Some Oathmark Shinies

After a tiring day drinking all afternoon in the pub and playing board games all evening (my social life has picked up somewhat), it was nice to come home to a box of goodies from North Star.

About a month ago I signed up for the pre-release offer on the new faction for their Oathmark range: the humans.  Oathmark is a fantasy range that is being done in collaboration with Osprey Publishing.  Eventually there will be a ruleset, but for the moment there are just the figures (human, dwarves. elves and goblins).  Given that the dwarves were launched a year ago, I'm not sure what is happening.

In the box you get six identical sprues, each with five torsos (none as dynamic as the box art) and an impressive number of variant parts.

So 30 figures for £25.00, compared to 20 for £20.00 in North Star's Frostgrave boxes, or 44 for £22.00 in GBP's. 

They're not wearing spiked helmets - there's a fair bit of flash to clean off

With the pre-release offer came a free metal figure (on the right above).  I also splashed out on one of the human champions (mainly because of his fine 'tash) and a pack of three dwarf champions (regular readers will know I'm a sucker for dwarves).

"Chap(s) With the Wings" and Dwarves

Jenkins is going to need more than five rounds!

I saw these the other day in a charity shop and, although I haven't got an immediate use for them, they must be useful for something.  Right?  Statues, living or otherwise.

It a set from Past Times, apparently a 'Gothic form' of noughts and crosses (tic-tac-toe for those of you on t'other side of Atlantic) made of resin.  It provides ten gargoyles of two slightly different designs.  Only one is broken.

Dwarves!

In other news, Northstar Miniatures are taking pre-orders from today for their 'Oathmark: Battles of the Lost Age' dwarves (with goblins, men and elves to come and a promise of other races).  You probably know all about this, as they have been trailing their coat for some months, but

Oathmark is a mass-battle fantasy wargame in which players command armies of dwarves, elves, goblins, and men, and campaign to expand their realms and secure the loyalty of those they conquer. Oathmark allows players to field the fantasy army they have always wanted, whether a company of stalwart dwarves or a mixed force with proud elves and wild goblins standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the battle line.

The rules are being written by Joe McCullough, of Frostgrave fame, and published by Osprey Games.  The miniatures (which we are told will be compatible with Frostgrave minis) are sculpted by Bob Naismith.

Joe McC's post
Review of Dwarves
Preview of Goblins
Northstar's Oathmark page

Metal Dwarf Wizard (or Frostgrave Raven Master?)

I doubt whether I'll go for the game, but I do have a soft spot nicely sculpted dwarves.  Northstar has done the rank-and-file in plastic (a box gives you enough to build 30) with 'character figures' in metal.  Sounds a good approach.  Pre-orders are a bit cheaper and come with bonus figures.

Metal Dwarf King

Frostgrave Fursday #1

It had been my intention to use the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge to concentrate on building up a couple of Frostgrave warbands and a compliment of baddies and beasties for them to tackle.  But we've got within sight of the end and not a Frostgrave figure to be seen from me!

Well, better late than never!

First up are the spell fodder...

Who would hire this rabble?

As some of you will instantly recognise these are from Northstar's sprue of Frostgrave soldiers (though I can't swear there's not some cultist thrown in there).  As many have already said, this is a very nice pack, with some wonderful detail and character.

I've decided that this jovial chap was a mass murderer before
deciding to chance his luck in Felstad

The spellcasters on the other hand are from Midlam Miniatures.  They're sold as suitable for 28mm games, but some might find them a little small.*

*At 25mm they're the weedy academic wizards, compared to the beefy mercenaries.

The rest of the group call the apprentice 'Smiler' when the
spellcasters aren't around.

The bases are my usual 2p pieces with Vallejo Sandy Paste.  With the soldiers I added some sprue off-cuts to represent fallen masonry.  Then various grass and heather tufts (a mix of Tajima and some Gamers' Grass I got with my last order from Bad Squiddo - I think the former are much better value for money and will go with them again).

I haven't attempted to make the wizards school-specific, preferring to have a pool of figures I can choose from when I play.  Equally, I've not been too particular about what arms and equipment the soldiers have - today's Thug might be tomorrow's Thief. 

Sadly, other than Smiler and The Butcher of Harvey's Grove, these haven't inspired me to do any detailed back-story.  Perhaps that'll come when I start creating the stat sheets and playing with them.  And perhaps best not to get too attached to the Dispensables anyway...

Paint Table Saturday

Apologies for the lack of blog updates, which is down to business, some family health concerns and general lack of mojo.  But not only am I back but, as the subject of the post indicates, I've got some hobby stuff done.

As some of you may be able to make out (I know that some like to pour over the details of these thing!) I'm on a bit of a Dr Who vibe again.  I hope to be able to submit some to the Painting Challenge on Tuesday.

The Dr Who theme means I'm again experiencing the delay gratification that comes from ordering from Black Tree Design - the order went in on 18 Feb and I'm still waiting.  Fortunately, there are other suppliers of lead satisfaction - an order that went in on the same day with NorthStar arrived two days later.  Equally, an order placed with Gripping Beast on Thursday arrived yesterday - my first order with GB, and I'm very pleased with the figures and speed of service.

With the latter, the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge FaceBook page deserves a shout-out.  Not wanting to to order BTD's UNIT figures I asked for a suggestion of British soldiers from the 60s and 70s.  Among the several helpful suggestions RoyW pointed me to GB's Falklands troops.  Although not perfect (I'd like something without Bergens if anyone knows of anything), they are very nice sculpts.  Also while on GB's site I found the TCWD Specials from Woodbine Designs - these include the NOT-cast from the Dr Who episode 'Family of Blood'.  So I've a few of those too!  They're so nice I might order the rest next.

Edit

I'm getting in a tangle describing what I'd like for UNIT.  These would have been perfect, but they're 1/72 scale.