Ghost Archipelago #1 – Wildlife
October 24, 2020Recently, to perk ourselves up amidst all the pandemic shenanigans, Cheetor of sho3box fame and I decided to start a new shared project: Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago. For those of you not familiar with it, it’s basically fantasy pirates, lost world, dinosaurs and all the tropes you’d expect, with a nice skirmish game at its core.
This new project has been a massive productivity and inspiration boost. In the past two weeks I’ve printed and painted plenty of new stuff: things I’ve been interested in but haven’t had a use for, miniatures that have long been sitting unpainted and so on. As my main pirate project as well as my pirate hunters are Hollywood historical, it has been really fun to fully dive into fantasy pirate territory! There’s obviously plenty of overlap here, and I’m using similar basing for all the projects.
All of these pieces are from the excellent Depths of Savage Atoll Kickstarter. I’ve painted them mostly using Citadel Contrast paints. This is also a new thing for me! I usually paint by layering over a black undercoat, but with these, my approach is to first heavily drybrush white over a black undercoat, and then go to town with Contrasts and washes. A big shoutout goes out to Wudugast and Azazel for their great examples and tips on Contrast paint use. I growing quite fond of the paints!
Click for a larger version
Click for a larger version
First up are a couple of giant crabs. This is actually the huge Dire Crab model, but shrunken down. The tip of the claw still reaches up to the chest of a 28/32mm mini, so they’re not small!
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Click for a larger version
I especially enjoyed painting this crocodile, as it was a really simple case of Contrast, washes and drybrushing. I went to town on the base with tufts from various manufacturers, and put in some Stirland mud as well. Once the model is varnished, the mud will get a coat of gloss to make it look wet.
Click for a larger version
Click for a larger version
For this octopus, I textured the paint with Milliput for an ocean look. I’ve got another one unpainted on the desk, and that one will get a more terrestrial base. They do hunt on land, you know!
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Click for a larger version
And last, this huge Sea Troll. While I was originally going to go for much more muted tones, Cheetor’s comment about tropical fish struck a chord! In the end this one turned out to be one of the most colourful minis I’ve ever painted – especially since my 90s/early 00s WHFB days. I’m really, really happy with the look, and it was achieved using very simple techniques.
Dawn of the Lead 
Those are great- love the octopus.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thanks Pete!
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Watching these come together over the last few weeks has been hugely motivating, and loads of fun!
The first post of many on this topic I hope!
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Definitely one of many to come, thanks for coming up with the idea! Can’t remember when I’ve last been on such a miniatures drive.
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These are brilliant! 🙂 I love that sea troll!
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Thanks John! Really happy with it myself 🙂
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Awesome, love the crocodile the best.
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Thanks!
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Great stuff mate – I love the look and feel for GA, and these capture the vibe beautifully
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Thanks Alex! It’s an inspiring settings, and nicely compatible with stuff I’ve been working on anyway, so this is a match made in heaven 😀
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What an exciting project. Makes me wish I had some friends who were as passionate about the hobby as I am hehe. Very nice work. Love the crabs. Can’t wait to see more man
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Thanks IRO, more to come for sure!
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Yayyy
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These are excellent, I’ve been enjoying all the pirate themed stuff you’ve been doing and these are a great addition to that. Glad you found my thoughts on Contrast helpful, like you I work almost exclusively over black but I’m also finding the Contrast range to be a really useful addition to the toolbox.
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Mate these are excellent! Both the models and the paint jobs!
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So much excellence here Mikko it’s hard to figure out where to start. You’ve made excellent use of the contrast paints – and I think that they are wonderful tools. My goodness, that’s just so much detail on every one of these – the water effects are inspired. My favorite is the croc.
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Thanks Mark, so nice to get feedback like this! Really made my day 🙂
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Well deserved Mikko. BTW I finally finished your research paper and shared it with some friends who found it interesting as well.
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Awesome, great to hear that people are actually reading the thing 🙂
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[…] like the Ghost Archipelago critters shown earlier, this was a chance to paint something different. Having mainly done Hollywood-historical pirates […]
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These are all awesome! I especially love the sea troll and the octopus! 😀 I always think stuff like water or glass is really difficult to get right but you nailed it with those ocean waves.
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Thanks! Once you find a good recipe, it’s dead easy – luckily! The ocean waves are basically just a few drybrush layers over a dark blue basecoat, with a bit of pure white on top. Glad the effect works 🙂
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[…] real-life history, so this set really appealed to me. The dogs might also make an appearance in the Ghost Archipelago, as you can add warhounds to your crew! Painting was fairly straightforward, and I went for my […]
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