Best Humans to match Oathmark Elves and Dwarves?

[Mr. White]

I'm a big fan of the Oatmark elves and dwarves, but less a fan of the humans. Anyone have a suggestion on a good, dark ages line of human warriors that could match the Oathmark models. To me, and I could be wrong, the Oathmark models have that sorta chubby hand/Foundry/old school look. I like that. Do Victrix match or too 'real' scale? Are Gripping Beast plastics a better fit? Any others?

EDIT: I don't want to convert across 2-3 different lines. I'm looking for the box of human dark age era foot soldiers that best matches the Oathmark style.

[Andrew_McGuire]

I share your dissatisfaction with the Oathmark humans, largely because of the poor proportions. I’ve put Wargames Factory / Warlord heads on mine, changed the weapons, and used round shields instead of the rectangular ones. Fortunately I only bought two sprues, and won’t be getting any more.

I think the Gripping Beast plastic Vikings go together quite well with the rest of the Oathmark sets. The Victrix minis are more detailed and better animated but noticeably larger. They certainly don’t mix well with GP. The same is probably true of the Victrix Anglo-Saxons. Some people have used these as the basis for conversions for later medieval warriors, with often impressive results, but in view of their size you would have to give careful thought to basing.

[Daeothar]

How about some of the other Fireforge lines, like the Spanish Light Infantry, or their Foot Sergeants?

Especially the last very closely match the Ouatmark human proportions...

[Ogrob]

Victrix are absolutely an ok match, though their weapons are a bit more slender and true to scale compared to the chunky fantasy weapons of the Dwarves and Elves.

Fireforge is another good option, either their Crusaders of various stripes or their Forgotten Realms northmen. The two sets don't really mix between them though, as the Northmen are more heroic scale.

In my Human/Goblin army I mix Oathmark humans, Fireforge northmen and Frostgrave barbarians with Victrix heads.

[BZ]

I had the same struggle with the Oathmark humans, but didnt went in the dark age direction (there is the problem of differentiating heavy and light armor, because almost every dark age armored miniature have chainmail...), and ended up with Perrys Hundred years war series. If you want dark ages look:
- Victrix miniatures are beautiful, but there are no archers (cavalry is coming!). (Maybe I will convert them for Revenants...)
- Gripping Beast has a full program, but in my opinion their sculpts arent the best looking.
- Footsore Miniatures has also everything, but it isnt plastic and therefor not as cheap.
- Crusader Miniatures is very similar to Footsore: everything but not in plastic.
- V&V Miniatures again, as Footsore.
- Its not dark age, but Fireforge has enormous selection of early medieval and crusader age plastic kits.

[AxolotlQuestions]

For my army, I got some Gripping Beast vikings, but the sculpts are a bit ropy.
Victrix are lovely, but are taller than the Northstar stuff, but not insurmountably so, as long as you're not mixing them in the same unit.
Unfortunately there's really no single "best" choice, it's really a matter of personal choice.

[mruk]

I'm thinking about buyong some Dacians for human Oathmark army : https://www.victrixlimited.com/products/dacians

[Mr. White]

Thanks, all, for the suggestions!

I guess the Frostgrave Barbarians would be a similar style as the Oathmark models. Maybe I use them for light infantry and get Victrix or Gripping Beast chain mailed warriors for regular/heavy infantry?

[Andrew_McGuire]

I have the Frostgrave Barbarians and don’t consider them readily usable for Oathmark for similar reasons to the Oathmark Humans. I don’t know whether they’re by the same sculptor but the weapons are similarly oversized - actually more so, on reflection - as well as having a different kind of aesthetic to the Oathmark dwarves and elves. Others may be perfectly happy with them but given the criteria you stated I don’t see them as a great fit. While I don’t have any, the original Frostgrave plastic set of soldiers may work better. None of the Frostgrave sets really have the dark ages feel you seem to be looking for, however.

If you don’t object to a slight diversion from the standard Viking / Anglo-Saxon look, however, you might wish to consider the Wargame Atlantic Irish warriors. They would work as auxiliaries or levy, for example, though you may struggle to find a use for the hounds which make up a quarter of the figures on each sprue. Presumably other dark ages sets will be coming from WA in due course, which should be worth waiting for, though obviously that doesn’t help you right now.

Another set to consider is Conquest Games’ Norman infantry (and knights for that matter). These are good sculpts, and should fit well into Oathmark, assuming you like that particular look. There is a separate set of medieval archers which could also be useful, though some of the headgear may not be appropriate for a dark ages-themed army. Oddly, Conquest don’t make Norman archers, at least in plastic.

[Hobgoblin]

I reckon the Victrix Vikings are very hard to beat. They're great miniatures - absolutely state of the art and really characterful. A big box of those would give you plenty of options for Oathmark soldiers, spearmen, linebreakers and warriors, and there are some great hero figures too. They're much better barbarians than the Frostgrave barbarians (which I quite like) - and much cheaper too!

The very cheap Gripping Beast Dark Ages archers are the obvious go-to for bowmen.

[Mr. White]

Fireforge Forgotten Realms Northmen look pretty good. They scale ok with Oathmark or the Frostgrave Knights? Are there transfers/decals for their shields? Or some that fit well?

[Ogrob]

To my eye they scale ok. They are a little chunkier and a little taller but lack integral bases. Frostgrave Knights are a little different in proportion so they don't kitbash well with Fireforge but they will look absolutely fine in the same army.

Here's a unit I kitbashed using both Oathmark soldiers and Fireforge northmen. Arms are all from Fireforge, bodies are a mix of both. Most of the heads are from Victrix.

[Hobgoblin]

The Victrix minis are more detailed and better animated but noticeably larger. They certainly don’t mix well with GP. The same is probably true of the Victrix Anglo-Saxons. Some people have used these as the basis for conversions for later medieval warriors, with often impressive results, but in view of their size you would have to give careful thought to basing.

On the basing: the Victrix Vikings work just fine on Oathmark bases. I based up a whole load, and even with dane axes (i.e. as linebreakers), they go together just fine. They might not be so good on 20mm bases for Warhammer, etc., but the Oathmark 25mm bases give them plenty of breathing space.

[Mr. White]

Here's a unit I kitbashed using both Oathmark soldiers and Fireforge northmen. Arms are all from Fireforge, bodies are a mix of both. Most of the heads are from Victrix.

Hmmm... yeah those do look taller. I don’t have the time to do the fantastic conversion work I’ve seen from so many of you, nor the storage for all these kits, so were hoping to be able to just find a decent box to match.

Maybe I just use the citadel LotR line. Ha! They have elves, dwarves, humans, Orcs that all look pretty good and match (but then no skeletons!). I dunno...I was hoping this project would be a break from GW though, so will try to avoid this temptation.

I think I’ll start with FG soldiers and barbarians, maybe that forest outlaw kit from northstar, some round shields from somewhere and build from there. It may not be exactly what I had in mind, but maybe something decent will start to form.

[Robosmith]

Hmmm... yeah those do look taller. I don’t have the time to do the fantastic conversion work I’ve seen from so many of you, nor the storage for all these kits, so were hoping to be able to just find a decent box to match.

Maybe I just use the citadel LotR line. Ha! They have elves, dwarves, humans, Orcs that all look pretty good and match (but then no skeletons!). I dunno...I was hoping this project would be a break from GW though, so will try to avoid this temptation.

I think I’ll start with FG soldiers and barbarians, maybe that forest outlaw kit from northstar, some round shields from somewhere and build from there. It may not be exactly what I had in mind, but maybe something decent will start to form.

Those look great. The heads are slightly over sized though aren't they? Not a problem if you like heroic scale, but worth mentioning. I believe Victrix are 32mm not the usual 28. I found them slightly too big for my needs when I built some a while ago.