Frostgrave: Small Demons

Introduction

It's strange: I'm frantically busy building and painting models, as well as working, looking after the family &c, but I just don't seem to have much time for blogging these days.  I want to give more attention to blogs - both my own and those of other hobbyists - but there aren't enough hours in the day for everything I'd like to do.  Oh well, I'll just need to keep things in perspective: many people in this world have far worse problems than I do...

Frostgrave Imps

I haven't written about it much recently, but that doesn't mean that I have given up on Frostgrave!  Here are some new monsters I painted up recently.

Demons in Frostgrave come in 3 different sizes: man-sized, smaller than a man and larger than a man.  In the latter category, I am already quite well provided, with a couple of Reaper Bones models: http://colgar6.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/frostgrave-demon-bones.html .  I have used one of these older models as a regular, man-sized demon before, but he/she/it is really a bit big for that.

As part of my Christmas present to myself last December, I bought a Mantic "crazy box".  This is a random assortment of models, but at a much cheaper price than if they were bought at list price.  You pays you money and takes your chances...

On this occasion, one of the items in my crazy box was a sprue of hard plastic "Lower Abyssals"; classic demons with goat's feet, horns and a tail.  Excellent - I built up a pair of these to act as my man-sized demons in Frostgrave.

The sprue has (from memory) 5 of these demons on it, so I could build another three if I wanted.  However, just the two will do for now.

As well as the man-sized demons, each Lower Abyssal sprue has a few much smaller creatures on it.  These will make excellent Imps, I think.

The Imps are quite small figures and are probably a little bit fragile - especially the winged one, who is only touching the ground with one foot.  We'll just have to be careful with them.

Conclusion

I would never have thought to look in the Mantic catalogue for such creatures, but I think they'll work very well.  I believe that the same faction (for Kings of War) has larger creatures of a similar form as well.  Those would make excellent large demons for Frostgrave, if I was so minded.

Overall, I'm very pleased with these models apart perhaps from the Imp with the staff.  The varnish on that model has frosted slightly - though I suppose you might just say that the creature was caught in a snowstorm and being slowly encased in ice.!

Frostgrave: the Demon Bones

Introduction

My youngest son and I actually played a game of Frostgrave yesterday - more on that on another occasion.  For now, here are some more pictures of monsters.  These are both from Reaper's range of miniatures and are made from the "bones" plastic.

Bones

Whilst this makes them very cheap, the bones material does require a slightly different approach to building and painting a  model.  My research suggests that gluing the parts together isn't really a problem (just use superglue), but that such figures should not be undercoated with an aerosol - they can turn sticky or tacky.  Indeed, the common advice is just to paint them directly with acrylics.

Since I wanted to base them and I did want to undercoat the bases, I had to make the models in a different manner from usual.  The bases were built and undercoated as normal, but leaving a gap for the figure's integral base.  Once the base was prepared and primed, the bones model was glued to it and the joint between figure and base was filled.  After that, painting proceeded as usual.

The Demon

My Frostgrave demon is built from Reaper Miniature's "Nabassu" figure.  As you can see, he's a winged, horned humanoid with fur down his back and some nasty-looking finger- and toenails.

I can't actually remember what colours I used to paint this demon, but I know I was aiming for a grey-green tinge.  He's not what we would think of as a healthy colour, at least for a human!

In Frostgrave, a minor demon is supposedly about man-sized.  Possibly this monster is a bit too big for that role, but I think the extra bulk (and height!) increases his menace considerably.

That's not a demon; this is a demon

Technically, this is Reaper's model "Agramon, Pit Fiend".  Looks like a demon to me, though...

This guy is huge!  If he was made from metal or resin then the cost of the model would have been more that I cared to spend, but in the bones material, he's not too expensive.

Agramon has gigantic, bat-like wings, a scaly skin and a long, reptilian tail.  He's holding a ball of flame in one hand, so it seems that he's fireproof as well.  Oh, he also has some very large fangs...

For this model, I used a red palette for the body and a much darker red for the wings.  I wanted the flames to stand out, so I deliberately kept the main figure quite dark and subdued; the bright flames then look especially hot.

For his spines, teeth and horns, I aimed for an obsidian effect.  They were base-coated in black and then edged with dark green.  I'm still not sure how well this works, though.

I've painted the dirt around his feet as if it were slightly scorched; the snow has certainly melted from these areas.  This demon comes from a much warmer climate and my guess is that he'll feel the cold of Frostgrave bitterly.  It probably won't improve his temper any!

I don't think that anyone could mistake this model for anything other than a major demon.  Once again, Oscar the thief has been placed nearby, just to give a sense of scale.  Oscar will be having nightmares about this encounter for a long time, I think!

Conclusion

Bones is a different material to work with, but I didn't encounter any real issues whilst building these figures.  The resulting models are light, cheap(-ish) and somewhat flexible.  Indeed, I don't think they would be significantly damaged by being dropped on the floor (not that I plan to try this any time soon!)  They have been painted and sealed as per my usual methods; it's just the preparation that's a little different.  No primer!