Oathmark Skeleton Infantry

Osprey Games have recently released the Oathbreakers supplement and North Star have released the Skeleton Infantry as a multi-part multi-pose plastic kit.

The Box is the standard Oathmark box with six identical sprues plus thirty 25mm x 25mm square bases.

Each sprue builds five skeletons. Each skeleton can be armed with hand weapons (three with swords, two with axes and one left hand sword), spears or bows. There are eleven different heads 

The shields and armour are of a Bronze Age style showing their age.

The figures are very fine, two of the heads have open jaws showing empty space.

The figures go together easily. The shoulder joints are delicate and the arrangement does need careful assembly, a couple of the shoulder sockets only work with certain arms. I applied Tamiya Thin liquid cement to soften the plastic before applying it again. Once the joint was set, I applied some additional liquid cement. The weapon arm does look a bit delicate, painting needed careful bracing of the weapon.

The shields are intended to be bronze. The shields were undercoated with Citadel Abaddon Black applied by brush. The front of the shield was then painted with a mix of Humbrol 30 Dark Green and Citadel Abandon Black.

 There was a very interesting paint recipe by Nicholas P on Lead Adventure Forum. As I did not have any of the required colours or the Acrylic Medium in dropper bottles, I made do with what I had. I used a medium brush to deposit a quantity of Citadel Lahmian Medium onto the palette. I then added a large brushload of Humbrol 34 White and Humbrol 30 Dark Green. This meant that it stayed liquid for longer and behaved a bit like a wash.

They were then dry brushed with Citadel Nurgling Green. A Wash of Citadel Drakenhof Nightshade was followed by a second dry brush with Nurgling Green.

The figures (without shields) were undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black spray followed by Army painter Skeleton Bone. 

All armour and weapons were painted with Citadel Abandon Black, The axe handle was painted with Citadel  Dryad Bark. Straps and belts were painted with Citadel Steel Legion Drab. Cloth straps and the skeleton's teeth were painted with Army Painter Stone Golem. 

The base was painted with Citadel Abandon Black.  

The weapons were painted with a mix of Citadel Abandon Black and Humbrol Dark Green. They were then dry brushed with Citadel Nurgling Green. 

Everything was dry brushed with Citadel Terminatus Stone.

A final wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade showed off the detail.

The shields were clipped off the sprue and the damage caused by the clipping tidied up. The shields were glued to the figures hand with superglue.

Ten down, another thirty to go just for a mini army.

Frostgrave Warband Two

So the next work in progress Warband is built mainly from the Frostgrave Soldiers II sprues with one body and a number of bits from the Frostgrave Wizards II sprue. 

This war band is for second edition.

The wizard will be an Illusionist, and the war band is optimised for speed and ranged combat, the archers engage at range, the thieves use their speed to retrieve the treasure tokens.

The Wizard (staff)
Apprentice (hand weapon)

Apothecary (Staff)
Archer (Light armour,, bow, dagger)
Archer (Light armour, bow, dagger)
Archer (Light armour, bow, dagger)
Thug (hand weapon)
Thief (dagger)

Thief (dagger)
Thief (dagger)

Wizard, Apprentice and a Apothecary.

The Apothecary is built from the Wizards Two sprue. I clipped the detail at the top of the staff as she is not a Wizard and so would have a less showy staff. The Wizard's staff still needs detail work.

The archers. The left hand figure's head is actually from the Wizards Two sprue, but has a nearly identical hat.

Thug and thief. The thief's dagger was cut from one of the separate hands (left hand) and attached to a right hand.

Two more thieves have to be assembled.

Corporate Soldiers in Zona Alfa

The Artefacts found in the Zone are much sought after by various interests. Though Scientists may be in the employ of Corporations, they have to deal with the local teams. Though this provides a degree of deniability, there are questions about their reliability. 

Some Corporations have started training forces and sending them into the zone. Though most lack the experience of locally recruited teams, they are loyal to their Corporate Masters and any Artefacts found should be returned for analysis.

To ensure their dependence, they are recruited and trained far away, and supplied with plentiful, but not available locally equipment.

Second in Command of a squad, armed with an assault rifle with underslung grenade launcher.

Empress US Marine from USMC2 fitted with a USMC16 gas mask head.

Checking out a dacha.

 

Frostgrave Warband One - for Frostgrave Second Edition

 Previously I started to build a Warband for the first edition Frostgrave.

And now Osprey Games has released the second edition.

The original warband was as follows:

1. The Wizard (staff)
2. Apprentice (hand weapon)
3. Man at Arms (leather armour, hand weapon and shield)
4. Archer (leather armour, bow, dagger)
5. Archer (leather armour, bow, dagger)
6. Thug (hand weapon)
7. Thug (hand weapon)
8. Thug (hand weapon)
9. Thief (dagger)
10. Thief (dagger)

Though this is still a valid war band, there has been a slight change in costs, thugs and thieves are now free, but you have less gold coins at the beginning.

The revised second edition war band comprises:

1. The Wizard (staff)
2. Apprentice (hand weapon)
3. Man at Arms (Light armour, hand weapon and shield)
4. Man at Arms (Light armour, hand weapon and shield)
5. Archer (Light armour,, bow, dagger)
6. Archer (Light armour,, bow, dagger)
7. Thug (hand weapon)
8. Thug (hand weapon)
9. Thief (dagger)
10. Thief (dagger)

So now I need to build another Man at Arms (or find one I built earlier).

"They have a Snow Troll!"

Not quite sure where I bought this Heresy Snow Troll, I might have got it from Bad Squiddo or directly at Salute. I bought it for Frostgrave

It sat around for a while, I based it on a Renedra circular 50mm base. It was pinned with 1mm plastic rod, and some Milliput was used to securely bed the feet in place.

The whole thing was undercoated with Citadel Corax White spray. The base was painted with Army Painter Black, dry brushed various lighter grey shades.

The mouth and eyes were painted with Citadel Mephiston Red, the teeth and claws with Army Painter Skeleton Bone. It was then washed with Citadel Nuln Oil

Originally bought for Frostgrave, I am thinking of using it, and maybe some more, for my Gnoll army for Oathmark.

This Human Infantryman is not looking forward to what happens next...

Not Warfare 2020

North Star and Osprey Games released The second expansion for Oathmark on the 19th of November, and were running a pre-order offer from the end of October.

North Star had a five for the price of four offer on the Oathmark plastic boxes - including the new Skeleton figures.

So I reinforced my Human forces, added a whole box to the dwarf Infantry sprue I picked up at Salute a while back, added a Goblin box (I will need more) and two boxes of the new Skeleton Infantry. I also added  a Fireforge Northman Cavalry box and a Frostgrave Soldiers box.

As the pre-order was about the new Oathbreaker supplement for Oathmark, I also ordered the first supplement )Battlesworn and Oathbreakers.

Battlesworn adds experienced units that can improve over battles, engineers and rivers.

Oathbreakers adds undead armies and Legendary Heroes. There will be another post on this supplement later.

Frostgrave Second Edition adds and improves the existing skirmish game - more on this when I get a chance to read it.

While I was at it, I added a few additional items (more 25mm bases and sabot trays), added a new scale-theme to my collections (Mark Copplestones Gaslands figures in 20mm) and smoother bits and pieces.

Fireforge Warriors and archers

 Fireforge do a range of Medieval figures. As described previously, they do boxes of Teutonic and Templar Infantry, These contain two identical sprues of foot knights and one Teutonic or Templar command sprue which builds four different figures

These five are built using the components from the box (they are work in progress and will be equipped with shields in due course). All but one head are from a single sprue.

There are a number of different head types, but I thought I would try some of the Anvil Industries Sallet Helmets for a change. To give them a consistent look, I also used the left and right arms from the Oathmark Elf Light Infantry sprues

Unlike the Frostgrave/Oathmark figures, the Fireforge figures have a neck with a flat top and a corresponding flat area on the underside of the head. For these, I removed the neck part of the head and pinned and glued the helmets in place. There is a need for some green stuff on some of the joints.

Now they also need some ranged support, and Fireforge also do a box set of Medieval Archers. These are again work in progress.

These use a combination of bodies from an Archers sprue and a Foot Sergeant sprue. This gives the unit consistency (the arms and heads positions prevent them from looking identical).

Rubicon - Empress comparison

 Comparison of Empress and Rubicon miniatures.

Empress Late War British, Rubicon Zhukov, Empress Early War.

Fireforge - Oathmark comparison

 Comparison

Northern Barbarians for Oathmark

 Some proof of concept Barbarians for Oathmark

Together with the already assembled Barbarians  for Frostgrave.

Frostgrave Barbarians

 I bought the Frostgrave Barbarians box when it originally came out.

The box contains four sprues, each sprue builds five 28mm scale barbarians.

As noted on a previous post, they are not quite dressed for the cold weather.