Friday 6 November 2015

"Frostgrave" - WIP - Part Two

Witch & Apprentice WIPs - I've already painted in and inked the magic users' fur moccasins
As ‘Mo’Vember 2015 began earlier this week I have finally started to paint up a reasonable number of the “North Star Military Figures” I recently acquired during the company's first “Frostgrave” Kickstarter. My aim to have enough of these figures finished by the end of the month so as to allow my Witch Doctor and his band of followers to enter the frozen ruins of the ancient city and post up a BatRep or two…

To begin with I’ve based, undercoated and set to work upon my wizard and his ever-faithful apprentice. These models are absolutely packed full of detail as a result of being covered in numerous animal furs and magic totems. Predominantly however I plan to have the ‘brewer of potions’ wearing some mangy wolf pelts and a leopard skin. Whilst his ward will be adorned with the hide of a Polar Bear.
Soldiers WIPs - I've already started painting the Barbarian's fur-lined black boots 
I have also assembled my magic users’ accompanying warband and felt compelled to immediately include “North Star Military Figures” wonderful sculpt of a Barbarian. At the cost of 100 gold coins, this model is an expensive investment for “Frostgrave”. But seeing as the miniature looks set “to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet” I hope he’ll prove worthy enough to discover many a treasure before he departs my group of adventurers to become King of Aquilonia.

With just 200 gold coins left to my party, as my Witch’s apprentice cost a staggering 200 gold coins by himself, I have gone with four henchmen at a measly 50 gold coins each; two Crossbowmen and two infantrymen. All of these figures have been glued together using parts taken from one of the sprues found inside the official “Frostgrave Soldiers” twenty multi-part hard plastic 28mm figure boxed set. To be perfectly honest I found these miniatures to be rather underwhelming and actually a bit fiddly to put together. Certainly the arms of my Crossbowmen proved annoying difficult to correctly align, despite the fact that one set of arms comes as a single cast. As its Mo’Vember I have used just the box’s bearded heads for my soldiers and so plan to have these finished within the next week or so.
Henchmen WIPs - The The crossbowman is carrying his trusty dagger in his other hand
 I have also started work on a metal “North Star Military Figures” Templar. This fearsome-looking warrior costs just the same as my Barbarian and isn’t as fast on his feet. But he does come with some additional armour and almost as much health. It is also another cracking sculpt and a useful replacement for the less defensively-minded long-haired primitive if I feel my opponent has the potential to fire lots of arrows or bolts at my warband. 

22 comments:

  1. I got the Kindle version of the rules yesterday afternoon and read 1/2 the rulebook last night. Certainly looks like a very fun and straight forward game and I can use all the minis I've painted the last year or two to make warbands. Just need some more rpg wizard figs painted up so there's some choice and I'll be diving in headfirst!

    You've chosen my fav of the official wizard sculpts to paint up. The Witch is indeed a really cool sculpt - planning to attempt the skull face-paint like the studio version?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you like my choice in Wizard, Dai. It is an excellent sculpt and certainly I do plan on having mine looking especially-evil with skull face-paint. Indeed I actually would like to make the majority of the warband appear to have come from some tribal hot-land, as I like the idea of Frostgrave's treasure luring them halfway across the world to a place of snow and ice which is unlike anything they'd have ever seen before.

      Delete
  2. Not likely to play the game, but Frostgrave does offer wizards galore. The two you're working on (and a few others) have caught my eye. Look forward to your progress.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Frostgrave" really does contain some cracking Wizard minis Finch. Though I think some of its other metal minis aren't quite so good and there's definitely some scale creep issues with a few of the minis I own.

      Delete
  3. The Templar is one of my favourite figs!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is an absolutely corking sculpt Gordon, which is predominantly the only reason I fancy painting it and using it as a potential swap for the Barbarian :-)

      Delete
  4. I'm going to be strong and resist Frostgrave, but that won't spoil my enjoyment at seeing these painted Simon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Michael. I'm hoping this'll be a fairly straightforward one as to begin with I only need a handful of models...

      Delete
  5. Frostgrave is not for me, but as Michael said, I will also enjoy watching your work on this project. Of all the figures you've shown here, the Barbarian is my favourite. Very Conan-esque.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Barbarian is indeed very close to my idea of the young Cimmerian, Bryan. I do plan to have several zombies on the "Frostgrave" tabletop too at some point, and still have a few other mini-projects on the go to post about for this month. So hopefully they'll see be plenty for you to enjoy dueing Mo'Vember ;-)

      Delete
  6. Nice work so far, Simon. Whilst I have several figures with requisite facial hair, none are quite done, so I think my post this weekend will have to be a WIP shot, rather than showing off a finished model. :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Jez, very early days yet. But the hard part (I hope) of gluing the minis together is now done. I'm looking forward to seeing your WIPs and should be posting my own Mo'Vember submission tomorrow now he's done.

      Delete
  7. Err, whoops! Was I meant to pay gold for my apprentice? I think I best re-read the rules book before I play a game. Saying that mind, if I do have to pay then it'll mean less figures to paint for my starting band. I've already got 300 points of Rangers!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry Roy, Page 20 clearly states "It costs 200gc for a newly created wizard to hire an apprentice" ;-) I'm looking forward to seeing those three Rangers :-)

      Delete
    2. Ah, found it! I'd skipped over that part of the page. I'll happily abide by those rules, though. Two less figures to paint :)

      Wizard. Apprentice. Ranger. Ranger. Knight.

      My troop choice probably meaning I'll be on a quick route to failure in games, no doubt. Lol.

      Delete
    3. Absolutely :-) Looking forward to seeing them painted up.

      Delete
  8. Nice start Simon, so your going all official are you! whereas Jez and myself are taking the "hodgepodge" route.

    I have got my first three mini's finished but as I've just got in from work the light is now gone and I cant get a decent photo, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

    Cheers Roger

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Roger. I'm afraid my gaming OCD invariably means I go for the 'official' minis and some of these are rather nice too - well certainly the metal ones I'm planning on painting are anyway. I'm certainly looking forward to tomorrow now and we can compare Mo'Vember minis as a result :-)

      Delete
  9. I'm afraid Frostgrave is not for me, although it does seem to be proving rather popular. This will not stop me checking out your progress Bk! Are there any zombies in the game?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To quote the rulebook Bob, "Zombies probably outnumber all the other inhabitants of Frostgrave combined." so what do you think? ;-) Certainly I already own three, just need to put 'em together.

      Delete
  10. And I thought Wizards' staffs had to have a knob on the end !
    Great collection of figures there, methinks you're going to be very busy finishing them off whilst the your obvious Frstgrave enthusiasm continues.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Joe. A few more weeks to run on this particular project. But as you can probably tell from the minis, there's a lot of detail to them that'll take much patience and time. Fingers crossed my enthusiasm will last long enough...

      Delete