Princess Snow's Dwarf Miner Guard

   A  couple weeks ago I ran a game using my old GW "Skull Pass" Dwarves.  I had a unit of 6 of the Dwarves with pickaxes on the field, and one of the players remarked that there should be seven of them.  To which another replied that, yes, and they should be led by a certain Disney princess.

      That sparked a memory that my friend, Duncan, had found a baggie of Disney monopoly pieces in a flea market a few years ago, and had given them to me thinking I could us them for one of my games.  I had put them aside not having an immediate use, but I thought that there might be a Snow White figure in among them; and sure enough when I checked the next day, I found just what I wanted.    What's more, her hands were clenched up by her left ear, in a pose that looked just waiting to have a 2-handed sword inserted into them.   Now if only the metal wasn't too hard to drill through.

      And to my luck, it wasn't!  It was a nice soft metal and I was able to put a hole through her two hands quite easily.  I then looked through the weapon sprues I had received from the Bones 3 Kickstarter and found a suitable sword, and test fitted it.

      I then glued the figure to a 1" washer, and primed it; and when it was dry, I glued in the sword.

   Next, it was an easy task to Google some images Snow White to get the colors right, and with those in hand I painted her up.

   After painting, I flocked her base, and sprayed her with some Testor's Dullcote.    I'm really happy with the way she came out, and I loved doing her primary color outfit; so much so that I'm seriously considering using it on one of my Reaper Bones female fighters now.

Recent Toy Conversion Additions to my Ghost Archipelago Bestiary

    Over the past several months I've slowly been gathering various inexpensive toys to help fill out the needed creatures for the Ghost Archipelago rules.    I thought I'd compile and share some of those efforts here.
   A while back I purchased a second hand tub of plastic toy dinosaurs off of eBay, and have used them to make my Talonjacks and Stalkers.

      I also picked up a set of cheap plastic Sea-life toys on eBay, and converted them to be waterlined Shark figures.

      Lastly, I got some plastic Cocktail Monkeys (used to hang-on and identify cocktail glasses), and repainted them to be Screamer Monkeys.

   

Frostgrave North Star Plastic Soldier Female Conversion

      I needed a female human archer to complete my new Frostgrave warband, so thought I'd see if I could make one using the pieces from the North Star plastic Frostgrave soldiers set.  While I've heard it said that since the clothing on these figures is so bulky that any of them could be used as women, since the figure's shape wouldn't show through all the clothing layers anyway, I like it when figures that are supposed to be female actually look like a woman.   I didn't want to just sculpt breasts on one of the existing figures either, as that seldom turns out good.  So I thought about where I could find a female torso to use, and turned to either the Wargames Factory Amazon set, or Female Zombie set.  I didn't think the armor on the Amazons looked right for Frostgrave, so I selected one of the female zombie bodies from a spare sprue I had.

   I cut the the female zombie in half at the waist, and then cut one of the Frostgrave soldier bodies in half as well. I then glued the top of the zombie to the bottom of the Frostgrave soldier.  There is a significant size difference in the two waists, so my plan was to hide this shortfall with some of the many accessories that come with the Frostgrave Soldier set.  I added a head from the female zombie set, and then arms from the Frostgrave  Soldier set.  I needed to trim the upper arms a little as the shoulder areas on the female zombie torso are a bit smaller than the shoulder areas on the Frostgrave Soldier arms.   In the end, the bulky arms help hide the narrowness of the waist. I glued a backpack to her back, and a quiver on her front hip to aid in hiding the smaller waist.
   After the figure was assembled, I glued it to a 1" fender washer, and then spray primed it with flat white.  I then painted it.

     I'm really happy with how the end result turned out.  I think it makes for a pretty good looking female character, and will fit nicely in with my other Frostgrave figures.

Frostgrave "Watch"-Tower from Plastic Halloween Skeletal Hand Goblet

While on a trip to the local Giant supermarket, I (as usual) scoped the seasonal aisle for any useful Halloween decorations I could convert to wargaming purposes.  I spotted these plastic goblets being held by skeletal hands, and my imagination was immediately struck by the idea of this giant skeletal hand emerging from the ground... but what could it be holding?

     I posed the question on the Reaper Forum, where I have a thread of all my Frostgrave constructions,  and the idea soon emerged of some sort of tower.  This developed then into the visual pun of a "Watch"-tower that would actually have magical eyes all over it, "keeping watch".
     I found a suitable cardboard tube to use as the ruined tower, and some beads that would do for the eyes.   I glued the beads on, then used some Milliput to make the eyelids.  I also cut two windows in the tower, and made windows from a pair of Dollar Tree "Spirogragh"-like drawing wheels.

     I cut the plastic goblet down to a couple milimeters above the skeletal fingers, and I cut the base off as well.  I then sanded the goblet to rough up the surface, and then cut stonework and a door from thin cardboard and started gluing it to the goblet with Tacky glue.

      For the stonework on the tower, I tried a new method that one of the helpful folks on the Reaper Forum pointed me towards.  I covered sections of the tower with spackle, and then rolled those sections in a box of aqaurium gravel.

     After I pressed it into the gravel, I used a toothpick to move some of the gravel around into more pleasing arrangements where it had clumped up; and added bits where it was thin.   Then after, each section dried, I would move on to the next until the whole tower was covered.

     After that, I glued on the old frame of a roof that I made from bits of mulch, and also added a ruined toothpick floor

     Next, I glued some round plastic bases, and juice lids together to make transition levels from the goblet's diameter to the tower's.

     I detailed the 3" plastic base the tower would sit on with some stonework and a trap door, and added little wire-ring doorpulls to the main door and the trapdoor.

     My next step was to hot-glue the skeletal arm to a CD.

     I also glued the tower to the transition levels, but decided to leave the lower hand portion and the upper level separate for easier storage.  Also, after this photo was taken, I added a bit of foamcore to the CD to break up how flat it looked, then I glued a large washer to it, to help with the top-heaviness of the construction.  I the added rubble to the base including a bit of wall with another eye on it.

    Next, I sprayed it all with flat-black.

     When the spray coat was dry, I painted it using simple drybrush methods.  Below is the finished tower shown with two Reaper figures for scale.

     I'm happy with how this build turned out, though I have to say it is certainly one of the most wacky things I have made! :)

GW Witch Hunter Converted to Frostgrave Thug

   A while back I came across a photo of the Games Workshop metal Witch Hunter figure of the fellow carrying an axe in one hand, and a puppet in the other.  I knew I had to have one for my Frostgrave collection, as it was such a silly looking model. So I searched ebay for a while and was able to snag one.

I forgot to take a "before" picture, so I borrowed one off the internet.  This isn't the actual figure I used.

   The puppet, as it comes with the figure, represents a religious personality with a mitre and staff.  I, however, wanted it to be more of a "Mini Me" representation of the puppeteer (obviously driven a little looney from repeated trips into the frozen city). So, I replaced the crooked head of the staff with a small axe head, and carved his mitered hat down to look more like a helmet. 

    I painted him up, and did the puppet in the same color scheme.  I wasn't sure what to do on his wooden sign, and then I got the idea to do it as a scoreboard, as if our Thug and his little friend were having a contest to see which one of them could despatch the most enemies.

     I'm really happy with how he (they?) turned out.  I think it will make a fun addition to my Frostgrave collection.

Yukon Cornelius: Frostgrave Treasure Hunter

  Late last year, I decided I wanted to do a Santa themed Frostgrave warband after completing a vary Santa-like wizard figure, which you can see on my other blog: Santa Wizard Conversion.  While I have slowly been collecting the figures I wanted to use as the soldiers for this warband for a while now, I finally started painting them this past week.
   The first I painted up is Yukon Cornelius, Treasure Hunter.  Yukon Cornelius is a character from the classic stop-motion children's Christmas TV special, Rudoph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  Since the character is a  prospector obsessed with finding silver and gold, I thought he would be an ideal candidate for a Treasure Hunter type soldier.

     I was able to make the character by using pieces from the Frostgrave Soldiers boxed set of multi-part plastic figures.  There was a wool-capped head perfect for Yukon Cornelius, but unfortunately that head didn't have a beard.  So I ended up having to do head surgery; cutting the top off of the wool hat head, and gluing it onto a bearded head that I sliced the top off of.   My next challenge was where to find a pickaxe.  Then I remembered that I had a couple spare miner dwarves from the old GW "Skull Pass" boxed set, and they wielded pickaxes as weapons.  So I removed the pickaxe from one of them, and re-glued it onto a Frostgrave solder's hand that had it's weapon removed.

     After assembling the figure, I glued it to a 1" fender washer. and then spray primed it.  Since he wears a simple color scheme, he was quick to paint up.   After I painted him, I added a few stone blocks made from sprue and painted those as well, and then flocked the base with Woodland Scenics snow flock.

     I'm really happy with how he turned out.  While not an exact copy, I really think he captures the spirit of the character.

28mm Sci-Fi Tanks from Made-in-China Toys Conversion

  Right before Christmas I made a pair of Sci-Fi tanks as a present for a friend.  I had seen other folks online who had modified inexpensive toy tanks into Sci-Fi tanks before, and it seemed like a fun project to do.  I was happy to have a reason to make a pair of them myself.   I started by buying a bag of toy soldiers that contained two plastic tanks from the toy aisle at the local Walgreens.

    I replaced the existing turrets with ones made from old Spiriva inhalers, and the gun barrels were made from syringe covers.  I also added some engine pods to the backs of both tanks made from dollar store toy binoculars separated into two halves.  Other model and toy bits were then added to round out the look.

 I glued a large fender washer into the hole where the old turret sat, and a section of copper tubing to the underside of each turret, allowing them to rotate when in place on the hull.  When everything was assembled, and the glue had had time to dry, I sprayed the tanks with light green camo spray paint.

      When the spray was dry, I added details, weathering and decals to complete the vehicles.

    I'm pleased with how the pair turned out, and am looking forward to seeing them used in a game.

Frostgrave Ice Toads Conversion

   I recently came across a couple of the old collectible pre-painted Wizards of the Coast D&D "Giant Frog" figures that I had stuck away in a box to use with another project; and the idea hit me how perfect they'd be to represent the Frostgrave Ice Toads.   I could see it would take only a suitable re-paint and re-basing to convert them to use in a winter setting.

   The hardest part was removing the base, which is cast on these fellows. So, I had to remove each one with a hacksaw. After that I glued each one to a fender washer and spray primed them with flat white primer.  After that it was just a matter of painting them in winter colors.

     I'm really pleased with ow these fellows turned out.  They are shown above with a 28mm figure for scale.

The Shrunken City of Summergrove: An Aquarium Terrain Conversion Project

   A few years ago the local Petco pet store moved to a new location, and when the old store was closing they had a big clearance on everything. Preferring to sell the old store's stock rather than move it.  Everything started at 25% off, and as the weeks went by the discount grew. When things got down to around 75% off, I went in to see what was left in the aquarium decoration department, and one of the things I got was this nifty little tiny castle on a pedestal.  For those that are interested, its item number is: PETCO 1095811. A quick look on Google reveled that it was actually part of a series of 4 with differing castles on top, and it looks like there are still some around for sale.

The original aquarium piece, shown with a 28mm figure. 

      I had stuck it in a cabinet not really having a specific use for it, or knowing what to do with it exactly.  Then when I recently got my Frostgrave rulebook one of the things I enjoyed reading in it were the little sidebar notes of supposed quotes from adventurers in the city; telling about some of the odd things they had seen on their excursions, such as a naked woman frozen in a block of ice, and a horde of rampaging stone hands.  The idea came to me that my little city might be a perfect such oddity to have in my version of Frostgrave. And so the idea for the fabled Shrunken city of Summergrove was born.  Perhaps a neighboring city at one time who had run afoul of a powerful wizard from Frostgrave; who got his revenge by shrinking the city and entrapping it in a glass dome.

A look at the Milliput addition to the back. And you can see some of the broken building tops.

       The aquarium piece wold have been fine as it was, but I felt it stood too tall for use with 28mm figures. So, the first thing I had to do was separate the top from the bottom.  I managed this with a little effort with a hammer and chisel.  Unfortunately, in my enthusiasm I damaged some of the city buildings in doing this, so be careful if any of you try.   After I had separated the top from it's pedestal, I drilled a hole in the underside to accept a standard clear flight-stand peg.  I then got a spare large round plastic base I had, and drilled a hole for the bottom of the flight-stand peg into it.  I then gave the base a top of paving stones cut from thin cardboard and glued in place.  After that, I sprayed the base flat black and then drybrushed the stones with various shades of grey.  When the base was dry, I glued the base, flight-stand, and castle together.
   To make the dome, I dug out an old top from a bubblegum-machine prize that I had saved.  The rocky piece the castle sits on wasn't quite big enough, or circular enough, for the dome to fit well, so I had to use some Milliput to build the back out a bit to fit the dome (see photo above). I also used the Milliput to fix some of the buildings I had broken while separating the top form the original pedestal.

The finished piece shown with a 28mm figure.

      After I fixed the buildings I painted my repairs to match, and then gave the castle a wash with dark brown ink to bring out the detail.  I also painted he extended platform I had added to match the existing one. Lastly, I glued on the dome.

A close up of the castle detail.

    I'm really pleased with how this turned out.  I think I will use it as a floating obstacle, moving randomly across the table.  It could also be used as an interesting objective in a scenario.

Dollar Tree Halloween Decoration to Frostgrave Terrain Conversion

  I picked up a couple items during a recent trip to the local Dollar Tree store to use in my Forstgrave games.  The first is a bag of white rocks that will be good for scattering in piles here and there, and the second is one of their Tombstone  Corner Halloween scenery pieces. Folks who read the blog regularly will remember I recently converted one of the "Bone Gazebos" for use in regular non-frozen fantasy games.

      Since Frostgrave is a ruined city, and since I didn't want this looking exactly like a bone gazebo; carefully using a hammer and a chisel, I  knocked out the pillars until the top broke off.

     I then sprayed the whole thing with flat black primer and drybrushed it with assorted grey tones and painted the base white.  Afterwards, I flocked the bottom with Woodland Scenics Snow flock.

     For the price of a dollar, and a very quick conversion, I think it makes a dandy piece of  terrain to add clutter to my Frostgrave table.