I set myself a couple of goals: paint the minis for the second Rangers of Shadow Deep mission and paint the minis for the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game storybook Fellowship of the Ring, or at least the first half. I did a breakdown of the requirements in December if you're interested.
How Did it Go?
I'll confess that I didn't manage everything, but I did manage a lot of it. Let's have a look at what I did manage.
Rangers of Shadow Deep Mission Two
I assembled (taking advantage of Anne's 2026 Miniature Assembly Challenge for extra impetus) and painted 15 plastic gnolls, 1 metal gnoll Shaman and a kitbashed Ranger and a Reaper Bones Vulture.
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| Gnoll sergeants, shaman and vulture |
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| The gnoll 'staff' |
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| The Warriors |
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| Six gnolls running away? |
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| Gnoll archers |
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| 'Dum-de-dum-de-dum-de-dum' |
The gnolls go together pretty well, and bits from other Frostgrave kits can be used, as I did with the great axe for one of the sergeants. If/when I build the remaining sprue, there's a two handed hammer on the Barbarians sprue that I think I'll use.
While they were fun to paint, I regret making the decision early on to use as many different colours on the cloth as I could.
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| Another Ranger (of the Shadow Deep) |
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| Kitbashed from many sources |
The ranger is made up from bits from the Frostgrave Barbarians sprue and the Oathmark Human Infantry sprue, with the scabbard from the Light Infantry set.
I also painted a couple of resin tents and a resin piece with fallen lög, shields, backpacks etc. for the gnolls' camp. These are from Scotia Grendel; nice models, if, perhaps, not quite 'gnollish'.
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| The campsite |
Nine homemade bushes for the first scenario in Mission two. These were a quick build, there's a full description coming sometime soon.
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| Ranger and gnoll hide and seek among the shrubbery |
The second scenario requires a lot of scatter terrain for the inside of the tower. Here's a start, but I'll need a lot more.
The crates and the board use Crooked Staff Print and Paste textures; the Build Along Dungeon for the floor textures and 19; Chests and Crates for the crates. There are many similar products available; I like the Crooked Staff stuff as its cheap (Build Along dungeon 1 is, I believe, free, and the rest are pay what you want) easy to make and generally relatively low on ink use and I like the art style.
I may print off some more floor texture and base the crates in small groups once I've built some more.
Fellowship of the Ring Journeybook
This was the big disappointment. I managed two Rangers of the North, that's all. These took a lot longer to convert than I anticipated, it's my own fault for being too fussy (or too tight to buy the actual minis).
I enjoyed building and painting them, and I'll continue with them, but possibly with a more realistic timescale. Once I have enough finished, I'll do a post discussing how I make them, and possibly why I bother.
And yes, I know the bases are untextured; I'll do all nine at once when they are finished.
Hints and Mysteries
In my last post I suggested that I had a unit painted for my undead that I was keeping secret. Well, on closer inspection, I haven't finished the shields, so you can rest easy on that front Dave.
Challenging Fun
Once again I really enjoyed taking part in the challenge and thanks to Dave Stone for all the work he puts in to organising this and the Season of Scenery challenges every year.
If I didn't finish everything I wanted to, it's my own fault for either being too ambitious or too distracted, especially as I've had a lot of rehearsals to fit in as well for April concerts.
What's Next?
I'll continue to prepare stuff for Mission Two, and I want to get more MESBG stuff done, but I promised something new for March, so expect some Deep Space action soon.
