A New Project for March

These arrived in the post today from Anvil Industries, part of a little project I'm planning for March. 

Mystery heads

I'm not saying what it is yet, but, with the exception of these heads, I should be able to source everything from my existing collection of stuff. If you want a clue, it's a Quickstart version of a game currently in development. 

Feel free to guess what I'm planning in the comments (Bodvoc, you already know, so hush).

Paint What You Got Challenge, Two Weeks to go*

Dave Stone's Paint What You Got Challenge finishes on the 26th of February, so how am I doing?

Well it could be better, a combination of other tasks and obligations (not to mention concert rehearsals) means that I've not had as much time hobbying as I'd like. 

Still, I'm well on with the gnolls for Rangers of Shadow Deep. 

Progress so far

I've finished the first batch of five gnolls, plus another five from the ones I built for Anne's Miniature Assembly Challenge.  I've also finished off the last little bits on the vulture and the campsite bits.

Ten Gnolls

 

All the minis were painted with Army Painter Speedpaints.  I was looking for fairly washed out colours, old cloth that the Gnoll have stolen or scavenged. I think Speedpaints work rather well for this. 

I prepared the first five with a grey prime, black shade and white drybrush.  For the second batch I primed in light brown, washed with Army Painter Strong Tone and drybrushed with Vallejo Game colour Off White (the campsite was a test of this). I'd hoped it would give a warmer effect, but I'm not convinced there's much difference.  

I've also changed slightly the way I did the metals.  I used VGC Chainmail after the bulk of the Speedpaints were applied, then shaded it with Gravelord Grey.

I might add a few extra details, such as teeth and claws, but they'll do for now. 

Gnoll Archers 

The shooty gnolls. These are armed with bows, but I've a couple more with crossbows to paint. 

Four gnoll archers

Twang

Gnoll Soldiers 

The fighty group.  There's a good variety of miscellaneous weaponry here. I thought about shield designs, but then I see them as crude wooden construction.  Anyway, the gnolls don't care.

The warrior section

Gnoll Sergeants and Recon

Gnoll sergeants use two handed weapons, there are two options on the sprue.  I like the idea of the hood like cloth denoting rank, I just wish I'd thought of it when I built the first sergeant with the axe, but I've kept the red theme in  his eyepatch. 

They are accompanied by their vulture.

Sergeants and vulture

I'm pleased to have got these done, but they were, at times, a shore.  Part of the reason is my decision to go multi-coloured on the clothing.  I think I over did this, and I got a bit obsessive in trying to make the different models look as different colour wise as possible.  I'd have been better off choosing three distinct colours and applying them over all the minis.

What's Next?

I've the remaining five gnolls, plus their shaman already started, and three rangers to finish too, one of the Shadow Deep, and two of The North.  I'd like to get some more done, but I think time is going to run away with me.  I wonder if I can claim the Julian Defence again?

* Probably considerably less by the time this gets posted.

January Update: Anne's Miniature Assembly Challenge Results

I joined Anne's 2026 Miniature Assembly Challenge near the beginning of January with the aim of building enough Frostgrave gnolls for the second mission, converting some MESBG Rangers of Gondor into Dunedain, and possibly building a couple more minis. 

How did I do?

Assemble miniatures, gnolls, a ranger, and two different rangers

Well I managed ten more gnolls, more than enough, but it finished off the sprues. 

I also built an extra Ranger, nominally for T'Other One to use when we tackle the second mission.

Dunedain

The Dunedain were less successful; I finished two, but they were more work than I anticipated. 

Two converted Dunedain

both with backpacks

I wanted them to look sufficiently different to the Rangers of Gondor, so I decided to do away with any masks, shift the quiver to the hip, remove the sort of tabard thing and add extra equipment.  This was inspired by the official miniatures from GW. 

Alas I didn't take any pictures of them prior to converting them, but you can find plenty of pictures online if you're interested. 

The masked head on the firing ranger was removed with a razor saw and replaced with a bare head from (I think) the Frostgrave Soldiers sprue. I used quivers from the Oathmark Human Infantry sprue and concealed the mess made by removing the back quivers with Frostgrave backpacks etc.

I filled in the gaps with a 50-50 greenstuff and milliput mix, and made some attempt at showing the straps, but it's not perfect. 

I didn't complete the required nine Dunedain, and never started on the Dark Emissary I'll need for Boðvoc's Dark Shadows campaign, but even so I'm pleased.  I've got plenty to paint in February for Dave Stone's Paint What You Got Challenge. 

I missed the target for several reasons.  The Rangers were far trickier than anticipated (and I realised that I was short of four minis anyway). I've also been busy playing a lot of music, which has been glorious (Renaissance town bands and verse anthems among others), but hasn't helped assemble anything. 

If Anne runs the challenge again next year,  I certainly want to take part. 

And a Show

I did manage to get to York Wargames Society's Vapnatak on 1st February.  

My haul was modest, but useful. 

Vapnatak haul

I picked up five more Rangers of Gondor, so that's one excuse gone (see above). Seven monotone Skaven,  in case I ever get around to Vengeance of the Lichemaster (the seller threw in a skeleton missing it's slotta base,  but that's not a problem. 

I also got a selection of the old WotC prepainted Star Wars minis. 

Apart from the second hand stuff I got some more d10 dice for games of Warlords of Erehwon.