Frostgrave - Adventures in the Frozen City

[Shadespyre]

My gaming buddies have been playing a lot of Frostgrave, the fantasy skirmish game which isn't Mordheim reinvented at all, honest... ;)

I played a few games with Warhammer minis, and it seems fun, so I thought I'd invest in some minis specially for the game. Although the rules assume that all characters are human, I thought that Halflings would make a nice change, especially as I recently discovered new minis from Midlam Miniatures and Stonehaven Miniatures.

So here are my first halflings... nearly finished, just a few extra touches required...


Elementalists

Halflings-at-Arms

"Archers"

Thieves and Warhound

The pictures highlight a couple of touch-ups that need to be made, and I also want to do more work on the snow. It has shrunk as it dried and I think a second coat would improve the appearance. But you can see what I'm aiming for I hope...

 

[Oppenheimer]

Nice! I played my first game of this a couple weeks ago too. Really enjoy the ruleset. Was worried it would be complicated but it's nicely streamlined. The only thing that bothers me is that although you can bring an army of whatever you want (model wise) I don't feel comfortable bringing skeletons and zombies etc because there is actually an undead class with special undead rules that wouldn't apply to them. The game would still consider them mortal. But, I can at least bring a couple necromancers and some mortal dudes and summon a zombie. You can also turn into a Lich or a Vampire which is nice.

 

[Shadespyre]

Well, it would be confusing to use Skeletons and Zombies as your warband because there are separate rules for them as independent critters or created monsters. But as long as the models are differentiated it would be okay. Perhaps use basic models for "monster" undead and "posh" ones (graveguard etc) for your warband? There are no rules for Halflings, I'm just going to treat them the same as human models.

The rules are very simple, and surprisingly deadly for starting characters. I only played three games (with a necromancer warband) but the range of spells gives lots of tactical variations. Also the fact that you start play with a MAXIMUM of 10 models makes it really easy to paint / model a new warband. I keep picking up models and thinking, "ooh, Frostgrave idea!"...

 

[Shadespyre]

Update - some brightly coloured Elementals, in case my Elementalists fancy messing around with Demon Summoning or making Constructs. Two of each size as each spell caster can have one each at any given time. Not sure how well the blue fire works, but for now these are only a fun distraction anyway.

Wasn't sure whether to add snow to the bases (because, fire!) but I think they look a bit dull without it.

Also in progress - a few more Halflings and some more animals.

 

[Shadespyre]

Here are some animals as promised... a wolf and a bear, both ancient Ral Partha designs...

And something a bit more fun. a Snow Troll from Heresy Miniatures...

FIGHT!!!

I really need to paint a couple more halflings, but I've waited ages to do this troll!

 

[Lord Elpus]

Some nice looking stuff there! Never tried Frostgrave, mind you the total nuber of people near me that play anything is 0..

 

[Farmer7574]

@Shadespyre Cool elemental and beasts, your painting style really suits the character of the miniatures.

 

[Unas the slayer]

My favorite one is the snow troll... :)

 

[Shadespyre]

More reinforcements...

My Captain and an Apothecary / Witch

A Ranger and a Knight

A Barbarian and a Templar

And a second Bear...

Again, I've rushed to get these posted, so the snow needs a dusting of white paint once it has thoroughly dried, and some of the models need touch ups around the faces again. I may brighten up the Apothecary's pet snake and paint the bottles as glass with visible contents, too. I think this would make the model stand out more if I wanted to use her as a Wizard or Apprentice rather than as a minion.

When I get chance to tidy them all up I'll post some new pics of everyone together!

This is now most of the Stonehaven Halflings painted, more than enough to play some games with and take into account hiring better warriors after the first game. I've also got a whole bunch of Midlam Miniatures Halflings, with many more Wizard and Apprentice options, as the next step of the project.

 

[Shadespyre]

The whole gang on their little display / carry tray

I have made no effort to make the bases match the tray pattern, the fact that a couple can match up is coincidence. I thought about it, but then you have to put every model back in the same place every time.... seems needlessly fiddly!

And updated (final?) pics of all 15 Halflings

 

[Unas the slayer]

The templar is beautiful. Love the armor skirt. :)

 

[Borgnine]

Quite a bit of work on those ;) You have given much character to those guys - I think I like the ranger the most, but that troll is awesome as well of course ;)

Still, I cannot believe that people are making so many different halfling miniatures ;)

 

[Shadespyre]

Glad you like them, they really are lovely models to paint. Some of the "character" comes from the random facial expressions that my painting creates, I wish I had more control over that! :D

Halflings are really popular in RPGs, so there are lots of great character miniatures for them like these and also from Reaper, though not so many suitable for Warhammer perhaps. I have about the same number of Midlam Miniatures halflings still to paint! I plan to make and fill another 15 space paved display tray, and also to do similar trays for the animals and monsters. And I may do some treasure chests and similar small scenery on the same bases, too.

Other useful miniatures for the game would be a couple of zombies and golems, which you can create with spells, and then there are plenty of monsters that inhabit the city of Frostgave as well. Lots of potential fun! :)

 

[Shadespyre]

A couple of additions...

A second ancient Ral Partha wolf (actually re-based from my Empire army!) and a second war hound ( a very old Chronicle cast, I think)

And some treasure chests, very important to the Frostgrave gameplay and also fun little projects

 

[Unas the slayer]

Beware the dreaded mimic! xD

 

[Shadespyre]

Haha, yes! I should definitely make a mimic!

 

[benvoliothefirst]

The internet heareth, and the internet provideth!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613044699/foundations-4-rise-of-the-mimics?ref=user_menu

Kickstarter is over but I'll bet you can get in on it late. I'm so stupidly excited to use these in HeroQuest.

 

[Shadespyre]

Those are pretty darn cool! :)

I made a few more things, here's a second storage / display tray made to take various critters. Really, these are more work than the miniatures, but I think they look pretty cool. Will probably make a second like this, and a second one for even more halflings...

Oh yes, I ordered even more halflings, so keep an eye out for those in future...

The Frozen City is all about hunting for treasure! But sometimes the only difference between "treasure" and "scenery" is how much you can lift!

My first go at adding the snow effect to something other than the floor. I think it works okay?

Always worth repeating my Statue tips:

Don't use minis from the game system you are playing - different style, scale and sculpt will make them look more like statues and less like petrified people
Don't make plinths from gaming bases - it's easy, but they will always look like gaming bases...
(Older) single piece minis look more statuesque than (modern) multi-part ones
Static poses may look better than active ones, depending on the subject matter.
Damaged minis make great ancient statues - use the parts as scatter scenery, or hack the mini up to make a bust

Finally - always think "why was this statue made?" Statues are expensive, so why is there a statue of an orc, or a peasant, or a guy carrying full adventuring gear.... I think any scenery project benefits from a story, actually.

 

[benvoliothefirst]

Tips to live by, and I agree about anything benefiting from a story.

 

[Shadespyre]

Nothing new to show here just yet as I'm busy with other hobbies and with Space Marines, but I did pick up a few Undead minis to add to this project recently, so there will some more familiar faces (or lack thereof) to look at in future.

 

[Shadespyre]

A quick trip back to Frostgrave to paint a few Undead, as promised...

These are all Citadel Miniatures from the mid to late 1980s. The one zombie has a plastic sword in place of the rather silly enormous mace it was designed with, which made the model a little too cartoony for my liking.

 

[Shadespyre]

A tiny Frostgrave update, these chests are from Last Sword Miniatures in Spain.

 

[Shadespyre]

Back with some more undead for Frostgrave...

 

[Borgnine]

Looking good! Nice zombies you have there! Also, good work on making those identical chest models look so distinct :)

 

[Shadespyre]

Thanks! I couldn't face painting 200 rotters for my Vampire army, so it's nice to have a game like this to let me paint a couple of things here and there.

Today I've been adding some firepower to my halfling collection - I felt I needed more archers having played the game a bit. So I picked up three identical Reaper Bones halflings, and then had a bit of a converting session:

It's so much fun working with the soft Bonesium; I was able to very carefully separate fingers and thumb with a scalpel, and then fit the hand around the crossbow.

Top converting tip - notice how much changing the head position and / or facing changes the mini. Sometimes with metal miniatures I gently twist the heads into a different position - of course, with separate heads on plastic and resin minis this is much easier.

I like these guys, though they are a bit taller than the Stonehaven models I've used so far you can't argue with the price - all three of these cost me less than half the price of getting another Stonehaven mini from the US!!!