give them a suitably icky base. While excising them from their bases, I managed to keep the damage fairly low, only destroying one set of zombie legs in the process, but the ones above turned out OK, even if I say so myself. They're certainly much more animated than GW's take on the zombie, and I will hopefully slap some paint on these bad boys this weekend just to muck about with colour schemes and see what works.

Stay tuned!

Ev