Geal’s muskets

While the first unit of shotte is happily drying away in the shed, I thought it was time to get started on the second lot of muskets. 

While the glue was drying on their card strips I started looking around for things to finish off. I found a few already under coated guys that could be worked on straight away.

Again I’ve been having fun with the Contrast colour paints. Black Templar is very good for blacking up the armour. It gives a nice tone with the metal underneath. Must bare that in mind when it comes to painting up the heavily armoured lobsters.

This mounted officer studying his map of the area would make a good commander in chief I think. However, now I have decided that, I will have to dig out some other figures for his base to make him look more important. Maybe some casually chatting buffoons of high rank. One pointing might be nice.

Harry Geal commander of the grey coated regiment. Their nickname in the army is the preachers, because of their black coats when mustered and their black standards. Grey coats have replaced most of the black ones now, but not all.

For the map I just kept everything a light brown with patches of stain here and there, these to me look like woods. I chose against doing brown roads and blue rivers etc as I thought this might not look of the period. Although the artist in me was yearning to do so.

 The big man himself, the commander of the whole army! Although he doesn’t cut a very confident figure, head in a map looking confused. Well maybe he’s the cautious type...or just lost and out of his depth.

The Grey

I always forget one detail time after time... the matches in the matchlocks. These can be added later but it’s the one detail I always miss at first.

As my strong tone is beyond use I’m using soft tone dip again today. It’s a good test for the future, as the results on these grey clad musketeers will be useful for Confederate forces going forward. I think the lighter tone might be the way to go on these lighter shades.

WARNING: Army Painter and wives do not get along! Once painted with dip the men are quickly rushed outside and put into the shed. They should be nice and safe in here for at least 48 hrs.

The fumes from the Army painter tin and then the paint stripper for cleaning the brushes are a down side to using this stuff. However, the results are good and worth the hassle. One sleeve of musketeers done.

Before the dip I did give the leather snap sacks a wash in watered down snakebite leather from citadel Colour. It gives a very realistic effect and looks identical to mine from my time doing Re enactment.

Another little trick I before the dip for the high detailed equipment and gun is to give it a wash with Nuln oil from GW. This just helps to deepen the contrast on certain areas and looks good on the metal work.

 

Geal’s Regiment Of Foote

Time to start a new regiment of Foote while the inspiration takes me. This one again will be a fictional regiment based on a good friend again, it makes painting regiments actually quite fun. This one will have black standards, however, I couldn’t justify the coats being black so have opted for grey. Parliament was famous for their grey uniforms ( parliament grey) and so these should fit in great with the look of the Roundhead army.

To make painting these large regiments a bit more fun and achievable, I have bagged up each section in its own bag. I hand picked these musketeers and pikemen a few months ago and worked out the three ranks needed for the bases. This gives each regiment a nice shop bought feel when I come to paint them. Also having a bag of nine or twelve figures to paint at a time is a very enjoyable number with results being achieved in just one evening.

The great lead mountain that provides all these figures was purchased many years ago from Renegade Miniatures. It has been added to with Bicorne and Foundry among many others over the years.

The full regiment bagged up in its three bags ready for painting. Inside are four bags, two of musketeers and one of pikemen. The fourth bag is command.

 It’s always good to get a cat to help choose which bag to start with, otherwise it can be very tricky to get going.

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.