Three Dwarf Adventurers

Now, on to some models that I really do like. Here are some random dwarves. I got the first two off ebay, and had the third lying around since I was 15 or so. I'm very keen on all of them. It seems to be the rules that elves always have to be beautiful and stylish, but dwarves are often quite caricatured, which makes for some entertaining miniatures.

Our first model (I'm making these names up, by the way) is Ambroth the Younger, son, confusingly, of Ambroth the Middling (Ambroth the elder became so old that he is now indistinguishable from a rock). He is a scholar by trade, but has joined the expedition to lend his limited magical skills to the group.

This is Girda, daughter of Mirda, a brave warrior and expert opera singer. Protected by heavy armour and extensive braids, she counts as a Templar under the Frostgrave rules.

Olaf is committed to maintaining high standards in a work environment by... holding a standard high up. He's a very old GW model. I'm quite fond of the colour fade on his shield.

I don't know who made Girda or Ambroth. It seems a shame I have no idea who sculpted these really good, characterful models. But still, here they are.

Ghouls Gone Wild

Once again, it's been a bit of a quiet week. I spent quite a lot of it being ill, propped in front of the TV. After two days of strong medication, Father Ted and the Godfather, you start to have a rather skewed view of the world. However, I was able to finish off another ghoul and the last dwarf explorer.

The ghoul is another Rackham model and a very strange one too. His pose looks less as if he's just leaped out of a tomb than he's just taken to the stage with a feather boa, and is about to belt out some musical numbers. On the other hand, the sculpting and detail are excellent. He came without a head, so I added a shrivelled trophy I found on a chaos warrior shield. The banner/warning sign behind him was added to give him a bit more stability.

I'm pleased with the shading on his robe. Here is the whole ghastly chorus line of them, doing whatever sordid things ghouls do, in a row.

And now for the last dwarf. This guy is basically a really stumpy knight. I thought he looked ace and painted him to match the others. The teams are nearly finished!

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!

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...

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!