Sunday 20 November 2016

"Apprentices Offer A Huge Degree Of Tactical Flexibility..."

"...Players who no longer have apprentices on the table may not activate any figures in this phase."
This 28mm model of an Enchanter’s Apprentice is manufactured by “North Star Military Figures” and can be bought together with his wizard as code FGV103 from their “Frostgrave" Range.  Able to activate “up to three soldiers within 3 inches of the apprentice”, the novice spellcaster is the third of my four weekly submissions for this year’s Mo’Vember Challenge with Dick Garrison (of “Rantings Under The Wargames Table” fame).

Initially I had planned for this formidable-looking figure to be similar in appearance and colour to the miniature photographed within the “Frostgrave” rulebook published by “Osprey Games”. But as I also wanted his clothing to be similar to that of his ‘master’ I eventually decided to go with the same combination of greys I had used on the Enchanter, and therefore used both "Citadel" Adeptus Battlegrey and “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey on his leggings and great coat. These areas were then washed with “Citadel” Nuln Oil, before I ‘picked out’ the great hammer wielder’s red trim with Vallejo” Heavy Red and "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson.
Bloodletter WIPs - These Khorne Daemons now need to have their Hellblades painted "Vallejo" Gold
As the ‘wannabe’ wizard was absolutely festooned with an assortment of chisels, pouches, pliers, blankets and metalwork, I decided to ‘tap into’ a selection of my paints, utilising “Vallejo” Heavy Blue, Heavy Brown and Heavy Green, as well as "Citadel" Ironbreaker. All of these items were then washed with either "The Army painter" Strong Tone Quickshade or "Citadel" Nuln Oil.

With the recent completion of my “Games Workshop” produced Bloodletter Champion, I am finally making some significant inroads with the rest of the plastic Khorne daemons I want to use for “Age Of Sigmar”. These multi-part “Slaughter-kin” will initially be allied to my Host of Nurgle, and as such I need to be able to field a minimum unit of ten figures; ideally including a (gold-horned) musician and standard-bearer.
Temple Dog Statue WIPs - These resin models now just need their stone plinths and bases finishing
To be honest I had hoped that their predominantly red and black colour scheme would make such a painting target perfectly feasible within the space of a month. But the inclusion of a large golden sword, as well as the ‘gentle’ blending of their hands, horns and hooves with the rest of the “Chosen of Khorne”, has significantly increased the time it takes to finish just a single Bloodletter.

Alongside my miniatures I am also making some good headway on the two Temple Dog Statues I recently bought from "Wargames Terrain Workshop" for some oriental-flavoured games of "7TV" by "Crooked Dice game Design". Having successfully applied some of the "Citadel" technical paint Nihilakh Oxide to the fair-sized pieces of scenery, I now just need to finish off weathering their stone plinths before I can finish off their 50mm circular bases and flock them with some tufts of grass.

22 comments:

  1. The enchanters apprentice is very nice. Top notch. The verdigris on the statue is also very nice.

    While there is nothing wrong (at all ) with the Bloodletter...... So sorry I just struggle to say nice things about Games workshop but I will say well painted.

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    1. Thanks Clint. The "Frostgrave" Apprentice took a long time to finish, but at least now I have two Wizard duos to choose from. I've the first of my finished Bloodletters to post up next, so hopefully once the gold swords etc and on show you may like them a little more ;-)

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  2. I totally agree with Clint. The enchanter's apprentice is just superb. A real stand out figure! The Bloodletters are naff figures but I just know you will paint them well. And your dog statues are coming along very nicely. Very much a mixed bag here.

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    1. Cheers Bryan. For once I'm actually a bit disappointed in the gloss varnish on my Apprentice, as it frosted in several parts for some reason and thus required me to repaint him a couple of times in places. In addition, it also made photographing the fellow a bit harder than normal. I'm hoping it was just a bad day, as the Mausoleum suffered a little bit too.

      I'm just finishing off the Bronze dogs' basing, so they should be posted up soon(ish), though I have some completed Bloodletters to post up first!!

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  3. Nice work on the apprentice and a really good Mo'vember piece, and the temple dogs are superb! But as everyone else so far as said I'm just not that keen on the Bloodletter figures, sorry nothing against your painting they are just not for me. No doubt some people will love them though.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks Roger. Just one more Mo'Vember posting to go. The Brass dogs should be finished soon too, and will probably get posted up next week as a result.

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  4. Great job on the apprentice. Love the weathering on the Temple Dog...look forward to seeing the finished statue.

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    1. Cheers Gordon. I'm hoping once I've painted up enough oriental scenery, that I can get motivated enough to paint up a few "Bushido" minis.

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    2. They are lovely miniatures...

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    3. Da Gobbo Grotto has already got me to pick up a few of the range, so I've a few minis ready for a space in the painting queue :-)

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  5. The temple dogs look fab mate, they will look great in a "big trouble in little China" type 7TV2 game plus of course my beloved Bushido.

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    1. Thanks Andy. Much appreciated praise from the Baron of "Bushido". I don't actually plan to use the second edition of "7TV" as I've decided I much prefer the first (especially as I have so many heroes/villains already created for it). Although there are a few mechanics I plan to ultilise from "7TV2E".

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  6. Apprentice is looking great and I really love the temple dogs they look suitably aged.

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    1. Cheers Simon. The Dogs just need to be based and they'll be ready for posting.

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  7. Lovely work again Simon and I really like what you did with love Temple Dogs.

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    1. Thanks Michael. The "Citadel" technical paint Nihilakh Oxide is one of the most useful pots I've bought this year, along with "Vallejo" German Grey (great for shadowing black with imho).

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  8. Nice effect on the temple dogs Simon, Now you've got the gloss varnish on the apprentice you can put a matt varnish over the top the make the colours more natural with the protection of the gloss underneath, Not a fan of the bloodletters but your painting of them is very good

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    1. Cheers Dave. Much appreciated. I may well try a matt varnish on my "Frostgrave" minis at some point, as their detail seems to especially suffer from glare; albeit as a long-in-the-tooth old toy soldier fan I still like the look of gloss ;-)

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  9. Having eyed the Ainsty temple dogs at Warfare, but not bought, I was pleasantly surprised to find that these ones are cheaper. Onto my list they have gone. And the verdigris effect you've given them looks really good.

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    1. Thanks Jez. Nihilakh Oxide is such a simple yet effective paint to use for verdigris, and I much prefer these "WTW" Chinese dogs over the "Ainsty" ones.

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  10. Really good post. Lots to look at and your ability to produce so much stuff in such short spans of time is impressive.

    Any chance of a side by side pic with wizard and his apprentice?

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    1. Cheers Dai. Very much appreciated. There will be a group shot of my new wizard and his apprentice once I've painted up the "Frostgrave" skeletons I've currently got on the table and am working on.

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