Blacktongue, Gnoll Archer

May’s Reaper Forum Hangout Figure of the Month was Blacktongue, Gnoll Archer. In continuing the theme of filling the more common slots of a Frostgrave Warband with various humanoid monsters, Blacktongue can serve as either an archer or ranger. Since May was a little busy (moving kinda sucks up your time), I didn’t actually get around to ordering him until the middle of May, and even then, didn’t pull him out till after the month had ended.

After washing, scraping mold lines, and attaching to the cork with hot glue, I base coated him with Reaper’s Brown Liner. I started the fur with Nut Brown, and the flesh with Void Blue. An odd choice, maybe, but in line with the way I painted my Chainmail gnolls from the early 2000s. Back then, they were all at least a little demonic, and I wanted to continue that theme with my Bones gnolls, and I’ll probably do the same with my Frostgrave ones too.





I brought up the flesh from Void Blue in stages with Cloudy Grey. The teeth and claws were painted with cloudy grey, and then with linen white. The gums are pure Dragon Red, as are the eyes. The fur was based on Nut Brown, and got highlighted with a mix of nut brown and marigold yellow. Originally I tried nut brown and warrior flesh, but it didn't work for these guys or for the werebat that I originally mixed up the color for. The crest of fur and the tuft at the tip of the tail got painted with a Vallejo Red Leather over the nut brown.











The armor started with scorched metal, then dry brushed with XXX Steel. The skirt was base coated with Dragon Red, then highlighted with a mix of Dragon Red and Marigold Yellow.





The leather… Honestly the leather went through a bunch of variations. Originally I was going with a darker brown, but it blended in too much with the fur, and I wanted it to stand out. In the end it was a combination of polished leather, leather brown, and XXXXX leather.





One of the worst parts of this sculpt are the arrows. The shafts are fine, but the fletching only has detail on one side. I tried to stipple the paint to suggest the texture of the feathers that would usually be dry brushed. The details around the eyes were a little shallow as compared to the gnoll warrior I worked on at the same time (and painted the same way). Aside from that, there were some gnarly mold lines. One of the worst was across the knuckles holding the bow.











So far the base is just Mountain Grey. I’m holding off on this guy’s base until the arrival of my Reaper Base Boss kickstarter rewards.