Mallos Old World (WFB) & Oathmark Project Log

[Nordic1980s]

Very nice dwarves!

[bonewolf22]

I'm loving the dwarves! I just ordered a box of Oathmark dwarf infantry as a new project to tide me over during this pandemic, these are great inspiration! I'd love to see what you do with the dwarf heavy infantry.

Early reviews of Oathmark have been positive, I've been in a similar spot where I'm looking for a replacement for classic Warhammer Fantasy (the last edition I played was 6th). Age of Sigmar seems fine but it's not my kind of game, I prefer the more classic look Oathmark is going for. I've been playing SAGA: Age of Magic which is also great but Oathmark looks like it scratches a different kind of itch.

[Mallo]

Very nice dwarves!

Thanks!

I'm loving the dwarves! I just ordered a box of Oathmark dwarf infantry as a new project to tide me over during this pandemic, these are great inspiration! I'd love to see what you do with the dwarf heavy infantry.

Early reviews of Oathmark have been positive, I've been in a similar spot where I'm looking for a replacement for classic Warhammer Fantasy (the last edition I played was 6th). Age of Sigmar seems fine but it's not my kind of game, I prefer the more classic look Oathmark is going for. I've been playing SAGA: Age of Magic which is also great but Oathmark looks like it scratches a different kind of itch.

Thanks! They are superb kits. I've started to build the heavy infantry, but it will probably be a while before I get around to completing them, my dwarves are coming out very slowly!

My oathmark book arrived the other day (as did the first of several more of the oathmark kits!) but I've yet to be able to sit down and read it cover to cover. But on the surface it is a fine book, fantastic artwork. At least one printing/design error sadly, one line of text has been accidental hidden by a photo, but so far better than anything I've picked up from GW recently. My last edition of WFB was 8th, though 6th is very good but I sadly missed most of those years so I never really got as hooked into 6th as I'd probably would have done had I been playing more when it was out. (In fact I continued to play 4th during 5ths time, I never really understood all this edition swapping! ha!)

I actually quite like AoS. It makes for a very good and quick narrative skirmish game. But the a lot of the same problems that plagued WFB at the end of it's life have been forced into AoS, changing it from what should have remained a simple & easy to get into game, into something that just can't last. So I 'completed' my collection- I've brought every battletome for armies that I'd play or own and will pick up the last couple of books & warscrolls as and when this edition cycle ends and everything is being dumped for cheap 2nd hand. I still love the skirmish rules and will continue on playing skirmish in the future. But playing AoS as a mass battle game feels like trying to jam a square peg into much smaller round hole. I've seen a couple of people complain that oathmark is doing the exact same thing as GW- by splitting rules into expansions, but I honestly don't feel its the same at all. Anything they release in the future seems like it will be 'in addition too' rather than invalidating previous books.

Oathmark feels very much like the an old edition of WFB- at least in looks and style. It's a little 'earlier' in a fantasy timeline for my liking (no black powder, crossbows or 'tech') but this isn't a bad thing. It does stop it feeling like just another cash in on the current steampunk style that is popular now (I like the style, but the market is oversaturated now) and there isn't really anything that stops me from including these things in an army, I'll just run black powder as count-as bows. But then I'm not a competitive player by any stretch. *If* it really takes off and we ever see anything close to a 'local scene' or I ever start gaming outside of my own house again (unlikely) then I'd happy use it as an excuse to paint a 'pure' oathmark army. It's great to see armies people are putting together that have that classical 'dark age' feel. I didn't realise how much I missed more 'realistic' fantasy until it had been missing and resurfaced again!

Sorry for the long reply, oahtmark has me pretty excited for projects again and I've not left the house since my office went into shutdown about 7 weeks ago now! 
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Just a quick update this morning on my painting. Sorry for the shoddy picture but I wanted to document the progress. I am almost done with an entire unit, my skeletons are almost complete! It's been a very, very long time since I've managed to paint a large scale unit from start to finish. So I'm pretty pleased with myself! It's not the only almost complete unit either, my ghosts are well on the way to being near completion too! Just need another long build session to build the back rank.

Just got to finish off the basing on these chaps, there is a crow to paint on the unit filler and they are done!



So it might be cheating a little to say the unit is complete- I do have to go back over and add decals to the shields but I've not chosen a design I like yet so intend to leave that until I have a couple more units done and I can pick something that fits the whole army. I don't have the unit champion built or any of the other 'heroes' (standard/skeleton trumpeter!) but when I add them, It just means the 2nd unit of skeletons is easy to complete as I have some models to remove from here! And yes, I have used a unit filler. But I like adding them and I can always add some more skeletons in now, I originally planned the unit filler when I only had the 24 model  kit to work from and wanted enough to stretch into a unit of bows as well! But I have like 200 to work with now, but still like unit fillers! 

 

[Mallo]

It is done! They are (almost!) complete! I need to hardcoat the leaves so they don't blow away, shields are blank for a later day and my crow needs adding to the unit filler tree stump, but other than that, a finished and gaming ready unit! Just need oathmark to get the undead expansion out now!

[Grumpy Gnome]

Excellent brushwork, great thread!

[Mallo]

Excellent brushwork, great thread!

Thanks!


My painting frenzy hit a full stop today. I tried a test scheme out for the oathmark goblins (I got a big box of STUFF arrive at the weekend!) but I just couldn't make it work. I tried to avoid the bright greens of my other goblin army, instead wanting something more gritty but it just felt flat. When I highlighted the skin up again it just lost all feeling of being green and the brown rags/leather took way too long for the masses of models I have to paint. The reds came out nice, even if they don't quite match the shield transfers I got to go with some of them.

[AKULA]

Nice skellies   

[Tim Haslam]

It’s all great, even the Goblin!

[killshot]

Terrific work on the skeletons.  The goblin looks good too, I think when they’re ranked up it would be a great looking unit with that color scheme.

[Mallo]

Nice skellies   

It’s all great, even the Goblin!

Terrific work on the skeletons.  The goblin looks good too, I think when they’re ranked up it would be a great looking unit with that color scheme.

Thanks!  I think the goblin is ok and I could probably make them look good once a whole batch was done but it just didn't feel like what I was after for these models. I had some good feedback from the oathmark players group and my biggest issue is that the colours are off. The skin doesn't stand out for me (My GW are pretty cartoony green after all) and the brown is a bit off.

I took the feedback I got there and had a 2nd attempt, this time with one of the wolf riders (I have a couple of spare models per plastic box, due to accidentality ordering more of the metal heroes than I really need for units!  ) and this time its much closer to what I had in my minds eye. I've never been very good at doing the more grim and gritty styles which is why I've gone back to painting as bright as I can, but think this attempt it somewhere in between. Only took an hour as well, of which most of was flapping about choosing colours and mixing different shades. With a zenithal undercoat, then each colour was pretty much just a very thin layer of paint and a a very thin wash to give some more variation to the tones. An hour is very quick for me, I've always been a slow painter, but I'm pretty confident I could knock out a whole batch in an hour or two, now I know what to refine!



(Please excuse all the bits of dust on him, I've just built a pile of new models and didn't notice he'd been covered in shavings until after I'd taken all the photos!  )

I also had a huge supply drop from Victrix minis yesterday, which means I now have the main parts for my Albion warhost! (also sneaked in some huscarls to go with my Lewis Collins kickstarter minis I've not done anything with yet!)  I've been wanting to do this army for years so I couldn't wait to get stuck into it so, so I started working on my first conversion parts for the war elephant and putting together the first unit so I can do some more colour tests!

[Grumpy Gnome]

Quite a haul there! Looking forward to seeing your project continue to progress with all those tasty bits.

[Mallo]

Quite a haul there! Looking forward to seeing your project continue to progress with all those tasty bits.

I probably wouldn't have ordered so much in one go except I hit the high threshold for postal charges (€40  ) so I added the extra bits as I was already paying for the postage on it! 

Did some more building work this afternoon and then took a break from cleaning mould lines to paint some skin tests. I've never really liked painting human skin and the thought of having to paint 200+ skinful humans is daunting. I needed a skin recipe that I both liked & could knock out very quickly. The one I tried earlier in the year was very quick but a real pain if you need to fix a mistake or slip up. The one I tried today takes a little longer to do, with an additional extra colour, but I can probably do the skin on 5 of these in an hour including drying time. I thinks that's good enough for me and it's a little closer to how I'd do my skin on something like a dwarf or armoured empire chap, so they should mix together well!



I'm now just waiting on a huge delivery of bases so I can really crack on with these. But I'll try to get the rest of his mates built tonight and see how I get on batch painting the skin.

[Grumpy Gnome]

I think that skin looks great mate. I hate painting fleshtones and whites.

Making the most of postal charges makes sense to me!

[bonewolf22]

Loving the skeleton unit!

[Mallo]

I think that skin looks great mate. I hate painting fleshtones and whites.

Making the most of postal charges makes sense to me!

Thanks! I've never been keen on doing it, which is probably why I've stuck with painting green goblins for so long! I think these are passable though and I'm at least happy enough with it to be able to crack on with humans now!

Problem with Victrix is that I made the most of the postal charges, but obviously not enough! I'm flying through the kits at lightning speed (for me at least!) and already running low on some parts! I need a lot more! 

Loving the skeleton unit!

Thanks! I'm very pleased with it, I just dread having to paint so many more! 

Small update- final weeks of the college term and working from home has me loosing sleep on getting my final reports in, but managed to paint up my Albion war elephant last weekend! Still needs a couple of details finishing (I missed the toenails and not decided on eye colour yet!) and the base still needs painting! But he's almost ready for war! No oathmark rules for him yet, but he's ready for when chariot rules get their release later this year!