Ghouls

Bit of a small update here. Owing to my very exciting life getting in the way (which, frankly, makes a change) I was only able to do a couple more models this week. They're both "Ghouls of Acheron" by Rackham, so they'll fit in well with the undead soldiers that I've already done. They have a suitably shriveled and nasty look, and are far better miniatures than GW has ever produced for its ghouls.

Unfortunately, they're also very spindly. The standing ghoul broke just above the ankles, so I used a pillar and a metal spike as bits that he could lean against and which would hold him up. I then used green stuff to rebuild his lower legs to connect them to the feet. I think it's turned out alright.`

The painting was just bleached bone washed with strong tone (where would I be without strong tone? Well, here, to be honest, but less well equipped) and highlighted back up with white. The faces are so small, and so lined, that it made sense just to emphasise the lines and creases.

What's next? Well, I've been challenged to make a model out of the box, without converting it at all. My robot rickshaw has become something of a legend, and this is at the opposite end of the scale. So, I've got an ancient GW dragon that I'm going to put together without any conversions. Will I fight the urge to make "improvements"? Wish me luck!

Necromancer and Dwarf Wizard

Time for another couple of characters, as work on the dwarf and undead warbands draws to a close.

First up is a necromancer for the undead. I found the body of a chaos sorcerer, missing arms and a head. He was wearing an interesting stitched-together robe, presumably fashioned from rival necromancers or really large hankies. I gave him some arms from an Empire wizard (the big book) and a soldier (the rod), and put a skull with slightly ridiculous horns on top of the stick to make a wand.

The head also came from the Empire wizard set: it seemed to be a hand holding up a flaming skull. I just used some green stuff to cover the fingers and it made a decent head.

Strangely, when I put the bits together, it all looked a bit wonky and awkward. However, the paint worked well and once he was finished I was really pleased with the (slightly silly) result. I see his robe has a hood. I wonder how that works?

Our second guy is a dwarf, who will be the wizard for the group. He was originally a rune-priest who rode around on a massive metal anvil back in the old days. His staff needed a new top, and his hammer had gone missing, but otherwise he was fine. He's from a period of dwarf sculpting that I don't really like, but his beard and cloak hide the worst of the stumpyness. Clearly overuse of magic turns your beard blue.

So, how about some group shots? Here is the undead crew, about to click their fingers to the theme music.

 And here are the dwarves!

Frostgrave Undead

Deep in their lair at the rotten heart of the city, soulless revenants drop the trappings of humanity and yearn to bleed the common folk. As a few brave souls stand against the tide of evil, a legion of ghouls dreams of conquering the world...

But enough about the midterms. A few posts back, I painted a vampire lady, who would be either a wandering monster or the leader of a rival warband. I dug out two Rackham undead chaps - I'm not sure if they're skeletons or zombies - to act as her minions and gave them some paint.

I love these models: the clumsy poses, the way the armour is hanging off their bodies, the sheer level of detail. Rackham made some strange and variable stuff, but with these, I think they got it just right.

The taller of these guys is from the same set of Rackham models. I also like the way that they've not gone for the crude gross-out option: these things might be skeletons or zombies, but whatever they are, they're withered rather than bloated. It's a really good take on the undead.

The shorter guy is a Mantic model. He's a zombie dwarf, from (I think) their game Dungeon Saga. He came free with a Kickstarter. I've probably mentioned that I think that Mantic have made some great models in the past, and some very ropey ones, as well as some excellent scenery. I like this little dwarf guy. The proportions are better than a lot of Warhammer dwarves, and it's an interesting concept.

Ghosts!

A while ago, I bought a starter set for Age of Sigmar - and then regretted it, as I don't play Age of Sigmar and I'm not sold on Sigmarines. On the other hand, it had a very nice dog with the head of an eagle and some ghosts.

The ghosts, which have another name I can't be arsed to look up, are really good models. The concept - hunched ghosts with polearms and horses' skulls for heads - is impressively odd, but the design is exceptional. The models fit together in a really clever way that simply wouldn't be possible with lead or weaker plastics.

Anyhow, what with new Sisters of Battle rules on the way, I needed to make some arco-flagellants. The existing models are pretty weak: they come from a slightly ropey period, they're not fantastic sculpts and the concept (maniac executioner/slave types with crude bionics and hidden faces) isn't terribly exciting.

So, I chopped up the ghosts. I gave them spare heads from Skitarri soldiers and some blades left over from some Necron models (thanks James). I've said before that I prefer the armour-and-stonework aspects of the Sisters to the half-naked fanatic types. I could imagine the various relics kept in the vaults of the Sisters' citadel spontaneously generating these things.

A couple of washes and some highlighting later. Apart from the spectral green, the colours match with the Sisters army. Although the Sisters are less rusty.

Obviously, these pictures were blank until I developed them...

Beards and Old Timers

More dwarves for Frostgrave this week. I'm coming to the conclusion that the alleged lightbox has no function at all.

First up, an adventurer from the old days. He's from before the Red Period in the mid-90s, where GW inexplicably tried to paint everything bright red, and maybe even be (confusingly) from the red catalogue that came before that. Anyway, I suspect he came out around the same time as the thief from last week's post and, like the thief, he's an excellent sculpt full of character.

 The second model is full-on Red Period. He's a Longbeard, which is an old, elite dwarf. He's got the cartoony, stumpy look that came in with the Dwarf army book, together with dumpy legs and huge feet. How the hell he runs is anyone's guess. But I like the model despite that. The way that he's basically a beard with a sword amuses me.

The next plan is to paint a couple of marksmen and a wizard for the crew. And then it's on to the undead...

Of Lead and Plastic - an article I wrote on wargaming

I almost forgot to post this.

My main hobby isn't miniatures: it's writing. One of the things I do is write articles for the website Fantasy Faction. They predominantly cover science fiction and fantasy novels, but they review a lot of other geeky things.

I did a short overview of tabletop wargaming for them. No doubt there are loads of things I've got wrong and left out (although I hold to my view that the Age of Sigmar setting is nowhere near as good as the old one), so feel free to let me know. Anyhow, here it is.

Of Lead And Plastic: Tabletop Wargaming in 2018

Dwarfs in a Lightbox

I've often read that the easiest way to get decent pictures of miniatures is to photograph them in a lightbox.In keeping with this, I bought an extremely cheap collapsible lightbox from Singapore. I opened the box and followed the assembly instructions, which looked like this:

Easy, once I'd looked at the captain demonstration. Now to give this origami masterpiece a test run. But would the lightbox turn out to be a shitebox? Or - wait for it - would the lightbox actually be lightbollox?

The answer is "dunno". I took a picture of one of my Mordheim/Frostgrave characters that I'd just finished with the lightbox. He's an old metal troll slayer. I tried to paint him in fairly subdued colours, but the lure of stripy trousers proved too much for me.

I also painted this guy. He's a dwarf adventurer, from the older range of models. There was a point in the 90s (during what's known as the Red Period) when the dwarfs became very dumpy and caricatured. I think the models from just before then are the best. This chap is full of cool details: he's got a spoon and a clay pipe in his hat, and he's putting some treasure into a sack. Just the kind of guy you'd need to help explore the ancient ruins!