When is one ever enough?

We live in a time of excess, when everyone wants more.  While not always a good thing, when you can get some cool alternatives for models it is great!

If you ordered the pair of Frostfang Cavalry, or the Ice Elementals in the Vanguard Kickstarter, then you got a nice little surprise.  In the bag of bubble wrap holding the two models was an alternate head - to give you a bit more variety when making of unit of these (which is why you would want multiples after all).

First off is the alternate head for the Ice Elemental.  This is most likely going to be a fairly rare piece, as when it comes to retail it will be in normal grey resin, not the translucent blue.  So to get this variant you had to purchase the pair via the kickstarter.

The new version actually has a vague face to it, unlike the original (on the left) which is just a flat surface where the face might have been.

Standard version on the left, alternate head on the right

The frostfang head will be a bit more obtainable, as it should come out at retail.  This one is a single piece (as opposed to the standard one with two pieces) with a closed mouth (on the left).

Standard version on the left, alternate head on the right

Then there was an alternate that was a little more publicly announced - the Frost Giant conversion kit.  This ended up being almost as big as the giant itself - I heard a quote that there is more resin in the club than in if you were to combine all the resin in a some of the booster packs.  This should also be available for retail purchase sometime next year.

There are new feet (to keep his toes from getting chilly)

and a new head (plus some spikes for the club).  Let me give kudos to the designer of this model - if you look closely at each of the four spikes, there is one to four dots near each tab.  These then correspond to dots on the main club where they attach.  It makes putting these on correctly quite easy (and they really could have used this for legs on both the Abyssal Despoiler and Kudzo and Madfall.

This giant holds a huge two handed spiked club

and wears a bigger armored mantle (as opposed to the standard fur available with the normal kit).  One note here - if you wanted to combine kits to make even more variation, the arms from this kit DO NOT fit the normal giant and vice versa - the frost giant arms attach to the mantle, not the actual shoulders (which are hidden).

To top it off, a picture of the band of brothers, as it were.

Finally, when I posted pictures of the new Nightstalkers models, I had some people ask me how the new sprue worked with the existing zombie and ghoul sprues.

Well as it turns out, I SHOULD have ordered another regiment of scarecrows - I was going to end up a bit short for my horde, troop of spectres and warband needs.  But I did have a bunch of ghoul sprues lying around (and one zombie sprue).

For the spectres I kept with the ghostly bits exclusively, but for the skeletons I preferred those without the whisps of smoke as much as possible.

Basically it was using either the scarecrow body and ghoul/zombie legs, or scarecrow legs with the zombie/ghoul bodies.  I would then use the scarecrow heads and arms/weapons on them.

The ghoul bodies have both arms attached - and are not holding weapons.  I trimmed off one arm on each body to give a little more variety.  The old bodies actually fit the new legs quite well.  The ghoul necks are a bit long - I would recommend trimming these off to help the heads fit better.

Ghoul body with scarecrow legs

Ghoul body with scarecrow legs

The zombie didn't fit quite as well - and it seemed that all the stomachs were way drawn in - making for some very hungry looking scarecrows when done.  The heads fit a little better but still not idea.  For the heads with the hats/cowls, it may be best to just remove the neck completely.

zombie bodies with scarecrow legs.

The new bodies fit ok into the legs - the legs however are much more crouched than what I really want for scarecrows, and they want the bodies to be leaning forward, also a look I didn't want.  The one advantage of these all being HIPS was using plastic cement 'melts' the plastic - so a few seconds after putting the bodies on the legs you can maneuver them a bit, and push some of the soft plastic to better fit the joint. (They are dead after all, so it doesn't really show at all.

Scarecrow bodies on ghoul legs.

Of course the ghoul and zombie legs all have the old Mantic disks on them, designed to fit in mantic bases.  You can use them as such, or cut off the disk (probably after painting) if you want to multibase them (or use sand to cover up the disk).

Scarecrow bodies on zombie legs

Mantic had said during the kickstarter that you could mix zombie and scarecrow sprues to make doppelgangers - I'm not seeing where they would look any different than zombies or scarecrows (the main differentiation here are the heads, and Mantic zombies don't have weapons).  However much like the spectres (which are a bit different, if not completely so) could be the paint job - though again I'm not sure how I would paint up doppelgangers either (but then I haven't figured out the skin tone to use for scarecrows either).

Because it is all fun and games . . .