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).

 

Basing in the Afternoon

 The fantastic discovery of  Lukes APS Ready made ground scatter has saved me a ton of time when it comes to basing. The Arid grassland mix is perfect for these fantasy figures, it is also great for most things including ACW and AZW.

 Wood glue then a dunk in the ready mixed ground cover and the job is done. I always try a sprinkling of mixed herbs and then some static grass to finish the job.

 Twigs from the garden make good fallen logs.

Another great find in my war games hobby was the Flock Box, the results you get from it are superb and very realistic. It can get a bit of a chore if like me you have 30 little bases to crank through, however, the the effort is always worth it. The effect is great!

Green Stuff Night

 I have had this Ogre chieftain from Reaper for a couple of years now, as I thought he would make a good leader for my Gundabad trolls. To my surprise he was a good size and really looks the part with his huge mace. So, as I have a bit of free time tonight I thought I would quickly try to bash out some green stuff creations. The Elves too have been needing cloaks for a while so I put them on the to do list. Again, quite quick jobs once you have cut out the shape from a piece of rolled out green stuff.

 I brought down one of my Gundabad trolls for comparison and a good job I did, for my first attempt was too small and had to be added to. Although the Hobbit movies were quite poor, they do have a lot of good designs in them and I was always taken with these troll helmets.

 The surgeon’s table is ready, let the conversion begin.

 Elf cloaks, I have tried to make these a bit flowy to show movement. After all they are nimble Elves in their soft dancing shoes twirling and gliding around the battlefield.

 This is the last thing you see from your trench.

 I gave the chieftain and couple of axe cut across his helmet, at first I thought I had ruined him but they are kind of growing on me. Once painted I shall try to make them more obvious. He leads from the front and it shows.

The good thing about modelling orc and troll armour is, it doesn’t have to be perfect. If it’s a bit wonky... that’s fine, orc smiths are pretty shoddy at best. This thing has been crudely hammered out of old bits of iron and bolted together, not a straight line in site.

 The Dark Alliance troll for scale, a nice fit with the slightly bigger Reaper bones model.

Two tribes go to war...

Orc filth storm the ramparts.

Basing this lot I was aware of how fragile some of the plastics are compared to the metal figures. The guys with the really delicate stuff I tried to put into the middle of the bases surrounded by their stronger lead brethren. We will just have to see how they stand up to wargames, they should be alright as the plastics have the ability to bend rather than break.

 Now it was time to put this new lot along side the last batch completed earlier this year. Funny enough that last lot numbered six bases also, very handy for making units. Three units for Oathmark with their four bases each.

The Time of the Orc is Here

 I’ve been locked in a crazy painting marathon over the last week, finishing off the pile of converted plastic orcs I knocked together earlier this year. To this horde I added the odd lead figure that caught my eye. To my surprise I managed to create six bases worth.

 My basing system is if the base contains three spearmen then it can be classed as a spear unit in Oathmark. These contrast against those armed with hand weapons which will be classed as soldiers.

 It also gave me a chance to paint up all the odd standards I have laying around, these denote leader bases.