New Toys

A couple of things came in the maillast week.

I ordered a copy of Oathmark, a hardback rule set published by Osprey Publishing and supported by figures made by Northstar Military Figures, the day it was released.

It finally came last week. I am probably amongst the first in Canada to receive it.

What I like about it. It’s hardcover, and has that nice new book smell. (I’m married to a librarian, not my fault!)

 

Aside for a picture overlapping a line of text (pg44 iirc) the book is absolutely perfect. The rules aren’t so bad either 😀.

There a plenty of jaw dropping beautiful illustrations like the Elven archer seen below.

Several pages have little sketches on them, which breaks up the pages nicely.

There are also a few double page spreads of the artwork.

I think a book of just the pictures would be an amazing thing to have. 

All in all, a great game published by Osprey. I can’t wait to finish reading itand get the figures on the table.

 

I also picked up the Mantic Games King Ezekiel Event Exclusive figure.

It cost a princely sum of £19.99. It is made of Resin and it looks amazing BUT it got me thinking a) I already own a plastic King Ezekiel, do I need another and b) would my money not be better spent on say 4 £6 packs of Artizan metals (-£1 each from VAT) for approx 16 metal figures or spending £25 on 30 Plastic Oathmark figures.

I love the Walking Dead but would like to see them release all the characters first before releasing upgraded versions of the ones I already own (there are other figures besides Rick and the Governor ya know!)

Figure wise it comes with King Ezekiel with separate arms and three heads mounted on spikes.

Here’s an updated stat card. I don’t have the other one handy so not to sure how they compare at the moment, and some equipment cards.

I purposely took pictures of the back. Don’t wanna be that guy. 

What I like: resin is so nice, great detail as compared to the older plastic. It’s nice to get new equipment.

What I don’t like: basically comes down to price. I can support the other systems I play a lot better with what it cost for one figure from Mantic.

A little bit of paint

Spurred on by the conversions, I sprayed some primer on and set to painting.

I had an older can of brown Krylon.

I primed everything and after leaving it to dry I set to work.

I noticed that the paint wasn’t adhering very well to the primer. And the primer still felt tacky. That hasn’t happened before. I found by taking my time though, I was able to get a nice coat.

I started with a palette of browns and greens. This is what I completed on Saturday after about 1.5 hours.

I painted for maybe 45 minutes on Sunday and did a little bit more. I’m not happy with the dark green cloaks on right side of back row. Too glossy. I might repaint them.

I also wanted white linens for the shirts. It really pops/ breaks up the monotony of green and brown.

My plan is to paint everything and do skin and hair last. Hopefully I can do a bit more before the weekend.

Simple conversions

While I wait for orders from Northstar Military Figures and Charlie Foxtrot Models, I thought I’d convert some figures I had one hand.

I’ve spliced the photos to show the original and what I ended up with.

The first is a Ranger if Shadow Deep. It was a simple conversion. Removing the hand holding the severed head and gluing a plastic Oathmark Elf hand holding a bow and a quiver on the back. 

The next two come from the Frostgrave line of figures. They are an elementalist wizard and apprentice set.

I’ve wanted to do the spear armed apprentice for a while. I used a trusty pin vice and set to work. I’m actually pretty happy with the result. I didn’t butcher the bottom hand.

Lastly I chopped off the right hand of the Wizard and glued in an Oathmark Human sword.

WWII French Farmhouse Part 2

Well, it’s completed. I finished it on Sunday.

Oathmark Dwarf Champion for scale.

Picture of the front. I just need a name for the store. I’m thinking the Farmer’s wife sells excess produce, dairy  and baked goods inside. I want a funny name but nothing too risqué.

I’m thinking the farmer’s name is Jim Appel (je m’appelle, get it, get it?)

Picture of the rear. I might put down a few more droplets of wash here and there. I was also thinking about putting some cobblestones and straw down inside the archway...

But for now I’m calling it done. Pretty happy with how this one turned out.

WWII French Farmhouse

I’ve been bitten pretty hard lately by the Chain of Command bug.

Ive has paratroop forces for Britain, USA and Germany for quite some time as well as an MDF large farmhouse from Sarissa Precision.

I primed it beige and used Citadel Contrast for the stone work. I brushed on some green wash for weathering and smeared it with my finger.

I wasn’t happy with how this looked so decided to try again.

I got out some trusty spackle and mixed in some water until it was like toothpaste.

I then dabbed it on the surfaces to create a stucco look.

As the building was already assembled, it was difficult to get it consistent around the windows.

Today, with the beautiful weather, I used a medium brown spray paint to lightly dust the exterior walls.

I then used a lighter brown to dry brush the walls, which added depth.

Next I started to paint the windows and doors in white.

I have to finish the sign and the remaining windows and doors. I also have to pick out the stones along the bottom in grey and around the archway.

I’ll probably add some wash down some of the walls to look like dirt and grime.

Here are some  pictures of the progress.

Self Isolation

This is a weird time. I was home sick all of last week. Thankfully it was just the Flu. What a weird thing to same. Just the flu.

The 26th Anniversary of Hotlead was also scheduled to take place Mar 20-22 in Stratford, Ontario. It was cancelled by the organizer prior to the Federal Govt restricting the size of get-togethers.

I’m suuuper bummed out it was cancelled, however, it was the right thing to do! And when it comes to Hotlead, I cannot be trusted to do the right thing. It is my favourite time of the year.

So I spent some time assembling some backlog items.

Two Sarissa Precision MDF Flatbed Wagons were assembled. But I somehow forgot to snap any pictures. I have three more pieces left to build to complete my train.

I enjoyed the minimal amount of pieces. I have some Renedra sandbags, I'll be using to build some removable fortifications to each of the flat wagons. A Machine Gun or Field Gun and crew will sit behind them.

What I disliked was the finicky-ness of assembling the undercarriage.  But they are £7.50. It is what it is.

On Sunday, while enjoying the beautiful sunshine, I managed to prime my Oathmark Dwarf Heavy Infantry with Army Painter Plate Mail Metal.

I haven’t primed anything in a while but this can was absolutely amazing. Maybe sitting in my basement for 2+ years is the trick! It went on so smoothly and seemed to get into all the crevices nicely.

These guys are going to paint up so quickly! I’m pumped. I only need to pick out the skin, hair and weapon hafts. Maybe add some brass or gold bits for variations.

I also thought I’d show the progress on my existing Dwarves and Goblins.

The blue ones are Dwarves and the red are Goblins. Both come from the Oathmark line of plastic figures.


All that's left is to do the bases.

Elves and Dwarves

What a busy few days. I finished building the Dwarf Heavy Infantry.

I divided them into two units. They were all stock from the box minus one head from the Dwarf Infantry box for a “champion”.

15 Warriors with Shields: I paid extra attention to make sure each torso had a different weapon and head attached.

15 Linebreakers: I only used the fully enclosed heads. 

I forgot to take pictures but that can be rectified.

But onto the good stuff. I based the Elves.

Here are two units of 10 spearmen. Each will be bulked out with 5 more troops in the near future.

Here is (yes another) unit of 10 spearmen. However hear have white plumes on their helmets and white gloves. My plan is to use these as a Royal Guard of sorts. The champion’s arm is a basic conversion using a standard sword arm with the Champion sword arm.

Here they are all together. I have another box to put together bulking out the units to 15 figures each and some archers.

Now that the points are available for Oathmark, it appears that the Elves are quite expensive. They will be an expensive but small force.