Another throwback in the miniatures collection, and a couple of my favourites. These are the Semova sisters, who were sculpted to accompany Second Chances, the first Frostgrave novel, written by Matthew Ward.
I admit, I wasn't sure about letting someone write a novel set in Frostgrave, but I really, really enjoy this book! It is unfortunately out of print now, but hopefully used copies can be found.
Here are the final members of my Ghost Archipelago crew. The one on the left is a Rangers of Shadow Deep figure. The third from the let is a Reaper metal miniature. The other two are from the official Ghost Archipelago range. The snakeman mercenary was created for the bad guys, but was just such a cool mini, that I had to induct him into the crew. He is a mercenary after all!
Now that I've got these guys out and dusted off, I might just have to run them through a solo scenario or two!
For those wondering about the figures, from left to right they are from Lucid Eye, Frostgrave, Wargames Illustrated Giants in Miniature, and finally an official Ghost Archipelago figure.
Looking back at these figures, I wish I had been using white undercoats at the time, as it would probably brighten up these figures a bit, but otherwise, I'm still pretty pleased with them. They are such a diverse lot, but all seem appropriate for a ship sailing the Lost Isles!
I've been dusting off my Ghost Archipelago crew, and thought I would take some new photos to show them off. Here is my Heritor and warden.
I spent loads of time searching for the perfect figure to match my vision of my Heritor. In the end, I used Hero Forge to make one. It was expensive, and I haven't used the service since, but I've got to say, I got just what I wanted!
The warden is a classic old school Games Workshop chaos model. It's a figure I've always loved, and demonstrates, once again, how incredible some of the old figures were, even with the casting limitatons of the time.
I was looking at that mummy figure, and I thought, I'll bet I can basically paint him with a wash. So I sprayed him white, gave him a heavy wash of Army Painter Mid-Brown, and then picked out the fleshier areas with Army Painter Pallid Bone contrast paint. Then I painted the base grey. That's it, four paints and it came out looking pretty good.
So then I thought I might try a skeleton. He's mostly contrast paints and washes too. It probably took me about 1/4 of the time it usually takes me to paint a figure. Well, it doesn't make much sense to just paint two figures in the game... so I guess I'm committed to painting them all now!
A few weeks ago, I posted an article over on my Patreon (free to read) about why I gave my Dungeons & Dragons 5e books away. Long story short, I didn’t want to support the company, Wizards of the Coast, when there were so many great alternatives available. About a week later, I ordered HeroQuest, a miniature heavy board game produced by Avalon Hill. The problem is, both Wizards of the Coast and Avalon Hill are both ultimately owned by Hasbro.
I didn’t realize this at the time I ordered HeroQuest, but I don't think it would have changed my decision anyway. I have been looking for a long time for a dungeon-crawler style board game to play with my family, especially my kids. We had played Mice & Mystics, which they really enjoyed, but I wanted something that was a bit more classic dungeon-crawling and something that was infinitely expandable. I searched, and searched, and all roads kept pointing back to HeroQuest. There is just nothing else, that I could find, quite like it.
Does this make me a hypocrite? I don’t know. In the case of D&D there are alternatives that I think are just as good (if not better). In the case of HeroQuest, I couldn’t find any.
The world is a big confusing place, and every question that gets asked is a little bit different. It’s hard not to trip over your own feet sometimes, and I doubt any human is 100% consistent.
So, I still believe that it is better to support the small companies, and independent creators, and companies with a better track record towards their employees and fans, but I also believe we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves. Those big companies often produce cool stuff. Sometimes it’s the best; sometimes its just loud and shiny and marketed everywhere. And I don't think anyone should feel too guilty about how they spend their hobby money.
Perhaps I'm overthinking this. Apparently, its a habit of mine.
My kids absolutely love HeroQuest. We’ve played a couple of games and they ask for it basically every night (when there usually isn’t time).
