Shield Wall

The large shields of Esgaroth make for a very good shield wall. These detailed shields were bought off eBay, they were listed under ‘Viking shields’, well worth looking up. A bit of dry brushing saves you a lot of work with painting decals.

 The new supplement for Oathmark supplies rules for skirmishers and more importantly, shield walls. This should be very handy for this army and of course my Dwarves of the Iron Hills.

I was inspired by the cover art to add some arrows to the shields. Hopefully this will give a much better shield wall vibe.

These are made from plastic brush bristles with a blob of Gel super glue on them. When dry they will be painted black for Goblin arrows.

The last few figures go to finish off the army

The last batch of Lake Town are blocked in quickly and given a wash of Army painter strong tone.

There’s  just a few more and then the three blocks of infantry should be done. Being Lake Town I feel there should be another archer unit, but that can wait for another day. I feel it’s time for a change and might go back to the American Civil war for a bit. 

This Esgaroth army has been really rewarding to convert and build but I’m feeling a bit burnt out by it now. It was interesting to try the Army Painter stain on them and blast through the ranks, just seeing the numbers stack up was rewarding enough. The stain has a nice effect, I’ve even been thinking maybe I should try the Dark tone on a batch of orcs...maybe those pesky Warg riders.

 Well, maybe a couple of test figures are in order first.

 

The Army of Lake Town WIP

So here we are on the next step to finishing this lot. I had to wait a few days for some new UHU glue to arrive. The stuff I was using before was quick drying super strength stuff and it was a nightmare to base with. As you know basing an army like this takes endless swoping and moving figures around to create the best bases. This quick drying glue set them all in place in a few seconds with no moving possible, so i decided to wait. 

I hadn’t really worked out how many figures I had or would need and so just started grabbing some and sticking them down. I decided to give each base seven figures as this just looked better, with no gaps in the unit. On this principle it turns out I need two and half more bases to finish the army. This will lead to an army of three units of four bases and a two base unit of archers. This is lucky because I still have some Gripping Beast Jomsvikings to paint so this should finish the army nicely.

These have been blocked out quickly, dipped in Army Painter strong tone, matt varnished with Vallejo varnish. 

I coated the armour and bladed weapons with Kleer floor varnish to give them a bit of shine. A nice quick army to paint with the dip method and once all on the table together, they should do the job.

Bard in place at the head of his army.

 

Cracking on with the Union

 

Time to finish this little project that has been cluttering up my already cluttered work space. Again cracking through them by blocking in the colours and then using Army Painter strong tone to shade them.

Working from a black undercoat, dry brush the black equipment and metal work. Then block in the colours. Add a little weathering on the trousers and equipment and paint on the Dip with a brush. These big armies just need numbers really, so I’m not too fussed about the quality, although quantity has its own quality in the case of the ACW.

Steve Barber Union troops with a few other makes sprinkled in for good measure.

I’ve touched up the nose and cheek bones on these Dipped figures as I think the flesh can go rather dull after the staining process, but it’s nice and quick to crack through the unit.

Officer from the now very quite Renegade miniatures...I think they might have closed down. I know they went crazy selling off huge mountains of lead ranges, but I fear it might of sunk them. Well, that’s where 80% of my ECW figures came from back in 2010. I also picked up a large amount of ACW stuff as well come to think of it.

Part of the new batch gets blocked in. I add one highlight to the blue sack coat and kepi but just use one colour on the trousers. The earth brown mud weathering around the ankles and knees does a lot, so I don’t bother to highlight them. Nice and quick.

A bit of time has passed and a new batch has been dipped. This second lot finishes off the packet from Steve Barber I got back in 2014.

Keep them coming!

Creating very good Iron Brigade figures

I have been collecting Iron Brigade figures for over twenty years and really have too many now. However, when I see the chance of creating fantastic new Iron Brigade figures I go for it. 

These new guys are made from Frock coated advancing figures from 1st corps with Iron Brigade heads from Steve Barber miniatures. The variety of poses is great and should really improve the units. I was so impressed I ordered some frock coated firing line too.

Steve Barber, 1st corps, crusader miniatures, Redoubt, 1st Corps, Renegade miniatures, 1st Corps. As you can see the 1st corps stuff are on the larger side of 28mm and a good fit for Redoubt and Renegade miniatures.

The Steve Barber heads are perfect for these figures and I like the fact that many of them have the rims turned down, giving a real nice campaign look.

The actual Iron Brigade from 1st Corps have rather limited running positions so these figures will really help with the look of the regiments in line. Recommended!
 

Bowmen of Lake Town

These two bases will equate to two ranks in Oathmark.