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| Six 28mm Wizards, 3 for the Elves under the sky, and three for mortal men doomed to die... |
Since I already have a Reaper Bones Elven Wizard painted up, I decided to paint just three more for potential spellcasters for my
Dragon Rampant Elven army. At only 1 Army Point apiece, Level 1 spellcasters are a great deal in the rules. And sometimes, their magic might be the perfect counterpoint to an opponent's troop choices or special abilities. However, three is an awful small batch of figures, so my next decision was to assemble three additional sorcerors from the
Frostgrave Wizards sprue I bought from
Firelands Games last November. Six foot figures is a proper batch size for my temperament.
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| 3 Female Elven Wizards -- Bad Squiddo's 'Morgana the Forest Healer' & two 'May Queens' |
That's when I decided to get cheesy and rules lawyer my vow to alternate painting a batch of figures purchased this year with one purchased in previous years. Why not count these six figures as two separate batches -- even though I painting them simultaneously? Genius...ha, ha! The three female Elven spellcasters are all from Bad Squiddo Games. Two are the
May Queens pack and the the third is
Morgana, the Forest Healer. Links are to the Badger Games site for them, which is who I bought them from. All three look Elven enough to pass, even though I imagine that none are meant to be elves. So, the Frostgrave Wizards would be the male counterpart to these three. I used the head and arms of one to be a Gandalf clone, another to be a "dark monk"-looking figure with a staff, and the third another hooded and robed figure holding a scroll. Or perhaps an early rules lawyer holding up the tome and saying, "No, you're wrong -- you can't do that under these rules!"
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| Though probably the simplest of the three Elves, she may be my favorite because of her face & dress |
Anyway, after priming all six with Liquitex White Gesso, I started off with their flesh. I decided to go with basic human Caucasian flesh tone for the male wizards as two of my sorcerers that I have painted up are Middle Eastern. The elves I used a lighter flesh tone as the base coat, following it up with my darker orange-toned wash. Once that stage was done for all six, it was time to decide on robe colors. For one of the May Queens, I went with a light sea-foam green, hoping she didn't end up looking like a bridesmaid. The other one was done in a dark blue-green color that I really like. The third, being a guardian of the forest and all, was done in a somewhat bright Leaf green. The male wizards got a Wedgewood grayish-blue for non-Gandalf, cherry brown for the dark monk, and a khaki/tan combo for the rules lawyer.
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| My favorite pattern of the wizards - the clusters of light green dots - is also repeated on her dress hem |
Naturally, I dry-brushed each set of robes the next session, and then went to work on details. Rather than do all of their hair, all of their belts, etc. like I normal batch, I would pick up one figure and do four or five details on it before moving on to the next. I was careful to paint the elves first because, you know, the last batch was previously painted miniatures...ha, ha! I promise...last time I mention that on this particular blog entry!! Anyway, I made good progress and in just a couple days of painting, all six were fairly far along. However, Origins Game Fair intervened, and there was a five day gap between painting sessions. Otherwise, these figures might have been completed in as little as a week.
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| The staff is the coolest part of this pose - I like the bunny at her feet & magpie on shoulder, too |
I tried to vary the colors of the wood tones I used in each spellcaster's staff, as well as giving them different decorative patterns. My favorite, but probably the most subtle, is the repeating pattern of bright green dots on the blue-green robe of one of the May Queens. All of them looked nice to me, though, and I was very pleased with how they were looking as they progressed towards the end. For their flowered head dresses, I thought it might be neat to put in colored flocking as flowers in their hair. My first idea was to trim flower tufts up and use tweezers to put them among the greenery in their hair. However, a friend at Origins handed me a bag of Woodland Scenics Autumn clump foliage he bought but decided he didn't want. I thought it would be MUCH easier to tear off tiny bits of the clump foliage and glue then in place. After they were in place and the figure had its first clear coat, I went back and used tweezers to tear off bits of some of the pieces to make them even smaller.
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| Much as I dislike plastic kit figs, I have to say I really like the look of these Frostgrave Wizards |
Prior to that, while I was doing the brown wash on the flesh and tan colors, I had the idea to add an animal familiar to a couple of the bases of the Elven wizards. I have a nice selection of unpainted woodland animals, so pulled out a rabbit out of a drawer for one and a fox for the other. Morgana has a bird on her shoulder already, which I painted as a magpie. I was really happy with how it came out. For the other animal familiars, I did my usual and looked up Google images of the creatures to get their colors as correct as possible.
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| How many times do you think I said, "You shall not pass!" as I painted this Not-Gandalf fig?? |
All six bases got my usual treatment for flocking. I decided for one of the May Queens to try gluing on a couple of the little resin scenery pieces I bought for basing my Vietnam figures. It was very fiddly to get the vegetation pieces to stand up while the glue dried. I also have the feeling they will be fragile, considering how thin the vegetation stalks appear to be. I have also tempted to start doing some "adventurer" type miniatures with stone pavement basing, considering that the setting for my Fantasy cooperative games will be a ruined medieval town. However, I hate to have wildly different basing systems for figures on the tabletop together. So, I will probably keep sticking to my usual outdoor wilderness flocking method.
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| I love the hand position in this 'dark monk' looking fig - he appears to be casting a spell right now |
What else is on my painting desk? Well, that 3-D printed Huey helicopter is still sitting there at the same stage it has been for two weeks or so. I really do need to find the drive to finish it off. I'm fairly close -- except for door gunners, which I plan on attaching via magnets anyway (and I, umm, haven't purchased any door gunners, yet...!). I also pulled out my six Warhost Elven cavalry figures...only to find one rider missing! I had six (plastic!) horses and five metal riders in my box. No shields either, even though more than half the poses are in an obvious bent arm "shield holding" posture. This was the first disappointment from the Warhost line. Why plastic, assemble your own horses for a line of metal miniatures?? If I wanted plastic horses I would have just bought a plastic kit! Anyway, I dug through my Dark Ages miniatures and found a rider that I felt will substitute in okay. I prepped them for painting and they will likely be my next batch after the chopper.
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| I used my smallest nib micron pen to scribble some mystic symbols & runes on this wizard's scroll |
MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026- Miniatures acquired in 2026: 179
- Miniatures painted in 2026: 133
TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026
- Terrain acquired in 2026: 12
- Terrain painted in 2026: 26
SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026
- Scatter acquired in 2026: 21
- Scatter painted in 2026: 59
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