24 : First Frostgrave Wizard

Magic is at the heart of a Frostgrave game. The game is all about the battle of the wizards as they explore the Frozen City. It was about time my Frozen City had some wizards wandering about in it.

Every wizard in a Frostgrave game is usually accompanied by an apprentice magic user. What characterises creating a band of adventurers for a Frostgrave game is not just selecting an impressive wizard figure to lead a warband but finding a figure for the wizard’s apprentice that looks the part. The Frostgrave Wizards plastic figure sets really make this task a lot easier.

I decided I’d try and stick with the neutral and cold colour palette I’d chosen for the henchmen, fighters, thieves and hangers-on – or what are called ‘soldiers’ in Frostgrave. For the magic users, I’d experiment now by adding some pastel colours to the palette. Using the same standout colour is a handy way of visually pairing a wizard and his apprentice. But making too much of a statement might draw some unwanted attention from opposing archers never mind missile spells!

For my first pair of magic users I used a light blue as their characteristic colour. I mentioned before that World War II camouflage colours are useful for a muted palette but so too are other uniform colours – the reason being that as uniforms are designed to be used in large numbers it makes sense that they are not made with expensive strong dyes. I used the tint of Foundry’s French Hussar Sky Blue triad of paints as the basis of my choice of blue.  

I thought it would be fun to have the wizard look quite youthful and younger than his apprentice, who ended up looking a bit like an old man. The apprentice was built from the Frostgrave Wizards sprue but I used a body from the Frostgrave Barbarians set for the wizard. I thought it was important that the wizard should have a more imposing magic item than his apprentice. The pair don’t look to me like they are of any particular school of magic but that’s what I was after for my first attempt.