"My Oathmark Oathbreaker Army, just about complete" Topic

So, another COVID 19 project, I've been playing around with setting up Oathmark armies.. It's a slow process. I'm not a good painter to begin with and I have way to much ADHD to stay focused, but I've managed it, and here we go. Oathreaker Undead Army for Osprey Games' Oathmark rule set

Verbiage and Pictures here: link

Thanks for your patience, and thanks for looking.

Walt

Nice! I am also a fan of Ral Partha's figs. My Undead army is mainly made up of Partha and old GW. I have been watching some videos about Oathmark. I'm trying to see what it brings that I'm not already getting form Dragon Rampant and One Page Rules Fantasy Regiments.

Thanks!

John

The only issue I have with the Partha skellies, and it's minor, is that it forces you to use a round base as I didn't have 25 x 25 slotta bases. Actually it worked out just fine in practice as even round bases work in the same space on a movement tray.

We tried Dragon Rampart at our club over Zoom last August,
with decidedly mixed results: link

I look for One Page Rules Fantasy Regiments, thanks.

We enjoy DR. But there are issues. The ending of a turn suddenly is an issue as is Missile fire IMHO. We have tried allowing automatic actions ala TMWWBK. That solves some of it. Missile fire is too strong and probably should be limited as a percentage of an an army.
My Old Glory and Grenadier High Elves are mounted on round 25mm washers. But using large trays they still fit so it worked.
We have also tried Kings of War. We mod that to allow close combat for both sides at the same time. Personally, we are more excited by those One Page rules. There are a LOAD of army lists (all free) and 3 versions of the rules. Skirmish (for very small units), Fantasy for a few units and Regiments for larger games. The rules are free downloads for the core rules. They have been playtested a lot. You can also buy a full set which adds on some extra stuff for about 5 bucks. I'm working on Dwarves and High Elves for them. Just picked up some Oathmark plastic sets for my armies. My old GW Lizardmen fought my sons Orcs and goblins. Hordes of crappy to so so units against my small but nasty Lizards. I got thumped. ;-D So we'll see how our next game goes. My youngest son is working on an Undead army.

Thank,

John

I gave myself permission, in the early 1990's, to paint my mini's to a Good Enough to Game With (GEtGW) standard… Never regretted it.

Just finished painting 99 Zombie Dogs (two hours to paint all 99 figures) for my 2e BattleSystem games. Within the past year, I finished painting Lizardmen Giant Lizard Cavalry (used Schleich toy lizards, no painting required for the mounts, look superb!), a Dwarven army with Ram Cavalry, Hobgoblin army troops, Goblin Warg Riders, and others. I've painted around 1,000 mini's in the past 25+ years, all to the same GEtGW standard.

I have plenty of armies, all table ready: Hill Giants, Frost Giants, Stone Giants, Storm Giants, Ogres (Mage Knight pre-painted Kruugs, adapted to my needs), Humans, Gnomes, Goblins (around 220 Goblin figures, total), and many more.

I realized that at arm's length, or further, sitting atop my gaming table, I could not see much detail. Decided it is not worth the effort, as I would have fewer than 200 mini's painted by now, if I held myself to a higher standard.

I do simple block painting, assembly line style, followed by The Dip Technique (I brush it on, rather than dunking -- more control, better results, less work). I started out using a simple black wash of acrylic paint + water, followed by a clear sealant coat. With The Dip Technique, my figures are sealed with polyurethane over the paint, so they are well protected. Some of my mini's were painted 25+ years ago, and they have seen much handling in many a game, with few issues -- they look the same today, as when I first painted them.

If you can bring yourself to a GEtGW painting standard, you can speed up your painting, incredibly. I average 10 minutes, per figure, and that includes applying The Dip Technique! My armies are painted assembly line style: I organize them by pose, applying the same color, same brush stroke, to each mini, in succession. It may be boring, but it is quick, easy, and fast.

They look GEtGW, at arm's length, and I have churned out many an army thus far. For me, I prefer playing, to painting. I chose my compromises, and I am very happy with them. YMMV, but this is an approach which can speed up your painting, like few other techniques can.

I suggest giving it a try on some Skeletons, first. It works amazingly well on skeletons, in my experience. I prefer using Minwax Polyshades Royal Walnut (dark, dirty brown), over Tudor (classic black wash). It gives Skeletons that just dug up, look, with 'dirt' darkening them everywhere.

I believe you can achieve very similar painting results using The Dip Technique, to what you have in your photo's. You can save yourself a great deal of painting time, while achieving decent, comparable results. Cheers!

Very cool! I really appreciate your approach to mini. painting and doing what makes you happy vs. the idea that tabletop ready doesn't have to mean bad paint jobs.

You are 100% right about tabletop height and the detail you can actually see.

Unless you are photographing your models for a magazine layout, there is a point where certain details just don't matter for tabletop purposes. It kind of all blends together in the end.

I have a lot of minis. that I painted to a pretty decent standard and look great on the tabletop but if I take a picture of them up close they suddenly look quote unquote "terrible", lol. Paint job is actually pretty good but being an inch away from it is going to show every single flaw and anomaly. Funny thing is, even GW minis. painted by their professional studio tend to break down when photographed up close. The illusion of what they do is broken when you get really close.

And that's the whole point I think!

A friend owns a multitude of 15mm fantasy figures. All are painted extremely well, with eyes detailed, even! I gamed with him, and his 15's, around a year ago. On the table, the green-skinned figures were just green blobs (I'm well past 40, when human eyesight declines, but I have 20/20 with my eyeglasses/contacts). I picked up some of the "blob" figures, to figure out what they even were. I was shocked (gobsmacked, really) to see just how detailed the painting really was! The eyes were white, with dark pupils!

I asked him, "Why paint to such a detailed level when on the tabletop, you can't see any of it?" I was not trying to insult him, I genuinely wanted to know, as he is around 5+ years older than me, so his eyesight is par with mine.

He replied, "Because I would know if they weren't."

I consider that a personal issue -- one which I do not share! That answer is not sufficient for me to paint to a higher standard. I could, if I wanted to, but I choose not to. I view my mini's at 3-6 feet distance, 99% of the time. I hold them inches from my orbits, around 1% of the time, literally. For that reason, I paint for the 99%, ignoring the 1%. To each their own. Cheers!

Man, I'm with you on that one, Slag. I find that even at 28mm, most eyes can be handled with a little bit of shading or sometimes a black dot. For what I use figures for, I don't require artistry, just a notion that they represent the troops that they do.

Walt

I mostly paint 15mm, but I alway try to get the best I can get (within reason)

I like your freinds reply, "Because I would know if they Weren't"

I try to paint to the quality of the sculpt, if the sculptor sculpted it, I try to paint it. Most of my 15mm minis have eyes painted also, if possible, ie is they are reasonably sculpted. I dont paint the whites, but they do get a little dot. Because when I look at them in my 6x reading glasses I use when I paint ( these help a lot) If I see a error, I just gotta fix it.

Slag is right though, at 3 feet, you cant see much ( but sometimes you can).

My problem with painting many of the figures, is they tend to get too dark. ya ya, Goblins and orcs aren't brightly colored, ( and I dont like the over highlighting some people do) but Dark does seem a problem at gaming distances. Mind you in real life ( i live in wyoming) when you look and see some cattle or horses a 1/4 mile or more away, they can be a little dark also, and no, you dont see all the hideous highlights at that distance either. so many people paint minis like Ansel Adams developed his B&W Photos. Ya, it looks good as a art peice, but its not real.

One of the things about 15mm, a good base painting and a wash IS good enought, with sometimes a retouch of the basepaint as a highlight, as the wash darkened the original, but 15mm is small enought, you dont need, (and there is not enought room on them for much else).

THe number one thing is to like what you do, and do what you do for yourself. Don't paint to other peoples expectations. I get a kick out of watching some of the Youtube painters, who paint these beautiful ( if you want Space Marines ) miniatures, to such high standards, and then listen to them say, they do not have a army to play with, because no army they have started is complete.

Painting to "use" is different then painting for a 10 times enlarged photo also, and I admire the fact that some people can paint to such high standards, I guess thats why so many people come to this and other forums, to look at what other people have done, and to admire their work. But… Really? Im not a Youtube trying to make my living by making Youtube videos, its a completely different thing

Oh.. and as for the bases, mine are all painted Sable Brown, on washers, which ride on magnetic movement trays, and square or round doesnt even concern me. I dont paint to Ruleset basing, I base for myself also, and no matter what you do, it won't match, so dont even try beyond that.

Oh, one question I cant seem to find a answer to, Have you used the Oathmark Campaign rules? and if so, please expound on your opinions of them, seems nobody has used them yet, at least not written about the Campaign rules.

Albus, I only play one set of rules, so I base according to them. They call for rectangular bases to simplify facing: front, flank, and rear determinations. Makes it KISS.

My mass battles minis pull double duty being used in my RPG sessions, as needed. I take full advantage of the rectangular bases there, as well, for facing.

My 2e BattleSystem rules call for smaller bases for smaller creatures, and that allows them to cram into tighter formations. It means they can bring more attacks in the same space as their bigger opponents! It's subtle, but it makes a difference. For me, the basing details do matter. Cheers!