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I like the Frostgrave plastics because they have so many options to customize them to your liking. I dislike the Frostgrave plastics because there are no instructions so I don't know how to match the accessories to the bodies to make them fit right.

It gets even more fun when you start tossing various other Frostgrave kits into the mix.

With the exception of the snakemen, most of the other kits are pretty compatible. Heck, even the snakemen can work with a little creativity!

I'm about half tempted to start tossing Oathmark bits into the mix and see what I end up with...

A nice bunch of models - Reminds me of the old Empire Militia kit in some ways.

DarkSoldier wrote:I like the Frostgrave plastics because they have so many options to customize them to your liking. I dislike the Frostgrave plastics because there are no instructions so I don't know how to match the accessories to the bodies to make them fit right.

These guys, as well as the Cultists I have assembled waiting for some attention, took a fair amount of dry fitting to get right. I snipped quite a few arms off the sprue getting these guys right.

highlord tamburlaine wrote:It gets even more fun when you start tossing various other Frostgrave kits into the mix.

With the exception of the snakemen, most of the other kits are pretty compatible. Heck, even the snakemen can work with a little creativity!

I'm about half tempted to start tossing Oathmark bits into the mix and see what I end up with...

I'm looking forward to kitbashing a few of these sets. Be sure to share photos of your Oathmark guys!

Slinky wrote:A nice bunch of models - Reminds me of the old Empire Militia kit in some ways.

I was thinking the exact same thing as I worked on these guys. I have never owned that particular kit, but now I wish that I had.

You're not missing all that much, Josh. The minis were not very good quality at all. These Frostgrave figures look to be much nicer.

These (Frostgrave soldiers) are really good. No matter the age this recipe in Your hands produce a pretty result! One day these kits will make me fail Willpower roll and get them.

Great job josh, love the colour palette you get into your fantasy minis, looks really natural but also has some colours there than green n Brown.

Red Harvest wrote:You're not missing all that much, Josh. The minis were not very good quality at all. These Frostgrave figures look to be much nicer.

Really? I've never seen them in person, but they look pretty nice in photos. Ah, well, it's not like I need more models.

Wirecat wrote:These (Frostgrave soldiers) are really good. No matter the age this recipe in Your hands produce a pretty result! One day these kits will make me fail Willpower roll and get them.

Thanks, Wirecat. If you play any kind of fantasy skirmish game, I recommend these models. They are supposed to be compatible with all of the other Frostgrave plastixs, so even a couple sprues from different sets will give you some nifty models to work with.

JoeRugby wrote:Great job josh, love the colour palette you get into your fantasy minis, looks really natural but also has some colours there than green n Brown.

I'm really going to have to dig out my old Harlequins someday, just to brighten up my painting desk...

Continuing the theme from last week, here are some Frostgrave cultists:


After assembly, I had a hard time deciding on a color scheme. The Thaw of the Liche Lord book doesn't have any photos of these models, and GIS mostly gave me blacks and reds. The only illustration featuring cultists in the book is a painting, in which the looks look like burlap or sackcloth or something like that. In the end, I painted their pants and shirts using a palette similar to the soldiers from last week, and made their coats and hoods the dark browns you see here. I figured that, as cultists, these guys mostly hang around with everyone else in FG until it's time for culty activities, when they put on their uniforms and get to work. I didn't use a single wash or glaze on these guys, just good old fashioned layering. The torch in the first photo turned out terribly, and will need to be revisited before I put these guys away. The two-handed axe in the last photo came from the Solider sprue, so I guess they really are cross-compatible. In addition to these guys, I finished off these little pests:


These orclings for Dungeon Saga came already attached to the base, which makes them playable out of the box but difficult to paint. I ended up slicing them off the base so that I could paint them separately. Not much more to say about them, really. This just leaves two of the heroes to finish this particular set. As always, here's a group shot:


The cultists are apparently trying to torch this little rice paddy, while the orclings are defending it? The paddy is scrap MDF, spackle, static grass, Realistic Water, and strip tufts that I picked up for this particular project. I'll have to make a couple more for the next time we play Ronin.

As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged. Dungeon Saga heroes and some Old-nadier models.

Cutlists? Is that because of their love of cutlery?

For someone who doesn't like basing, your bases are just getting better and better, they really set the models off nicely.

And that terrain is simply brilliant - Well done!

JoshInJapan wrote:

Wirecat wrote:These (Frostgrave soldiers) are really good. No matter the age this recipe in Your hands produce a pretty result! One day these kits will make me fail Willpower roll and get them.

Thanks, Wirecat. If you play any kind of fantasy skirmish game, I recommend these models. They are supposed to be compatible with all of the other Frostgrave plastixs, so even a couple sprues from different sets will give you some nifty models to work with.

I've already got some of their metals and was a little disappointed by their smallish size... then told that later blisters had a bit of a scalecreep. OK, got 20 of their plastic gnolls, will start with them next year (looking closely at what You've did!)

JoshInJapan wrote:Continuing the theme from last week, here are some Frostgrave cultists:

This would have benefitted so much by a forced directional light shading from his torch... or a darker flame on that stich - he is darkfuming!

Love those cultists. Nice work.

Slinky wrote:Cutlists? Is that because of their love of cutlery?

For someone who doesn't like basing, your bases are just getting better and better, they really set the models off nicely.

And that terrain is simply brilliant - Well done!

My basing is super simple-- white-glue-and-sand, painted and drybrushed, with some static grass and scatter. I still hate doing it. I'm pretty proud of the rice paddy, though. I have enough scrap MDF for at least three more plots, although I'll probably do at least one as vegetables instead.

Wirecat wrote:

JoshInJapan wrote:

Wirecat wrote:These (Frostgrave soldiers) are really good. No matter the age this recipe in Your hands produce a pretty result! One day these kits will make me fail Willpower roll and get them.

Thanks, Wirecat. If you play any kind of fantasy skirmish game, I recommend these models. They are supposed to be compatible with all of the other Frostgrave plastixs, so even a couple sprues from different sets will give you some nifty models to work with.

I've already got some of their metals and was a little disappointed by their smallish size... then told that later blisters had a bit of a scalecreep. OK, got 20 of their plastic gnolls, will start with them next year (looking closely at what You've did!)

This would have benefitted so much by a forced directional light shading from his torch... or a darker flame on that stich - he is darkfuming!

I have the metals for both the gnolls and barbarians, and they are a little larger than the plastics. I've never had much success with OSL, but I might give it a try on this guy when I repaint his torch.

insaniak wrote:Love those cultists. Nice work.

The cultists are nice models. I'll have to see if they scale well with ME Broken arms for post-apoc cultists.

Lovely stuff as always Josh

At my son's request, I bumped these two models to the front of the queue:



These are, of course, the Glade Warden druid and Salamander fighter for the Dungeon Saga expansion The Warlord of Galahir. Since this expansion re-uses the elf and dwarf hero models from the original DS, this particular set is complete and ready to play. Here's a group shot, composed by my son:



I also managed to finish these three models as well:





I have had these three models since 1980 or thereabouts, shortly after I started playing D&D, and they are pretty close to the first models I ever bought. They come from Grenadier's Advanced Dungeons and Dragons line. I never really liked Grenadier's human-sized models-- Ral Partha did them much better-- but in my old age, I have come to appreciate these guys a lot more. Their hands are grotesque, of course, but the flowing robes were easy to paint and highlight, and they have "character," which is what we old guys say when we like older, somewhat crude models. They look like Magic Users, and they'll fit quite nicely with the wizard's apprentices I painted way back when. I'll have to see if I can't get in some Frostgrave over summer break.

Next up, more Dungeon Saga, unless I get distracted. As always, comments and criticism are welcome.

Those magic users *DO* have character though. I'm liking the middle guy with the smoke the best.

You don't really see wizards with the conical hats anymore do you? Very much a fantasy trope that seems to have fallen out of fashion.

Was the Salamander in the Warlord expansion? Is it plastic or resin? My Dungeon Saga stuff got flipped before anyone else knew better and I don't even know what I sold in the end.

I've been tempted to track down a reasonably priced copy, if only for painting purposes or using the figures for other games.

Great job getting the dungeon saga expansion finished Josh.

The smoke on the wizard has come out awesomely

I'm really enjoying your work on the Dungeon Saga minis, and I'm looking forward to the more you're planning on doing. I also have to agree with everyone else, the green wizard with the smoke trail coming out of his staff is great.

I really like those old-school wizards! The bright colors and slightly cruder sculpts give them a lot of character. One of my hobby goals is to eventually paint some minis that are older than me (which those wizards are by a few years), so maybe I'll have to see what I can scrounge on eBay or something, or get lucky at a garage sale.

highlord tamburlaine wrote:Those magic users *DO* have character though. I'm liking the middle guy with the smoke the best.

You don't really see wizards with the conical hats anymore do you? Very much a fantasy trope that seems to have fallen out of fashion.

Was the Salamander in the Warlord expansion? Is it plastic or resin? My Dungeon Saga stuff got flipped before anyone else knew better and I don't even know what I sold in the end.

I've been tempted to track down a reasonably priced copy, if only for painting purposes or using the figures for other games.

Both the Tree Warden and the Salamander came in this expansion. Both are board game plastic, which means that mold lines got zero clean up before painting. They turned out well enough to game with. DS itself is a fun little game. The Uncharted Dungeon cards and the design-your -own hero rules that came with the Adventurer's Companion make it a pretty solid beer-and-pretzels game.

JoeRugby wrote:Great job getting the dungeon saga expansion finished Josh.

The smoke on the wizard has come out awesomely

Thanks, it's nice to be able to say "I'm done" every once in a while. The smoke looks kind of gnarly up close, but the effect works at arm's length, so he'll work on the tabletop.

Syro_ wrote:I'm really enjoying your work on the Dungeon Saga minis, and I'm looking forward to the more you're planning on doing. I also have to agree with everyone else, the green wizard with the smoke trail coming out of his staff is great.

Smokey the Wizard is the clear winner in this set. It's hard to tell, but the smoke is coming out of a little cauldron at his feet. I assume he has his apprentice haul it around for him.

ZergSmasher wrote:I really like those old-school wizards! The bright colors and slightly cruder sculpts give them a lot of character. One of my hobby goals is to eventually paint some minis that are older than me (which those wizards are by a few years), so maybe I'll have to see what I can scrounge on eBay or something, or get lucky at a garage sale.

Thanks, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. Your "minis older than me" sounded intriguing but all of the pre-1970 models I've found so far have been pretty fugly...

Thanks for showing the three wizards. I first saw the blue and thought that looks familiar. Since you were talking about frostgrave miniatures I wondered if someone was just copying the min. It's good to see people working on the old stuff. I need to crack open my old miscellaneous case and see which of the three I still have. Yours are definitely better painted than mine.

Holy Moley Josh! Serious blast from the past. I remember painting that magic-user with the crystal ball way back in 1979. I'm going to say your paint job is better than mine was*. I still have the cleric 'turning' and the bard from that line. I lost the wizard some time ago.

Ral Partha did indeed have much nicer minis. And then there were minifigs...

It made my day, to see those Magic-Users. Thanks for that.

*I only have one example of my painting skills from back then, the 'lesser orc with axe' from Grenadier. It's not pretty.

Love seeing that old lead. Wonderful stuff.

The Dungeon Saga minis are sweet too.

That middle wizard is one of my old minis as well!

Terrific work- there is no school like the old school! I think I like some of these great older pieces so much because back in the day there was so much junk floating around- and without the innerwebz, no way to see it short of ordering! Finding a good manufacturer was as much luck and art, as science. You've painted these guys up just swell.

Thanks, everyone, for the kind words. My son really enjoys "snooping" (his word, not mine) in my many many boxes of unpainted and/or poorly painted models, allowing me to rediscover some of the stuff that I've acquired and subsequently forgotten about. For those commenters who also have these old models lying around, how about posting them for the rest of us old guys to enjoy?

This week, the work on Dungeon Saga: Infernal Crypts continues:



These are Lesser Abyssal warriors, the basic troop type for this expansion. Every bad guy will have a variation on this paint scheme: AP Chaos Red, highlighted up to AP Dragon Red, various light browns for straps and stuff, all with a dark brown glaze to tie it all together. About three hours of work, broken up by breaks for coffee and for interesting scenes in Predator (my go-to painting movie).



Hellhounds. Painted with the exact same technique as the Warriors. It's actually kind of zen, painting the same models nine times in a row.



Did I say nine times? I meant twelve times. These are the Abyssal Guard, the elite troopers. Their weapons are still bendy, even after giving them the boiling water/ice water treatment. Their ankles straightened out nicely, though.

Here's everything together:


The LED strip on my photo box isn't working, so I had to rely on external lighting and the gallery's auto-adjust feature. Hopefully I can get the lighting issue sorted out for the next update. I'm currently working on the two heroes for this set. I hope the have them ready to show by the end of the week. In the meantime, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

Lovely as usual.

Better than usual. Lovely and lively reds! A bit tropical frog-like, but thats good too!

Very nice and vibrant, they will look great lining up against the heroes in a DS game

Summer vacation is winding down here. My family went down to Kyushu to visit the in-laws, while I stayed for a couple of mandatory continuing education seminars and to watch after our aging dog. While they were gone, I caught up on my Marvel movies, and did some painting:



These are the two new heroes for the Dungeon Saga "Infernal Crypths" expansion. The battle nun has really, really long arms.



Three Succubi from the same set. As always with models like this, I felt a little creepy painting their butts and thighs. Also, R. Crumb seems to have designed these particular models.



Lower Abyssal Flamebearers. I actually sat down and watched a bunch of tutorials on Youtube before I painted the fireballs. I think they turned out well.



Speaking of fire, here are some Efreets. I'm pretty happy with the flames on these models as well. The secret seems to be applying a red glaze over all the layers to bring it all together.



Molochs, big ogre-sized demons. With everything else in this set, I did some minimal layering with a dark brown glaze over the whole model, but these guys were big enough that I could get by with just layering/highlighting.



Tortured Souls. These guys aren't demons, so I went with a completely different palette for them.



Finally, Drech'nok The Destroyer, the Big Bad for this set. I painted him using the exact same colors and techniques as everything else. All these models came pre-assembled, and this guys wings were very much in the way. Also, the wings make him so back heavy tat he falls over all the time. I may have to heat him up and bend him forward at the ankles to balance him out.

In addition to all these models, I finally had time to break out and paint up a bunch of resin terrain I got in a KS last year:


This was a whole lot of hobby work, and I'm just a little burned out. I think I'll give it a day or two, and then start something else. Dreadball, maybe? As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

Wow, Josh, you are in the middle of a seriously productive period, with no drop off in quality, and some real stars in there too! Top notch!