The Monsters of Malcor; Part 2

Presenting the second batch of models from Northstar’s Maze of Malcor deal. Again they took a little more prep than I’d like, but they’re still great minis!

Banshee: screaming ghosts of women done wrong.

Bloodwave: blood-red killer or magical lava-lamp? You decide!

Bog Man: when zombie meets marsh gas, this floppy terror is the result.

Starfire Elemental: fizzing balls of blue fire, shaped by the lost arts of Astromancy.

I’m very happy with how these painted up, especially the Starfire Elementals, which I had no idea how to approach and just went for it! The next bunch is primed, so watch this space…

The Monsters of Malcor; Part 1

I'm currently ploughing my way through the miniatures I received in last year's Maze of Malcor 'Nickstarter'.

Here is the first batch...

Coal Man: a basic lumbering construct that's used to feed the Collegium of Magic's furnaces.

Collegium Porter: the ultimate in mobile storage.

Phase Cats: feline denizens that have bred in the magical atmosphere of the Collegium.

Shrieking Wolves: a cross between burglar alarm and security guard.

The models are very nice, although the casting quality left a little to be desired (I wasn't sure what bits to snip off on some of the more 'swirly' miniatures), but after being cleaned up the multi-part pieces went together very well (with one exception which is still in the queue).

So far they've painted up nicely - how long that continues remains to be seen!

The Iron Throne

And so it came to pass: the undead horde of Eternal Winter laid waste to the land of the living, leaving nought but swirling snows and freezing blizzards. On that fateful day, at long last, the Night King stood before the fabled Iron Throne: seat of the rulers of men since time immemorial.

“Er, so… it’s like literally an iron throne…”

“Yes oh Dark One,” hissed a rotting lackey. “The fabled Iron Throne: made from the swords of a thousand vanquished-“

“Yes yes, I know all that. I just thought, y’know, it was like symbolic. I didn’t expect it to be made of actual bloody swords!”

“’tis a symbol of great power oh King of Winter. Men have fought over it since it for aeons.”

“Fought to get off it more like! No wonder the living realms were so easy to conquer – they must’ve spent their defence budgets on haemorrhoid cream! Why didn’t you tell me? My arse is bony enough as it is without having to sit on a chair made of bits of pointy bloody metal!”

“Nonetheless it is now your rightful seat of command oh Lich Lord. What is your first edict oh Barrow Emperor? Sally forth the Legions of the Dead and destroy what remaining life remains on this world until even the lowliest insect is but dust beneath your feet?”

“Well yeah, duh!”

The great throne room echoed with a hollow ‘clonk’ followed by a pained sigh.

“But first, fetch me cushions - lots and lots of cushions.”

I saw an Iron Throne photo clip on sale for a couple of quid in Primark, part of their Game of Thrones range, and couldn’t resist.

A quick paint job later and my Frostgrave warbands have a nice (if rather uncomfortable) throne to fight over. Remember, 'when you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground (unless you happen to roll a 20).’

Turning the Tables

Continuing in my attempt to get myself back into the modelling groove, I’ve cobbled together some more easy-build scenery in the form of these tables.

The second scenario in the Maze of Malcor expansion is set in a huge feasting hall and calls for three ‘long dining tables’. The scenario doesn’t specify how long, so that gives me plenty of scope.

The tables are simply offcuts of MDF or plastic disks with either bits of plastic sprue or more MDF off-cuts for the table legs. In retrospect the longer tables may be too narrow, but I went with what off-cuts I had lying around, so hey-ho.

The tables were lightly sprinkled with pieces of rubbish and stuff from the bits box to make them look ‘well-used’. The plates were largely neutered drawing pins and the cups were snippets of cable insulation. Not bad for a few hours work!

The Furnace

It was not for treasure that Gog the Mighty; Stalker of the Frozen Waste;, cleaved his way through the great Collegium of Artistry. Neither was it for glory, nor fame, nor the need to best himself against the rumoured phantom of the sinister Malcor.

No, it was none of these, for Gog the Mighty; Slayer of Frost Giants; sought only one thing…

Wiping the ichor off his greatsword, he stepped over the corpse of the giant insect and pushed open the great iron doors that stood between him and his goal. Bare torso glistening, he stepped warily through the doorway and smiled as he beheld the great black thing squatting in the middle of the huge chamber.

Dark hulking shapes moved slowly around it, but a barbarian warrior such as Gog the Mighty; Hunter of Snow Leopards; made short work of those. Soon he was facing the thing itself, with it’s smoke-stained pipes, blackened chimneys and fire-rimmed circular hatches.

His smile growing wider, he turned his near-naked body so that his loincloth-clad rear was as close to the intense heat that emanated from the thing as he dared.

“Ahhhh….”

No, it wasn’t treasure, glory or fame that Gog the Mighty; Crusher of Ice Demon; sought… it was warmth.

In an effort to get myself back into the groove again, I’ve made a start on some scenery for the Maze of Malcor expansion – namely the furnace from the eponymous fourth scenario in the book.

This scenario calls for a giant furnace room, in the middle of which stands said furnace: a 6” square model with a hatch on each side (wherein the Coalmen constructs will try to drag the unwary).

As luck would have it, I had a plastic bowl from a recent takeaway which was exactly 6” in diameter. I glued some old paint pot lids for the hatches and stuck some bits on top for chimneys. I also poked the inside of the bowl with a compass point to make rivets.

A quick going over with some black primer and an indifferent paintjob in an attempt to make it look hot produced this model. It’s a simple build for a one-off piece that’s only needed for a single scenario, so it’ll do.

New Year's Nan

I'm starting the new year not with a Frostgrave mini, but something for my Very British Civil War collection.

(As I mentioned in my pre-Xmas post, my VBCW blog went kaput, when Photobucket tried to screw me over.)

A while ago I approached Mark 'TinShedGamer' Fuller, who I knew was sculpting some character figures for 1st Corps' interwar 'Twentieth Century Follies' range.

I told him the story of my Nan, who got into trouble during WW2. You see my Grandad was in the local Home Guard, and Nan would habitually welcome his unit back from manoeuvres by playing 'Come to the Cookhouse Door Boys', full blast on my uncle's Boys' Brigade bugle. This became something of an annoyance and eventually she was told firmly to stop!

And thus, after supplying him with some reference photos, the following standard bearer mini was born, complete with bugle!

Thanks Mark, and Happy New Year everyone!

The Silent Blogger

It’s been a while hasn’t it?

Which is odd, because there is so much I could be writing about right now – to wit:-

• My Maze of Malcor ‘Nickstarter’ has arrived, so I have loads of monsters to assemble and paint up.
• The new supplement also calls for lots of unusual scenery just crying out to be scratchbuilt.
• My pals Giles and Alan are still actively playing Frostgrave.
• The Hereford Wargames Club is still going strong, just down the road from me.
• I have received my print-on-demand copy of Rangers of Shadow Deep, so even if I couldn’t get together with my gaming buddies, I could still be doing some solo gaming.
• I have a new and currently exclusive and unreleased miniature courtesy of sculptor and builder extraordinaire Mark ‘Tin Shed Gamer’ Fuller to paint up for my VBCW collection.

So why haven’t I been busy painting, modelling and blogging?

Well the answer is basically ‘meh’.

Yep, I’m in one of those wargaming doldrums that everyone gets from time to time.

Of course the whole Photobucket debacle killed off my Herefordshire 1938 VBCW blog, but I’ve also not felt like doing anything Frostgrave-wise either.

The lead up to Christmas is a contributing factor. Anyone with young kids will know how busy this time of year can be, with it’s nativity plays, carol services, concerts and visits to Father Christmas.

The not-so-great priming weather has also been unhelpful.

My creative energies have also been diverted somewhat, as I’ve gotten into role playing games – the Call of Cthulhu 7th edition RPG to be exact. I’ve played a number of sessions with some of the chaps from the Hereford Board Gamers Club and so far my character is still alive and relatively sane.

I’ve also joined Play@YSDC – a Call of Cthulhu play-by-post forum, where I’m RPG’ing in a number of games, including a WW2 Doctor Who spin-off, a groovy 1960’s adventure and the epic Call of Cthulhu campaign Masks of Nyralathotep.

So not much on the wargaming front I’m afraid.

That said – that exclusive and unreleased figure? I’ve just painted her base…

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!