An Enchanters Warband

Bit by bit over the last few weeks I have been painting up a new Warband for Frostgrave. I've been working on these figures one at a time in between other projects and it hasn't taken me long to finish the whole group. Most of these are Northstar plastic barbarian figures, models I picked up from the Bring and Buy at the Cavalier show back in February. The enchanter himself is a metal figure by Northstar and although I'm using an existing model for the apprentice, I do also have an accompanying apprentice figure in metal, but I haven't completed that yet. 

A couple of these have been posted before but the majority are new

I rather like the metal figures from North Star. They are very interesting, full of character and nice little sculpts with very little by way of mould lines or flash that needs to be cleaned before starting. I'm still a bit old-school and would prefer to be painting metal figures but I have to say I really liked the plastic sets from Northstar. The variety and detail of the parts provide almost infinite variety and the resulting figures are vary animated and full of character. The parts in these kits fit together very well and with a patient application of plastic cement or contact fluid the joins are very strong with very few gaps. However, I had a tube of Vallejo Plastic Putty used to fill joints on kit models and I used it for the first time on these figures around the shoulder joints. Once painted, in most cases, you'd be hard pushed to know these are multi-part figures.

I went with a simple colour scheme for this Warband, employing the same dark red and green different amounts of each figure so they look like a team. The next Warband I paint will have a distinctly different colour, again just so that they stand out well on the games table. I've got a lot of figures sitting in the wings that I can choose from; at least another 20 Barbarians already assembled and based and a similar number of generic fighters likewise assembled, based and primed. Having said that I'm probably not going to do any more Frostgrave for a little while (painting that is) as I am moving on to some 15mm WWII stuff...and not for What a Tanker!  I will report more on that next week.

More Thugs and a re-based Knight

The Lockdown continues and the Easter weekend has been a rather strange affair for many of us. My family and I would normally be out and about - indeed we were supposed to be on holiday right now - but instead, we have been indoors, relaxing like never before! Both my wife and I have thrown ourselves into our hobbies to keep occupied and this enforced relaxation has been a strangely satisfying experience. 

Focusing on hobbies has helped divert our attention from the news (which frankly has been horrifying) and has turned something that ought to be a terrible negative into a slightly more positive experience for us. Don't get me wrong, we are not burying our heads in the sand, and we are keeping abreast of events, but it would be easy to end up watching the news all day long and to sink into a deep depression. We are incredibly worried about our daughter and my brother-in-law, (both nurses) and of course the wider family as well. But we have no control over that and it would be self-indulgent to allow depression to overwhelm us when we have so much to be thankful for at the moment. 

So instead of getting out and about I have been painting, writing and making videos all weekend. Some of this will be published later in the week, but for now, here are some more Frostgrave figures that I have just finished. 

The two models on the flanks are more 'thugs' from Northstar's Barbarians pack. Simple paint jobs but more than suitable for a game. The figure in the centre is a really old model from at least a decade ago that was originally painted for DnD. I decided I wanted to rebase it so it would match up with the other stuff I'm working on.

Next on the painting table sees a return to my 6mm Zulu War project. I'll be putting out a YouTube video about this (hopefully later today) and I'll post some pictures of what I have been working on in a couple of days. In the meantime, stay safe everyone. 

A couple of Frostgrave Thugs

Normally when the Analogue Painting Challenge comes to an end in late March, I'm all painted out for several months. I tend to focus on getting some games done, replenishing stocks of painting materials and topping up the Lead Mountain. Then the Coronavirus came and suddenly we were all looking at cancelled shows and closed down clubs. I've still managed to get a lot of gaming done at home but I have now started on some painting, mainly thanks to Curts new initiative; The Quarantine Challenge. It's taken me a while to get paint on models (mostly because I have been very busy with work) but at last, I have something to show.

I've just painted this pair of figures for use with Frostgrave. These can represent a couple of Thugs, which are the cheapest type of hirelings that a Wizard can purchase for his Warband. 

Hope you like them. I'll be doing more frostgrave figure next and then I may have a go at some of my more traditional 6mm. 

Stay safe everyone! 

A coven of Frostgrave witches!

I'm back from my very windswept and stormy holiday in Sussex and at last have something new to enter into the Challenge. While I was away I spent a fair bit of time assembling some multi-part plastic figures for Frostgrave. I got most of these for Christmas so they weren't assembled and primed before the Challenged started like most of my other entries. Rather than lose a whole week of work I took a box of tools and my figures away with me and worked on them as an when time allowed. I got a lot done, especially as we were'storm bound' for the first day of the holiday (crazy brits, holidaying in winter!). Now than I'm home I'm hoping to get a lot of these painted and first off the workbench are these female Wizards.

As previously mentioned I'm going to be playing a lot of Frostgrave soon, in a vain attempt to keep my daughter (aka The Young Padawan) playing games with me. She's agreed to continue playing ancients with me if I played some fantasy games with her. A fair bargain I think, and it's given me a chance to return to my roots and paint something a little more colourful. These models by Northstar are excellent and fill a gap in my collection with some female wizards. 

I kept the paint job on these fairly simple but I think they work well. 

Ah, and here's some proof I was working while on holiday... I've already posted this picture on Facebook and it garnered some envious comments from wargamers who declared my wife a saint (which she is of course) for letting me get away with this on a family holiday.