Malakai Roughshod - Unexpected Deadite

Recently I discovered a cache of undead Bob Olley goodness was available from Essex Miniatures. If you are an Olley fan do yourself a favour and take a look. Soon after I saw on the Oldhammer Facebook page that the excellent Stuart Klatcheff was offering some of these fine miniatures to anyone offering to paint and post them within the month. Well, what's a guy to do? I obviously picked the biggest one, the cavalry model. He's as fine an example of Olleyness as I've ever seen, enough folds and textures for a man to get lost in. I present the latest addition to my deadites, Malakai Roughshod.

It's hard to find a golden angle on this fellow, so I've taken a few shots of him. He's pretty dynamic, standing in the saddle with his cloak billowing. I managed to drill right through his saddle TWICE while adding a pinning hole, once after he was painted. I may have said a few bad words.

He's also pretty huge, lording it over even other Skellybobs (Skeletons sculpted by Bob). I'm kind of in love with this guy. I'm now debating adding a few of his mates so I can field a unit of these lads in Dragon Rampant or Age of Sigmar.

Here's Malakai chilling with his new homies. See what I mean about huge? Look at the size of that skull!

Frostgrave - Deadite Warband #6

I've not been on the blogosphere too much lately, but now I'm back with a finished Frostgrave warband. My deadites are done and have seen battle in several games already. I'll be posting on the huge Frostgrave day we had at KnaveCon 7 soon. The warband still needs a few new additions, a second crossbow, bard, templar and maybe an apothecary, but for now, all done. The last two additions were a javelineer and an archer.

Meet Otto Spade and Godfrey Blackshaft. I dearly love these guys, they look like guys in rubber suits, which suits the Evil Dead vibe perfectly. The are a treat to paint too, if you don't mind all the texture. Which I don't. Oddly, even though Otto's javelin only has a 10" range, he's my best performing ranged attacker.

Here are some of the other members I've painted lately but not posted up.

Caesar, Bad Ash's hound.

Gregor, flying deadite.

Udo, summoned zombie.

I've completed three treasure tokens, also Olley sculpts, the glitter trick worked great on these. I have another five tokens primed and ready for paint. I'm going to paint these nex,t as if I leave them, they'll be hanging out on the shelf of primed for God knows how long.

So, once the tokens are done I'll be looking to my next project, It's going to be for Dragon Rampant. The plan is a Big Trouble in Little China force, showing LoPan in ancient times when he commanded an army. Stolen terracotta warriors, hopping vampires, jade mummies, floating guardians and more besides.

Frostgrave - Deadite Warband #5

I've just finished the captain for my Deadite Frostgrave warband. There was only really one choice when choosing what character to use. Bad Ash is one of my all-time favourite bad guys, as inept as his not-as-bad twin and just as entertaining. I expect him to fumble dice rolls and get his compatriots killed at every opportunity, but he has so many quotable lines to use in-game it more than makes up for his failings.

That brings the warband up to five, we're getting there. Here's the evil crew so far:

Next up, a flying Deadite (thief) and an undead hound.

Frostgrave - Deadite Warband #4

Another addition to the Deadites today. This is the leader of the warband, the mysterious Kandarian. The Evil Dead movies make several references to Kandarian demons, daggers and the like, and in the latest series, Ash vs Evil Dead, we get to see the authors of the Necronomicon at work constructing the book, the Dark Ones, who I will assume are Kandarians.

The Dark Ones at work. Arts and crafts was hardcore in those days.

This seemed to good an idea not to use in the warband, so I located an appropriate hooded gent. This fellow is from Pure Evil miniatures. With his inclusion I am up to four for the warband. Getting there.

There are a couple of other notables from the series I want to include too, most definitely Eligos, who would make a great summoned demon.

Next up is the warband captain, who took a while to get a figure sorted for. I am very much enjoying painting him I must say. He's no goody two shoes, that's for sure.

Frostgrave - Deadite Warband #3

Another Deadite complete for the Frostgrave, this time Ser Rigorous, former knight, now servant of evil. It's a hard unlife being a slave to the Necronomicon, and it plays hell with your gear, but Rigorous smiles on through it all.

It's not like he has any other facial expressions available.

He was a model I've been looking for an excuse to paint for a while now, and even though knights are pretty expensive for a starter warband, I thought what the hell. He may do some time as a man at arms if the numbers don't add up.

So, here we have the waraband so far:

Frostgrave - Treasure Tokens #1

I've been doing a little more work on my Frostgrave warband, and the first of the new batch to be completed are these 2 treasure tokens. I'm trying to keep everything as Olley as possible, and coincidentally these treasure markers, which I've had for years, are some of Bob's work.

They are fun little things to do. What made me extra happy with these though, was using the glitter tip I picked up here, from the Dice Bag Lady. She sells a gem and glitter kit, but I have two young sons, and I figured there had to be glitter somewhere in the house. Sure enough, after some rooting in the craft jar a vial of gold glitter was whisked away to the mancave. I painted on a little pva glue to areas I wanted the glitter to sit on, and sprinkled it on.

It makes an ENORMOUS difference to the treasure token. The pictures don't really do justice to how much it adds to the model. Why I'm so surprised glitter, well, glitters, I don't know, but it'll be easy to spot those tokens on the table.

One tip though. You know what glitter is like. Don't do any sprinkling near anything you don't want covered in glitter for six months.

Frostgrave - Deadite Warband #2

Here we have Deadite number two, Drugo Deadeye, who will serve in the warband with his enormous crossbow. He's a Bob Olley sculpt. I'm using as many Olley undead as possible, as they work particularly well for Deadites I think. Look at the picture from Army of Darkness below. How Olley are these guys?

That makes for two Deadites finished, so a ways to go yet. Next up will most likely be another Olley skeleton, an archer, with an equally massive weapon. I've dug up some treasure tokens  too (see what I did there? I am the funny.), and by pure coincidence, they are mostly Olley as well.

I seem to be all about Bob of late.

Frostgrave - Deadite Warband #1

I've just finished the first member of my Frostgrave Deadite warband, Sheila. Most of the warband will consist of Bob Olley undead, as they strike me as very much deadite looking. For the apprentice though, I needed a Sheila. I've had this model for some years, and it's nice to finally find a home for it. This version, to my mind, is Sheila after a couple more years as a deadite. Possession just ruins the complexion.

Frostgrave is themed warband heaven. As the types of soldier are so generic, knight, thief, thug etc, you can make a warband out of almost anything. It'll be hard not to build and Ash led human warband to oppose the Deadites. I'm already looking at the Hasselfree Oakley with covetous eyes.