Wizardecember: The Maiden

Annoyingly high winds prevented me from finishing this WizarDecember Week 2 entry until well on our way to the finish of Week 3, but it is finally done. I just can't slip out onto the patio and spray a few layers of Dullcote when we are having 25 mile-per-hour winds with gusts up to 35 mph! I have tried this before, and seen some beautiful paint work get caught in an updraft and carried to who knows where.

This set of figures is not mine, strictly speaking. They are commission work for my kids, and I am being paid in game time with them. I bought them each a box of Games Workshop Elves for Christmas back in 2012, and while they assembled and painted a few each, they never really got around to doing anything with them. So I offered to take their unassembled models and create a Frostgrave warband for them that they could share, on the agreement that if I did so they would play a few games each with me. Their painting brief to me was black, a particular green, purple, and metals in gold not iron or silver. The rest of it was up to me.

Of course, a box of High Elf Spearmen and a box of Wood Elf Archers do not a Frostgrave warband make, as there are no Wizards or Apprentices. So I donated those models out of my collection... my plans on GW armies isn't really going anywhere at all right now! I have had Queen Alarielle kicking around since she was released with her Maiden Guard back in 1997 and never got past priming her, and a Wood Elf Mage dating back to the 80s which has been stripped and repainted more times than I can remember...

Queen Alarielle as the Wizard. Lots of black, lots of gold, almost no green, but purple gemstones. Pearlescent purple!

The Apprentice. With the hood, she ties in to the rest of the warband more thematically than the Wizard, with better representation of the green and pearlescent purple.

The Rangers. They were built from High Elf bodies and legs with Wood Elf heads, arms, and capes. I am rather pleased with how they turned out.

The Archers. Straight up Wood Elf Bowmen, with purple belts but mostly black and green. I assembled more of these than I needed for the intial warband, so the kids can swap things out and try new combinations of Archers and Rangers. I learned to hate them as i assembled them.

All together now! By design, resulting from discussion with the kids, everyone is a ranged combatant. The plan is start with two Rangers and two Archers in addition to the Wizard and Apprentice, and if the rangers are not sturdy enough in the game, one or both of them can be swapped out for Archers in later games.

And that's it until Satyrday, when we meet The Beast.