Frostgrave Bestiary Challenge: 12 Armoured Skeletons

I haven't painted in batches for some time, since the days of my orc and goblin army many years ago. I soon rediscovered the tedium it brings during painting, especially when you think you've painted all those leather straps (with highlights) and then find one thst I missed requiring me to break open the snakebite leather and white again... However the satisfaction, in fact joy, of finally painting those paint rims black, is almost worth it. It felt like I'd never had such a gush of accomplishment. The sculpts are pretty uninspiring, but at least the very nature of skeletons means there is a pretty limited palette and there's no need for the repetitiveness of painting a multitude of eyes, hair, glazed red cheeks/noses etc. Oh and I sped up the process by undercoating grey rather than white as most of the colours on these (from bone, to rages, to shields) used grey as a basecoat.

I had a bit of trouble with my old Citdael transfers, they didn't adhere very well to the shields, probably because of their age, and had to be enticed to stay in place with some dilute pva. Which was annoying x12.

Eventually, when the oxidation of their bronze and metal armour was completed and some other general weathering was added, I was pretty happy with how they look; here they all are in a ruined city:

Frostgrave Bestiary Challenge: 5 Skeletons and a dog

As I recover from an acl operation, I've slowly been able to get back into some painting, as I'm now able to sit in a suitable painting position for longer periods of time. I have next week off work and then it's half term, so I hope to be quite productive over the next fortnight; we shall see.. For now though I've quickly painted up 5 Mantic skeletons (and a skeletal canine) as the first installment of my new "Frostgrave Bestiary Challenge". It will run alongside the creation of new dungeon tiles and the slow progress of my "LatD Retinue Table Challenge".

So here they are in their dungeon room, retreating from your approach:

And some photos in a slightly better light, where they try out a few new formations:

I decided they should all have basic armour and spears to differentiate them from their armoured  brethren. The quickish painting technique was as follows:

1. Under coated white, the bone was then based with baneblade brown then highlighted/drybrushed up with a mixture of the base colour combined with increasing amounts of bleached bone. A wash of seraphim sepia to tie it together and a final highlight of bleached bone. 

2. Armour was boltgun metal then washed with a chestnut ink/nuln oil combo and small highlights added  with chain mail. Rust was added with red ochre pigment bound in some matte varnish.

3. All other pieces were under coated in appropriate colours (mostly a range of browns) and then washed with earthshade. On a few of the prominent areas they were re-highlighted with the original colour plus a touch of white.

4. The shields were painted the same way as 3, but with some old Citadel transfers added. When dry these were coated with matt varnish and a touch of blade town brown to dirty them up  (in fact this recipe was also applied around the feet and other areas to help create the duty appearance).

I decided not to go with glowing eyes in the end, I'm still unsure though and may add that detail when I've painted the remaining Undead legions... It can look very good indeed. Thoughts? 

Enter the Undead

I've created lots of warbands (here, here, here and here) to play Heroquest or Frostgrave with, but I don't have any wandering monsters painted up on the appropriate bases to fight against, yet. Once again Frostgrave has inspired me to get some of my miniature pile painted; so I rummaged through my box of Mantic undead and found some skeleton and zombie sprues initially and then I remembered that I had the Ghoul Warband from Heresy and finally an old Citadel Chaos Warrior who works perfectly as a Vampire/Necromancer character. Oh and a Lord of the Rings model to be used as a Wraith (I have no idea where or why I collected that one..)




So here are all the Undead assembled and based, ready to start painting:

I found a really useful online guide which lists the maximum amount and the full range of monsters which are needed to play Frostgrave - and I like lists to help focus my collecting impulses. So here's what is needed for the Undead contingent:

• 12 Armoured Skeletons
• 9 Ghouls
• 5 Skeletons
• 1 Vampire
• 1 Wraith
• 6 Zombies

Yes that's 34 Undead miniatures to paint...


And all the other creatures in the Bestiary (some of which I already have and some others which I will need to purchase):

• 2 Bears
• 1 Boar
• 4 Giant Rats
• 2 Spiders
• 3 Toads
• 2 Snow Leopards
• 1 Gorilla
• 2 Wild Dogs
• 3 Wolves
• 2 Large Constructs
• 2 Medium Constructs
• 2 Small Constructs
• 1 Imp
• 2 Major Demons
• 3 Minor Demons
• 1 Giant
• 6 Giant Worms
• 2 Trolls
• 1 Werewolf
• 1 Genie
• 6 Statues

That's a significant addition to the [not so] miniature pile and the painting queue... Let's get to it.