Barbarians
Recommendations: 60
About the Project
Northstar Barbarians got a new lease of life and finally got some paint thrown their way. I had always meant to paint up my barbarians that I got with the Forgotten Pacts book for Frostgrave, but beyond building a few it escaped my attention for some time. The Stargrave Hope Eternal book requires some barbarians and this gave me the prerequisite 2 reasons to paint them.
Related Game: Frostgrave
Related Company: North Star Military Figures
Related Genre: Fantasy
This Project is Active
The mini I always fancied
I had wanted to buy this mini for ages. The chance to use it in two games rather than perhaps only one mission in Frostgrave was all it took to break my resolve....
.... that and a temporary promotion at work making it less painful to pay for.Stargrave Scouts
Stargrave Hope Eternal gave me a fresh element to think about... Barbarian Scouts
In Startgrave they wanted the Barbarians to have some ranged attack, but not give them lazers etc. Northstar offered some bolas options, but I fancied kitbashing a version of my own. Ropes from a WW2 1/35 scale kit. One bolas meant to cut and trip (Tyranid slicing hand) and one just to trip (x2 Tyranid elbow pieces?)
Come a little closer metal bird dweller. 
Zombie Snow Troll - There's a stretch of the imagination for you
I tried to paint this once and It came out poorly. I had a second go at it and made changes to the basing and I am happy with the result. Asking people to suspend disbelief to believe in trolls? Ok. Now snow trolls right? I guess so. Now a snow troll died and he's back as a zombie? Hold the phone... Forgotten Pacts Nickstarter metal minis.
Wiz?. Shaman? Warlock? Either way he looks like bad news.
Touch more plaid to unite the force as a tribe. Light at the end of the wand looks nice. This video showed how happy I was to back the Nickstarter, but I think the arrival of Walking Dead All Out war at roughly the same time probably accounts for the change in priorities (such a good game).
Man-At-Arms
This model was fun because I managed to add a hide effect on the shield and a dash of plaid at his hip. Again to support variety I cut off the horns of a horned helm and I think it looks good.
I also wanted some diversity of skin tone. The Barbarian 2 box did look inviting as a prospect, but I already have Frostgrave Soldiers 2 that I could probably convert.Duel wielding wildmen
When it comes to the the actual soldier types these guys might be some of the more specialist duel wielding types (treasure hunter etc?) But if I am running low on thugs I think I may get away with these.
I think I could have used face paint more often across the group, but where i have used it I've been happy.Fur
I figure that the animals they hunt in Felsted could be a variety of the animals that thrived during the absence of man during the great freeze and some more colourful pelted animals following the adventures as potential food back into the thawing ruins.
I was leaning on Zandri Dust, Morghast Bone, Wraithbone, Steel Legion Drag and Mournfang Brown and a bunch of washes and contrast paints to get the job done. I tried to make the furs as standout and interesting as possible, but not let that take away from the grubby look I was looking for over all.
Slap chop? ... Dry brush and contrast for the win.
It had been a long time since I primed the minis brown, and I realised since that I prefer to get a zenith or drybrush going before I paint. Maybe a touch of the eyes getting old, or enjoying letting washes and contrastpaints do a lot of work for me, I dry brushed my minis with Zandri Dust to see what I was working with. I tried to keep the scheme pretty neutral. Using the new Yellow mustard looking contrast yellow on the blond haired gent with the rusty sword gave a nice result. I like the new burgundy colour as well.
Fun posing
I found it fun and easy to play with the posing, grabbing a helmet I believe to be from the Frostgrave Soldiers box and putting it on a Barbarian bald head. It looked too big, but rather than remove it, I played to the fact that it was too big and have him trying to adjust the helmet with his axe.
Wanted some variety so went for a double handed weapon cut down to a single handed weapon and making it look like he is slapping it into his hand to feel the weight and preparing to bash someone with it.First attempt
I enjoyed the first bit of building these minis so much that i put together a dozen and primed them Army Paint Monster Brown before I even checked what sort of mix of weapon types I might need to play with.Apart from this guy, the rest of the minis lay built primed and unloved in a box. The Nortstar lego aspect of these great plastic sets meant that the Barbarian heads, arms and accoutrements have been used to make Gnolls, Plague Marines and a variety of other kitbashes, but until recently the brown unloved minis lay dormant.
The book cover effort
I could have tried harder to match the cover art but I am happy with this kitbash. If nothing else he will make a great leader for my Barbarians in Frostgrave or Stargrave Hope Eternal if required.
I like the shoulder pads. They are snipped off Mantic Dwarf beards. Lol. The shirt could have been a green brown like the pic. Could have hunted around for a better chest plate. Could have popped some horns / spikes like in the pic, but as I say. For not a lot of effort it gets quite close and I am happy.The Folio book Nickstarter came with the mace arm and the head in metal and I used one of the Barbarian bodies and some Mantic Games Undead axeheads as his chest plates.
