Tinkering with Frostgrave plastics
Winter is coming… at least to wargaming tables near you. Frostgrave is nearly here and I must admit it even has me considering a faction or three (you never just consider two factions!). I’d seen a preview copy and now I need to collect some miniatures and try it out. Luckily a box of Frostgrave Soldiers popped though my door earlier this week (thanks Nick!).
You can read the excellent review of Frostgrave written by Dr Rick Hudson in our French Revolution issue (WSS 79), out now. We’ll do a full review of the soldiers in our next issue, WSS 80. For now I’m just going to assemble a few… As you should know by now, I love how easy it is to convert plastic miniatures. At first I assembled some ‘out of the box’, but very quickly ideas began to form in my mind regarding possible conversions…
I could have stopped there, but I get this ‘bug’ when I start assembling plastics. I just have to see how far they can go… With that in mind I started working on some simple conversions. This is pretty basic stuff, swapping hands and weapons around. I also wanted a second pose for the greatsword and the halberd, so decided to swap these around and see what could be made.
I also wanted the torchbearer to be holding it higher, so converted the arm to be outstretched. The Greatsword was drilled out and a wire rod inserted to give it some strength. I also shaved off the hands from some of the weapons so they could be used in open hands or as items to be found on the floor as treasure. The pointing left hand was the only piece not from the set, being borrowed from a Warlord plastic set.
I then stuck the parts to the bodies using blu tack, to ensure the poses looked right. It’s all too easy with plastic miniatures to make them be ’odd’ if you get the arms just off, so the blu tack let me play around with the models until the pose seemed just right. At this point I hadn’t added the heads as again, placement needs to be done carefully.
Once I was happy with the poses, I got the glue out and start affixing the arms permanently. The heads were added after the arms had dried. I also made sure to adjust the heads as they set, as there is the occasional tendency for a head to dry lopsided. This cannot be in my adventurers!
When I’d finished, I had several unique models for Frostgrave. No member of my warband will look remotely the same. Of course, if (okay… when) I add parts from other plastic sets, the possiblities grow exponentially. Throw in a few Fireforge, Perry, Warlord or Gripping Beast heads and weapons, and the warband will look completely unique. Now I have to paint them and… base them!