Cheering Dwarves

These four bases will make a unit for Oathmark. Being Dain’s army from the Iron hills, all these Dwarves will be classed as warriors for the game, tough and armoured veterans.

This Dwarven battle line has withstood numerous fierce attacks and has survived. They now cheer and jeer their retreating foes.

What’s getting him down?

Head to head, the newly arrived Dwarves meet the heavily armoured orcs. The cheering Dwarves look confident but will they stand...

It proved a bit more tricky than I had first imagined to put these bases together. I arranged the first two bases then left them overnight, so I could take another look at them the next day with fresh eyes. It took a lot of moving around figures and repositioning before I stuck them down. The casualties really helped the narrative and were well worth it.

I also had eight figures left over from long ago and these were put into another two stands. This way a full unit for Oathmark was obtained with four bases ( four ranks).

 

Dwarven warriors

This horn blower turned out quite nice, his horn arm is from a Gripping Beast Dark Age warriors box set, but looks the part on this dwarf. I drew some designs on it with a detailing pen.

I am quite pleased how these casualties turned out. I bought a pack of resin Dwarf casualties off of eBay. They are quite small and maybe meant for GW gaming. However, being resin they were quite brittle and could be snipped with the cutters easily. I took off the heads and replaced them with Oathmark plastic heads, this brought them into scale with the others. 

I enjoyed making this axe holder, simple to do but quite rewarding when you get to paint it.

Along with the Dwarf casualties, I ordered a pack of orcs too. These are a good size and fit in straight away without any tweaking. These will be added to the bases to help give the impression of a hard victory.

More converted Oathmark Dwarves, these have hammers from GW knights. It was these poses that gave me the idea to do a cheering base.

The true face of war.

An old Citadel Dwarf casualty.

I found my pot of GW blood the other day, I’ve been waiting to use it for years. The results are good and very realistic. I tried to be really sparing with it but things happen.

Another converted guy with a GW knight’s hammer. I like the look of him, he looks like he means business and that hammer has seen some action. I cut notches into it with a knife to give it a well used look. The Dwarf has probably given it a name...

 This figure is a GW sculpt. I liked the horn so had to cover his musket with a green stuff cloak.

Back on the trail to the Lonely Mountain

This tough looking Dwarf leads a band of stalwarts in their bid to reclaim their ancestral home. He is a lovely sculpt and has all the hallmarks of Mark Copplestone. Looking at him, he would make for a great Thorin figure.

These are all part of another two bases of Dwarves I had created before moving house. Most of them sport some green stuff and nearly all are converted from different kits.

This archer is a funny one, I didn’t really like him to start with. However, after adding a shield on his back with an Elven sword I now love him. I think the shield has made all the difference.

These two figures are old Nick Lund sculpts that he did for Grenadier Miniatures. I do like mixing up orc blood for figures and I’m always trying to improve the recipe. This blood is black paint stippled on with a sponge, then washed with green ink. It’s the same look that Peter Jackson came up with for the films, a black green.

 

Vallejo Mud Effects

Before I left the old house I went out into the garden and selected tiny twigs for bases.

I have such a back log of basing that I’m finding it hard to start. However, the Vallejo ‘mud’ pots were close at hand and easy to use with literally no set up time. These Militia will be fighting in the woods of North America and after messing around doing the chicken bases, I thought it would be a good base for a woodland look too.

While the mud paste was still wet I pressed stones and twigs into it. These will dry solid and give a good look.

One of my favourite things about this product is putting hoof and foot prints in it. I used to do this technique pushing a brown loaded brush into the still wet PVA glue on bases, but this stuff is so much better. Waterloo infantry eat your heart out.

These large cavalry bases were quite easy to do with no mistakes. Just need to bite the bullet and break out all the flocking stuff.
 

Holdom’s Horse

This is the results of another Dip session, this time more English Civil War troopers. I had painted up one squadron already but had an inkling to paint another when I found matching standards on the flag sheet. I pushed myself thinking that a whole regiment would look better than just a squadron. 

These are based for Victory without Quarter. I have added another figure per base just because my infantry units have also been scaled up slightly. I’m an old school sucker for larger units.

The troopers are a mixture of Foundry and Renegade but most are Dixon heavy cavalry. The horses are a real mix, the second squadron was mounted on Warlordgames plastic horses, which I bought in one of their half price plastic sales. These ECW horses are great, they are large enough to fit the Redoubt, Bicorne and Renegade miniatures which is good news. I find the Renegade cavalry are very nice but the horses are very limited in poses so these plastics really help.

This 25mm trooper of an unknown make is brought up to size on a large plastic horse.

I even had enough figures left over to create a command base. I was desperately trying to cram this guy onto a base but in the end he got one of his very own. He’s a New Model Army officer from Essex, so it makes sense he ended up where he did. He raises his hat to the Lord for guidance in the coming battle.

This pointing Foundry officer makes for a great commander of horse. This will obviously have to be Thomas himself as commander of the regiment.

Almost the entire regiment is equipped with quickly made pot helms from several blacksmiths in London. I like the browning of the metal, it looks a little shoddy which is perfect. 

I will probably go over these figures with a very light metal highlight on the edges of the armour, just to give them a slight shine. I try not to go over the Dipped figures where possible, but things like metal work are a little different. The swords look good with a nice sharp edge.

Thomas Holdom’s Regiment of Horse, a newly raised unit and poorly equipped. They will be classed as ‘green’ to show their new status. 

The two black guidons caught my eye, originally I was looking for one green standard. The idea of a whole black flagged Regiment spurred me on. Grab inspiration where you can I say.

Shiny after the Dip, these were painted with Soft tone, which is a first for my ECW collection. The results were okay and it worked nicely on the soft buff colours. Not as harsh as strong tone but still provides the hard shell protection.

Horses of different qualities make up this quickly raised regiment. Let’s hope they get a chance to show their true metal in battle. This bunch of tanners and apprentices from London, God help them when they face Gentleman’s sons from the Shires.

This guy is interesting, I have two of them bought in a bag of minis off eBay. He is an old 25mm figure but when mounted fits in nicely with the others. I love his Lobster pot helmet.

 The Warlordgames plastic horses are well worth grabbing when you see them. This second batch of troopers was made easier by using the horses I had painted a few years ago using the Oil paint method. It’s a messy process, but around thirty horses can be done in one go... these seem to last you for ever and make painting cavalry units a breeze.