As there is the Frostgrave side challenge currently running, it is about time that I started to put together some warbands as well as all the random monsters, so we will start with some necromancers.  On the right we have Mortibris, the necromancer from Dungeon Saga. As a model he's a bit bland and lacks a lot of crisp detail, so some exaggerated highlighting and shadows were needed in some places. Accompanying him is the necromancer from Zombicide: Black Plague (hereafter called Lord Black). Lord Black and his apprentice, Mortibris, will lead one of the Frostgrave warbands.

You can see from the scale here that Zombicide characters are a bit bigger than normal, but this is exaggerated by Mortibris, like all the heroes in DS, being tiny. Just wait until I get to the halfling character... he looks like a 15mm figure!

One of Mortibris' lead henchmen is this undead troll shaman. Model wise it has loads of detail that paints up really easily. I did, however, make the mistake of going for green robes along with the putrescent flesh colour, so it isn't as clear. I can't think of anything currently listed in Frostgrave for this one sadly.

Lastly we have some tormented spirits. I decided to do these as dark, glowing shapes rather than white ghosts to show their trapped, tormented and evil nature. These can be wraiths or spectres in Frostgrave.

The dead just keep on coming...

Following on from the skeletons and zombies earlier in the week, this time around we have some armoured warriors, some archers and the nastiest undead trolls. The Mantic undead trolls are massive beasts (those bases are 40mm) caught in a constant state of regeneration and death by necromantic magics. You don't want to mess with these... the level of detail on the models is fantastic. Much better than anything else I've seen Mantic do before.

The skeleton horde grows further with three swordsmen. The one good thing about the plastic is that a bit of hot water will allow for some tweaks to pose. For these three I just adjusted the arm position so they vary a bit.

Finally are three archers. Possibly my least favourite models in the Dungeon Saga undead range. Despite being reposed a few times, they keep on bending back into slightly wonky poses, but I suppose they are gangly skeletons... so it works. the Deadeye walkers from Zombicide: Black Plague will replace these ones eventually as they are much better archer undead.

No painting for a few days as we're off to do the Christmas rounds

Christmas Thanks

I hope everyone is enjoying their Santa Clause and Secret Santa presents this year. Thanks to Chris, Cath and Ian for arranging these Christmas goodies once again. It has been a pleasure participating.

Big thanks to the kind person to send me some Black Scorpion old west models. These will go perfectly with some of my planned entries into the painting challenge this year and will be jumping the queue. In fact, the undercoat is drying on them now.

Also a big thank you to whoever sent me this Wars of the Roses artillery piece, it is beautifully painted and will take pride of place in my little collection. So much so it has inspired me to finish off the perry plastics and increase the size of my force :)

Fantasy dead rising

With the Painting Challenge now under way I got the chance to have a crack at some of the Dungeon Saga figures. As I'm trying to work my way through each set in order, the first batch are all undead from the core DS adventures along with the extras from the KS campaign.

The skeletons are nigh on identical in pose to the classic Heroquest skeletons... though they do thankfully have the clown feet and ham-fists missing . You would, theoretically, be able to fit one of these inside the barbarian character. I'll do a side-by-side comparison when the heroes get painted. 

Next to GW's Vampire Counts skellies, these guys are pretty fragile, but they don't look too bad next to each other.

Then we have some classic style zombie peasants. I wasn't too impressed with these ones when they first arrived, but now they are painted they look pretty good. 

And some more feral looking zombies that look far more like Mantic's ghouls... so I can see them changing role once the Zombicide: Black Plague zombies start to be painted up.

The dungeons have a delivery

With another week until the painting competition starts I've been trying not to start work on any new figures... so some more furniture has been finished for Dungeon Saga. The next three photos do include the last set of stonework furniture as well, so that they show the complete group of each type for the DS project page. The originals are slightly darker. I must have used a different grey as the base... but variation is good.

 

And now we move onto the wooden items. There are still plenty of barrels and chests left to do.

Last time around I was asked for the brown recipe. I can't remember how I did the tables and bookshelves, but for these I used the following steps:

1) Undercoat in black
2) Heavy drybrush of Citadel Rhinox Hide
3) Drybrush the top half with Citadel Skavenblight Dinge
4) Drybrush the top quarter with Vallejo Neutral Grey
5) Paint on the metalwork using Citadel Boltgun Metal
6) Wash all over with Citadel Agrax Earthshade
7) Targetted second wash to the lower quarter with another layer of Agrax Earthshade
8) Rust spots added with ModelMates Rust effect.

The new Wargames Illustrated painting special  contains some really good step by step guides to different types of wood as well as a plethora of other interesting articles on painting covering things like faces, horses, fabrics, basing techniques and shields. It is well written with some nice, clear photos to show the steps. Highly recommended.