Oathmark Human Light Infantry

 In March 2024 North Star released the Human Light Infantry for Oathmark.

The box contains four sprues, each of which can build five of any combination of Human Rangers and Human Militia (Light Infantry)

There are five sets of melee weapon and shield and five sets of bows.

The shields are a slightly more tatty version of the shield found in the Human Infantry set.

There are components to build command and standard figures. There some additional weapons and packs.

There are five hooded and five heads in pudding basin helmets, plus five other heads.

All heads are compatible with other Oathmark and Frostgrave human heads and bodies.

Five rangers (awaiting fitting of quivers).

Oathmark Mini-Army

The Human Militia are a lot cheaper than the rank and file Human Soldiers (they are also not as good), so you can a lot more figures. The Rangers, however, are more expensive than the rank and file archers.

For an Oathmark mini-army I have chosen to represent a minor lord's force without either a City Guard (Spears) or his retinue. A trusted captain leads the force.

• Human Captain
• Six ranks of Human Militia
• Two ranks of Human Rangers

Nilfgaard Army

 So after the test piece, here is the beginning of the Nilfgaard army.

The Mini-army plan is four ranks of spearmen and four ranks of archers plus change, with an alternative of a Champion plus change.

There are only five "advancing" poses in the box (one per sprue) but no really advancing spears, these are built using the javelin arms from the Auxiliaries sprues (again there are only one over head arm per sprue)

The five standing spearmen.

The Auxiliaries box contains ten armoured bodies and twenty sets of bow arms..

The bows need a bit more work.

The plan is to use the armoured bodies for the front rank, and the unarmoured bodies for the rear rank.

Fireforge Byzantine Spearmen and Auxillaries

Though I have yet to complete a human army for Oathmark (I have started many), I am always on the look out for suitable figures for new armies.

My inspiration for this new army is the Army of Nilfgaard from The Witcher. I have never played any of the computer games, and the design of the armour and equipment in the television series is a bit odd.

I wanted something a bit different to the various western medieval figures (including the Oathmark Human Infantry and the Fireforge Northmen) that make up the various factions I have already started.

Having looked through all the ranges available, I decided on the Fireforge Byzantine Spearmen for the infantry and Byzantine Auxillaries for the archers. There are two options for the cavalry.

Each sprue holds five figures. There are five spear arms and two sword arms allowing up to 10 soldiers and fifteen spearmen to be built from the box. There are two full sets of shields, the earlier almost round type and the later teardrop ones. There are eight different heads (same helmets).

The sprue has three unarmoured and two armoured bodies. There are four bow arms, four spear arms and one sling (currently no use in Oathmark). There are eight heads (two bare headed, one with a different style. There are five mini shields plus one shield/spear combination.

The box can build ten armoured archers, ten unarmoured (or up to twenty unarmoured if no armoured archers) and 

My plan is to build ten armoured and ten unarmoured archers from the box and deploy them as two units with the front rank made of the armoured and the second rank made of unarmoured.

Not sure what to do with the rest. This is supposed to be an invasion army so I will need to think about it.

One thing I did notice was the new bases in the box.

They are 20mm x 20mm square but with rounded edges, making them nicer for skirmish style games but still easy for rank style games.

Oathmark Skeleton mini army

 Here is an Oathmark Skeleton mini army.

My original plan was to have a mix of soldiers, archers and spears, but I got in the flow and built most of my stock into soldiers.

So nine ranks of Skeleton Soldiers and one level one Necromancer.

I did pick up a box of Mantic Ghouls which will give some speedy units in lieu of some cavalry when I expand this army.

Oathmark Human mini-army

 After the release (okay a bit after the release) of Oathmark, I pointed up some minimum point armies.

I had completed (assembled) an Elf Ranger army not long after that, okay it is four ranks of archers and some stragglers. I still have not finished painting them.

So now the first Human mini-army is assembled.

It comprises three ranks of Human Infantry, four ranks of Human Archers and two ranks of Human Spearmen.

Only one figure is currently painted, and that was painted towards the end of 2019.

Finishing painting may take some time.

As a picture is apparently worth a thousand words, here is a graph of the production speed of my Oathmark Human army.

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.

Oathmark Mini-Armies: Work In Progress

 My current plan is to build some mini-armies for Oathmark (based on the minimum points value suggested in the rules).

The first is an Elf Light Infantry army.

This is based on an entirely Elf Ranger army.

Yes, that is the entire army, four ranks plus stragglers.

They will need to keep their distance and hope their extended bow range can pick off their enemies before they can close.

The Elf Light Infantry box contains six ranks of figures, so there was enough figures left over for an alternative army list.

One rank of Rangers plus the stragglers are exchanged for a level one Spellcaster and a rank of Pathguard

It still looks like a tiny army.

This is the work in progress Gnoll mini-army. I still have two ranks of infantry to assemble.

Of course, getting this lot painted is another matter.

Police Office - Alternative use for Woodbury House D

When the new Out of Town shopping development was in the planning stage, one of the regularly asked questions was "where is the police station?".

There was a perfectly good police station in the centre of the town, but the Marketing Department's questionnaires and polls kept highlighting that the absence of a police presence in the development was putting people off.

So, to deal with this concern, a Police Office was included in the plans.

The Police Office would have a (civilian) receptionist during the day, and would provide facilities for the patrol officers so they would take their breaks there (rather than the doughnut shop or diner) to be a visible police presence.

The receptionist could deal with all the inquiries and local calls, contacting the patrols if required.

After a few years, there was a requirement for a communications room, so one of the locker rooms was converted.

All was fine until Joan, the receptionist received a call about a disturbance at the mini market...

Having painted four Crooked Dice Lawmen with Shotguns for The Walking Dead: All Out War, they needed a ride and a police station to defend.

As Sarissa Precision provide all the buildings for Mantic, I wanted something compatible.

With the TWD:AOW expansion Made To Suffer, there was the Woodbury Housing Estate comprising a pack of four different MDF houses.

One of them was more like an office, but unfortunately not quite right for a Police Station.

 You may note the missing cross piece in the from window in later photographs, I broke it by accident.

The small rooms at the back look almost like cells, but the location directly off the lobby would not make them very secure. The lobby is too small to fit a desk and chair so you cannot use it as a reception.

You may also spot I managed to put the partition between the two larger rooms in the wrong way round. This means that the internal door would not fit.

I had a look at other options (I even asked for suggestions on Lead Adventure Forum), but there was nothing that met my requirements.

I then remembered the concept of the Police Office (a bit like a grown up version of a Police Box) - hence the story above.

So the part completed Woodbury House D was dug out of storage and completed.

The structure as shown above had the windows and doors masked up and PlastiKote Rust Effect spray was applied to the walls and roof.

The roof was then sprayed with Halfords Grey Primer, and the outer surface with a subsequent coat of Halfords Black Primer

The roof ventilators are from Debris of War and were spray painted with Army Painter Standard Uniform Grey.

The window surrounds were sprayed with Halfords White Primer and glued to the windows. The door lintels and doors were also sprayed at the same time (masking the sockets in the lintels).

Once dry, the doors were assembled and checked that they opened correctly.

The walls and interior were then sprayed with Halfords White(ensuring the doors did not stick and did not leave shadows).

Interior walls were then painted with Humbrol 90 Beige Green.

Front view.

Three quarters view showing the air conditioning units and junction box installed when one of the locker rooms was converted. They also provide a route to the roof.

Aircon and junction box in detail.

Another air-conditioning unit to cool the two offices.

View from above. Note the  FigureBitz/Crooked Dice Computer Console fits neatly on the end wall.

 I think I might paint the floors as well.

View of the roof. I do need to add a communications rig to the roof and possibly add a roof hatch

The Lawme face up to The Herd.

Retreating inside.

They really wish that the contractors had fitted the roller shutters.