Greetings Terrans, how goes it? A while back I posted this & described a Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago invitational I was getting involved with. As most of you will probably know, Ghost Archipelago is a pirate/lost-world themed skirmish game written by the excellent Joseph McCollough, and set in the same world as Frostgrave world. It uses the same ruleset with some tweaks here & there to make it more combat oriented & less magic-based. It’ a great looking game, but hasn’t seen the same commercial success as Frostgrave – most likely because the terrain bar is quite high for GA (jungles, pirates, dinosaurs, rivers, pools, etc) whereas FG was very forgiving from a terrain perspective. I’ve also put off getting heavily into GA for that exact reason, so I am really pleased that the invitation arrived & gave me the kick up the arse I needed to get into this. Since my initial model, I have refined the concepts that I’m applying to this project & thought I’d share my thinking with you all:
1: Island of Dr. Moreu inspired warband – use long-neglected beastman-esque figures but de-chaos them and make them more anthropomorphic – they are the once-human victims of cruel scientific experimentation rather than ‘because magic’ capital-C Chaos types. I’m using up a load of minis from the lead pile & oversculpting them to suit, so no splashing the cash. I’m also going to cover as many specialists as I can & have spares, so that I can adjust the warband as it gains in wealth & power.
2: Lost-world bestiary – a mix of mythological creatures, dinosaurs, pulp monsters, etc. Inspiration includes anything by Harryhausen, classic dinosaur films, Tarzan, Indiana Jones, King Kong, etc. (all firm favourites from my childhood!). I’m permitting myself some purchases here, but again, mostly this is going to be using up what I already have.
3: Jungle terrain… this has been on my wishlist for a long time now, but I’m going to make it happen… I’ve got all the bits I need for the jungle itself so no purchases necessary, but I might splash out on some jungle ruins & maybe some water features too.
4: Other items needed to play GA (boats for example, or specific terrain items), and maybe a big-assed pirate ship to use for a home base.
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So far, I have worked through about half of the minis I have earmarked for the warband itself:

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I’ve taken a leaf from The Imperfect Modeller’s book & made the bases a real feature of the minis – I really wanted them to feel different from anything else I’m doing, so put is a bit more effort in this regard.
Aaand that’s it for this week – I hope you’ve enjoyed the pics & me sharing my thoughts on the project. Plenty more fun stuff to follow 😊
These are fantastic Alex, and fit the setting extremely well, which is an achievement in itself considering the high concept approach that you went for.
With jungle terrain and Harryhausen bestiary to come, this project will keep on giving I reckon :(
Cheers mate, and thanks for the motivation & inspiration!! Can’t wait to get a proper game on 😁👍
Your whole warband looks great Alex, very animorphic in concept and style, and the painting adds extra detail to each. look forward to seeing what you do for scenery, as I do enjoy Aztec style fantasy scenery, and I’m planning on doing some more this year
Cheers mate, I’m pleased with how they’re turning out 😊 Onwards and upwards!
These are brilliant! :-) I’ll be interested in seeing your jungle scenery when it’s done, since I really need to get some of my own done!
Cheers mate – yeah, it’s one of those things I’ve been meaning to get around to for a good number of years now! 🤣
Ooh very nice. Appreciate the shout out but more importantly like the bases. The figures are excellent but am very excited by the prospect of boats, terrain and jungle features too. 🤗
Aw, cheers mate – that means a lot coming from you!👍
Those are great- something different and very nicely painted too.
Cheers,
Pete.
Cheers mate & you’re right – it certainly is a departure from the norm for me! All the more fun for that 😊
Nice work on the bases mate, and like John I’m looking forward to seeing the jungle! Oh mate I hope your boats don’t have any rigging as I have done it myself again as you will see soon!!
Haha, cheers mate – yeah, I’ve seen other posts about rigging & it doesn’t look fun… :-)
No mate not at all🥵😡
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Lovely stuff the figures are great and your painting is as ever top notch!
Cheers Roger
Cheers mate, I’d say it’s a fun level of painting – not too fussy, not too slapdash 😊
Damn nice! I love them all, pretty charming warband. The different minis really get together nicely, great work.
Thanks buddy, it’s certainly something different eh? I’m having a lot of fun with this project 😊
Brilliant, I’m really looking forward to eventually getting a game on. It’s looking more possible by the day :)
Yeah dude – fingers and toes crossed!! 🤞🤞🤞🤞
These are amazing, awesome painting and the minis have tons of character!
Cheers mate, they were good fun 😊
Almost missed this, which would have been a tragedy frankly. These are all excellent, I really like the Knightmare Miniature’s originals (although mine are also languishing unpainted currently…) but you’ve put a really unique and clever spin on them – top work mate! Looking forward to seeing this project develop.
Thanks mate, they are lovely minis & even though the whole vibe is way outside of my usual genre, I’m pleased with the results so far 😊👍
Very cool concept, definitely didn’t see this one coming! An eclectic set of figures that still make a solid crew – your conversion and painting skills are going from strength to strength!
Thanks for the kind words mate – it’s way out of my usual range, but I think that’s a big part of the fun with projects like this 😊
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