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.

Plastic Wolves

 

About two weeks  ago, my Goblin Wolf Riders and Dwarf Heavy Infantry showed up. As part of the Nickstarter, I received a metal Champion and wolf for free. A week later my other five metal riders and plastic wolves arrived.

I must admit that I need to be in “the mood” to put together plastics. It is very time consuming and I’d rather spend my hobby time painting or playing games. That was one of the reasons I switched from GW to historicals.

I built 6 wolves the day they arrived and on Saturday evening, I powered through and built the remaining 15. I was in the mood.

What I liked: each wolf consists of two halves and a base. No finicky heads or tails to glue on separately. 

What I disliked: There are only three poses. You cannot mix the left and right sides of the bodies together. The join line down the middle is unsightly and will require some greenstuff to cover.

My overall thoughts: I’d rather sacrifice the variety of figures for the ease of the build. These are a win.

I refrained from puttting any riders together as (ARGH) the torsos and chests are separate and the legs are annoyingly connected to the sprues.

However, I really was in the zone and I assembled 10 of the Dwarf Heavy Infantry.

The first 5 have hand weapons and shields with open faced helmets.

The remaining 5 have 2-handed weapons and closed face masks.

The other 20 figures will be divided into 10 more of each hand weapons/shields and 2-handed weapons.

What I liked: Nice poses, variety of weapons. Hand weapon + shield guys go together quick.

What I disliked: The 2-handed weapons support hand is finicky to get angle correctly. Depending on the angle of the 2-handed weapon, fitting the head can pose a problem.

Overall thoughts: Nice figures. Go together reasonably well. Looking forward to paint as they are predominately clad in metal armour. Think a simple paint job will yield awesome results.

Oathmark Army Planner

This year I have decided to primarily focus my hobby efforts on my fantasy figures, namely Oathmark miniatures and a small smattering of Rangers of Shadow Deep.



I sold off all of my Warhammer figures in the last few years.


 
As I've mentioned before, I have plastic box sets for each of the major races.



I was apprehensive when it came to building the figures as I was nervous to commit to a specific build in the odd chance that the weapon type was too expensive or not effective.



Growing up with Warhammer, I'd check out an army book, create some sample lists, buy the figures and then build accordingly. It made sense to me.



However, with Oathmark, it’s a little different. The rules aren’t out yet. The figures are being slowly released.

On February 5, 2020, Osprey dropped a major bit of information. They released the Oathmark: Battles of the Lost Age - Army Planner, which is a PDF with dropdowns that can be selected that you can use to see the points costs of different units.

Finally!

It took me a while to figure out how to open it but what an amazing guide. The only unknowns now are the differences between a King, Prince or General, Captains or Champions, or the 5 levels of spellcasters.

I decided to play around with the lists in the army planner.

Based on what I currently have for Goblins and what I plan on purchasing, I can field something like this:

Goblin King (Mounted)

Gobin Spellcaster Lvl 2(Mounted)

2x 10 Goblin Wolf Riders

Goblin Captain

Goblin Spellcaster (Lvl 3)

2x 15 Goblin Soldiers

2x 10 Goblin Archers

15 Goblin Spearmen

I won’t put the actual points per model but this force rings in at 1754 points.

All in all, it’s a fairly cost effective force. This is how I’m going to create the troops.

For the 65 Soldiers, Spearmen and Archers:

2 boxes of Goblin Infantry

1 additional sprue of Goblin Infantry (on ebay)

For the 20 Goblin Wolf Riders:

1 box of Goblin Wolf Riders

The 5 mounted metal champions or lord miniatures. You could just as easily grab a sprue off ebay once released.

The hero figures are the metal mounted shaman and foot shaman, the free maquette if you backed the nickstarter and the limited edition Uber wolf as the king.

This gives me some wiggle room to upgrade/downgrade the characters to play anywhere from 1500-2000 points or to add a few more things. 2x 10 wolves takes it 1994 points.

My Dwarves on the other hand will look something like this:

Dwarf King

Dwarf Spellcaster (Lvl3)

15 Dwarf Warriors

15 Dwarf Linebreakers

2x15 Soldiers

15 Spearmen

2x10 Archers

This force comes in at 1977 points. It’s even cheaper to purchase than the Goblins

For the 65 Soldiers, Spearmen and Archers:

2 boxes of Dwarf Infantry

1 additional sprue of Dwarf Infantry (on ebay)

The Warriors and Linebreakers come from 1 Dwarf Heavy Infantry box

The King and the Spellcaster both come from the King, Wizard and Musician blister pack.

I’ll share lists for my humans and elves later.