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That's disgusting. Well done. I was trying to figure out which mythos gribbly it was from the pics!

Wow, I didn't know RAFM made a third version of the Cult of the Bloody Tongue Nyarlethotep. That's a really interesting interpretation with the paint scheme and converting that is suitably gruesome!

Definitely something an investigator doesn't want to meet in a dark alley!

Merry Christmas bud

inmygravenimage wrote:That's disgusting. Well done. I was trying to figure out which mythos gribbly it was from the pics!

Thanks! I'm pretty sure this monster was created by Chaosium, but he seems to be based on Nyarlathotep.

KidCthulhu wrote:Wow, I didn't know RAFM made a third version of the Cult of the Bloody Tongue Nyarlethotep. That's a really interesting interpretation with the paint scheme and converting that is suitably gruesome!

Definitely something an investigator doesn't want to meet in a dark alley!

There are three? I have one other Nyarlathotep model from RAFM, but I have no memory of a third.

Camkierhi wrote:Merry Christmas bud

And to you, buddy!

As part of my painting space cleanup, I managed to finish four more models, all intended for Frostgrave. First, a Neo-Bedouin shaman from RAFM:



Based on her kung-fu pose, I painted her like a Shaolin monk, and will be using her as such in game.

Next, a halfling druid:



Many years ago, I was playing in a D&D campaign with a couple of other foreigners here. All three of us players were combat heavy, and our DM decided that we needed a healer. He made a halfling cleric, for which I bought (but didn't paint) this model. Shortly thereafter, we all sort of broke up and went out separate ways, and this model languished in the back of my paint station ever since.

Here's an official Frostgrave wizard:



The model is based on the cover art for Perilous Dark. I emulated the colors from the artwork as best as I could. She came packaged with this apprentice:




Traditionally, FG wizards and apprentices dress pretty much the same, but having already painted the previous model, I wanted to do something a little different. I took the colors from Gabrielle (from Xena) before she learned to fight.

Here are all four together:


I have a few more models in various stages of incompleteness, but probably won't get them done before New Year's. My final Year To Date total is in my signature.

Thanks to everyone who looks at and comments on my work. Your feedback really inspires me to keep painting and playing. Have a safe and wonderful New Year, and I'll see you all again in January!

 JoshInJapan wrote:
There are three? I have one other Nyarlathotep model from RAFM, but I have no m
emory of a third.

My bad; I was thinking of the Grenadier one:


Whenever I saw the pic of this guy in Dragon Magazine, I always thought it was RAFM.

I love your Frostgrave crew, BTW I'm all for mixing model ranges as long as the scale is close.

Oh, wow, that is a cool model! I may have to track one down...

One of the many things I love about Frostgrave is that it's truly model-agnostic. All the soldiers are generic fantasy types, so anyone with any kind of variety in their collection can find something to fit any role.

We ended up having a stay-at-home New Year's holiday-- my wife and son were planning to visit her mom, but they day before they were supposed to leave, my son developed a cough and runny nose, and came back with a positive Covid-19 anti-body test. He isolated in his room for a few days, everyone went masked for a week, and thankfully nothing worse than that happened. Normally, I use the alone time I get to start a large project (and I have made a start, but almost no progress), but I did manage to clear a couple of things of the painting station:



These are the Shinobi Sisters, from Bad Squiddo's Fuedal Japan line. I don't know why the photos are so blurry.



This model is from a Grenadier boxed set of wizards from 1980. I bought it new at about that time, and this guy has been following me around every since. He's made of a pretty soft lead alloy, so some detail has been lost to wear (the right hand looks more like an oven mitt, which is why I painted it to match the imp on his shoulder), but he was kind of fun. He's also my last model for 2022.

Here are all three together:


This brings my final total for 2022 to:

116 human sized models, plus eleven pieces of street scenery, a wrecked car, a Big Gun, a Mech, two Eldritch Horrors, and a dragon.

See you all in 2023!

Nice work, Josh. I watched a lot of Xena and Hercules back in the day. Had a huge crush on Gabrielle, definitely a nice source of inspiration. Frostgrave looks like a lot of fun. I have the book, but don’t have the minis to rock all of the troops and monsters necessary to play a game. Guess I’ll have to get more minis.

What a great total for 2022. Onwards and upwards in the new year!!

Thanks for sharing, and for doing so incredibly consistently

Haven't checked in here in a while; it seems you've been busy! You've had a pretty great year, and I hope next year is even better for you.

I love how your Shinobi Sisters turned out.

Everything looking great. Inspiring as always.

Nice stuff! I like the shinobi sisters and the samurai look very snazzy indeed.

DJJazzyJeff wrote:Nice work, Josh. I watched a lot of Xena and Hercules back in the day. Had a huge crush on Gabrielle, definitely a nice source of inspiration. Frostgrave looks like a lot of fun. I have the book, but don’t have the minis to rock all of the troops and monsters necessary to play a game. Guess I’ll have to get more minis.

I remember being pleasantly surprised that Hercules was as good as it was, and blown away by Xena. I haven't gone back to revisit either show in the years since, as I'm not sure they'd hold up.

Frostgrave is a lot of fun, and being truly miniatures agnostic, you can use any fantasy models you have, as long as you can remember what everything is. Or, of course, you could buy some more models-- I would never tell a fellow hobbyist not to...

IGtR= wrote:What a great total for 2022. Onwards and upwards in the new year!!

Thanks for sharing, and for doing so incredibly consistently

Thanks for commenting so frequently. It's nice to know that people are enjoying my work.

ZergSmasher wrote:Haven't checked in here in a while; it seems you've been busy! You've had a pretty great year, and I hope next year is even better for you.

Thanks for stopping by! I'm running out of places to store the models I paint, so I'll likely be slowing down a bit and trying to push myself to improve.

KidCthulhu wrote:I love how your Shinobi Sisters turned out.

Thanks! I'm sorry the photos are so fuzzy-- they looked sharp enough on my phone, but not on the computer screen.

Camkierhi wrote:Everything looking great. Inspiring as always.

Thanks! Your scratchbuilds are just as inspiring to me.

Flapjack wrote:Nice stuff! I like the shinobi sisters and the samurai look very snazzy indeed.

Thanks! Samurai are a lot of work to paint, but I'm generally pleased with the results.

The theme for January's painting challenge is Ascension. I decided to revisit some classic Ral Partha models:


According to my cursory Googling, Ral Partha released a whole line of 3-stage character models around 1986. I only every picked up two sets-- a wizard that I sent to someone as part of a Secret Santa thing via FB, and this anti-paladin here. I got them just about the time that I started getting into WHFB, to use as Chaos Marauders-- they are more fully armored that Citadel Chaos Thugs, but smaller than Chaos Warriors, so they fit a niche that didn't have any official models. I decided to leave them on 25mm square bases because that's what they have always been on, and I didn't want to snap them off at the ankles just to rebase them.




I decided to give this guy bronze armor rather than silver/steel to sort sell the evil, as well as to match him with all the Chaos Warriors I've repainted in the last few years. I thought about straightening out the horn on his helmet, but thinking about how he couldn't find a matching set for his helmet made me grin, so I left it crooked. I feel like I need to make the dark bands on his shield darker, but I'll come back to that later.




Here he is as a mid-level character. He lost the robe, but gained some chainmail. NMM chainmail is proving difficult-- it looks grey, and refuses to highlight well. Originally, I painted the runes on the sword green, but it was too close to the blue of the blade, so I went back and re-did them in red. I don't know why the front views on both of these models are out of focus, while the rest are so clear.

Here are the two side-by-side:


I see a lot of places that need touchups, and I need to spruce up their bases as well, but for now I'm going to set them aside and start on the third stage.

Lots of fun there, and great interpretation of the theme. Anti-Ascendant!

I think the anti-paladin is finished. Here are the first two stages, in a little better focus:



I'm not entirely happy with the tufts, and may either move them or else replace them with some loose static grass. I'm not wholly certain why my phone camera decided to focus on the base instead of the rest of the model.

Here's the final stage:




I have the same concerns with the tufts. I'm pretty happy with how the NMM bronze turned out-- I think I finally hit my groove on this dude-- but the silver/steel is a little rough, especially in Dakka Superzoom. The scalemail skirt was particularly difficult, although it looks better in hand.

Here's a group shot:



I need to take some better photos for my painting challenge entry.
---

Remember this model?


For whatever reason, it shows up a lot on the Gallery front page. A few days ago, a new Dakkanaut left this comment:

"This looks alot like AI generated art"

I wasn't sure if this was supposed to be a compliment or an insult, but then I noticed that he rated it "Painting 1/10, Coolness 1/10," which made it pretty clear.

That seems like a reflection of their own ignorance. I love that model. Try not to dwell on someone else's insults, it only leads to angst and insanity ;-)

 JoshInJapan wrote:


"This looks alot like AI generated art"

This looked like an AI generated comment !
Brilliant mech, and great frostgrave work as well !

I learnt a long time ago to ignore the feedback unless it comes from those few you trust. The gallery is a place of unspeakable jealousy and stupidity. I have had competition winning work get ridiculous scores. I know I am no painter but 3 out of 10 for a comp winner! What amazes me more is comments like your friends, does he have any idea how long it would take to do a piece like that on a computer. Way longer than to model it.

Your work is amazing, trust in that bud.

The dude joined Dakka on 1/11/23 and posted his comment on your image on 1/11/23. It's almost like he created the account just to trash your image. Some people are just weird trolls.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! To be clear, I wasn't fishing for votes (but I appreciate them!), I was just rather surprised at the random negativity. I see a lot of that at work (I teach high school), but almost never here on Dakka.

After some feedback on the challenge thread, I replaced the tufts and managed to get some in-focus photos of the anti-paladin:






I also got some solid painting time yesterday, and did up a wizard and apprentice for Frostgrave:

Love the nun aesthetic of the wizard and apprentice. Are ally cool spin on the whole wizard appearance. Never seen anything like that before.

Really dig the color choices too. That blue really pops.

That wizard and apprentice combo are really quite amazing! As always I love your color palette. But the wizard herself just really popped for me. Great job!

The Wizard's cloak is especially impressive dude.

Archer wrote:Love the nun aesthetic of the wizard and apprentice. Are ally cool spin on the whole wizard appearance. Never seen anything like that before.

Really dig the color choices too. That blue really pops.

cygnnus wrote:That wizard and apprentice combo are really quite amazing! As always I love your color palette. But the wizard herself just really popped for me. Great job!

inmygravenimage wrote:The Wizard's cloak is especially impressive dude.

Thanks, all, for the kind words. The wizard model is based on the cover illustration for The Frostgrave Folio. I chose the teal/turquoise over green for the robes because that was the color of the employee scrubs we used back when I worked in hospitals.

I'm really loving those wizards. Teal is extremely hard to pull off well.

I've only just recently purchased my first Frostgrave kit thanks in part to a lot of the cool FG models you've painted, Josh.

 KidCthulhu wrote:
I'm really loving those wizards. Teal is extremely hard to pull off well.

I've only just recently purchased my first Frostgrave kit thanks in part to a lot of the cool FG models you've painted, Josh.

Cool! Which kit did you pick up? I look forward to seeing what you do with them.

I picked up the Wizards II plastic boxed set. I won't hijack your blog, but this is what I've started:
Those are multiple magnetized arms for the same model, since she will be the protagonist of my next comic project.

The wizard kits a really cool-- you get so many extra parts that you could make a whole army of wizards if you combine with the various soldiers sets. That said, I have yet to build anything from the wizards II sprue.

Lovely blue robes on those wizards!