Let's Get Familiar

Well, I was intending to paint some Night Goblins or maybe some random barbarians, but instead I remembered I had a bunch of familiars (or constructs, or similar) which I had originally picked up largely for a Demon World game I'd been thinking about. So I've spent the day painting them all up!

Two little mini-knights, one of whom (on the left) has a little whistle on its helmet), and a wizard imp wearing Mickey Mouse's wizard hat from the Sorceror's Apprentice

On the back of the little bronze one is what looks like a pull-string, which is fun, and the little imp has a rolled up magic scroll in its pocket

I decided to split them into a few groups - the first three (above) are based for Frostgrave, and then I did some for 40K, which can be used either for Inquisitorial warbands or for Chaos Sorcerors:

The artist's mannequin had actually been painted years ago and just never based, but the little Tzeentchian bird-familiar and the blue imp were done today

Purity seals on the bag the imp's carrying, which suggests either that it's working with a Radical Inquisitor or it just stole something

Finally the last three included a small frog that I got from a Dunkledorf Miniatures Kickstarter, which I based on a square base and will stick in my Bretonnian army as an homage to the 5th Edition Fay Enchantress miniature's toad.

The Keeper of Secrets is an old Epic miniature, and in 6mm would be terrifyingly large; the frog is just cute, and the classic Moonface looks really good in a red and black jester's outfit

I really like how the Slaaneshi familiar - the mini-Keeper - turned out

A productive day, all things considered! Nine completed figures for three seperate games systems. 

Painting Points:
Today: 9
This Week: 26
2025: 48

Into The City!

Frostgrave! Well, that was a nice little side project I feel - I finished the Apprentice and with her, the whole warband. It's a nice little bunch of ne'er-do-wells and power-hungry maniacs all led by a death-obsessed woman of dubious morality. I still haven't decided on a basing style though. I might well pick up a pot of that GW technical paint that mimics snow: Valhallan Blizzard or whatever it is. My existing white scatter doesn't quite look right for snow, sadly.

Ialantha Mormaer is an Elf, and that white hair is entirely natural. She likes poems, learning new things (like how to raise the dead), and irritating her elders (she's only 143, barely even out of her elf-teens). The mini is from Heresy Miniatures and is a Steve Buddle sculpt. I like to think that she's tagging along with Lady Jane more out of curiosity and a desire to learn things than to actually help with Lady Jane's plans and schemes.

And there's the lot! Necromancer, Apprentice, Thief, Thug, two archers, and two women-at-arms. All ready and waiting for a scrap this coming Monday. I hope you're as keen to find out what happens as I am.

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 3
2024: 94

Rise, Rise, And Serve My Dark Purpose

I bit the bullet and painted up my Frostgrave wizard. She's a necromancer (hence the title of the post) and I'm a bit miffed with the quality of the photos, but hey ho. The sheer dress looks better in person, I promise.

I have no idea where she's from (I had thought Reaper, but she doesn't seem to be, and I can't find her in Ral Partha's catalogue either a reader has found the answer: she is Nahama the Enigmatic Sorceress from Ral Partha!). But I'm glad to have painted her up after so many years. I'm quite pleased with the way the red flames look on the dress, and the sheer effect has worked really well!

I settled on a painted on skull face in homage to the necromancer-nuns of the Ninth House from the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir. Lady Jane herself is an old character of mine from a TTRPG I played in about nine years ago or so. Back then she ended up becoming an antagonist to the party before dying (and eventually, after I stopped playing, becoming the Big Bad). So it seems appropriate to resurrect her for Frostgrave as a Necromancer.

Tomorrow I'm going to be quite busy but I hope I'll be able to get her apprentice done, and thus finish the warband in time for the 21st.

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 2
2024: 93

Hired Goons

Today I finished the last archer for my Frostgrave band, which means I just have to do my Wizard and her Apprentice now - I've left these to last as they're deserving of a wee bit more attention than the goons. I'm really chuffed with how they've come out though, and I like that I've given them all different names from different places (with the exception of Jester, who's using a nom de crime). There's Hjordis (Nordic), Chamuk (Nivkh), Igor (Russian), Bijul (Punjabi), and Dreda (Old English). It gives the feel of a bunch of mercenaries and ne'er do wells recruited from all over the place, or who have all descended on Frostgrave to seek their fortune in the employ of the wizards who need guards and goons to protect them and help them in their expeditions.

 Dreda's dark green trousers are highlighted, I promise.

What all this photography nonsense has told me is that I need to ask for a lightbox for Christmas...!

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 1
2024: 92

What's In A Name

Well, despite a day mostly spent relaxing, I did manage to finish the last woman-at-arms for the Frostgrave mob:

I actually misspelt her name and didn't realise until after I took the photos - it should be Hjordis - but it (roughly) means sword-maiden or sword of the goddess. She has a sword, and she's a woman, so it seems pretty fitting honestly! I've tried to be reasonably on the nose with the characters' names, so far. 

I spent a bit of time reading through my old blog posts, which date back fifteen years (almost as long as my son's been alive). It's been interesting to see what things have stayed, what's gone, what's been on hiatus for a decade or more, and what mad plans I had that have disappeared into the ether of time. I wonder what plans I have now that will, or won't, see fruition in another fifteen years... by which time I'll be 53! Good grief, Charlie Brown, indeed.

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 4
2024: 91

A Figure A Day Keeps The Pile Of Opportunity Down(?)

 Or something like that anyway. Today I managed to finish one of the Frostgrave archers - the dwarf - and did a bit of work on the remaining woman-at-arms. Getting there, getting there. I also spent a bit of time at a meeting in Coventry organising people to go and oppose the fascist march in London on the 26th of October, which - if you can get to it - I encourage you to go along to; the more people in the street opposing the far right, the better. Assembly at 11:30 on Regent St, SW1Y in London.

Anyway, back to the hired goons:

His name's Bijul, which is a Punjabi (and Sikh, and Marathi) name meaning flashes of lightning, and I thought it makes a change from dwarfs taking designs from various NW European cultures. I really like the way his expression turned out, honestly, he looks very much like he's concentrating on his shot. I am, however, hugely frustrated that I missed a mould line on his right arm! You can't really see it though, but the camera exposes all one's painting sins...

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 3
2024: 90

Eagle Woman

More Frostgrave minion-painting (and not the yellow kind in dungarees) today. I cracked out Chamuk, a woman-at-arms with axe and shield. Her name means "eagle" in a Siberian language (I think Nivkh).

The shield design is from a Games Workshop Imperial Knight decal sheet - I think it's a bit small, but it looks ok in person. I might eventually add a few details around the edge of the shield, but perhaps not.

I hit on an interesting trick with one of my contrast paints - I did the axe haft and back of the shield with XV-88* and then painted it with Wyldwood Contrast and the end result looks really nice, which was a happy surprise!

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 2
2024: 89

* I still think of this as Snakebite Leather!

Everyone Needs An Igor

After all, who else is going to sew your hideous necromantic creations together? Admittedly this Igor is a little less hunchbacked than the classic style, but he is at least handy with a needle and thread:

The base isn't finished yet as I'm going to do the basing all at once when the whole gang is finished. I deliberately went for a very simple black robe as a way to tie him to the Wizard, who will have a similar (but much more ornate) sort of dress on.

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 1
2024: 88

Tying Figures Together

(But not with string!)

I've worked a little bit more on the Frostgrave minions today; getting the bulk of the base coats on and starting to work on some highlighting. The group is made up of lots of different figures from different manufacturers - North Star, Eureka, Ral Partha, Eolith, and one that I can't identify - and they're all wearing very different clothes. Which is fine, they're a band of adventurers in the pay of a wizard, not a uniformed group at all. However, how do you go about making them look just a little like they belong together?

The best way is twofold, in my experience. First, a limited palette - use roughly the same colours on each figure. Here I'm using quite natural colours, mostly: khakis, olive green, bleached cloth, dark brown leathers, grey fur. Second, a spot colour to tie them all together. That was rather decided for me when I painted Jester like Bruce Timm's Harley Quinn, in black, red, and white. Red is a striking colour that stands out even in small quantities, so red is present on all the figures so far:

The thug's robe is edged in red, the women-at-arms have red on their shields (and backing their fur cloaks), the two archers use red fletching on their arrows, while the human has a red-backed fur cloak and the dwarf has a red hat. Jester, of course, is wearing red quite prominently. The wizard's going to have red embroidery on her dress and probably a ruby topping her staff, while the apprentice will probably get a red cloak. 

Once they're all done, and based together in a mix of snow and a bit of grass tufts (and maybe some cobblestones), the overall effect should be of a reasonably cohesive group of cut-throats and ne'er-do-wells.

A Dwarf In The Cold

I said I needed a thug, and so I ransacked my figure drawers for suitable candidates. There were a few that made me go "hmmm... maybe" but in the end I settled on converting what I think is a Eureka Miniatures cultist with some GW plastic parts - specifically a 7th Edition Warhammer Empire state trooper's sword and a 5th Edition plastic zombie's feet:

Post-surgery. I love the pose - a sort of "come and have a go". Had to give him shoes, it's cold in Frostgrave!

Then, while I was rummaging, I came across the five North Star Dwarf Light Infantry that I'd built up as archers ages ago - I think they were another single-sprue present from P purchased from Wayland's Forge. One of those will do nicely as a second archer, replacing the infantrywoman with spear I'd subbed in for an archer in the first place after initially being unable to find a second archer!

The merry band - a thug, a thief, two archers, two women-at-arms, wizard, apprentice

So I've slapped some base coats onto the dwarf archer and thug, and laid the base work for a sheer dress on the wizard (she's magic, she doesn't need to worry about mundane stuff like "temperature" or "wind chill"), although I'm not quite sure what colour to do it - I have a vague idea of a sheer black with some red and gold embroidery but my fine detail freehand might not quite be up to that. Time will tell, etc.

Motley... Crew?

Having rifled through my various drawers of unpainted and random miniatures, I have assembled (mostly) a Frostgrave warband. I just need to find a thug. Not much progress in terms of painting of them, though: I re(re)based them so they're all on 25mm rounds, which took a lot of clipping of plastic bases and carving with a knife and so on. Then I undercoated the Wizard and Apprentice, and that's pretty much where we are now:

L-R: Woman-at-arms, woman-at-arms, infantrywoman, wizard, apprentice, thief, archer

We're using first edition Frostgrave (I have a signed copy - I bought it off Joseph McCullough at the 2017 Games Expo in Birmingham) and as a result my 500 gold is being stretched quite far here. I do need to go back through the trays and drawers and find that thug, but I'm hopeful I'll be able to bash this little group out reasonably soon. I've got until the 21st after all.

The origin of these figures is quite varied - the bulk of them are from a single sprue of North Star Barbarian II minis that I got given as a present a couple of years ago or so by my partner P, but the Wizard came from the same bunch of random minis I got from Black Lion Games all those years ago. I have no idea who makes her - I'm assuming Ral Partha, but I honestly don't know. The Apprentice is a mini sold by Heresy Miniatures but which used to be a Spyglass/Eolith mini; sculpted by Steve Buddle. Really this has been a great opportunity to make a small dent into the pile of opportunity's stranger minis that haven't got an obvious home.

Thieving In The Frozen City

I haven't had a great deal of time to do much today, but I have managed to finish - well, apart from the base, that's a placeholder - the thief for my Frostgrave warband:

I have no idea what I'm going to do for the base, so what I might do is have a chat with K and see how she's basing her minis for Frostgrave. Anyway, one of the mystery minis (it turns out she is a Ral Partha figure - specifically 15029 Female Jester) I've owned for probably about 20 years or so has been done! And I'm quite pleased with the way her face came out, too.

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 7
2024: 87

Pew Pew And Other Gun Noises

Today's been a quite productive one on the old painting front, honestly. I managed to finish off the Carrion, and although they aren't going to win any awards for quality they fit the aesthetic of the Tomb Kings army I've got and look absolutely fine from arm's length (which is what matters). On top of that I bashed out the Copplestone mini I'm using for a Death Cult Assassin which now gives me a full group of those. I still have to finish the tech-assassin, of course, but hey - two days from purchase to painted isn't bad for me at all. And I also blocked in some of the main colours on a group of minis I'm going to turn into a Frostgrave warband - one of the people at the club, K, suggested a game of Frostgrave in a couple of weeks' time, so we're both painting up some figures for that. I'm not totally sure what I'll use for the Wizard and Apprentice yet, but I'm sure I'll have some figures somewhere.

Carrion! Front view, showing all the gribbly exposed ribs and suchlike

Rear view, showing all the gribbly exposed tissues and quills and bones and suchlike

Twin pistols standing in for twin power weapons - I call it gun-fu

I tried to add a bit of blue to the trenchcoat to show it might be a slightly different black to that of the boots and corset; not sure how well it works but it's the thought that counts

A Frostgrave foursome - the three with the flatter bases are North Star Barbarian II plastics; the one on the far right is a metal miniature from an unknown manufacturer

A quick note on that mystery mini in the Frostgrave group. I'm going to use her as a thief, but I have no idea who made her - I picked her up along with some other loose metal minis from Black Lion Games in Edinburgh years ago. I think she might be a Ral Partha figure? If you know, please let me know in the comments! Bonus points if you can ID the inspiration for her paint scheme...

Painting Points:
Today: 6
This Week: 6
2024: 86