14 February 2018

Frostgrave: Animal Encounters

There's lots of difference animals to encounter and summon in Frostgrave. I've had lots of fun collecting all the different ones. Some are old Games Workshop models from the bit box, some are toys for a thrift shop and some are Reaper Bones. I've even used some jewelry.

Some of the models have snow bases other have plain cobble stone bases (to better fit in dungeons and other settings).

But all bases have the same tufts, static grass and birch tree seed leaves - to tie it all nicely together.

Ice Toads
Big frogs with a killer jaw. I've bought a tube of super cheap 'retile' toys and used those. The small one is on a 32mm base, the other two on 40mm square. I've given the big ones an extra set of eyes - because it's fantasy monsters.


Wild Dogs
These dogs are made from Mantic Games sprue 'Plague Stage 3a'.I've used two new plastic and two old restic dogs. I've added a bit of greenstuff fur to them. They have a real ferral and starved look to them.


Spiders
Two spiders are Reaper Bones, one is an old Games Workshop spider and the long legged one is actually a piece of ear jewelry. After dipping them, I've added static grass to their bodies for a gross hairy look.


Boars
The small boar is a plastic model, I think it's from Malifaux (got it in a trade). The bigger one on a 40mm base is a repainted toy.


Wolves
Classic models from Games Workshop. I got these from a friend who was quitting the hobby. I just added some blood and round bases.


White Gorillas
Both these models are repainted toy gorillas. It's not high quality models, but they cost next to nothing and still have fur texture. A decent model, that you only roll once in a while.

Giant Rats
Reaper Bones rat models. Cheap as dirt and three different sculpts.


Bear and Snow Leopard
Both are from the Reaper Bones animal companion set. I think the leopard should have had some more spots painted on it, might add those one day. The bear is a nice little model, but I want cooler model one day. Like a bike Kislev bear.

In terms of Frostgrave rules I think the bear is the best summoned animal you can have i the warband.


Wolverine, Blood Crow and Badger
The Blood Crow is for use with the crow master - a soldier type.


I've written  tutorials for the trees and the ruined walls used in the background.

13 February 2018

Frostgrave: Photo post from Thaw of the Lich Lord 3-5.

Thaw of the Lich Lord
Here's some photos snapped during a gaming session where myself and a mate played through scenarios three, four and five in the Thaw of the Lich Lord campaign. Three very good games, where luck was with both of us. Both warbands ended on level 12 after scenario five. 

For blog posts on monsters, warbands and terrain see this section: Frostgrave.

My witch and apprentice with a summoned familiar.


A dwarf crossbowman hiding in a ruined tavern.


To men-at-arms and a treasure hunter sneaking through the city.


A player hired Rangifier facing off against a summoned Imp.


A templar fighting an imp, supported by an imp his employer is controlling.


Part of Ulterior Motives a dwarven treasure hunter and demon hunter is trying to capture a zombie - with a scroll carved into his skin.


An elven ranger taking a sniper position in a ruined water mill.


An evil knight leading two men-at-arms through the city.


The scenario 'loot the camp' became on major battle as the warbands clashed over all the treasure.


A summoner apprenticve and her henchmen about to enter the city.


A top down shot of the battlefield in scenario four.


A huge ruined wizard tower is the center of the 'Run of the Rangifier', scenario five in the campaign.


A female men-at-arms trying to stop a treasure hunter from grapping his prize. He was 'leaped' out of the situation soon after.


Not a single rangifier survived the battle, most of them slaughtered by the evil summoner (my opponent).


The summoner and her treasure hunter.


Demon hunter and treasure hunter.



A rangifier have joined my witch warband. Here seen with an infantryman, the witch himself and a knight.


Both warbands fighting over the same sarchophacus as part of their Ulterior Motives objectives.



About to 'Loot the Camp' scenario three in the lich lord campaign.


A dwarven crossbowman.


The witch about to enter the city with two of his henchmen.


A men-at-arms guarding his employer hiding in the ruin.


6 February 2018

Frostgrave: Tavern, Watermill and Tudor ruins

I have really fallen in love with mdf terrain, it's so quick to paint and build. And for fantasy houses at least, it has better detail than I can make myself. All my buildings are from Figurebitz run by Gary Robertson (now closed, and sold to Laser Model Store). His webshop can't really figure out selling to outside the UK, but he'll put together an order for you by email and Paypal.

These houses are for Frostgrave obviously and I already have a dew in the same style.

Painting
I use cheap rattle spray can from the hardware store. I lay out all the walls (sorted into storeys) and base coat them white. The MDF soak up a lot of paint, so the first white layer is important. When dry I give them a grey layer.

The timbered frame gets a single black layer of spray.

The roof is wolf grey (space wolf blue) from Army Painter also a single layer.

Then it's on to assembling the buildings. I want all my buildings to be ruined as it looks good in Felstadt (Frostgrave). It also make the houses a lot easier to use during games. Using my clippers I've cut away sections of the walls here and there (even on the already ruined buildings).

Lastly I have added floors to the builds. The biggest problem with a lot of MDF buildings are the interiors lacking detail. So I've cut some cardboard into different lenghts. Spray the cardboard brown. Mix another brown acryllic into the glue. It's a very easy add with the floor boards, but it does a lot for the finished model.

For easy use during games, I've added magnets between storeys and add the roof. Much easier to use during gaming.

After painting I've added crawling ivy from green flock. Dripped with superglue for better strength. Snow is a baking powder, white acryllic, PVA mix. Then all buildings have been dusted with a matt white spray at 60cm distance.

Tavern
A huge building with enough internal room for actual gameplay. I cut off some of the railings on the terasse, so models can be pushed off and fall down.





Tudor house
Actually a much larger doll house that has been shrunk to 28mm size. A bit narrow, but some cool details on it. This one also came with internal stairs. The small roof in front of the main door, I've made myself. Cut from a bit of roof that I cut off while ruining the building.






Watermill
I've removed the water wheel part of the model. I didn't want to build rivers and aqauducts. It's still a very nice building, with lots of cool movement options.




4 February 2018

40k: Pox Walkers

Mutated space zombies of Nurgle! These little guys are so nice, but there's only 10 different models and I own 100 of them. That means conversions, even though they are only worth 6 points pr. model.

At some point I want all 100 models painted up and fielded along my 40 cultist models - for a complete zombie spam list. No idea if it'll work, but it will be really funny.

For the first batch of 24 models (the amount I could fit in my first 2k painted list), I've only gona for swapping out arms, weapons and heads. So there's one vanilla model of each kind and all the others have had heads, arms and weapons swapped around.

I've also gone for saving some of the cool bits in my bit box and had added tentacles and other stuff instead. Another conversion I've used is taking of a horn here and there.

Besides the conversions, I've made sure to mix the colours on clothing and weapons. So the same base model doesn't have the same colours in the same areas. For tentacles and boils I used a wet pallette and blended yellows, greens and purples. Hard to see in the photos, but those are all different colour tones.

It's an easy way to make the models appear unique.


Original on the left. The wrench club is a cool bit box, for some post apocalypse project. Added a hand from a ghoul instead.



Been using some head swaps, shortened the horn on one guy. I've changed the angle on one hammer, removed an arm for a tentacle. Added a gun to one model, don't know where that bit is from.


I actuallythink the officer jacket guy is the worst model in the batch (could be painted as a doctor I guess). The hammer is simply too big. Shortend a horn, added other weapon bits. Rearranged one tentacle arm. The head with the cap is from Mantic Stage 3a Plague units.


The rusty bayonet rifle is another bit, too cool to just stay on a pox walker. Saved one for the bit box and added some ghoul hands instead. Also took one spike of the original model.


Head swap and a hammerhead added to this one. The hammer is from some old GW dwarf warriors.



The guy with the extra arm was obvious to convert. Made one into a horn, removed an arm from the other. Also changed the weapon and made head swaps.


The old flamer club is another bit I wanted to save for the bit box, so made a hammer instead. The head on the hammer guy is made from a spike (cut off a plague marine) and a Stage 2a head (Mantic Games model).


Another Stage 2a head done here and a weapon removed.



The bionic arm is way too cool to sit on these models, so those I want to save. One have an arm from a Stage 3a and the other has a spawn tentacle. I also reposed the orginal tentacle arm on one and gave the other a ghoul hand.


As I just took out some random pox walkers (had 40 assembled at the time), I happend to jsut get one of this type. So nothing has been done to him.


The horde! 24 pox walkers ready to eat and infect the enemies. 76 to go!