The incident at Station X

Introduction

On a barely-charted jungle planet, remote from normal shipping lanes, the Federation have permitted the establishment of a private research station.  Ostensibly this group of scientists, led by the fiercely intelligent Professor Frinkle, are there to develop new medicines and cures.

A garbled message from the base is received by the USS Matakishi - a Federation starship commanded by the inspiring Captain Bellamy.  It reads:

"...madness...overstepped...chemical...unwilling...too much...help...".

The ship's comms officer has determined that the transmission is being jammed.  By looking at a list of base personnel, it is thought to have been sent by Doctor Smith, the research centre's second-in-command.  Bellamy decides to investigate immediately and leads a small away team to the planet's surface.

However, he's not the only one to show an interest.  The Klingon vessel P'Rang has also intercepted the message and her captain Mor'tah has ordered that "Federation combat drugs" research is in violation of some treaty or other and must be seized, for the safety of the Empire.

Setup

This was a 3-player game of Pulp Alley, using my newly-completed Alien Jungle and my slightly older Salad Box Science Base.  The terrain was set up as follows:

• Most areas of vegetation would be difficult (i.e. if anyone ran through them then they would take a peril).
• 2 of the areas of vegetation (the one with the pit beast and the one with the Venusian death lilies) were dangerous.  No running was permitted and even walking would trigger a peril.
• All building interiors were also difficult.

6 minor objectives were set up in buildings and around the base:

• A microscope and samples were in the Geology building
• A computer terminal was in the Command building
• A filing cabinet was in the Admin building
• A cloning tank was in the Science building.
• A hyperwave jammer was at the eastern end of the base clearing.
• The base's power supply was at the western end of the complex.

The major objective was Doctor Smith, who was in the open at the very centre of the research base.

The Leagues

Federation Away Team

• Captain Bellamy is inspiring, quick-witted and a lucky devil.  He can shoot and brawl a bit, but his strengths are really in problem-solving.
• Science Officer Tring is extremely smart, but probably lacks some social graces (well, he is an alien, after all).
• Doctor Johnson is a hard-nosed medical officer.  He probably spends much of his life being quietly exasperated by everyone and everything else in the universe.
• Lieutenant Rashi leads the security detail.  He's impetuous and a daredevil, so it's a bit of a wonder that he has survived even his first few years in Star Fleet.
• 3 redshirts are also included in the party, to provide the inevitable "meat shield".  Their skills are, well, mediocre (as you might expect from a bunch of goons).

Professor Frinkle's Base Experiments

The mad professor is determined to preserve the autonomy of his research from outside interference of any sort.  To that end, he has the following resources:

• Professor Frinkle is your standard crazy geneticist who won't be shackled by anything so paltry as morality.  He is a deductive and an inventor.  For this game he used his inventing skill to come up with some mind-enhancing drugs for himself.  Frinkle has also set up cameras and booby traps all over the base; this is represented by his cursed presence ability.
• B-9 is the professor's sinister robot.  It is armoured and can project some form of electrical field (long burst).
• Miaou Miaou is a harmless pet - probably one of the professor's early experiments.  It looks a bit like a cross between a seal and a penguin, but is surprisingly agile.
• Eygar is a faithful lab assistant.  She is clever and crafty, though somewhat faint-of-heart.
• The professor has been using other base personnel as experimental subjects.  3 of them are present as reanimated plague zombies.

Klingon Expeditionary Force

• Captain Mor'tah is a classic, "bad guy" Klingon.  He's intimidating, savage and veteran, which together make him quite a fighter.  He's also very cunning, though not particularly subtle.
• Maal is the captain's loyal second-in-command.  He is intelligent, cold and calculating, ruthless and indomitable.
• Science officer Sira is extremely bright, but not as tough as the other members of the Klingon party.
• Vagh is a close combat specialist who believes that fighting with the bat'leth is the only true way to gain honour.
• "Targ" is a strange, pig-like beast picked up by the captain on his travels and regarded as a pet.  It's not a real, Klingon targ of course - that's just the captain's little joke.  Actually, it's quite a dangerous animal.
• Leyra is the Klingon's answer to the Federation's redshirts: a security goon with little expectation of surviving an episode.

The Game

Unsurprisingly, given the setup, the first turn was spent with most characters heading for the inevitable "scrum in the middle".  Turn 2 started to become interesting:

1. The Klingon pig-beast charged around the corner of the Science building, straight into Eygar.  Both were knocked down, but the pig-beast just shook itself and regained its feet. The faint-of-heart lab assistant didn't bother to get up again.
2. Science officer Sira tried to switch off the base's power supply - but each time failed a peril and was knocked down.  Even though she stood back up and tried again several times more, eventually the repeated zaps knocked her out (i.e. she kept failing perils and taking damage; eventually she failed a recovery roll).  It seems that the mad professor's booby traps were working as intended!
3. Captain Mor'tah strode into the middle of the clearing, grabbed Doctor Smith and shook him into submission.  Of course, this immediately made him a prime target for every other faction - but Mor'tah embraced this position and returned all fire with glee.
4. Both Doctor Johnson and Miaou Miaou made for the filing cabinet in the Admin block.  Neither had any luck, as both of them went down to hidden hazards in the darkened building.

The pig-beast charged into the nearest thing is could see, but Professor Frinkle was a tougher customer than his lab assistant.  He swatted the creature down with ease.

Meanwhile, B-9 rumbled forwards and then unleashed a deadly electro-bolt.  The ray narrowly missed Mor'tah, but completely fried the hapless Leyra.

Over in the Admin block, Doctor Johnson and Miaou Miaou both regained their senses at about the same time.  There was a brief scuffle which resulted in the strange alien pet bolting through the door, leaving the doctor alone in front of the filing cabinet.  However, despite several attempts the increasingly-frustrated doctor just couldn't figure out how to break into the locked cabinet.

As another moment of comic relief (perhaps?), one of the plague zombies chased a redshirt across the board in slow motion.  Neither had much chance of hurting the other, though the redshirt kept dodging backwards so as to use his phaser and the zombie repeatedly stumbled forwards to close the distance.

Then the robot lurched forwards.  It suffered some form of malfunction and splattered corrosive fluids all over itself, Professor Frinkle and Mor'tah, as well as making that area perilous for the remainder of the game (this was a fortune card, though I forget exactly which one).  The robot and the professor were unharmed, but the Klingon captain caught a face full of the poisonous goo.

What with the noxious chemicals and phaser fire from Lt. Rashi & Captain Bellamy, Mor'tah sank to his knees and then collapsed, releasing his grip on Doctor Smith.

With a detour into the Science building to look at the cloning tank, the Klingon pig-beast squealed its challenge and charged at Professor Frinkle.  It may have been intent on revenge for its fallen master, but once again the hopped-up professor smacked it down into the dirt.  This time the creature didn't stand up again.

B-9 now turned its attention on Captain Bellamy and Lt. Rashi.  It shot down the lieutenant before unleashing its electro bolt on the Federation captain.  Luckily, the captain survived, as did a nearby plague zombie which happened to be in the line of fire.  Honestly, I think at this point that the player of the Mad Science league was so annoyed with the plague zombies' hopeless performance that he was even trying to kill them himself.  Ah, well - what else would you do with a failed experiment except turn them back into spare parts?

In the last turn of the game, the Federation started to retreat.  Science officer Tring had managed to solve a minor plot point (the microscope in the Geology building), though not without a considerable amount of difficulty.  I think it took him 2 or 3 turns.

He now retreated to the relative safety of the away team's shuttle, having discovered several interesting facts about the microbiology of the planet's soil and the curious organisms which coexisted below the surface.

At the same time, Doctor Johnson gave up trying to open the records cabinet ("Dammit, Captain!  I'm a doctor, not a filing clerk!"); he also moved towards safety.

Conclusion

Even though Professor Frinkel held the centre ground, he had been totally unable to solve the major plot point.  I suspect that by this time Doctor Johnson had lost all means of cooperating with any of the leagues.  Indeed, I imagine he was quite dead, having been phasered, covered in corrosive robot fluids and then zapped with an electro bolt.

Likewise, Maal had spent several turns trying to understand the computer terminal in the Command centre.  Despite his advanced abilities, he just couldn't gain anything useful from it and failed to solve the plot point.

So, the final scores were these:

• Federation away team: 1 victory point (for Tring's minor objective - the microscope).
• Klingon expeditionary force: 0 points.  Sira's early, repeated and ultimately fatal failures to switch off the power grid and Maal's incomprehension of the computer terminal were frustrating.  However, captain Mor'tah's showboating move into the middle did claim the major objective briefly before he was shot down.  I suppose that could be seen as reckless & irresponsible, or glorious & brave, depending on your point of view.
• Mad Science base defenders: 0 points.  Miaou Miaou did attempt a couple of plot points early on, but was easily chased off when someone else came close.  Professor Frinkle left it too late to claim the major plot point (though he did achieve 2 of the 3 successes he needed) and B-9 was having too much fun zapping things to bother with such trivia.

In the end, the Federation won the game, even though they only held a single, minor plot point.  This wasn't for lack of trying by all three leagues, though.  I cannot remember another game of Pulp Alley where the plot points proved so perilous and the challenges were so hard!

Man/machine/animal of the match: runners up are the pig-beast (which just kept getting back up and charging the next opponent) and Professor Frinkle (who shrugged off every hit he took from every source.  Maybe his combat drugs do work after a fashion?).  The winner, however, has to be B-9.  The large, armoured robot trundled around the centre of the table and scared the cr*p out of everything nearby.

Most useless: I think Sira was a bit of a waste of space.  This Klingon science officer failed to understand the base's power supply and indeed kept getting zapped whenever she prodded it.  Eventually this was too much and she was knocked out of action, without having contributed anything at all.

Creepy Forest, Alien Forest, Bamboo Forest

 Introduction

Here's a project which grew and grew, well past my original intentions.  Oh, well - sit back and enjoy the story!

The Creepy Forest

A little while ago, I obtained a bargain copy of Mantic's "Gloomy Wood" (note that these models seem to have various other names - perhaps in subtly different packaging - such as "Scary Wood" and "Gothic Grounds").  This is an excellent product, with a number of twisted trees and tree stumps.  It even includes a few mushrooms!  The only criticism I might have is that the trees are somewhat small, but I don't mind this as it makes them easier to store.

I suppose that I could have flocked the branches and made the models into living trees, but I decided to paint these up as bare, dead trunks in keeping with the "gloomy" theme.  In hindsight, some trailing mosses or creeping ivy would have been a good addition as well - but I didn't do that.

To mount the trees, I then bought several packs of 4-Ground's "small tree base" and "large tree base" packs.  These have respectively 2 or 3 60mm circular plates and an area feature to hold them.  I did enlarge the "holes" a bit; the circular bases were too tight a fit in their sockets straight out of the kit.

In order to make the area bases a bit more interesting, I textured them with grit and then added flocked horsehair clumps.  These can represent brambles or any other thick undergrowth, as the viewer sees fit.

As an aside, the Mantic trees come with "faces" which can be stuck onto the trees.  I only used one of these - you can see it in the picture above.

The Bamboo Forest

Now I had some leftover 4-Ground bases, so what was I to do with them?  Well, I still had a few unpainted bamboo models bought some while ago from some Chinese supplier.  I finished them off quickly; they made a couple of decent clumps.  Mind you, there is something a bit too regular about these bases for my liking.

Ideally I should make a whole lot more of these and have a real bamboo forest, I think.

The Alien Forest

I had used all the 4-Ground bases, so everything was fine, right?  Well it occurred to me that I had an old Christmas present which I hadn't yet touched: some alien plants from TheBardsForge on Etsy.  I bought some more 60mm MDF rounds and based these up as well.

There are 3 different types of alien plant here.  They could be segregated into types on each area feature, or I could "mix and match" to produce a very varied alien plantation.

I finished off the bases with some tufts in various "alien" colours.  This was a first for me; I hadn't used tufts before.  Still, I can see why people like them: they're a very effective product and extremely easy to use, if slightly pricey.

Conclusion

I'm still not convinced that having a few "terrain features" with a larger number of tree bases that can be slotted into them is a worthwhile project.  The actual area features are relatively cheap and easy to build, so it may make more sense to have dedicated areas for each set of trees.  That way the "alien" and bamboo areas wouldn't need to have bramble thickets on them either.  Instead they could have their own, dedicated texturing.

Even if, with hindsight, I might have done this slightly differently I'm very happy with the results.  I'm also delighted with the momentum which carried me through to finishing all these various types of "tree" base.  Now I just need to obtain some more bamboo to make it a proper forest rather than just a couple of clumps...

Momiji, the Blood Sorceress

 Introduction

Today's offering is my first foray into Japanese fantasy miniatures.  I've built plenty of fantasy models before, as well as a fair number of historical Japanese figures (well, some might argue that my black-clad ninjas are fantasy rather than historical - but at least they're human).  But until now I've never tackled Japanese fantasy figures.

I wouldn't have built the miniatures below except that I happened to see them in the Bad Squiddo range.  I fell in love with them immediately and made it a priority to buy and paint them!

Momiji, the Blood Sorceress

At first glance, Bad Squiddo's "Blood Sorceress" figure is of an apparently young and attractive Japanese woman.  With a very big sword.  And extremely long horns.  And she's not walking, but rather floats through the air.  So probably not a normal person, then.

I did a little research on depictions of Japanese ghosts and witches before painting her.  The impression I received is that they are often depicted as having traditional costume and equipment, but are maybe a bit paler in colour than average.  I've tried to make her clothing and skin fairly pale (well, apart from the red accent on the border of her robe).

Apparently there aren't many named witches or sorceresses in Japanese folklore - or at least as an outsider I wasn't able to find such information.  In the end, I chose to call her Momiji, which apparently translates roughly as "red-turned maple leaves".  Is this suitable?  I don't see why not...

The Undead Manservant

In the same pack from Bad Squiddo, the blood sorceress has an undead manservant.  This model could be used as a regular, living samurai without any difficulty as there really isn't much that insists on his status.

However, I wished to keep him as Momiji's ghoulish assistant.  In contrast with her pale appearance and clothing, he is finished in a dark colour scheme with reddish purple overtones.  I suppose I was aiming to suggest a demonic origin; hopefully this is obvious.

I've given this model a name too: he's Shuten Doji.  That name does come from traditional Japanese folklore: he was a demon or oni.  This seems appropriate for my figure.

Conclusion

I'm not sure how I'll use these figures yet.  My preferred rules for Sengoku-era skirmishes (Test of Honour) don't have any provision for mythical or magical creatures & monsters.  Mind you, I imagine that if I looked around I would find that someone has published house rules for such.  Alternatively, I could just use them as models with regular abilities, for now.

Either way, I'm very pleased with these figures!

Early Scots: the Piper

 Introduction

A couple of years ago I showed a mode of a sword dancer that I had prepared for my Dark Age Scots warband.  At the time someone commented that I needed a bagpipe player or other musician as well, to complement the scene.  Well, I have finally built that model!

The Base Model

Models of early or medieval pipers are not very common, which isn't surprising as there is no documentary or archaelogical evidence for them in Scotland before the 16th century!  I did eventually find a suitable model in Antediluvian's "Islemen-Galloglass Command 2" pack.

This model is technically for the later middle ages - maybe 1300 to 1400 - but styles of dress and equipment didn't change that quickly in more far-flung locations such as the Scottish isles.  In the earlier period, bare legs and no shoes seem to be quite a feature of Dark Age celtic peoples, especially the commoners.

The only change I made to bring my model back to 800 or 900 AD was to replace the legs.  I cut off the model's legs-in-hose-and-shoes and replaced them with some bare legs from a plastic Zulu.  As a bonus, my figure is now standing still, rather than marching forwards - that suits my purposes better.

The Piper

Once this simple conversion had been done, painting the figure was very straightforward.  He has a plain, brown tunic and a patterned cloak, vaguely suggestive of tartan.  The pipes themselves are just a leather bag with some wood or bone tubes.

Conclusion

My SAGA Scots now have someone to play music for the sword dancer!  Or he could lead them into battle, I suppose.

Either way, both the pipes and the sword dance are probably anachronistic; neither is documented as being present in the dark ages.  But then again, the origins of both are not entirely clear, so they could have been present at this period.  Please, just allow me my little fancy!

Apocalypse Survivors: The Collection

 Introduction

Not so long ago, I catalogued all my zombie models and came to the conclusion that I had 178 of them.  Since then, I found another 11 zombies (in the best traditions of horror films, they were hiding somewhere unexpected).  This brings my zombie total up to 189 models.

It seemed only fair to perform a similar exercise with my survivor models, just to see how many of these were in my collection.  In this case, the number is possibly larger than I was expecting!

As before, I've created a definition: a survivor model is one that I intended for games which represent a zombie outbreak.  I have excluded other "modern" miniatures which could be used in such a setting, but are really part of another collection (for example, Doctor Who, spy-fi, space opera or post apocalypse barbarians).

Ready?  Let's go!

Unarmed Civilians

This picture shows a selection of ordinary people with no significant weapons.  I'm discounting cameras, handbags, walking sticks, beer bottles, the prop phasers owned by the Star Trek cosplayers and the large number of cats owned by the crazy cat lady.

Of course, it is possible that any or all of these items could be used as an offensive or defensive weapon if the wielder was sufficiently inventive.  However, none of these figures appears to be using such an item in an aggressive manner.

I believe that there are 41 models in this sub-collection.

Hand Weapons

I have 37 figures who are equipped with items that they are wielding as melee weapons.  These fall into the following categories:

• sporting equipment: golf clubs, oar, cricket & baseball bats, tennis racket
• tools: poles, spades, chainsaws, crowbars, chains, wrench
• edged weapons: machetes, cleavers, knives, swords, axe
• desperately hopeful: fire extinguisher, stiletto shoe, crucifix, folding chair

Dogs

Not all my survivors are human!  I have 9 dogs in this collection, ranging from the enormous Irish wolfhound to the less terrifying dachshund.

Exotic Missile Weapons

Fighting zombies in melee is not a long-term plan for any survivor.  These guys & gals have equipped themselves with some unorthodox ranged weapons, including:

• rocket launchers
• autocannon
• speargun
• crossbows and composite bows
• flamethrowers & petrol bombs
• catapult
• pipe bombs
• firework
• super soaker
• thrown item (tyre, rock)

I imagine that there will be a lot of different opinions about the utility of many of these weapons against zombies.  Or indeed against any type of target!

Regardless of their effectiveness, I have 20 models in this part of the collection.

Machines

There are 7 models which I have loosely classed as "machines":

• 3 of these are motorbikes - fair enough (even though one of them seems to be demon-possessed).
• there's a mobility scooter
• "Penny" has a radio-control set for her robot "B-9".
• lastly I have another robot model, possibly sentient.  Or maybe it's a person in armour improvised from some deep sea environment suit?

Firearms

Unsurprisingly, the largest bloc within my survivors are people equipped with firearms.  There is a mixture of handguns, sub-machine guns, assault rifles and shotguns here.  These weapons are wielded by a wide variety of humans from the calmly efficient to the wild-eyed & nervous.

I count 57 miniatures in this section.

The Authorities

Last, but not least, are the boys and girls of the police and army.  The 15 military all wear body armour and carry some fairly heavy weaponry, whilst the 11 police are equipped more lightly.

Conclusion

When I add up the models from above, I come to the total of 197 miniatures.  This is more than the number of zombies in my collection, even if only just.

It does beg the question as to whether I could ever run a campaign with all these figures appearing at some point.  Perhaps any casualties would be put back away for good, being replaced by another, as-yet-unused figure?  The campaign would end when there were no more humans left (obviously!).  Hmm - I think this sounds a bit too ambitious to be achieved.

In any case, these numbers (of survivors or zombies) are just a snapshot.  I will often add new models to my collection - and Zomtober isn't that far away: I always try to paint some new figures for that!

The Flying Carpet

 Introduction

Not so long ago, I showed my Saracen force for SAGA.  In that article, I added a few extra elements suitable for fantasy games (a sorcerer, a djinn and a roc).  However, no Arabian-style medieval fantasy army would be complete without a flying carpet.  At the time, I didn't have such a model - but I do now and here it is!

The Flying Carpet

After realising that I had made this grave omission, I looked around for suitable models of a flying carpet.

There are quite a few such miniatures around, but most were not much to my taste.  At one end of the spectrum, many such models are much too highly animated & detailed for me, whilst at the other end are some very "decadent" pieces with lounging slave girls and the like.  They look more like an exotic picnic, rather than an adventure in progress!

In the end I chose a middle-of-the-road model from Midlam Miniatures.  It's a fairly old-school figure, but it works for me.

As cast, the carpet did have mounting points for the rider, but I felt this was too far to the back of the "vehicle".  I filled these and drilled new holes towards the centre of gravity.  I also added a sturdy piece of brass rod as a "flying" support, rather than trying to use a transparent plastic post.  The weight of a metal model would have made any plastic into a weak point, I think.

The carpet itself is an image found on the internet..  I did distort it a little bit to fit the shape of the metal model, but my skills in this area are fairly rudimentary.

Once I was reasonably happy with the shape of the image, I printed it onto paper, trimmed it and glued it to the metal model.  Fortunately the metal has only a few gentle undulations in it (no complex curves or folds!) and it wasn't hard to ensure that the paper followed these contours.

Once the paper insert was dry, I painted the fringes of the carpet in a complimentary colour.  The figure was also straightforward to paint; he's a fairly regular 28mm man.  Mind you, I did have a little difficulty in figuring out his clothing; he wears a lot of different layers; some are trimmed with fur and others are not.

Conclusion

I'm happy with this model.  It's a little crude in detail, but paints up nicely into a very colourful and exotic piece.  And of course there's nothing to stop me from adding further flying carpets to my collection in the future, should I choose!

Frostgrave: Assorted Figures

 Introduction

It's been a strange year (and a bit).  We've not been able to go out much because of the various lock downs and so haven't really played any games.  However, this has left a lot of time for painting.

I've been powering through a number of projects and individual figures, but I just realised that many of my recent completions are models for Frostgrave.  It makes sense to document them all together, so here we go.

Last of the old GW Wizards

When I started looking for miniatures with which to play Frostgrave (back in 2015!), I remembered that I had a decade-old collection of Games Workshop plastic wizards.  I re-based and finished painting seven of them (here: http://colgar6.blogspot.com/2015/11/frostgrave-wizards.html), but at the time I couldn't find the 8th model in the set - the Dark Elf sorceress.

Well, she finally came to light and so I've re-based this model for the frozen city.  Considering how long ago I actually painted this figure, I think it's help up well.  Mind you, I can't help thinking that her choice of clothing is not optimal for an icy wasteland.  Maybe the cold never bothered her anyway?

The Old Wolf

This is another old (ancient!) Games Workshop model.  It's one of the figures I prepared for Frostgrave some 5 or 6 years ago, but the snow effect on its base had aged very badly.  Oddly, most of the models I have prepared at that time or since are just fine, but this and maybe one other were yellowing visibly.

I painted over the discoloured parts of the base with white, then used a mixture of white paint and glue to stick down some "realistic" model snow (instead of the bicarbonate of soda I had used previously).  Because of the over-coverage to hide all trace of the yellowing, this is now the snowiest base in my collection!

Medium Constructs

For some time, I have been searching for medium constructs for Frostgrave.  There are plenty of large models of mechanical men, golems and the like and I have a selection of these from various manufactures already (see here and here).  However, I wanted some man-sized items as well.

I was delighted when I came across this set of "Magical Automata" from Midlam Miniatures.  These figures are available individually and I don't really need four, but I just love them!

Painting the grain in the wood was not much fun, but I think it has worked better than I had hoped.  Mind you, the models have no texture on these "wooden" parts and so they could be painted differently (as iron, ceramic or anything else you can imagine).

Cultists

As part of a recent "NickStarter" campaign from North Star, I received a bonus sprue of official Frostgrave cultists.  It seemed appropriate to build them (note that I've only made 4 of the 5 models on the sprue), though there's nothing particularly different or unique to distinguish them from anybody else's cultists.

I've finished the cultists with a brown theme.  This helps to identify them as a coherent group and also separates them from my other Frostgrave figures, none of whom are predominantly brown.

The Wandering Mage

Here's another North Star "freebie", recently finished.  She's a somewhat generic wizard or apprentice, though I imagine that the figure could also be used as a thief, healer or pretty much anything else that isn't combat-oriented.

Mind you, now that I look at the model again I remember I had intended to paint the robe with classic wizard's stars and moons to identify her as a wizard - but I forgot.  Hmm, is the figure truly finished?  Should I go back and add the intended detail?  I'm not sure.

Gnolls

Another part of the recent "NickStarter" was a sprue of Gnolls (hyena men).  Again, these seemed useful for Frostgrave and so I've completed all five figures.  This time they're painted in a dark grey or black theme, though there are splashes of other colours from their mismatched assortment of clothing and equipment.  Gnolls should be very useful as wandering monsters, or even as hirelings for the less scrupulous wizards.

Conclusion

That's all for now!  I think this pretty much cleans out my stash of unpainted models for Frostgrave, though no doubt I'll find a few more if I look properly through my storage.  And there's always the possibility that I might buy further models in the future...