Fur-grave - Mikedemana's Ghost Archipelago spin on things (2nd game AAR Pg5)

[mikedemana]

Time for another warband! I feel I am making good progress at getting my Frostgrave project closer to the tabletop and our first game. Tonight I finished up another warband -- Splintered Light Miniatures 28mm Badgers. These are some really nice figures, I feel. Unfortunately, four of them were the same pose. So, I put my skills to the test on making them look different. I think I did a pretty good job at giving them the appearance of variety.

Badger Heritor left, with morning star, and Warden (with familiar!) on right

First up, are the warband's leader (Heritor) and its Warden (spellcasters). The leader is the guy on the left with the giant morning star held over his head. Although the lighting in my photo doesn't show it, his surcoat is a deep purple. I actually snagged this miniature from my friend Keith Finn in a trade because it looked like the perfect leader figure for this warband. Alongside him is my favorite figure of the warband (or should I say figures?). I love this Badger pointing as if he's casting a spell or about to hurl a blast of magical energy towards an enemy. What makes it all the better is the tiny, unclothed badger in a mirror pose. This small badger was a giveaway from David McBridge of SLM, tossed into a purchase I made at a convention. What better figure for a tiny familiar than this one? As soon as I got these figures out in preparation for painting, I thought I had to put the two of them on a combined base. He has magical symbols painted on his lavender tunic, with the largest one on the back (which you can't see in this pic).

More Splintered Light Miniatures Badgers -- here a converted archer and an axemen with his double bladed axe made into a single for variety

One of the modifications I did to the figures was add a bow strapped to the back of one of the Badger Axemen. As you can see in this picture, I did a very medieval looking surcoat over the armor that the figures wore. Some of the armor I painted in bronze mail, the others in steel chain. I gave them a checkered pattern on their surcoat, which I thought turned out fairly well. You probably can't tell from these iPhone images, but there is highlighting in each square, as well. The other badger, in yellow and black, was also slightly modified. I converted his double-bladed axe into a single-bladed one. I know, not the most labor-intensive modification, but it does give him a slightly different appearance. Hopefully, with the different color schemes they'll appear less uniform on the tabletop.

The most heavily-converted figure, the spearman, alongside the original pose

Finally, the most fiddly of my conversions -- the spearman. I snipped off his axe and added a spearhead to the top and extended the axe handle to the base. It is every so slightly crooked, but then again, miniature spears made from soft metal often end up that way as wear and tear from using the figures! I like how the slight lean forward of the pose looks as if he's resting on the spear, supporting some of his weight. The red, white, and silver pattern is fairly medieval looking, and I like how it turned out, too. His companion axeman in blue and yellow is the only one of the four axe poses that is completely unmodified.

I'll be offering up this warband to my players to use in my Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago campaign. I definitely like how these figures look. They are some great examples of Splintered Light Miniatures quality poses and castings. Next up on the painting desk is some more terrain -- scratch-built ruins using the Hirst Arts block that turned out really nice!

Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/

[Bloggard]

crikey, Mike, your productivity (and quality thereof) is amazing.

love your overall vision for the setting (notice I didn't comment on the raft specifically above - that photo you've put up is diorama quality). Badgers are great.

[mikedemana]

crikey, Mike, your productivity (and quality thereof) is amazing.

Thank you! Time for another terrain update. I am really proud of how these turned out. For background on how the pieces were created, and my inspiration for them, please visit my blog entry on them:
https://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-row-of-statues-of-ancient-warriors.html

Ruined staircase in the jungle, flanked by two pedestals with statues of lions


Wolverine warriors explore a pathway through the jungle, flanked by a row of menacing statues


Nearby, squirrel adventurers stumble upon a pedestal with yet more warrior statues being reclaimed by jungle


A grouping of three columns marks the location of some forgotten building swallowed by jungle vegetation

Check out my blog, and I'd love to hear your feedback!

Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/

[Bloggard]

yep, they're great Mike (I have checked out your blog too).

always impressed by the hirst arts stuff, but put off by the price of entrance and time / patience necessary to get good results tbh.

like the staircase in particular.

must say, wish northstar would get the 'elephant-men' out (assuming they're going to do so) ...

[mikedemana]

The Heritor and a grizzly bear as one of his crewmen

A new warband is ready to hit the table: da Bearss!

I really like how these guys came out. They are probably some of my favorite Splintered Light Miniatures figures (certainly the tallest, with the bears measuring about 29mm from soles to ears). The poses are so cool, though. It was difficult to select which one to be the Heritor. I ended up going with the heaviest armored one, and modifying him a bit by pegging a shield to his back.

The warden for the bear warband

I also like how the Warden came out. I've taken to putting an animal onto the base with the figure so it becomes more obvious which one is the spellcaster. The Ral Partha 25mm brown bear fits onto the base behind the warden. He's dwarfed in size, though, by the massive grizzly bear which I will use as crewman for the warband.

The warden's familiar - a Ral Partha 25mm brown bear

Check out more photos and painting details on my blog:
https://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2017/12/new-frostgrave-warband-da-bearss.html

The crew - more awesome Splintered Light Miniatures figures

Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/

[Bloggard]

like the he-man braces on the bear with 'arms' aloft 

that's some serious jungle you got going in the background there!

[Marine0846]

Very cool toys Mike.
Glad I ran across this thread.
Merry Christmas.

[mikedemana]

Merry Christmas.

You too, my friend!

Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/

[mikedemana]

Another warband ready to set you to explore Ghost Archipelago -- the Raccoons. These figs are perfect for pirate-y action, as they are dressed in somewhat pirate style with sashes, headscarves, and fancy jackets.

The Warden (left) and Heritor explore a staircase of a ruined building

There is a pretty wide variety of poses and armament in the SLM Raccoon line. I am not sure, though, if there is one obvious commander figure for the Heritor. So, I chose the one on the right, mainly because of his dashing but faded, green waist sash. It seems to make him stand out a bit from the pack. I didn't have a lot of choice, though, for the warden figure -- if I wanted to be strictly accurate. The rules say wardens don't carry a shield or wear armor. So, I picked this guy -- the only one I had unpainted that didn't have a shield -- for the warden. To make him stand out as the warden, I painted up an Iron Wind Metals animal as a raccoon and placed him on the base alongside the warden. I don't think the casting is really of a raccoon, but it is a small, furry creature. Painted up like a raccoon, with the distinctive bandit mask of black on the face and ringed tail, it does the trick.

The Raccoon crew explore city ruins overgrown by jungle foliage

The crew were also painted in similarly faded, pirate glory. I love the striped stocking caps or head scarfs. They add a lot of character to the figures. I tried to also give them a look of bright colors that have faded with too much exposure to sea and sun. As far as size goes, the SLM raccoons measure about 16mm from sole of foot to tips of heads. They are a bit stocky, though, so they don't look out of place up against the other animals I'll be painting up. They're shorter than the bears and pine martens, but about the same height as the jungle rats.

[LiamFrostfang]

  very cool.

[Bloggard]

very cool.

+1

[mikedemana]

The Weasel warband using Spintered Light Miniatures (some modified)

New warband: Weasels! I got sidetracked a bit in my progress while working on miniatures and terrain for my Wars of Insurgency modern skirmish scenario. But I'm back on track, finishing up this warband fairly quickly. I think I have one more warband I need to paint up before I have one for all of my potential players. So, games should be following fairly soon -- along with more SE Asian ruins and such.

For a full discussion of the figure modifications I made and the color scheme (AND more pictures), check out my Lead Legionaries blog entry on them: https://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2018/01/new-frostgrave-warband-weasels.html

Here is the Heritor...

The Weasel warband's Heritor - the biggest and most impressive looking of the batch

And the Warden...

The warband's Warden -- one of my modified figures

Check out my blog for closeups of the other three...!

Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/

[Bloggard]

good stuff Mike. Your productivity is amazing.

and your photography - don't know what type of camera you're using now - but it's been great all along, with 'pro'-like controlled lighting.

[mikedemana]

Thanks for the kind words. I've switched to a new camera (Christmas present), a digital SLR from Nikon. I don't know all the ins and outs of it yet. Before that, I was simply using my iPhone camera...

I do enjoy staging shots. I guess it comes from my last few years of doing the Lead Painters League !

Mike Demana
www.firstcommandwargames.com
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/

[Bloggard]

so has that been 'natural' light all along, Mike?

looks very 'pro' and controlled if so.