More Frostgrave Terrain

I finally got around to digging out and painting a couple pieces of inexpensive 3D printed terrain that Gina bought me a while back for Frostgrave.  They aren't the best prints, with prominent printing lines across most surfaces (is this something that could have been sanded down?) but at arm's length or on a table surrounded by other terrain pieces they look just fine. 

"I am here. What dost thou wishest?"

One of the bigger non-scenery pieces I got in Reaper's Bones 4 Kickstarter was "Agramon, Pit Fiend." Unlike the previous sculpt of this character, whose size is somewhat disguised by his crouching pose, this version is striding forward purposefully, and we got our choice of right hands (open, holding a fireball, holding a cleaver-like sword, holding a crude stone sword) and heads (closed mouth or open).  After trying them all out, I went with the open right hand and the snarling face. 

Fully assembled he stands about 4" tall and has a wingspan just shy of 8".  He's a big boy, that's for sure, his sculpted base juuuuust overhanging the 50mm round base I glued it to. 

I expect most examples of this figure you'll see painted will be in darker shades of red, the bubbling pools on the sculpted base painted as lava, in keeping with depictions of Pit Fiends in more recent editions of Dungeons and Dragons.  I opted for a brilliant blue devil (basecoat Reaper "Sapphire Blue," followed by a wash of Drakenhof Nightshade, highlight with Sapphire Blue, then True Blue, and a final light highlight, mostly on the face and chest, of Sky Blue) and made those bubbling pools filled with fluorescent green slime (basecoat Vallejo Escorpena Green, washed with thinned Reaper Viper Green, highlighted Vallejo Livery Green, finally glazed with GW Wayfarer Green).

The wing membranes were basecoated with Vallejo Leather Brown, and washed with GW Seraphim Sepia.  They were highlighted with Reaper Golden Shadow, and then progressively lighter highlights built up towards the edges of the wings with Golden Skin and Golden Highlights.  Claws and horns were basecoated with Stained Ivory, highlighted with Yellowed Bone and Creamy Ivory. 

I normally don't mess around too much with lighting effects on figures, but once I saw how bright the green slime pools came out, I knew I wanted to give a glow effect to where the light from it would hit Agramon.  I think it came out pretty well this time. 

They Call Him...MISTER PIG!

Not much to report right now, but I did finish a "Dire Boar" out of the Reaper Bones 4 Kickstarter, which will serve admirably as a wild boar in my Frostgrave bestiary.  He's been glued to a 25x50 cavalry base and will be getting flocked probably tomorrow.

Body was basecoated in Brown Sand and the mane in Dark Skin, both washed with GW Seraphim Sepia and highlighted with Sandy Brown and Dark Highlights, respectively.  Not exactly a wild paint scheme, to be sure. I kind of think I maybe should have mixed some gray into the brown of the body, but overall I'm happy with this as a table-top ready piece.

I also started work on the new sculpt for "Agramon, Pit Fiend," a more dynamic sculpt with the demon lord striding forward purposefully, versus the crouched form of the previous sculpt.  I've basecoated the model in Reaper's "Sapphire Blue," because ultimately, I've never seen a blue Pit Fiend before and I think it'll look cool and different.  The kit came with four possible right hands and two different heads - I went with the open-mouthed, snarling head and an open right hand. He'll be fantastic as a Major Demon in my Frostgrave games.

Expanding My Frozen City

I'm not gonna lie, readers: I'm having some serious cravings to get some Frostgrave going again, and hopefully get a real campaign going.  Mordheim has been fun, but I'm finding I definitely prefer Frostgrave's simplicity and ease of play over the more number-crunchiness of Mordheim.  Both games, though, definitely call for a surplus of terrain on the table; I've described Frostgrave to non-gamers as "Magic Stalingrad," as warbands fight their way block by block through a ruined city.  To that end, I picked up a couple of scenery kits - the "Azyrite Township" and "Blasted Harrowheart" from my local Games Workshop store. 

Both kits came with multiple sprues of goldish-colored plastic to assemble ruined buildings for Age of Sigmar, providing cover to figures standing within 1" of them on the table, with a few sprues being in common between the two sets.  A few of the pieces were a little tricky to clip off the sprues but ultimately I had everything assembled - ten ruined building corners, two of which were two-story, along with a pair of grated trap-doors that I glued down to some spare 50mm square bases - in no time flat. 

The Blasted Harrowheart also gave me some heavy folded cardboard game boards to set the terrain up on, but we'll see if we actually use those; I kind of want to get a neoprene table mat with printed snow and cobblestones for Frostgrave games, but that might be down the road. 

Once everything was assembled, I undercoated the ruins in black and got to work.  I haven't started on any of the big pieces yet, but I've finished off seven of the smaller corner pieces.  Over a black basecoat, I drybrushed craft paint (as these were too big for me to want to use regular hobby paint) - a layer of "Espresso," followed by "Dark Grey" and a final drybrush of ordinary "Grey." Details were picked out in Reaper "Ancient Bronze" and "Blackened Steel," and the bricked-up archways were done with "Misty Gray" for the mortar and "Rust Brown" for the bricks.  I'm only posting pictures of two of these corner pieces, since they all look pretty much the same.

And just for fun, as long as I had these two pieces out, I grabbed a pair of handy figures and shot a quick vignette:

Ape Attack!

My shipment from Reaper Miniatures' Bones 4 Kickstarter arrived on Saturday, and digging through my new goodies I quickly felt the rising urge to get some painting in.  I decided on the "Ape Attack!" set - two ferocious-looking gorillas and one dressed in armor and carrying a sword. 

Not having yet painted any "White Gorillas" for my Frostgrave bestiary, I decided they would serve admirably.  I originally thought I'd do all three in different shades of "white" but ultimately ended up with the two feral gorillas having blue-white fur and a warmer, brown-shaded fur on the gladiator-ape.  Seeing as the Frostgrave apes are magical snow gorillas, the blue-shaded fur struck me as perfectly appropriate. 

Bare skin was picked out in Reaper's "Golden Skin Triad," the gums and inner mouths based in "Old West Rose" followed by a wash of Reikland Flesh Shade, and the teeth picked out in "Stained Ivory." Eyes were painted "Viper Green" just to do something different. 

Just bases left to be painted and I can get some varnish on them.  I'm definitely feeling a serious hankering for some Frostgrave action again some time soon. 

Pantheon of Chaos Kickstarter Shout-Out

Just wanted to do a quick post shouting out a Kickstarter I'm backing, Knightmare Games' "Pantheon of Chaos 3: Rise of the Beastmen" to produce more Oldhammer-appropriate beastmen and Chaos Thug-types for their on-going "Pantheon of Chaos" line.  It's a week out from completion and the next stretch-goal is a free bonus Chaos Warrior for everyone backing at the 50-euro mark or higher. 

I recently ordered a handful of Knightmare's Chaos figures to get a sense of them in terms of size and casting, and I love them.  Very crisp casts, unique and imaginative sculpts.  The figures I received have a mix of tabbed and untabbed feet, and because consumers have a variety of needs regarding bases, so Diego at Knightmare does not include bases with his figures.  I've got some on order, the four-armed Chaos Raider Champion is actually too big for any of the slotta-bases I had handy. 

I'm so taken with these, and with the new sculpts from the Kickstarter, that I've made the decision to replace all the Age of Sigmar-era plastic figures in my Dragon Rampant Chaos warband with metal figures, primarily from Knightmare, with the goal of having every figure in the warband be a unique sculpt.  With the breadth of Knightmare's expanding "Pantheon of Chaos" line, I think it's going to be easily done. 

Arnulf's Black Fire Dogs

I promised better photos of the Averlanders I'd painted up for Mordheim, and here they are, the first seven at any rate.  I've got some swordsmen, handgunners and halberdiers to paint up in the near future:

Captain Arnulf von Grenzstadt.  The shield is actually from Wargames Foundry.

Sergeant Martin rallies the troops. The flag is simply painted paper glued around the flagpole.

Franz and Sturm, a pair of rangers pressganged into the Averland Army as "Bergjaegers."

Big Top, Chicken Wing, and Fat Jimmy - the Halfling Brigade.  Fat Jimmy has actually died
and will not be appearing in future games.  A Rat Ogre stepped on him.