Episode IV
A NEW WARBAND
Hello All,
I wanted to share some pictures of my Frostgrave figures, some of whom were inspired by a certain "epic space opera."
Here is my first warband, led by the seer (soothsayer) Old Ben and his young apprentice Luke. The warband includes (from left to right) Ben, Luke, a thug, a thief, an archer, a crossbowman and two treasure hunters. The color palette for some of the figures was inspired by the Frostgrave soldiers painted by Kevin Dallimore, whose work I have always admired.
Old Ben was once an important member of a powerful Order but has spent the last two decades living as a hermit in a desert wasteland. He has journeyed to Felstad on a secret mission with his new apprentice Luke, a farm boy who always dreamed of adventure. Luke was told to stay away from Ben by his Uncle Owen who said "that Wizard's just a crazy old man."
Ben's spell's include Telekinesis, Push, Fleet Foot, and of course Mind Control, which can have a strong influence on the weak minded (enemies with low Will scores). Luke learns soothsayer spells such as Awareness and Reveal Secret by training blindfolded. Ben tells Luke "your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them!"
The Ben figure is from the Frostgrave plastic wizard set. I was surprised to see that this set was not made by Renedra like the other Frostgrave plastics and to my eye the plastic does appear to be a bit softer, but the sculpting is superb and the wizard was a joy to paint. The Luke figure's body and head come from the Frostgrave plastic soldier set with arms from the Frostgrave plastic wizard set. My only complaint of these two sets is that some of the heads are much smaller than other heads on the same sprue (even more so when compared to the heads on the plastic Frostgrave Barbarian sprue or the plastic Ghost Archipelago crewmen sprue).
Ben's color scheme is mostly classic ANH Obi-Wan but with some elements from other appearances such as the red leather boots he wore in Attack of the Clones and the white bracers from his Clone Wars armor. I'm really happy with the way the crystal ball turned out, I applied glazes of light blue with some gloss medium added in to create a translucent effect (it doesn't really come across well in these pictures from my iPhone).
Here we have some of the scum and villainy hired by Ben - a thug and a thief (or a soldier and a scoundrel in Wizards of the Coast Star Wars RPG terms). The thug figure has the body and arms from the Frostgrave plastic soldier set and a head from the Fireforge Games plastic Foot Sergeants set. The thief figure is a straight build from the Frostgrave plastic soldier set. You can tell both sets are by the same sculptor as the faces are full of character without being overly cartoonish. I love kit-bashing plastic figures so I have been really looking forward to putting together my Frostgrave warbands.
A quick note on mixing historical plastic figures by Fireforge Games or Gripping Beast with the Northstar fantasy plastic figures - the heads on the historical plastic figures are not sculpted with a neck (the neck is sculpted on the body). On the Northstar fantasy plastic figures the neck is sculpted as part of the head as a ball (with a socket in the body). I prefer the Northstar approach as it makes it easier to alter the position and angle of the head. It does make mixing and matching heads and bodies from these sets tricky however, in the case of the thug I used Gorilla super glue which expands as it hardens and filled in for the lack of a neck.
The color scheme for the thug is based on one of the Dallimore figures - seeing his painted figures was the other thing that attracted me to this set in addition to the opportunity for some kit-bashing.
Next up, an archer and a treasure hunter. The archer's head and body are from the Frostgrave plastic soldier set with arms from the Northstar plastic Oathmark Human Infantry set. The treasure hunter has head and arms from the Frostgrave plastic soldier set and a body from the plastic Oathmark Human Infantry set. The Oathmark Human Infantry figures are more "heroic" 28mm than the Frostgrave plastic figures, the heads in particular - they are larger even than the heads on some Games Workshop Warhammer Fantasy figures. Still, I really like how these figures turned out and size-wise I think they fit in just fine with the rest of the warband.
For the soldiers I wanted a common color palette that would give them a unified appearance without making them look uniform, so most are wearing a grey tunic. The grey is one of my favorite paints, the discontinued Citadel Foundation paint Adeptus Battlegrey. Most of the other colors are P3 paints (my favorite line of paint) with some Vallejo and Foundry colors mixed in as well.
The last two members of the warband are Han the treasure hunter and his sidekick, Chewie the crossbowman. Han is quite a mercenary, in his own words: "I expect to be well paid. I'm in it for the money." I wonder if he really cares about anything... or anybody.
The Han figure is a real mash-up, his head is from the plastic Frostgrave Barbarian set, his body is from the plastic Ghost Archipelago crewmen set, his arms and backpack are from the Frostgrave plastic soldier set and he carries a knife from the Frostgrave plastic wizard set. I thought about using the body for the Luke figure because of the leg wrappings but in the end the vest and v-neck undershirt just screamed Han. I really like the aggressive posture of this figure. The Chewie figure has a head and arms from the Frostgrave plastic soldier set and a head from the Gripping Beast plastic Viking Hirdmen set. The head worked perfectly with this body as it aligns his eye with the crossbow so it looks like he's taking aim, this figure is my favorite kit-bash thus far.
The color scheme for Han is all episode 4 while Chewie is painted in various shades of brown with some Adeptus Battlegrey mixed in to tie him to the rest of the warband. All of the figures are based on Renedra plastic cobblestone bases (I removed the integrated bases with a razor saw). It isn't too hard to freehand cobblestone bases but I wanted to try the Renedra bases and I'm pleased with the results.
That's all for now, but not the end of this saga...
Any feedback or comments are appreciated.