Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago

Happier with this paint job, probably aided by the dip in the UK heatwave.

All my photography for this project has been slightly off so far; may need to change the back ground.

The skin tone was different this time. Army Painter Leather Brown primer, with a Mournfang Brown and Bugman’s Glow mix base. Reikland Fleshshade wash. Then highlighted with a three way mix of the Mournfang Brown, Bugman’s Glow and Kislev Flesh.

Zandri Dust, Morghast and Wraithbone layers to give me the white I wanted for the shirt, but a lot less Wraithbone this time.

Steel Legion Drab for the jacket with Mephiston Red flares around the shirt frills.

The Crossbowman specialist is meant to have light armour and a dagger… Well he has got a nice helmet… phrasing, and I added a Gripping Beast Viking sprue pouch and dagger on his left hip.

Abner Cato and Cosmo Smallpiece joined the crew together more recently than the rest of the crew and impressed with their marksmanship. Cosmo would say that Abner is the better shot, for humility’s sake, but if there was money bet on a shot Cosmo Smallpiece would suddenly have a ‘stroke of luck’ and win the bet.

Cosmo and Abner are firm friends, to the point that if they were to find treasure but either man didn’t make it back to enjoy the spoils it would be a hollow victory and a terrible blow to the other.

Abner the musketeer (in-game Crossbowman).
Finding painting in the UK heatwave a challenge. Paint doesn’t seem to be acting the way I expect it to. Might have to revisit Abner after the weather changes.

Using similar paint scheme from Azadi.

Zandri Dust, Morghast and Wraithbone layers to give me the white I wanted for the shirt.

Steel Legion Drab for the jacket with Mephiston Red flares around the bottom.

The Crossbowman specialist is meant to have light armour and a dagger… Well he hasn’t even got shoes, but I really liked him as a sculpt so met the stats halfway by giving him a dagger from the NorthStar Barbarians sprue.

Abner Cato and Cosmo Smallpiece joined the crew together more recently than the rest of the crew. Some feel they may be on the run for desertion from the army to find their fortune when news of the Archipelago’s return reached the coastal Southern Sea ports. They remain tight-lipped about their past, but have passed every trial of marksmanship that Heritor Thatchdagger set for them. To prove worthy of their place on the expedition, quite publicly for the crew to see, they were able to strike birds in flight and deer at impressive long ranges and every one loves a man that can provide dinner and entertainment, so they were hired and embraced by the crew.

Azadi Solentii is my Wave Warden. Naturally his spells involve a lot of water. To hint at that, I add a shell from the NorthStar Crewman sprue and joined his left hand and the shell with a big gob of UHU tube superglue. When it dried it looked too much like ice, so I mixed some Citadel Contrast blue paint watered down with PVA glue and sparingly coloured parts of the gob.

Azadi Solentii has been with his Heritor for many years and, like many of the expeditions searching for the crystal pool, form the gel that binds the crew together. The Heritor, a great leader from the elite of society and The Wave Warden who saw that they were never becalmed or went thirsty. The two men have healed each other back from wounds and tropical diseases that would kill a lesser man and that has given them a respect and unrivaled friendship.

That said even though the crew looked up to their betters, Azadi has a mysterious aire that puts some of the crew on edge. He is a man of fewer words than his eloquent Heritor. He never talks about his beliefs or his past apart from one failed expedition and even then only because it was his part in a famous Crystal Pool quest story. The Heritor in the story had been involved in the last sea battles and posturing before the Ghost Archipelago appeared. A bitter struggle that broke out in the Southern Seas when a soothsayer sadly wrongfully predicted the resurfacing of the Archipelago. The Heritor had been arrogant, careless and risked the crew at every stage through his lack of experience and blinkered hunt for clues. The Heritor’s death had been used as a fabled warning to not rely too heavily on a Heritor’s abilities. The crew all asked Azadi how he truly had died because the rumour was that the amphibious Heritor ability had failed him during the heat of battle with another Heritor and he had drowned. Some of the crew took his lack of confirmation as a sign of trauma, a reminder of failure, he would rather not revisit. The more cynical amongst the crew were however convinced the look on his face showed that Azadi had seen this unlikeable, dangerous Heritor as a risk to the crew and had some hand in his demise.

My Heritor. Kingsley Thatchdagger.

My Heritor has abilities like Ironskin and Mighty Strength, so imagined that to deliver crushing blows he can make his hand metal at the opportune moment to give his blows extra bite. ?
You get to add a plus 1 to any stat to begin with so I added 1 to health.

For his abilities I chose:

Ironskin – mitigates some damage.

Mighty Stength – Choice of boosting damage by 1, or improving a fight role by 5.

Hurl – a free shoot action, where you have jedi-like throwing abilities, picking an inanimate object and hurling it at an enemy.

Mystic Energy – Gets to make his weapon magical for a moment, to strike at enemies that mortal weapons don’t harm.

Spark of Life – allows me to heal members of my warband (not able to use on self.)

Kingsley funded the expedition with the last of his family wealth. Seeing as not one soothsayer had predicted the re-emergence of the Ghost Archipelago accurately, Kingley has spent many years in the South Sea fighting fellow Heritors caught in the same drawn out waiting game as he.

In his youth he would have spent the lives of his crew cheaply and pursued the Crystal Pool at all costs. After fighting for so long with no promise of the islands surfacing in his lifetime, he has become more patient, more empathetic of the plight of his men, especially his Warden Azadi Solentii. He still felt the draw of the Crystal Pool, now more than ever, and was still a Heritor; plagued by self interest and chasing the former glories of his ancestors.

After recent list building in Rangers of Shadow Deep I found it easy to piece together a starting warband.

It took me a while to pick my opening Warden spells and Heritor abilities, but I am now ready to build my basic crewmen and start painting everything.

The Crew sheet in the back of the book was quite small and my dry markers don’t have a fine tip.

I knocked these lists up on excel (pictured) and with most things typed out I only need to use a dry marker occasionally. I plan to use wound markers on the battlefield for my first game and see how it goes.

Hunter kitbash fun. ?

So as a hunter specialist he needed:

Light armour – NorthStar Gnoll arms

Bow and Quiver – NorthStar Gnoll arm and quiver

Two handed weapon – Wargames Factory WSS sergeants spear.

The body is from the NorthStar Crewman sprue and the head is from the Human Oathmark sprue.

I am going to paint the face with a vicious old three claw scar to give him a backstory and some experience.

By happy accident his pose has an interesting look, where he could be about to rest / drop his spear and swap to his bow, but just as easy to imagine that he is about to drop his bow in front of him, whip the spear around and tackle someone with it double handed. ?

There are two main characters that a campaign can bestow experience and improvements on (The Warden and The Heritor) and a crew of basic seadogs and 4 specialists to begin with.

The project was slow to start and was based in a way that if I didn’t follow through with it they could be conscripted into a game of Blood and Plunder if needs be.

Delano is one of my Wargames Foundry minis. He will be a man at arms specialist in games. I snapped off the small sword in his left hand somehow and lost it. Replaced with a shield from a NorthStar Gnoll sprue. ?

I already had some minis in mind and soon had them based and primed. I will be slowly working through the paint jobs and my plastic kitbashed crew to give me my full 10 man warband.

To make sure I can get a game I might even make a 2nd warband.