The Embers of Alexandria: Part Three

Coming in just under the wire are my last painted miniatures of 2021. Five more cultists. There are two more in the back row with assault rifles (which look more like SMGs, but I'm not adding a new category). In the front we have another Coal, this one armed with a curved sword and a bow. I'm going to call him a Stalker. In the center, another Torch-rank leader, this one carrying a magical staff along with his assault rifle. And on the right, another pistol cultist, this one carrying a case of some kind.

Here's where the Embers of Alexandria stand in total:

• Ashes x17 (8x Assault Rifle, 6x Pistol, 3x Shotgun/Axe)
  
• Coals x6 (Flamethrower, LMG, RPG, Sniper Rifle, Hacker, Stalker)
  
• Sparks x2
• Summoner x1
  
• Aliens x2 (Hybrid, Maw-nstrosity)

28 cultists! My old maroon and brown fantasy warband only has 25 members, meaning the cultists have stolen the title for "most painted figures in a cohesive group." I'll probably knock out a few more Embers here and there in the new year, but I have a very solid foundation painted up for whatever I end up doing with them.

The Embers of Alexandria: Part Two

More evil cultists have arrived for the Embers of Alexandria. Here we have two more with pistols and one more with a shotgun and axe. Beyond that, they get more interesting.

There are two cultists with the rank of Coal, a sniper and a hacker. The sniper has his eyes uncovered so he can see to do his job. The hacker has a visored helmet and carries a tablet and SMG. I really like the sniper figure; I tolerate the hacker figure. (The hacker's head really doesn't work for me, and the pose isn't great.)

We also have the Summoner. I figure she's pretty high-ranked in the Embers. Carrying no weapons, she bears only an ancient summoning stone, calling upon great powers beyond the ken of mortal man. She's the first cultist that could be used as-in in a fantasy setting, since she lacks technology of any sort.

Unlike most of the cultists, she has a full face and skin, which I think turned out really well.

The pose is quite dynamic as she reaches up toward--something. The pictures don't really do it justice. It's definitely one of my favorite poses that I've ever assembled from a multi-part kit (in this case, entirely the Frostgrave Wizards 2 sprue).

As you can see from the weird lighting, I was playing around with a new set of colored LEDs that I received for Christmas. Magic!

Leland's Fusilier's: Archer, Centurion, Hatchetman

Here are three more mechs for the Fusiliers. These are the last for a while (unless I do one up quickly at some point to finish off this twelve-unit Company). I'm pretty Battleteched out and have some other projects brewing.

• Archer (70 tons, BV 1338)
• Centurion (50 tons, BV 945)
• Hatchetman (45 tons, BV 854)
  

Total mechs: 11
Total tons: 655
Total battle value: 13,069

The Embers of Alexandria

A while back I attended a pseudo-con that got me thinking about running a game at a convention. It's different than running a long-form campaign, and it got me thinking about what kind of game would work for such an undertaking. Through some twists and roundabouts, I settled on an idea for a modern paranormal wargame-RPG. These are the miniatures that came out of that idea.

These are cultists of an organization known as The Embers of Alexandria. In 48 BC, Julius Caesar burned part of the library of Alexandria. Historically, it is believed this was an accident, but the Embers maintain that it was intentional, destroying a tremendous store of forbidden knowledge that Caesar feared would fall into his enemies’ hands. In vengeance, the Embers salvaged what they could and successfully conspired with allies in Rome to assassinate Caesar. For the next several centuries, the Embers functioned as a mystery cult across the Roman world. In the dark ages, they hoarded knowledge in faux-monasteries paying lip service to the Catholic church. In the age of exploration, after a series of purges, the Embers spread across the world, in search of new knowledge or ways to bring their tremendous arcane power to bear for revenge or profit. The Embers have split into several factions in modern history, and each faction has differing and sometimes conflicting aims.

The miniatures (except for the big guy) are a mix of Frostgrave Cultist and Stargrave Trooper parts (with a few other bits mixed in).

Here are the three individuals. On the left is the leader of the soldiers. His rank is Torch (with Coals and Ashes below him), as indicated by his yellow cowl. He's armed with an assault rifle and a sweet backpack with an axe.

The big fellow is a Reaper Miniatures "Maggotcrown Bonesack." Quite the name and quite the creature. It came with the Bones 4 Kickstarter. Beyond this project, it would be perfect as a creature in Zona Alfa or many post-apocalyptic or sci-fi settings. The gaping maw immediately makes me assume it can swallow characters whole, maybe if they're still grappled a round after being grabbed. Maybe faster.

On the right is a hybrid, unarmed beyond incredible supernatural powers. It's a cultist body and arms with an alien head from a Stargrave Sprue.

Here are three of the Coals (a rank which normally means they use special/heavy weapons). They also wear metal masks in their cowl.

On the left, a cultist with a rocket-propelled grenade. He's running somewhere with a spare rocket grenade.

In the center, a cultist with a light machine gun and a backpack full of ammunition, perfect for suppressing those foolish enough to oppose the Embers.

On the right, a cultist armed with flamethrower arms from the Wargames Atlantic Einherjar. Burn!

Here are six Ashes, the foot soldiers of the Embers. They're armed with assault rifles. This is probably the most common cultist type. No special abilities, no special technology, just numbers and plenty of ammunition.

Finally, some different Ashes. On the left are a trio armed with pistols. They could either be used as lower-threat enemies, or as technicians or other scenario-based units.

On the right, two Ashes armed with shotguns and axes. Presumably, these guys would act as rushers to get in close and do heavy damage if not taken care of.

Opposing these cultists would probably be my 6Gun Mercenaries (possibly rethemed as something more heroic). These cultists could also work as a Stargrave crew. (Spark and Hybrid as captain and first mate, the Coals as possible specialists, and the Ashes as Troopers/Sentries/Runners/Recruits as needed. They could also work as pirate enemy forces for Stargrave. While we're at it, these could work as forces for Zona Alfa. Or villains in a superhero campaign! So many possibilities! So many cultists! (16! And the big guy!)

Aka-Oni Irregulars: Dragon, Quickdraw

Left to right: Scorpion Light Tank, Quickdraw, Dragon, Scorpion Light Tank

The Quickdraw is a fairly mediocre 60 tonner. It has 10 tons of armor and a decent weapon loadout, but only 13 heat sinks to handle the load. It does have 5/8/5 movement (walk/run/jump), so that's pretty good for its size, but you can tell corners were cut to make it possible.

The Dragon, on the other hand, is an iconic mech of the Draconis Combine. Weighing in at 60 tons, it's a solid brawler. Along with the Jenner and Panther from the last post, I can now put together a very Kurita lance. In fact, with the new Quickdraw, the four mechs come in at a battle value of 3961; this is perfect for my favorite low-end game size of 4000 BV per side.

You can see the difference between the scale of the old models and the new ones. Those two mechs are meant to be the same weight, but one is substantially chunkier than the other. It's part of the reason why I'm not adding many of the old miniatures to my current forces. In this case, however, no new Quickdraw exists, so it's the old one or nothing.

Also in the picture are two tanks I painted up. They're not Battletech miniatures, but the scale is close enough. I'm counting them as Scorpion light tanks (each 25 tons, 306 battle value). (They're not taken into the main tonnage/BV calculations for the full force, below.)

• Dragon (60 tons, BV 1125)
  
• Quickdraw (60 tons, BV 1192)

Total mechs: 16
Total tons:  825
Total battle value: 16,602

My Clan Ghost Bear force (with Elementals) comes out at 16,320 BV. My Aka-Oni Irregulars are finally an even match for them (give or take; battle value isn't a perfect system). Seven Clan mechs and two bases of Elementals versus sixteen Inner Sphere mechs. Crazy. Now to try and get my Leland's Fusiliers up to that level.

Leland's Fusiliers: Hunchback, Cyclops

"Don't talk to me or my son ever again."

Here we have a 50 ton Hunchback and a 90 ton customized Cyclops.

The Hunchback has always been one of my favorite mechs. The whole thing is designed around carrying an autocannon/20, the most powerful standard weapon available in 3025. It will pair well with the long-range Trebuchet mech. Enemies will want to get close to the Trebuchet, but they'll want to stay away from the Hunchback.

The Cyclops, the stock CP-10-Z model, is underwhelming, to say the least. At 90 tons, it's only 10 tons below the maximum, but the CP-10-Z only has ten tons of armor, the same amount as the 40-ton lighter Hunchback. Its weapons are also mediocre. As I really like this physical miniature, I've decided to make it the personal mech of Commander Carson Leland, leader of Leland's Fusiliers. As such, I've made a custom variant, the CP-10-LFX, as his ride. I have the details below the jump break (so you'll have to load the full post to see it).

• Hunchback (50 tons, BV 1041)
• Cyclops (90 tons, CP-10-LFX*, BV 1691)

Total mechs: 8
Total tons: 490
Total battle value: 9,932

Leland's Fusiliers: Trebuchet, Longbow, Zeus

Three more mechs for the Leland's Fusiliers mercenary company, drawn from the "Inner Sphere Fire Lance" box. These really start getting into the fusillading spirit, with the Trebuchet and the Longbow (and, to a lesser extent, the Zeus) each capable of firing huge salvos of long range missiles downfield.

• Trebuchet (50 tons, BV 1191)
• Longbow (85 tons, BV 1618)
• Zeus (80 tons, BV 1374)

This is one medium and two assault class mechs. The Longbow is a favorite design of mine, ready to just sit back and rain fire down upon its foes. I picture this one as the mech piloted by Commander Leland's number two.

Total mechs: 6
Total tons:  350
Total battle value: 7,200

Leland's Fusiliers: Wolfhound, Blackjack, Wolverine

Once again, I've exhausted my supply of mech miniatures to paint. Here are the first three "new-sculpt" members of the Leland's Fusiliers mercenary company. It's a good start for those plucky young hotshots.

• Wolfhound (35 tons, WLF-1A, BV 967)
• Blackjack (45 tons, BV 949)
• Wolverine (55 tons, BV 1,101)

Total mechs: 3
Total tons:  135
Total battle value: 3,017

As an aside, this leaves me with just shy of 1,000 points to make this into a 4,000 BV medium lance. A Centurion or Whitworth would fit nicely to round out this jack-of-all-trades lance. It'll probably just end up being whatever mech works best from the next Lance Box I find.

Aka-Oni Irregulars: Panther and Jenner

While Battletech is sold out pretty much everywhere, but some stroke of luck, my friendly local gaming store had ten Striker Lance boxes (and no other Battletech). I picked one up and added a Panther and Jenner to my forces. These mechs are a hallmark of the Draconis Combine, so they'll fit in perfectly if I use the Aka-Oni as Kuritan forces.

• Panther (35 tons, BV 769)
  
• Jenner (35 tons, BV 875)

Total mechs: 14
Total tons:  705
Total battle value: 14,285

Fun fact! Despite having twice the mechs as my Clan Ghost Bear force, the full might of the Aka-Oni Irregulars is still inferior in terms of total battle value, 14,285 to 15,760. (This doesn't even take into account the two points of Elemental Battlearmor at 280 points each). It might be a close battle, especially if the Ghost Bears fight "honorably," but this just illustrates how powerful (or overpowered) ClanTech is versus the 3025 Inner Sphere technology I enjoy.

Aka-Oni Irregulars: Third Lance (Full Company)

Here are the last members of the Irregulars (for a time). This is at least in part because I have no more mechs to paint (except for another Wolverine, but there's already one in the Irregulars). We have a Flea (20 tons), a Marauder (75 tons), and a Commando (25 tons).

• The Flea is an older miniature, as shown by the differently-shaped base. Most of the older models don't scale well to the new stuff, but the Flea is a tiny 20-tonner, so I think it fits OK. It's just an armored box on legs, so even if it's less detailed than the new models, it still works.
• The Marauder was in the Kickstarter "Legendary" salvage box that I received with my pledge.
• The Commando is a design that I really like. A fast, light mech with a bunch of short range missiles ready to step in and exploit any holes in enemy armor. It's a lovely little critical-fisher.

This brings the Aka-Oni Irregulars up to three full lances. Here's the full company list, in order by tonnage (then by battle value 2.0).

• Flea (20 tons, FLE-16 BV 506)
  
• Locust (25 tons, BV 432)
• Commando (25 tons, BV 541)
• Urbanmech (30 tons, BV 504)
• Shadow Hawk (55 tons, BV 1,064)
• Wolverine (55 tons, BV 1,101)
• Griffin (55 tons, BV 1,272)
• Thunderbolt (65 tons, BV 1,335)
• Catapult (65 tons, BV 1,399)
• Marauder (75 tons, BV 1,363)
• Awesome (80 tons, BV 1,605)
• Battlemaster (85 tons, BV 1,519)

Total mechs: 12
Total tons:  635
Total battle value: 12,641

Light lance: Flea, Locust, Commando, Urbanmech (100 tons, BV 1,983)
Medium lance: Shadow Hawk, Wolverine, Griffin, Thunderbolt (230 tons, BV 4,772)
Heavy lance: Catapult, Marauder, Awesome, Battlemaster (305 tons, BV 5,886)

Aka-Oni Irregulars: Second Lance

Left to right: Shadow Hawk, BattleMaster, Urbanmech, Awesome, Catapult

Five more battlemechs to join my red and yellow team. It's a solid lance... and one extra friend. We have a Shadow Hawk (55 tons), BattleMaster (85 tons), UrbanMech (30 tons), Awesome (80 tons), and a Catapult (65 tons). That's two Assault class, one Heavy, one Medium, and one Light. The Urbie does not belong with his friends, but they accept him anyway.

Total tons: 315
Total battle value: 6091

That brings us up to nine mechs for the unit, leaving us just three mechs short of a full Company. I just happen to have three more mechs ready to paint up, pretty much the last of my Battletech miniatures. They're sold out practically everywhere, sadly, and the global shipping crisis doesn't look like it's letting up any time soon.

Total tons for the Aka-Oni Irregulars: 515
Total battle value for the Aka-Oni Irregulars: 10231

Aka-Oni Irregulars: First Lance

Left to right: Wolverine, Griffin, Locust, Thunderbolt

I've had the Battletech "Beginner Box" and "Game of Armored Combat" sets for a while now. I've finally painted some of the included plastic models. Here are four pretty ubiquitous mechs done up in the colors of my Draconis Combine (or mercenary) Aka-Oni Irregulars (previously seen on old models in this post). We have Wolverine (55 tons), a Griffin (55 tons), a Locust (25 tons), and a Thunderbolt (65 tons). This makes for a decently balanced lance of one light, two mediums, and a heavy.

Total tons: 200
Total battle value: 4140

Compared to the old plastics, these new models are significantly nicer (and significantly larger). The sculpts have excellent firmness and definition, whereas the old models were somewhat soft in all senses.

Clan Ghost Bear

Back row, left to right: Executioner, Ice Ferret, Nova, Timber Wolf. Front row, left to right: Ice Ferret, Elementals, Adder, Elementals, Grendel.

More mechwarrior madness. I received my Battletech "Clan Invasion" Kickstarter rewards a while ago, but now they're painted up. I went with a Clan Ghost Bear scheme because (A) they're the best Clan, (B) it's a pretty easy scheme (which I simplified further), and (C) I like blue. A while back I posted my meager Inner Sphere forces, but these are my first and only Clanners.

It's basically just the Clan Invasion box plus two Salvage Boxes (both of which contained Ice Ferrets). So we have an Adder (35 tons), a Grendel (45 tons), two Ice Ferrets (45 tons), a Nova (50 tons), a Timber Wolf (75 tons), and an Executioner (95 tons). There are also two bases (points) of five Elementals each. This team could wipe the floor with my painted Inner Sphere mechs. Maybe I should paint up some more Inner Sphere guys...

Retainer Herald

Here's a herald and/or musician to join the retinue. I built this figure a long while back as a referee for my Shieldball game but I never painted him up. I've painted him with referee stripes as a nod to this.

Retainers (5/5): Family Photo

Here we have the whole retinue, all twenty-one of them. They're just barely not the largest unified force I've ever painted up (looking at you, brown-and-maroon troops and wizard and cyborg), but they're probably the most detailed. They're even all based properly! For posterity, here's the paint scheme:

• Primer
• Craftsmart "Black" (brush on)
  
• Eyes
• Ceramcoat "White" Semi-Opaque
• Skin
• Craftsmart "Brown"
• Craftsmart "Golden Brown" (mix with brown for middle tones)
  
• Clothes and Equipment
  
• Vallejo Game Extra Opaque "Heavy Charcoal" (this is a very dark blue)
  
• Vallejo Game Extra Opaque "Heavy Bluegrey" (this is a cool grey)
• Vallejo Game Extra Opaque "Heavy Red"
• Vallejo Game Extra Opaque "Heavy Sienna" (this is the deep brown)
• Vallejo Model Color 70.865 "Oily Steel"
• Wash
• Citadel Shade "Nuln Oil" (this stuff is so basic but so amazing)
  
• Base
• Citadel Colour Technical "Stirland Battlemire" (expensive but pre-mixed and easy to use)
• Vallejo Game Color "Beasty Brown" [sic] (drybrushed over the battlemire)
• Army Painter "Wasteland Tufts" (not a paint, these are the tufts glued to the bases)

This has been a fun project. I have some more I want to add to it, like militia or levies. Also, I should probably make the noble who retains these people at some point, just for completeness' sake.

Retainers (4/5): Magic Users

Here's a fun group that's not just more Warlord and Perry bits! (But there are some of those.) Here we have a dwarf cleric, a wizard, her apprentice, and her two skeleton bodyguards.

The dwarf was the first of this lot that I painted up. He's a Reaper Miniatures "Thain Grimthorn, Dwarf Cleric." He's in the old, softer Bones material, but he painted up well. The only reason I painted him at all was for the original Warcry warband, as my half-netdecked list called for a Dwarven Runelord. So, presumably, he's part of the retinue now because he works for the probably-human noble. I'm sure there's an interesting backstory to explore there. His colors would also technically work with my Stargrave crew, and he even has the fur collar, so that's a thing.

The wizard and her apprentice are also Reaper Miniatures. They're both from the Bones V Kickstarter as part of the "Townsfolk" option. It's actually the only part of Bones V that I ordered, since the core set wasn't what I was looking for (and I already have a massive pile of unpainted plastic shame). I didn't want anything super crazy for the wizard, so the giant cloak and simple staff really appealed to me. This is the kind of wizard that could go incognito while traveling. Under the robe, the red of her dress is much brighter than the red for the rest of the retinue; she's powerful, probably pretty rich, and able to get some better material for her clothes.

The apprentice is a similar color scheme (well, the whole retinue has a similar color scheme), putting the red forward a lot more than most of the retainers. His staff looks like a slightly smaller version of the wizard's, so they pair together really well. I didn't plan on making an apprentice at all, but I figured they'd look good together and they could always be used as a Frostgrave wizard and apprentice if I so desired. After all, this retinue has most of a warband already completed.

While the rest of the miniatures have Reaper Base Boss bases, the three Reaper Miniatures above are all based on 1" metal fender washers. This lowers their overall height so that they don't tower over the more realistically-scaled 28mm models.

Finally, two skeletons. I've maintained that in D&D, the "Animate Dead" spell should be legal in some places. It appears to be in this noble's lands (though taxed and regulated, of course). These two bony boys are landsknecht bodies with arms and skulls from the Frostgrave Cultist sprue. Since there was only one skeleton arm with that sword, I reversed the hand on one of them so he could drag the sword and vary the looks of these guys. Both skeletons also have Perry bucklers on the ground, so I guess they can have WYSIWYG shields if rules need them to.

I assume these two skeletons are the wizard's bodyguards. Maybe they should wait in her carriage...

Retainers (3/5): Cavalry

Here are the noble's three riders. There's a pistolier and two lancers. This is the first time I've ever painted horses, and I'm happy with the result. They're not as difficult as I expected, at least for a half-decent job like this. All of the horses and riders are from the Perry Miniatures "Light Cavalry 1450-1500" box. It's a phenomenal box that pairs wonderfully with the Warlord Games' Landsknecht boxes.

With arms taken from an English Civil War sprue, the pistolier wields a sword and pistol. This was my test model, and I painted the horse and rider separately before attaching the rider to the saddle. (That was quite a hassle, so I fully assembled the other two cavalry before starting to paint them.) I tried for a dappled effect on the horse by flicking paint onto it, but it definitely isn't worth the time or mess to repeat. I like the way this fellow turned out. In a pinch, he could definitely be a lesser noble himself.

The two lancers are entirely built from the Perry box. Each is armed with a lance in one hand, along with a sheathed sword at the opposite hip. The first lancer has his weapon lowered, charging in for the kill. The other is modeled with is lance up, turning to look at something that caught his attention. Both riders have identical helmets (which I love). I made a mistake when assembling these guys, but it's not super noticeable. While painting these chaps, I came up with a Fighter 5/Rogue Swashbucker 3 (D&D) build for them that would make them an absolute killer against melee-oriented PCs in an open environment.

Retainers (2/5): Ranged fighters

This second batch from the noble's retinue consists of his ranged fighters. Surprise! It's guns!

There are six arquebusiers and one, uh, sniper? Let's deal with the regular folks first. Each arquebusier is built primarily of Warlord Games' Landsknecht parts. All of the bodies and arms come from those sprues, as do the hip pouches and sheathed daggers that each one carries. The heads are a bit of a mix, however. As far as I can recollect, most of them are from the Landsknecht sprue, but the lady's head is from the Warlord Games "Project Z" female survivor sprue. (I've mined that sprue for so many heads, but it's almost empty now. Good, realistically-proportioned 28mm female heads are hard to find.)

The orange-haired fellow's head is from the Frostgrave soldiers sprue; I think it's the most recognizable head from that box. Looking at him, I get a strange Donald Sutherland vibe from him. It might be the eyes.

I made sure each arquebusier carries a dagger sheathed on their belt for when the enemy gets too close, though I suppose the stout handguns would make hefty clubs. 

The marksman is built in much the same way as the rest, with a few modifications. His gun is the same arquebus as everyone else, but I cut off the part beyond the little bump near the front and replaced it with a length of spear shaft to extend the barrel. The forked support stick is from a Warlord Swedish Infantry box. The completely anachronistic scope is from some modern soldier sprue, but I can't remember which one. It's huge and hilarious. He also has a sword instead of a dagger because he's more important.

In Warcry, for which these guys were originally intended, the marksman figure was meant to represent a "Marksman with Long Rifle" and would have been the leader (or hero) for my warband.

When I add more ranged troops to this lucky noble's forces, they'll probably be militia armed with bows or crossbows, built from the simpler (and more quickly-painted) Perry Agincourt parts. Any further arquebusiers I whip up will still get the cool Landsknecht outfits and equipment, though.

Retainers (1/5): Melee Fighters

While I haven't posted in a few months, I have painted a number of miniatures over that time. These are members of a noble's retinue, wearing the noble's livery and serving as full-time guards, patrols, or advisors. So far, there are 21 members of the retinue, and I'm sure more will eventually follow.

Originally, these units were put together as proxies for Games Workshop's "Warcry" game, but I just kept building and painting, so here we are. In order to keep this from being one large post, I've split it up into four parts: Melee fighters, ranged fighters, cavalry, and magic folks. This first entry contains the six dismounted melee fighters. These six fighters are two each of pikemen, greatswords, and sword and shield folks.

First, the pikemen. The bodies for both are from the Warlord Games' Landsknecht boxes, as are the majority of these figures. The tall pike is from the Landsknecht arms, while the askew one is a lance from the Perry Miniatures Agincourt French Infantry box. The heads are actually from a Warlord Games Samurai Infantry Sprue, with what I've painted as their faces and mustaches meant to be the helmet's menpō mask. (As a side note, those samurai and ashigaru sprues were some of the worst sprues I've ever had the misfortune to assemble. Building even a single unit was infuriating, and the limbs and weapons are thin enough to snap if you so much as look at them. There are far better and easier samurai miniatures out there.) Since I only have two of those heads, they are the only pikemen who will have them, meaning they're special and may become banner-bearers or a pair of bodyguards.

Second, the greatsword fighters. The one with the bare helmet is pretty much straight out of a Landsknecht box, while the one with the feather has a Perry Agincourt body and head. The feathers are, of course, from the Landsknecht box, as are the arms for both. There's a little bit of a height difference between the Perry and Warlord models, but the proportions are close enough. They're both semi-realistically proportioned, so it's not like comparing them to the bulging chonky-bois from Games Workshop.

Finally, the sword and boards. Or, in one case, axe-and-board-but-there's-a-sword-at-his-hip. Both bodies are Landsknechts, but both sets of arms are from the Perry box. The shields are from the Frostgrave Soldiers box. Feather Hat Guy's head is from the Landsknecht box, while the other guy's head is from the Frostgrave Cultist box. It's actually a zombie head! I did a little putty work to make his brain not showing, but check the picture below for a comparison between this guy and one that I had painted up as a zombie.

I love reformed-zombie-head guy. I used some really watered down red for his nose and cheeks, which worked surprisingly well, and some really watered down mix from his hair to give him beard stubble. I think it looks amazing. And that red thing below his eye is probably a boil or something. Since he's so distinct and using a non-standard weapon, this guy is definitely a grizzled sergeant or some kind of hardened adventurer. He's probably my favorite from this whole batch.

Twins!

Hivewarden

This miniature is a "Hivewarden" from Reaper Miniatures. It came with the Bones 4 Kickstarter. I'm not sure if it's based on any particular monster from anything, but I thought it looked neat, so I painted it up. It's mounted on a 50mm (2x2) base, so it's a large monster, but it's really quite big, so I might use it as a huge creature (3x3). The mercenary hivewarden wranger is provided for scale.

I painted the brain to look... like a brain. The top of the monster is brighter colors, while the tentacles coming out the bottom are darker, cool colors. I can imagine that when this thing floats toward you in a dark cave, all you can see is a glowing eye and brain in the darkness. Then the tentacles reach out.

While this thing strikes me as an alien or abomination, in a pinch I think it could pass for a Beholder. It has the big central eye and various powers could come out of the tentacles (instead of additional eye-stalks). Reaper has more little brain-based-beasties available; This guy really screams "boss monster" and could probably do with a few brain minions.

Giant Frogs

Here are four "Giant Frogs" from Reaper Miniatures. They come in packs of two, and I got a pack with the Bones 4 Kickstarter. One of the models (the green one, see below) was missing a leg, so I emailed Reaper and, to my surprise and delight, they sent another set of two instead of just a replacement for the damaged one. Excellent customer service. So I ended up with a croaking quartet (Aristophanes?), and here they are.

I painted them all differently, inspired loosely by poison dart frogs, but mostly just one each of red, yellow, green, and blue. Maybe they're elemental guardians? I just wanted them to look nice and be able to tell them apart.

As you can see by the mercenary frog wrangler, these frogs are big fellas. They're on 50mm bases, so they're large size for D&D. There are giant toxic frogs in Stargrave as well, named Dedfurds, so there's another possible use.

As I mentioned, the model that needed replacing was missing a leg. There was a pretty deep hole for the leg to fit into, so I filled it in with putty and used the back end of a paintbrush to make little circle texture spots. I then painted it to look like not-necessarily-healed tissue. I used my X-acto knife to put a scar across his eye, then painted it up to be a pinkish-white blind eye. (You can see the healthy eye in the top picture.)

So, this is Old One-Eye, a dangerous, long-lived Giant Frog. "My grand-pappy died fighting him, but he managed to take his eye and his arm before the beast got him!"

Alternatively, he could be used as a zombie giant frog, should that needlessly specific scenario arise.

Beastmen

Beastmen! These are Reaper Bones "Minitaurs (4)," and I got them as part of the Bones 4 Kickstarter. They're about shoulder-height compared to human-sized miniatures.

I painted them quickly with just heavy drybrushing for the red-brown skintones and beige-brown horns, then heavy brown washes over everything. I'd say this was speedpainting, but it still took a while.

These miniatures actually saw use on a tabletop about a year and a half before they were painted. They appeared in grey plastic, to my eternal shame. Still, they're ready now for D&D or whatever else needs chaotic, angry beastmen. To stay on theme for this year, they could also be primitive aliens.

Rudulian Runner

 This is the last member (for now) for my first Stargrave crew. He's another red, forehead-ridged Rudulian, and he came out pretty well. He's got the team arctic camouflage pattern on his sweatpants, paired with a dark blue-grey hoodie. He's also got a pistol and sweet goggles. All parts are resin from Anvil Industries.

In Stargrave, he's a runner, a free (no cost) and fast but pretty ineffective unit that can be used to fill out your crew. He could also be used as a Recruit.

It's nice to have the full crew done. Below is a group photo.

Back row: Runner, Chiseler, Hacker, Sentry, Trooper, Trooper

Front row: Burner, First Mate (Veteran), Captain (Tekker), Pathfinder

More Scavengers

 A while back, I posted a picture of a scavenger team that I put together. Not too long after, I put together a few more models that would fit in as similar units, using the same camouflage pattern. They were speed-painted, and I never got around to doing the skin or weapons at the time; I recently found them in the "In Progress" bin and decided to finish them off.

These are all Warlord Games Project Z models, mostly from the Bikers box. The poses are a little awkward sometimes, but they hold good detail. The rightmost guy was originally a child, but I put him on some sandbags for height and, when I continued the project, I took off the original, oversized head I'd used and put on a Setla head.

So, all in all, these are five more "filler" units for whatever. With a heavy wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade, they look pretty good despite their speed and sloppiness.

Stargrave Crewmates

 

With Stargrave coming out at the end of this month (April), Osprey Games recently released a chapter from the rulebook detailing how to create a captain and crew, allowing players to ready their forces before the game releases. I devoured the chapter, as one does, and realized that my ex-miner Dwarves would make an excellent core for a crew (as I'd expected). To fill out the rest, I put together these five fine folks.

As something of a test piece for the paint scheme, I put together this guy. Like the other Dwarves, he's made from the Wargames Atlantic "Einherjar" sprues and modeled loosely after a videogame character. In this case, that character is Bardin Goreksson from Vermintide.

The color scheme is very wintry, making use of the fur collars available to the Einherjar and keeping with cool colors like the Heavy Charcoal blue and a series of greys. I hadn't fully fleshed out the camouflage pattern yet, but the cloth elements are a mix of several different light greys. Bardin here also has some orange to pop against the cool colors. I actually added the mustache and beard to a clean-shaven old Catachan head.

In Stargrave, I plan to use this model as a Sentry, a mid-range unit who can shoot with a carbine but is better at hand-to-hand combat.

Here we have two Troopers, mid-range units who focus more on the shooting than the hand-to-hand stuff. Both are armed with carbines.

On the left is another Dwarf and on the right is the only Human on the crew. Both heads are from Anvil Industries, and both have blue headbands, like the Sentry. It wasn't totally planned, but when I saw I had a theme going, I went with it. They also have matching fur collars, since I found that the Einherjar collars fit decently well on Anvil bodies (with a bit of putty to fill the gaps).

The Human actually has pupils! The first one was a happy accident, but it looked good, so I put one on the other eye with great fear and trembling. It actually worked!

I did these in a batch along with the two Setla (below), and finalized the camo pattern on the cloth. It turned out pretty well.

The last two crewmembers from this batch are more adorable Setla. In Stargrave, these both represent cheap objective grabber units.

On the left is a Chiseler, a unit that can unlock physical loot tokens. The only addition I made to the model was to add a backpack for his tools. The backpack is just a single pouch taken from the Einherjar sprue; these Reaper Grey models are tiny.

On the right is a Hacker, a unit that can unlock digital/information loot tokens. I made no changes to the model, as it was good enough as-is.

As with the troopers, the camouflage looks pretty good. With their smooth jumpsuits, it might even work better on the Setla than on the others.

I still have one "free" unit to finish for the crew to make ten (when adding the four ex-miners), so this project is already nearing completion! This is why I love small skirmish games--they're so manageable!

Starlink Ships

Serendipity.  At a local dollar store, I found a shelf full of starter sets for a 2018 XBox One game called "Starlink: Battle for Atlas." While I have no interest in the game, the sets came with little plastic ships (the "Zenith" model) that are basically 28mm scale. I picked up several boxes.

The ships are modular, too, which is fantastic. For miniature gaming purposes, it allows easy customization of the ships for whatever role they're meant to represent. To the left, you can see a ship with wings but without weapons. You can see some other configurations I've put together in the picture at the bottom of the post. They look surprisingly good.

The ship is a little over six inches long, about seven inches wide (with a pair of wings and weapons), and two and a half inches tall to the top of the orange circle thing.

For as cheap as they are, these are fantastic. Maybe at some point I'll paint one, but for now, they're good to go as terrain right out of the box. The modular weapons look good even when they're not attached to the ships. The three-barreled cannon and blue missile launcher, especially, could be turrets or other weapons emplacements.

Several groups browse at Discount Starfighter Warehouse.

Dwarven Miners

 

Here we have a team of four Dwarf miners. They're pragmatic adaptations of the four classes available in the game Deep Rock Galactic (which I recommend). From left to right, we have the Gunner with his heavy weapon, the Driller with his flamethrower, the maneuverable Scout, and the Engineer with his grenade launcher and turret (behind him).

All four of the dwarves are primarily built from Wargames Atlantic's "Einherjar," which are basically space dwarves. There are a few kitbashed pieces from here and there, but they're mostly straight from the sprue. The turret is entirely not from the same kit. It's kitbashed from Warhammer 40k, Anvil Industry, and even a piece from a Warlord Games English Civil War sprue.

The color of each dwarf's uniform is based on the colors that represent their in-game class. Green for the Gunner, yellow for the Driller, blue for the Scout, and red for the Engineer.

This project, like most of them, was just for fun. If nothing else, these would make nice RPG characters or a solid core for a Stargrave crew.