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I always enjoy your stuff Josh, but it was especially fun seeing the combination of models, and scratch builds for a scenario. Thanks for including the battle scene at the end, it's the icing on the cake

Great looking models all around Josh . I’ll need to check into the RoSD game, skirmish games are really the new fad it seems, and with little time to play in everyone’s lives I totally understand.

Syro_ wrote:I always enjoy your stuff Josh, but it was especially fun seeing the combination of models, and scratch builds for a scenario. Thanks for including the battle scene at the end, it's the icing on the cake

Thanks. You and your nifty D&D work have inspired me to try this kind of project.

Theophony wrote:Great looking models all around Josh . I’ll need to check into the RoSD game, skirmish games are really the new fad it seems, and with little time to play in everyone’s lives I totally understand.

RoSD is essentially low-powered Frsotgrave, so if you like that game I recommend this one as well. A big plus for me is that it's fully cooperative, so I can play with my so without worrying about winners or losers.

Lovely stuff as usual Josh.

Lovely be the action shot

Really liking the latest batch, very creepy actually.

The terrain is looking great as well, you may have to put a battle report together for this Rangers of Shadow Deep. I am keen to see it in action.

Love the terrain, great stuff!

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I'll try to put up a battle report the next time we play. Speaking of which:



The mission we're currently playing involves gnolls taking over a watchtower. I have lots of gnolls, but needed a flesh golem for one of the encounters. This guy comes from Bad Squiddo's Last Sunset line (for Dracula's America). I thought about giving him a patchwork of different skin tones, but my initial attempt looked ugly. For the same scenario, I also needed a lot of indoor scatter terrain:



This stuff is all from Mantic's Dungeon Terrain Crate. Lots and lots of brown. After finishing these, I started on the Wizard's Study set:


Lots and lots of books. I had to use the flash on the last photo because all the little gubbins were too deep for my light to reach. Here's the golem perusing the library:


With this stuff done, I think we're ready to try the next scenario. I'll try to have more photos of the game this time.

As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

Great stuff.

Great Stuff as usual Josh.

Love the Bookcases, whats you recipe of the wood?

I like the wizard study stuff. I wonder I they de-mold the bookcases with all those deep in details. Nice paint job on all, as usual, I especially like the flesh golem

Nice scars on the golem!

Love the scatter terrain, very atmospheric without overshadowing the models.

Does the wizard terrain crate fit with the dungeon saga stuff size wise? It’s all looking great.

Llamahead wrote:Great stuff.

Thanks. All that brown was pretty boring to paint, but the end result is worth it, I think. One always needs more stuff on the table.

JoeRugby wrote:Great Stuff as usual Josh.

Love the Bookcases, whats you recipe of the wood?

Black gesso primer ->Delta Ceramcoat Dark Chocolate base color-> overbrushed with Delta Ceramcoat Spice Brown (a red-brown)-> drybrushed with Golden Craft paints golden brown-> a heavy glaze of my homebrew dark brown wash. Pretty simple and not all that time consuming.

Syro_ wrote:I like the wizard study stuff. I wonder I they de-mold the bookcases with all those deep in details. Nice paint job on all, as usual, I especially like the flesh golem

All the potion bottles and skulls and stuff are part of the same mold rather than being glued in after. I'm amazed the bookcases weren't warped out of shape.

aku-chan wrote:Nice scars on the golem!

Thanks. It's just AP chaos red in the recesses. The model does most of the work.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Love the scatter terrain, very atmospheric without overshadowing the models.

I know, right? Now that I'm finally working on them, I'm glad I spent the money on the KS project.

Theophony wrote:Does the wizard terrain crate fit with the dungeon saga stuff size wise? It’s all looking great.

The bookcases look almost identical. I pulled out some of the DS stuff I had finished for some touchups (so they match this batch) and some matte varnish (so they aren't so sparkly). I'll take some photos for comparison when I get them done.

Fantastic dungeons abound here, that lot looks amazing.

 Camkierhi wrote:
Fantastic dungeons abound here, that lot looks amazing.

Thanks, Cam.

It's been kind of slow going for the last couple of weeks. I have managed to get a few more pieces done:




These come from the same Terrain Crate set as the bookcases, which is to say the Wizard's Study. Lots of brown and bronze, with a few splashes of color here and there. The candlesticks are going to fall down a lot without some Bluetac on the bottom. The pile of books is a separate piece, and will also require adhesive to keep it in place. There are still a few little pieces left in this set, and those may or may not get finished this weekend. After that, I kind of at a loss for what to work on next. I may have to spend sometime digging around in the Closet of Shame until something catches my fancy.

Those are beautifully painted!

Brilliant - Love the pool and mirror especially, something about them just looks "right"

Yep, those are really great , love the pool, mirror is also a nice piece.

Thanks, everyone. I'm quite pleased with how well the little scrying pool turned out. Fun fact: when I took these pieces out of their bag, I thought the scrying pool was a platform of some sort, and originally started painting it upside down.

I think that my next project will be some of the many Mantic models I got with my Vanguard KS pledge. I have the first four Northern Alliance models started, but I decided to finish these three first:



From left to right, these are the tracker, barbarian, and thief from the Frostgrave soldiers 2 set. Nothing particularly fancy about any of them, but they'll work on the tabletop.

Those are a bit better than 'tabletop', I think. And the basing is terrific- as per your usual!

I like the thief figure the best.

Lovin' the dungeon decor. Much nicer than the papercraft stuff I was planning to use if I ever DMed again.

Frostgrave minis are nice character type pieces. I see them as useful for just about anything.

And they're well painted, of course.

That is some great terrain - especially the mirror for some reason. The quantity is also impressive.


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The year in review is really neat too. My favorite is the female samurai with monkey. That is a great paint job on a great figure.

Great Stuff love the magic pool thing

Meer_Cat wrote:Those are a bit better than 'tabletop', I think. And the basing is terrific- as per your usual!

I like the thief figure the best.

Thanks. There's noting particularly special about the basing- just some leafy tufts that I've had forever- but it works.

Red Harvest wrote:Lovin' the dungeon decor. Much nicer than the papercraft stuff I was planning to use if I ever DMed again.

Frostgrave minis are nice character type pieces. I see them as useful for just about anything.

And they're well painted, of course.

I have a whole bunch of files for papercraft dungeon stuff, but assembling it all numbs my brain. I'm really happy that Mantic made all this stuff so I don't have to.

kestral wrote:That is some great terrain - especially the mirror for some reason. The quantity is also impressive.


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The year in review is really neat too. My favorite is the female samurai with monkey. That is a great paint job on a great figure.

Thanks. The mirror came out darker than I'd originally intended, but it works. Makes it seem more magical, i think.

JoeRugby wrote:Great Stuff love the magic pool thing

Thanks. I'm pretty happy with that piece as well.

For a (very slight) change of pace, I finally broke out some of the Vanguard minis I picked up in the KS. I decided to start with Northern Alliance:


This guy is the Huscarl, a human warrior. He's supposed to be on a 25mm square base, but I went with round so he fits in with the Frostgrave barbarians. I thought I took a photo of his back, but apparently I was mistaken. It's a shame you can't see his face and the little tiny eyes I painted--I need to get a second light source for my lightbox.



This is the Ice Kin Hunter, an elf archer. Again, I painted the eyes but they don't show up in this photo. I think I would like this model better if it weren't for the boob armor and battle pumps she is wearing. Note the repeated color palette-- the faction has elves, dwarfs, humans and naiads, so they need something to unify them. I'm going with lots of leather and yeti pelts.



This is the half-elf berzerker. Same palette as everyone else so far, plus a bare midriff and lots of leg. That's no worse than any of the old Citadel wardancers I've been painting, so I won't complain. I will complain about the very tiny contact surface-- I had to pin her to the base. She would have benefited from an integral base like Mantic used to use.



Finally, an Ice Naiad. I'm not sure why fish people would live in the frozen north, but apparently they do. I did the armor in golds rather than silver, but otherwise used the same colors as everyone else so far. Did you notice that her neck didn't fit into the socket on her torso? I had this problem with every model in this set. After failing to get this one to fit, I ended up trimming all the little pegs off the others. They went together much better that way.

As always, a group shot:


I have three snow trolls from this set about one more painting session away from being finished, as well as some very small terrain features for Rangers of Shadow Deep. Hopefully I can share them this weekend. As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

Hanging out to see the ice trolls. I really like the natural look of these four (as natural as green hair and blue ice weapon can be). Makes them usable in almost any game system.

Your photos of the latest four don't seem as steady or clear as your usual photography. Did you change something in your formula?

That furniture looks awesome Josh, and I love the Northern Alliance stuff. Your productivity is off the chart with all this stuff!

Your frostgrave stuff is really pushing me to put mine together at last. Really inspiring stuff!

Archer wrote:Hanging out to see the ice trolls. I really like the natural look of these four (as natural as green hair and blue ice weapon can be). Makes them usable in almost any game system.

Your photos of the latest four don't seem as steady or clear as your usual photography. Did you change something in your formula?

I find myself using earthtones more and more. Every once in a while, I consider pulling out some Harlequins or something just to work with bright colors again, and then go back to browns and greens.

My photos look terrible because I'm using my new(ish) cheap Android phone instead of my very old iPhone. The iPhone's camera is much better, but it's getting more difficult to use as it ages. I may have to break down and get a real camera sometime soon.

Da Boss wrote:That furniture looks awesome Josh, and I love the Northern Alliance stuff. Your productivity is off the chart with all this stuff!

Your frostgrave stuff is really pushing me to put mine together at last. Really inspiring stuff!

Do it. Frostgrave (as well as its related games Ghost Archipelago and Rangers of Shadow Deep) is a really fun game. It's a lot like playing old school D&D, without all the scenes of attempting to seduce the barmaid.

Like what you did with the northern alliance guys and gal, but that spear/trident is excellent

Theophony wrote:Like what you did with the northern alliance guys and gal, but that spear/trident is excellent

Thanks. It's just drybrushed, but it turned out well, I think.