Gnolls for Rangers of Shadow Deep

The Rangers of Shadow Deep campaign has a few scenarios that call for gnoll enemies.

Initially I was going to replace them with orcs as I didn't have any fitting minis. Then I saw the sprues of the Frostgrave Gnolls kit from Northstar Miniatures - which wasn't easy to find, as practically every store page (except the one I linked) only showed the front cover of the box.
I really dislike how it isn't standard practice yet to show the box content (and if possible every sprue) on the store page. I want to know what I am buying, and the box art, while beautiful, doesn't help me at all.

As the Frostgrave kits are very modular and mostly interchangeable, I used the opportunity as an excuse to buy a few of the other multipart kits as well. I now have a nice selection of different bits that I can use for future projects.

I also decided to challenge myself a bit and practice my batch painting. Usually I only paint 5 miniatures at a time when I work on larger groups or regiments. This works well, but is still quite time-consuming to do on a large scale.
This time, I would paint all 20 gnolls at the same time. This would give me enough enemies for every scenario in the core book and provide me with a nice sample of minis that I can use for other games.
It also meant that I would aim for a tabletop finish. They should look like a nice cohesive force on the table but don't need to hold up to close inspection.

Looking through the really useful Scenario Requirements list from Ben Abbott, I decided upon the following build:

• 4 Archers
• 2 Crossbowmen
• 3 Sergeants
• 10 Fighters
• 1 Shaman (with some bits from the Wizards II kit)

The stats in the book say that gnoll fighters only have a single hand weapon, but I built them with a few different loadouts to have some variety.

Looking at the pictures, I found a few small details that weren't finished. The skulls on the belt for example or the fact that I highlighted the 2H sword sergeant's nose with Ironbreaker...
Let's just pretend it was intentional and call him 'Ironsnout' from now on.

In their painting lineup

Paints

I painted the fur and hair in four different colors to give some visual variety.
The clothes, straps, and wood were mostly done in different brown tones, while the metals were a simple dark iron and gold.

Most areas only got a single round of layering or highlights, while the dark brown only got a shade.
The results are decent, and I can always go back for another round of highlights. Maybe I'll use one or more of them in a role that's more than just a nameless enemy, or they'll distinguish themselves in a scenario and get a paint upgrade as a reward.

Fur (4 versions)

1. Brown

• Basecoat: Bugbear Brown (Army Painter)
• Shade: Agrax Earthshade (GW)
• Layer: Bugbear Brown (Army Painter)

2. The Fang (Turquoise, maybe? I'm colorblind and don't know what it actually is, I just like the look of it)

• Basecoat: The Fang (GW)
• Shade: Agrax Earthshade (GW)
• Layer: The Fang (GW)

3. Grey

• Basecoat: Dark Reaper (GW)
• Shade: Agrax Earthshade (GW)
• Layer: Dark Reaper (GW)

4. Orange

• Basecoat: Jokaero Orange (GW)
• Shade: Agrax Earthshade (GW)
• Layer: Jokaero Orange (GW)
  

Hair

• 1.: Deathclaw Brown (GW)
• 2.: Fenrisian Grey (GW)
• 3.: Thunderhawk Blue (GW)
• 4.: Fire Dragon Bright (GW)

Clothing

Leather vest, overcoat, and masks

• Basecoat: Rhinox Hide (GW)
• Shade: Agrax Earthshade (GW)
• (on 5 minis) Layer: Gorthor Brown (GW)

Leather undercoat

• Basecoat: Mournfang Brown (GW)
• Shade: Agrax Earthshade (GW)
• Layer: Mournfang Brown (GW)

Cloth skirt/undercoat

• Basecoat: Zandri Dust (GW)
• Shade: Agrax Earthshade (GW)
• Layer: Zandri Dust (GW) mixed with varying amounts of Buff (Vallejo Model Color)

Straps and bindings

• Basecoat: XV-88 (GW)
• Shade: Agrax Earthshade (GW)

Wood

• Basecoat: Dryad Bark (GW)
• Shade: Agrax Earthshade (GW)
• Highlight: Gorthor Brown (GW)

Metal

Iron

• Basecoat: Ironbreaker (GW)
• Shade: Nuln Oil (GW)
• Drybrush: Necron Compound (GW)

Gold accessories

• Basecoat: Balthasar Gold (GW)
• Shade: Reikland Fleshshade (GW)

Teeth and claws

• Basecoat: Zandri Dust (GW)
• Shade: Seraphim Sepia (GW)
• Highlight: Pallid Wych Flesh (GW)

Basing

• Texture: Stirland Mud (GW)
• Drybrush: Skrag Brown (GW)
• Shade: Agrax Earthshade (GW)
• Drybrush: Deathclaw Brown (GW)
• Static grass: Summer Rubble (Warlord Games)
• Tufts from Army Painter and Gamers Grass

Closing thoughts

I really enjoyed painting this rabble of marauding gnolls. I listened to the first Black Company book while painting them, and now I really like the idea of them being part of a larger gnoll mercenary company. They even have their own magical support in the form of a shaman.

The multipart kit was fun to build, and the details were quite easy to work with.
The limits I set myself with batch painting worked really well, and I was surprised how easy it was to expand the scope from 5 to 20.
I didn't time myself, but my rough estimation (based on length of audiobooks/podcasts I listened to) would be around 20 hours for painting and basing. That's one hour per mini, which is quite fast for me.

Keep in mind that these were done very traditionally with primer/base/shade/layer. Nowadays (these were painted over two years ago), I would definitely speed up the process by using speedpainting techniques like Slap Chop. You could easily cut the time per mini in half by using Contrast paints over a zenithal primer.