Frostgrave Cultist Knights

 Not every follower of some charismatic leader or deluded prophet is willing to risk all in their underwear, sometimes they have access to the arms and armour  of higher quality. Whether looted from some battlefield, stolen from a tomb or from their past lives, some cultists have the weapons of knightly grade, even if their behaviour is not so chivalrous.

Standard small thickness Frostgrave Box containing two identical figure sprues and associated round bases.

Each sprue builds five heavier armoured figures with a choice of single and double handed weapons, bows and crossbows.

There are various heads, including a Revenant style head (these heads have a ball type neck joint rather than the neck socket of the Revenants). These can be used to build better armoured Undead, including non Dark Age style revenants.

There could be a better selection of more conventional if Fallen knight helmets, but they are compatible with the general range of Frostgrave heads (and Anvil heads).

North Star Cultist III for Frostgrave

 The Frostgrave Cultists III set from North Star contains multi part multi pose plastic figures, lightly armoured (if they have armour). They are suitable for general cult rabble as well as miscreants for SF games.

This one will be part of a Militia unit for my Necromancer's army.

North Star Cultists III for Frostgrave

 The latest addition to the North Star range of plastic figures for Frostgrave is Cultists III. This adds another selection of cultist figures, lighter armoured than Cultists I and Cultists II.

Standard North Star box (though it feels a bit more flimsy).

The box contains four sprues, each of which builds five figures.

There are heads and hands to build undead out of the figures as well.

There is one particular weapon of note, a chainsaw!

That will be an entertaining add on.

Without the chainsaw, these are going to supply some lighter troops for my Necromancer's army, and possibly some melee troops for my Converted one as well.

Recent Rule books

 So I have bought a number of rules in the last fortnight (all from North Star).

First up: Five Leagues from the Borderlands Compendium.

Lots of new stuff for Five leagues from the Borderlands. Like the Five Parsecs from Home compendium, it contains a stand alone game Deep Below. In this case it is a dungeon delver game, with additional species to be part of your party.

The second is Forgotten Ruin, again based on Five Leagues, and is another stand alone game pitting modern infantry against fantasy critters.

The most recent purchase is the second edition of Dragon Rampant.

The original was an Osprey Blue Book. This edition is a hardback.

The core rules incorporate the updated rules from Lion Rampant second edition, and are generally compatible.

There are example warbands and lots of nice photographs.

Still more to read.

Forest Goblin

Way back in 2022 I bought Five Leagues From The Borderlands, a solo or cooperative wargaming campaign system.

One of the foe types are the Fae, and the lowest form are the goblins.

As the Oathmark Goblins in general (and how I imagine them) does not match up with how they are described in Five Leagues, I looked around for some suitable figures.

Though I have had very bad experiences with Shieldwolf figures, I decided I would give them one more chance.

 This is the first painted one.

Undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black followed by Citadel Snot Womble Green.

Headdress and skirt is Citadel Death World Forest shaded with MIG Black Green. The strapping and belt is also MIG Black Green.

The mask, shoes, armour and forearm guards are Citadel Dryad Bark, followed by Citadel Catachan Flesh with a highlight of Mournfang Brown.

Eyes and mouth are Citadel Mephiston Red, teeth and fang necklace are Citadel Morghast Bone. 

The box contains five sprues. two command sprues and three standard sprues.

Standard Sprue

Command Sprue.

The supplied bases are a little odd, blind, shallower than Games Workshop type and with a mounting point for a magnet. I have standardised on Renedra round bases so they have been set aside.

The starter scenario pits your intrepid adventurers against five opponents, five with sword and shield, one with a bow, so the initial build was five figures.

Here is one of them with a North Star Frostgrave Soldier and a Fireforge Almughavar.

They are all undercoated with Citadel Snotwomble Green, thogh there is a temptaion to paint some with a yellow skin tone (and a banana fascination).

Frostgrave Cultists II

 So after four odd years, Frostgrave Cults go Co-Ed!

Like the male Frostgrave Cultists, the female Cultists II box contains four identical sprues, each containing five cultist bodies, an assortment of melee and ranged weapons plus components for making female zombies.

The great thing about them is their compatibility with the other Frostgrave and Stargrave figures.

This cultist for Stargrave or Five Parsecs From Home uses one of the cultist bodies with the machine gun arms and a hooded and masked head from the Stargrave Scavengers II set

I now have to build some "out of the box" to reinforce my Necromancer's army.

Stargrave Scavengers II

North Star has released a new set of multi-part plastic female Scavenger figures for Stargrave (though they are usable in a number of different games).

Like the Scavengers set, the bodies are dressed in long coats or cloaks.

The weapons have a number of cloth bindings, showing their irregular nature.

There are also two sets of Zombie arms and heads.

Stargrave Scavengers

 Recently North Star has released a set of multi-part plastic figures for Stargrave (though they are usable in a number of different games).

Supplied in the normal box, there are four identical sprues building twenty miniatures with bases to match.

The bodies have long coats (dusters?) and the heads have a very mixed appearance. There is only one gas mask heads per sprue.

There are also four "zombie" heads and two pairs of matching arms.

Crooked Dice Wraiths, and how to base slotta base figures for Oathmark etc.

Way back when, the new way to base figures was the  slot base, each figure had a tab (or in some cases tabs) which were fitted into a plastic base with a slot in it. Gone were the days of random sized bases or having to cut regular sized bases from plastic card, or using washers.

This was fine, except the base was four to six millimetres tall, and contributed a great deal to the height of  figure.

Renedra introduced a range of plastic bases less than 2mm high. These were regular in size and height. Combined with plastic figures, it made basing easier. Admittedly the figures might have puddle bases, so some Milliput would be required.

But how do you use slot base figures with them?

There are three ways.

First, cut the tab off, file the feet flat and use a pin.

Two William Killian.

Second, cut a slot in the base and trim the tab.

Another Crooked Dice figure, this time an X-Commando (with a police woman head).

The third is to build up a slot with some plastic. Two pieces of sufficient thickness will do, but for the Barrow Wraiths I decided I wanted a bit more regularity, so it was back to the Renedra bases, in this case the 20mm one.

Renedra 20mm base on top of a 25mm base.

The 20mm base was cut in two (each one was cut so the figure would be as central as possible on the 25mm base. The larger piece was glued to the base and while it dried the tab was held in place and the second pice added. Once it was holding, the tab was removed, creating a suitable sized slot. Once set, the tab was glued into the slot.

Cutting down the tab makes the figure sit moree flat on the base, the one of the right will need quite a bit more milliput.

Viewed from above shows the asymmetric cut.