Frostgrave - Preparation...

So for Christmas amongst many other things I got a copy of Frostgrave. I'd asked for this as I realised that with the collection of miscellaneous fantasy and medieval miniatures I have I'd have no problems at all building a warband. I'm hoping that others at COGS will follow suit!

I also already had quite a bit of terrain that I could use, though possibly not quite enough. I decided to add to it with a few laser-cut MDF buildings. These also arrived Christmas day and I've just had time to build them up and add slate roofs to a couple. The new buildings are from Stonk Games, Timeline Miniatures and Warbases. They were all chosen based on the level of detail in the kits and the good value for money (especially with Stonk Games!)

My first game of Frostgrave is booked for Sunday 3rd January. I should hope to have the new buildings finished by then.

In the pictures that follow, I've set everything up (well almost everything, there are a few more bits and bobs) to see how it all fits together and whether I have enough. Well I'm sure I have enough. The board is 4ft x 4ft and is actually the same one as I used for Necromunda. I think I may have to do a new board that has a cobble effect or similar at some point, but for the moment this will do just fine.

Of course now I have myself a medieval/fantasy city I can do a lot more than just play Frostgrave!

Internals of Stonk Games Town House.

Timeline Miniatures Market Hall:

Internals of Stonk Games Hovel

Timeline Miniatures Saxon Church... 

Top floor of Timeline Miniatures Bastle House

Man O'War Nurgle Plagueship

Well I'm not entirely sure how I managed this, but I did have a day off work and there is less detail on the Plagueship than on the Plaguecrushers, but still I'm rather pleased with myself!

No sooner have I posted the completed pictures of the Plaguecrushers than I have finished the Plagueship as well.

Next up the is Khorne Bloodship.

Man O'War Nurgle Plaguecrushers

I've now started working on my Man O'War Chaos fleet. This will consist of a mix of ships from different Chaos powers, primarily Nurgle and Khorne for the moment.

The first ships to be completed are the Nurgle Plaguecrushers. I've gone for a slightly different colour scheme from the standard and have missed out the purple which is normally a primary colour on these ships as I don't like it much. Instead there are more muted tones, yellows and browns that I feel work with Nurgle better than the purple.

After this I'll do the Nurgle Plagueship as this will have a similar colour scheme.

Ogres and Sea Monsters

It's been a few weeks since I posted anything, sorry! This mostly because I was sent to lands far away by my work. Anyway I'm back now and am able again to post my progress.

First up are a few of the "Monsters of the Sea" for man-o-war. I'm really pleased with how these lovely little models came out. So far I've only used the Megaladon (giant shark) but I'm sure I'll be using the other three soon enough. I also extended my Empire fleet with a second Greatship, meaning that finally after 20 years I have some flexibility to my choice of Imperial ships for a 1000pt fleet.

The other thing I've been working on this month is my Ogres for Kings of War and these are another reason why I haven't got much done as I find the ogres quite a chore to paint, though I do love the results! I added a unit of shooters and a standard bearer. This is starting to look like an army...

Dungeon Saga Heroes

I've had my Kickstarter copy of Dungeon Saga for almost a week now. In that time I've played 7 games and won just one of them!

The first 4 games were against my 9-year-old son and the most recent 3 against my friend Andy at COGS.

After the first few games it came apparent to me that playing with unpainted models just wasn't going to do. The was especially true with the heroes in their blue plastic. I finished painting those just in time for Andy to use them against me tonight.

Here they all are...

Along with the rest of the game they are very nice indeed. Good sculpts with good detail. Though maybe not quite as clean casts as the ones in the advertising shots. Still, I didn't have to remove any mould lines to get them in the state they are now.

You may have noticed I have re-based them. This is so that I can use them in non-dungeon based games as well.

Kings of War Big Game Hereward Wargames Show Peterborough

Another Sunday, another big Kings of War game...

This time at Hereward Wargames Show in Peterborough.

After a 2 hour drive through fog we got our 14ft by 6ft table set up and fully deployed before the public were let in. There were just over 10,000 points a side and 7 objectives to fight over.

After 5 and a bit turns Good held 5 objectives and contested the other 2. Evil had no chance to make up the difference and conceded. We'd actually run out of time to play and had to pack up.

The next game will be at Vapnartak in York on 7th February. If anyone want to help out, with or without models, then please contact me.

Dwarf Steel Behemoth for Kings of War

When I first started converting my old Warhammer army over to Kings of War I saw the listing for the Steel Behemoth and thought it sounded cool. I looked around and saw many different ways to create one, from using the old Empire Steam Tank (with a new driver) right through to scratch building one. Though an option I always preferred was the steam tank range from Ironclad Miniatures.

Then I read the rules and realised that with such a speed of just 3 inches it would take ages to get into contact with the enemy and then with a Melee of 6+ it would be lucky to do any damage. I stopped even considering having one.

That was 1st Edition though and in 2nd Edition the Steel behemoth has been seriously overhauled. The Speed has been increased to 4 inches so that it can keep up with the rest of the army and it's melee has improved to 5+. Time to think again...

I've been working on every army but the dwarves recently, but when visiting Fiasco last weekend I stopped at the Ironclad stall and had chance to properly consider my options. In the end I plumped for Steam14. It fits perfectly on the required 100mm x 50mm base.

When it came around to building and painting it I realised I needed to make it look more dwarvish and less Victorian. With that in mind it was an easy choice to stick an old 80s citadel dwarf as a commander. Though cutting a 20+ year-old miniature in half did seem brutal, I consoled myself with the fact that it was a duplicate in my collection. I added the rim of a large eyelet to act as his cupola.

Then it was on to painting. I wanted to go with a more medieval scheme so painted blue and red as with some of my other dwarf units. I soon realised that there were just too many plain flat areas on the model and that some sort of decoration was required. I googled for "dwarf banners" and soon had a few designs to copy. Little did I know I'd end up covering almost the whole model with intricate brushwork.

This is by far the most decorated model I've ever painted and I'm really pleased how it's come out.

It'll be being used on the big Kings of War game at the Hereward Wargames Show in Peterborough this weekend. Why not come and say hello.