Armored Skeletons

Here are a bunch of old Games Workshop metal armored Skeletons I've painted... they will come in handy for Frostgrave and Rangers of ShadowDeep...

Frostgrave - Lair of the Ghoul Queen

The Lair of the Ghoul Queen is the seventh scenario in the Thaw of The Lich Lord campaign for Frostgrave.. Our warbands are investigating rumours of a treasure horde hidden in an underground vault, when they find themselves trapped in the subterranian domain of the Queen of the Ghouls... 

At the start of the game there is no way to exit the board. The Ghoul Queen lurks in the center of the table. There are 4 trap doors and 4 treasures around the middle area, and one treasure with the Ghoul Queen. At the start of every creature phase, a ghoul will crawl up out of a random trapdoor unless someone is standing on top of it. The players also have two ghouls each that they can place once each per turn to ambush their opponent. At the center of the board is a lever that will open one of the 4 exits from the table. There is no way off the board until the lever has been pulled.. 

As well as the five treasures on the table, if anyone kills the Ghoul Queen, they can search her body to retrieve the special "Amulet of the Ghoul Queen"...  There is XP to be had for killing the Queen, pulling the lever in the center of he board, killing Ghouls, and getting our wizards off the table...

In addition to all that, we decided to use Ulterior Motives this time. Lizzy had "Soul Drain"... which meant that she placed a trap door on my side of the table, and if she activated it, it could potentially suck anyone near it out of the game if they failed a Will roll... but would then reveal a very special treasure... I had "The Money Pit" which meant that I had to place a pit within Lizzy's side of the board. If the game ended with at least one member of my warband on the table and none of Lizzy's dudes had come into contact with the pit at any point in the game, I would get a load of  extra gold and some XP....

The table set up at the start of the game.

The Ghoul Queen lurks on her throne in the center of her underground lair.

It's a few weeks since we played this game, so a lot of the details of the action has gone out of my mind... here are some of the more memorable moments in pictures...

Lizzy's construct approaches a treasure and a trapdoor.

My Wizard summons an Imp.

Lizzy's guys have got a treasure...

My Rangifer and thief take on the Ghoul Queen..

My Apprentice and crossbowmen are fighting a Ghoul...

Who will get the treasure from the center of the table?

The Minor Demon of my Apprentice tries to stop Lizzy's guys from sneaking off with the treasure...

The Minor Demon struggles on... but not for much longer!

Just as Lizzy's groups try and exit the table with two treasures... a gang of Armoured skeletons appear!

Wizards

Northstar - Frostgrave Plastic Wizard

Reaper miniature

Northstar - Metal Frostgrave Elementalist

Northstar - Frostgrave Plastic Wizard

Northstar - Frostgrave Metal Sigilist

Here are five wizards I've been working on over Xmas... they will all be used in up coming games of Frostgrave and/or Rangers of Shadow Deep...

TT Combat terrain for Frostgrave

I got myself this mdf terrain set from TTCombat for Xmas. It is the DERELICT ENCLAVE set.

TTCombat have some excellent MDF terrain. They are really substantial, and very good value for money. The kits don't come with physical instructions, you have to download the pdfs from their website - but they are very easy to follow, no text just images - kind of like lego instructions.

I checked out the various Fantasy terrain sets they do, and I liked the look of this one the best - mainly because I thought it would fit in nicely with my homemade Frostgrave terrain, and bring in some more platforms and an extra level for our warbands to run around on.

This kit was easy to make, and I really enjoyed putting it together. This particular set is modular, so you can plug it together in a variety of ways... 

I spread a little bit of wall filler over the parts where the joints are to disguise them a bit, then painted the whole thing with dark and light grey emulsion (tester pots from B&Q) to match the Frostgrave Terrain I have already made...

All the modular bits...

Just one of many possible configurations... 

The set mixed in with some of my homemade terrain in our latest Frostgrave game.

Frostgrave - "The House of Longreach"

"The House of Longreach" is the sixth scenario in the Thaw of the Lich Lord campaign for Frostgrave. 

The set up for this one is that there are six magical portal archways on the board, and every time an archway is moved through you have to roll a D20 to see what happens - if you roll high enough you will travel to a special extra treasure room where a pair of Frost Wights guard some special treasures! But other results might be that you randomly pop out of one of the other five portals, or that you take damage...  There are 3 treasure tokens on the main board, and two in the special room. At the end of the third turn 4 Death cultists will turn up with a Zombie Troll sent by the Lich Lord to stop our Warbands from messing with his stuff! Special XP points are awarded for Killing Death cultists and the Troll, for a Wizard using a portal, and for a Wizard making it to the treasure room.

We decided not to use Ulterior Motive cards in this game as there was so much else going on.

The table set up... we mixed in some new scenery from TTCombat that had lots of archways in it.

We numbered the portal archways 1-6 for random travel results.

My Apprentice and two of my soldiers head towards one of the magical portals.

One of my Treasure Hunters runs to secure a treasure, whilst my Wizard, Rangifer and Infantryman head towards a portal.

Lizzy's Wizard and team make for the center of the board... and pick up some treasure.

My Wizard successfully summons a Minor Demon.

   The first few rounds saw both our teams trying to get guys through the portals.... mostly without success.. We picked up a treasure token each, and my wizard summoned a Minor Demon which he sent to pick up the center treasure. Lizzy's Construct intercepted him and a fight ensued...
   The portals really messed things up for our teams - separating out our guys, and quite a few figures getting injured trying to use them.
   Unfortunately for my Treasure Hunter, the Zombie Troll and Death cultists turned up just near him as he was about to get off the board... he managed to take out two of the Death cultists... but the Zombie Troll was too much for him..
   Lizzy's construct tore apart my Minor Demon and one of her other soldiers picked up the treasure and made off with it.

The first of my guys has made it through a portal to the special treasure room.

My Minor Demon has picked up the central treasure token... but Lizzy's construct really wants it!

My Apprentice and her Demon Imp are attacked by a giant Ice Spider.

My two Crossbowmen take shots at one of Lizzy's soldiers who has just appeared out of a portal. And miss as usual.

Lizzy's Wizard comes out of a portal and ends up face to face with my Wizard!

   We didn't do too badly for wandering monsters this game - we just got one giant Ice Spider, but my apprentice made short work of that.
   Over at the special treasure room I had two soldiers who made it through the portal... they waited at the entrance. Two of Lizzy's guys also made it through, and they ran straight in to take on the Frost Wights. They killed one, and whilst they were engaged with the other one, my two guys ran around to get to one of the treasures. Lizzy's dudes finished off the other Wight and got to the other treasure.
   Then my Wizard made it to the treasure room, Lizzy's guys were weakened from the Wight fight, and that was unfortunate for them. Soon there were only my guys still standing in the room, and both treasures were in their hands.

Two of my soldiers wait for an opportune moment to run into the treasure room... whilst two of Lizzy's team take on the Frost Wights.

Lizzy's guys have got the special treasure... but my Wizard has also made it to the treasure room...

So close to the edge of the board... but my Treasure Hunter is about to be knocked out by the Zombie Troll.

  Over on the main table, only Lizzy's Wizard was left of her team on the board - her other guys had either made it off or were knocked out. Lizzy's Wizard was pretty weak, so she decided to get him off the board too...
   In the end there were a lot of casualties - I think 6 of Lizzy's team were knocked out, and 5 of mine were. There were no fatalities, but a couple of Lizzy's guys, and one of mine are going to have to sit out the next game or be replaced. Lizzy secured two of the treasures, and I got three including the special treasure, which is a magical gem that can suck up damage... but if it takes over 5 it is destroyed. Pretty cool. We got just over 200 XP each, so we can go up a couple of levels. My Wizard is now level 10.
   I really enjoyed this one, the portals were great fun, and really mixed up the situation, It was hard for our guys to stick in groups to mob up on opponents.
   What will the Lich Lord have for us to contend with in the next game....?

Painting Skeletons - step by step...

I went over to the Wargames Foundry Miniatures shop on my birthday, I picked up a few things - some Foundry paints, the fantastic Kev Dallimore painting guide book, and a few packs from their Fantasy range of 28mm miniatures that I couldn't resist - including these excellent skeletons rising from their graves! 

At around the same time over on the Frostgrave facebook page there was a fun painting "competition" running with an Undead theme... so I decided to take step by step photos to document my process for painting skeletons.

The paints I used were:

Undercoat - Halfords Matt Grey spray primer

For the skeletons:

Army Painter - Matt Black

Army Painter - Matt White

Army Painter - Machinegun Metal

Game Color - Cadmium Skin

Game Ink - Skin Wash

For the base:

Army Painter - Ash Grey

Revelle - Gunship Grey (Matt)

Snow effect:

PVA glue

Bircarbonate of Soda

Cheap white acrylic paint (from "The Works")

(These are the paints I used because they are the ones I had - but any similar paints will do a similar job I'm sure... this is just a guide to my personal process!)

Make sure the models have time to completely dry between each step.

Prepare the miniatures for painting, and spray with Halfords matt grey primer.
Give the models a wash of watered down Matt Black paint. Then when dry, drybrush with Cadmium Skin.
This is the start of painting anything boney!

Give them a coat of Skin wash Ink.

 Drybrush again with Cadmium Skin.

Drybrush highlights with 50/50 mix of Cadmium skin and Matt white.

Final highlights on boney parts with Matt White.
The bone areas are now done.

Tidy up the models by painting anything that isn't bone Matt Black.

Paint the swords Machinegun Metal (leaving dark areas where appropriate around handles etc)

Give all metal a coat of Skin Ink Wash for a rusty effect.

Drybrush highlights onto the swords with Machinegun Metal.

And now for the bases.
Drybrush with Gunship Grey.

Drybrush highlights around the edges of the base etc with Ash Grey.

For the snow effect.. mix up 1/3 PVA, 1/3 cheap white acrylic paint and 1/3 bicarbonate of soda into a paste and apply with an old brush in small patches to the bases - and ontop of gravestones etc...

Add a few tufts (Army Painter)... and they're done!