Friday, 31 May 2024

Mortal Enemies

I pre-ordered the latest Frostgrave expansion Mortal Enemies pretty much the moment I read a synopsis of it, as I figured it would slot quite neatly into my solo campaign, and I imagined Tim the Necromancer was likely to have made an enemy or two on his rise to… well, not power, but whatever it is he’s managed to achieve so far.

So, I set about rolling up a random foe for Tim, and came up with a Lich accompanied by 2 men at arms, 2 wolves, and 2 werewolves, which is handy as I won’t need to paint anything up for that, having previously painted wolves and werewolves for Frostgrave, and some Stark troopers will fit in nicely there with their wolf head shields too.

When it came time to roll for spells, there was nothing that particularly inspired me. Bones of the Earth was nicely thematic, as well as a couple of spells to buff their troops… then I rolled Circle of Protection. I couldn’t remember what that spell actually did, so looked it up in the rulebook. And realised it would just pin the Lich in place, so was entirely pointless, so I decided to re-roll it. And rolled Beauty, which was when everything snapped into place and I realised I had the perfect miniature for that:


A Lich Sorceress from RAFM that I bought years ago, potentially at my very first Salute. She was sealed in a blister, so I’d only ever seen the back of her cape, but when I cracked it open she was even more perfect than I could initially have imagined.

With this, her backstory writes itself - Tim has broken the heart of a powerful sorceress, presumably after cuddling up to her to gain some magical knowledge or access to her library, and now she’s hunting him down. Maybe she enchanted herself to look like a beauty to seduce him, maybe he was entirely motivated by material gain, we’ll probably never know, but Tim presumably looks a little sheepish whenever anyone asks who it is that just smashed through the window bellowing for his blood…

Here’s the back of her too, the only bit that I’d seen for the first decade or so of owning her. I went a bit too hard drybrushing, but she’s a dusty old monster so I’m not mad  at the finished effect.

Finishing her brings the Tally to:

14 vs 147 = -134

In other news, I’ve also started a test model for my Alamo project:


Friday, 24 May 2024

T is for…

 …Thri-Kreen!


Another pair of minis from Nolzur’s, again purchased ages ago but only just making their way to the front of the painting queue.


My painting light died, and so painting these by the dim glow of my living room light was less than pleasurable, as I was struggling to make out the details and regularly missing spots that I would have to go back and fix later. I’ve since borrowed my daughter’s lamp, and so was able to finish these semi-satisfactorily.

I forget where I got the idea, but some time ago I got it into my head that it would be an interesting encounter for a party to stumble on a pair of very lost Thri-Kreen and their pet Rust Monster (potentially tied on a bit of string) who would chitter incomprehensibly and then try to eat someone, and I think I’ve found somewhere to slot that into our family D&D game, so here’s to hoping!

Finishing these brings the Tally to:

13 vs 147 = -134

And brings the Monstrous Alphabet up to

A is for
B is for Bullywug
C is for Carrion Crawler
D is for
E is for Elemental (More than one)
F is for Flameskull
G is for Goblin
H is for
I is for
J is for
K is for
L is for Lich
M is for Mind FlayerMyconidMummyManticore
N is for
O is for Owlbear
P is for Purple Worm
Q is for
R is for Rust Monster
S is for Shambling MoundScarecrowSkeleton
T is for Thri-Kreen
U is for
V is for
W is for Wraith
X is for
Y is for
Z is for Zombie

In other news, this was my 500th post apparently, wild!

Saturday, 11 May 2024

R is for…

 …Rust Monster:


A Nolzur’s mini that I bought aaaaages ago after having an idea for an encounter that I’m potentially going to throw at my family in the near future. Pretty quick to paint up, mostly being a single colour that was achieved with a base coat, dark wash, then a couple of drybrushes.


Yes, I could do with tidying up the legs where I was a bit messy painting the base, but then again abandoned dungeons are pretty dusty, so let’s say it was intentional weathering.

I’ve also painted up the little bit of scenery that came with it, because I’m going to do everything that I can to telegraph to my family that this thing eats metal before they try to start poking it with their metal swords…

Running a weekly D&D game has done some interesting things to my painting routine too. Where usually I’d paint things form a couple of projects as they took my fancy, now some things get prioritised because there’s a definite deadline they’re needed for! Admittedly, I’ve been more flexible with minis than I thought I’d be, like having goblins sun in for kobolds, but when I actually have the right mini already it’d be a shame not to get it painted!


Painting him brings the Tally to:

11 vs 147 = -136


As well as knocking another letter off of the Monstrous Alphabet:


A is for
B is for Bullywug
C is for Carrion Crawler
D is for
E is for Elemental (More than one)
F is for Flameskull
G is for Goblin
H is for
I is for
J is for
K is for
L is for Lich
M is for Mind FlayerMyconidMummy, Manticore
N is for
O is for Owlbear
P is for Purple Worm
Q is for
R is for Rust Monster
S is for Shambling MoundScarecrowSkeleton
T is for
U is for
V is for
W is for Wraith
X is for
Y is for
Z is for Zombie

Next, hopefully the other two minis that I need for this encounter - which also knock off another letter - can you guess what it is?

Thursday, 9 May 2024

Doctor something, I presume?

This week I’ve finished another model for my Silver Bayonet unit:


A Doctor, converted from a Perry British Command figure, with some Frostgrave accessories. The unit is themed around vampire hunting, so his medical kit is mostly weird doodads in a sack on his back rather than anything more traditional. 

I imagine he’s called something like John Fotherington-Smythe, and is also a survivor of the massacre that led the Captain on their quest for vengeance. 

Painting wise, there are so many things that I’m looking at in the pictures that I could have done differently, like the fire on the torch and the back of his jacket, but I think he’s fine enough to play with (and the rest of the minis in the painting queue aren’t getting any more painted if I spend any longer on him!)


Painting him brings the Tally to:

10 vs 147 = -137

I’ve definitely got enough finished to use the Unit in co-op Silver Bayonet play, but I need to decide what else to paint for solo or versus play. Conventional wisdom suggests a couple of mooks to up the numbers, but there are so many cool options in the rulebook that I’m tempted by something more esoteric…

Saturday, 4 May 2024

Distant tooting 2: electric boogaloo

As is tradition, for May the Fourth I present a Star Wars themed miniature, and this year we have a Grogu expy from Diehard miniatures:


Also handy for meaning that I’ve actually painted something that I purchased at Salute, which doesn’t necessarily always happen in the same year… 

Natural light means you can actually see some of the painting, which makes a nice change. I probably should have given him even bigger pupils to make him more screen accurate, but I quite like how they turned out so I’ll stick with that I think.


He also goes quite nicely with my May the Fourth offering from 2021:


Re-reading the original post, I notice that Tim Prow actually commented on it at the time saying that this mini was available!

Painting him brings the Tally to:

9 vs 147 = -138

I’ve managed to not acquire any more miniatures this week, so the Tally continues to push towards being back in the black slowly. 

As for what’s next? I’ve got Frostgrave and Silver Bayonet minis approaching completion on my painting tile currently, but on the other hand we’ve been watching the Fallout TV series, so that project is back on. I wonder if I could use the Modiphius rules and proxy in my own stuff? It’s a shame that there’s no stock of the starter set at work…

Sunday, 28 April 2024

Half lion, half dragon…

 …half whatever other bits were left in the wizards’ bits box, it’s a manticore:


Depending on where they go in the future, they might end up fighting a manticore in my family D&D game, so this Mage Knight mini got rebased and repainted just in case. I quite like his angry little face. 

Here’s the back too!

I also received a mini in the post that I ordered while at Salute (a West Wind Samurai chap):

Which means the Tally swings both ways this week and ends up at:

8 vs 147 = -139

And while it doesn’t complete any more letters in the Monstrous Alphabet, it does update it to this:

A is for
B is for Bullywug
C is for Carrion Crawler
D is for
E is for Elemental (More than one)
F is for Flameskull
G is for Goblin
H is for
I is for
J is for
K is for
L is for Lich
M is for Mind FlayerMyconidMummy, Manticore
N is for
O is for Owlbear
P is for Purple Worm
Q is for
R is for
S is for Shambling MoundScarecrowSkeleton
T is for
U is for
V is for
W is for Wraith
X is for
Y is for
Z is for Zombie


Monday, 15 April 2024

Salute 51

This weekend was the annual pilgrimage to Salute, to stock up on plenty of miniatures without having to pay for postage, mostly.

There was a wild number of prizes to be won in goody bags in the queue, but alas myself and my companion didn’t win any of them. Here’s a picture of that queue though, in case that is what caught your attention:


As ever, I was very bad at taking pictures, being more concerned with wandering around peering at shiny new miniatures, impressive game boards, and handing over money to traders! To that end, here’s a series of pictures in no particular order:


These dinky little ECW minis were very nicely painted, so me and my compadre spent an amount of time cooing over them even though it’s not a scale or a period I’m into!


This castle was very large. I’ve no idea if there were any minis inside it, or how you’d move them if there were!


I wanted to have a look at Mantic’s new Halo game, mostly to see how the minis scaled up with the old Actionclix minis that I have bucketloads of. If I were a more diehard Halo fan I’d be all over this, but…


Silver Bayonet Egypt! We didn’t get to play this year, as last year we only finished our initial go around of the show at closing time, having played a game at the start…


This was a cool table! I’m sure I’ve got a set of quick start rules for this game in my bag somewhere too…


This picture was mostly to remind me to look up this range, as it’s not one I’d come across before, and they had a variety of Mexican figures on offer…


This was a cool forced perspective display! Not pictured, the working servo skull camera on the table behind this display


Excellent 7tv board that was absolutely surrounded by people, well worth looking up better pictures than mine!


Indeed. Wrong scale for me though, sadly…


Wizard of Oz mass battle game, flying monkeys and all. Must remember to google Wars of Ozz…


Childish fun for all the family!


Just a nice board, I forget what for…


Once we’d finished out initial circuit of the show, we headed over to the Griffcon make and take to spend a pleasant time digging through piles of sprues.

Unfortunately due to the lateness of the day there was a distinct lack of torsos left on any of the sprues, but I did manage to make this skeleton happily tooting away on his spooky horn.

Which brings us to the meat of the day - my Salute haul:

Some Perry Napoleonics and ACW minis, to make into Alamo appropriate minis (although annoyingly I’ve realised that I bought the wrong box of French infantry - I meant to grab the 1807 line box, but bought an elite box instead);

This year’s Mantic Hellboy show exclusive, because at this point in the game I can’t really not buy one;

A set of plastic boardwalks and other cowboy scenery;

TTCombat superglue, because it really is better than the Poundland stuff;

A Mantic sample pack that had some ogres inside;

A bear, because my daughter’s D&D character is a Druid;

A freebie mini from One Page Rules;

A copy of Five Torches Deep;

A Stormcast Eternal mini that came in a mystery bag;

Some Old West types from Foundry, as well as a flesh triad that will hopefully help me paint some Mexicans;

A Doctor with a long scarf and a big boss looking Thing from Crooked Dice;

An Infinity miniature that for some reason came with the base of a Salute 2017 show mini;

A drunk cowboy from Black Scorpion (they’re all lovely, but so much bigger than every other cowboy I own, but I figured the slumped drunk wouldn’t look overly large!);

A tiny Grogu from Diehard minis, because May the Fourth is coming up and my previously painted Mando needed a friend;

A sprue of Ray Guns from Anvil Industry, because I’ve got some minis in pith helmets that are in dire need of increased firepower;

A blister of Japanese Villagers, because Ronin of Shadow Deep needs some civilians;

The Salute show mini;

A copy of Super Tiny Sorcery and some colour in and make foldable minis from Mammoth Minis;

A couple of minis from the Griffcon Make & Take;

A dice tray, since my youngest has a hard time keeping his dice on the table during D&D

And so many flyers, stickers, and quick start rules, as well as a handful of free dice.


Totalling everything up, this brings the Tally to:

7 vs 146 = -139

Unsurprising, as this tends to happen whenever I start a project with a Salute splurge (and will probably take a swing further down if I decide to rebuy the correct Perry Napoleonics box)…

Unusually, I’ve already got about half a dozen minis from this lot cleaned up and stuck to bases, so hopefully that means I can get some things painted up quickly! Part of me wonders if I should write a post where I go back to a previous Salute haul, and work out how much of it I’ve actually painted in the intervening years, and how much just loves in my lead mountain…