Oathmark: Chaos Warriors

Oathmark

I recently picked up the Osprey Oathmark rules and I’m keen to give them a go sometime. Oathmark his its own range of miniatures of course and seems to have a “Lord of the Rings/fantasy Dark Age” aesthetic, but I figure my sizable backlog of various fantasy models will do for the game.

At least at this stage I’m focussing on getting these done with an eye to using them for “rank & flank” games of some kind.

I started these a while ago, mostly the undercoat done, but finished them off now (although the bases still need doing). These are Games Workshop figures of course, and my devotion to Papa Nurgle has transferred from my Warhammer 40,000 Death Guard army.

I forgot to take WIP photos, but here’s the final results.

The Chaos Warriors were easy to complete, mostly with rust-style dry-brushing and simple grubby base colours and washes.

These Chaos Marauders were similarly pretty quick and easy to complete. Again, here I used washes over a white undercoat, and simply dry-brushing to achieve the results.

I also have a couple of Chaos Spawn monsters.

With these nearly finished I had a root about in the nether regions of the plastic mountain and found some as yet unused Chaos figures. 

Here I have a few more Nurgle units.

From this box, the Plaguebrearers were based for 40k, but I think I may rebase them on squares for this army.  I still have these fly-monster things to build.

I also have a couple of other Nurgle boxes that will do.

I found these Khorne-aligned units too, so I guess I’ll be breaking out the red and brass paints!

Not sure what this thing is but I think it’s part of the Khorne army. I think it’s a “Daemons of Khorne Skull Cannon”.

It should be fun sorting this out.

From the Oathmark context I'm not sure what army these would be. Human I guess? I'll be making these up with an eye on flexibility of use though, and I may acquire some more figures depending on how things pan out. But I want to paint up all I have first. I know I have some ogres, Bretonnians, various elf factions, and Skaven in boxes somewhere. It'll be useful to get that all done first before deciding what, if anything, I'll do with these figures. 

There are various rule systems that they could be used with; Oathmark, Kings of War, Warband Fantasy, or even the old out of print Warhammer Fantasy rules.

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge 2022

This month’s Wargames Illustrated (WI409, JANUARY 2022) covered something I've seen before but never took much notice of - The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

I thought it might be fun to do this (or a close approximation of it) to motivate me to get back into the painting rhythm. My gaming friends have also pitched in so there’s a nice bit of peer pressure and friendly “group work” going on.

So I'll track my progress here!

Total Challenge Points: 3010/1000

Project: Turnip 28

28mm miniatures

• 29 Infantry
• 2 Cavalry

Project: Chaos Warriors

28mm miniatures

• 41 Infantry
• 2 Monsters

Project: Warcry

28mm miniatures

• 6 Infantry (gnoblars)
• 3 Ogres

Project: Lord of the Rings/Warband (Orcs of Isengard)

28mm miniatures

• 86 Infantry
• 2 Trolls

Project: Lord of the Rings/Warband (Gondor)

28mm miniatures

• tbc

Project: Stargrave (001, 002 Caprans, 003)

28mm miniatures

• 48 infantry
• 1 Monster

Project: Bolt Action WWII

28mm miniatures

German Early War

• 24 infantry
• 2 Field artillery pieces
• 1 Vehicle (PzIV)
• 1 Vehicle (Stummel)

British Early War

• 44 infantry
• 2 Field artillery pieces
• 1 Vehicle (Universal Carrier)

Following the challenge, I've decided to maintain this throughout the year to track everything I get finished in 2022.

Project: Tyranids

28mm miniatures

• 63 infantry
• 3 Large monsters
• 1 Huge monster!

Project: Necrons

28mm miniatures

• 35 infantry
• 4 Large monsters

Project: Orks

28mm miniatures

• 145 infantry

I still have a few days left and will certainly be painting a few more bits before the New Year, but I'll call it a year here, with 543 miniatures painted in 2022.

Turnip 28 (Part 4)

And as if by magic the project is finished!  Sure, I could take more time to refine the models but as they say, “no work of art is ever finished, it’s just abandoned”. So, this work of art is abandoned to the “done” pile.

My first (and possibly only) Turnip 28 army is complete and The Pastinaca 233rd Regiment of Foote marches off into the post-apocalyptic vegetable scented mists of imagination to fight untold battles in the grim retro-future…

And here they are, in an ill-disciplined mob!

I suppose a gallery of the Parsnip Eaters is in order.

The Toffs

'Is Nibbs, the big boss himself who takes to battle afoot, festooned with high quality parsnips and carrying a Brass Beak icon that no doubt gives him some authority or gravitas among his followers. Those who disagree, will find him a deft hand with his falchion.

The Toadies have got rather above themselves, taking to the field on horses as if that gives them some sort of prestige. Of course the ability to scarper quick-sharp when things go poorly does not endear them to the "other ranks". I imaging these Toadies are far from popular with anyone, let alone their subordinates.

The Fodder

The Unit NCO's. "Hangin' Harry" is the unit's disciplinarian and carries a noose wherever he goes, ever ready to mete out punishment to friend and fow alike. His name is actually Granville, but he takes on the Cult Icon identity of "Strangling Harry". The other NCO is blessed with the Parsnip rootling infections and is heavily mutated as a result.

Here's the leader in full plate and a dapper hat. Not to mention a very big sword which he no doubt applies to matters of command discipline as well as sorting out the foe. He carries something suspiciously large and round. Presumably his men know what it is...perhaps a hat box filled with parsnips?

The unit drummer is infested with mutating root spores that have elongated and strengthened his arms. His frenetic drumming brike hsi drumsticks, but he quickly found some leg-bones to replace them.

A few musketmen of the line.

The bannerman is rootling mutated, and operates closely with his Second, who fears the infection and therefore never takes off his breathing mask.

The Brutes

The Brutes are formed into two small units, one focussed on musketry and the other on close combat with melee weapons.

The Melee Brutes

These folk are heavily infected with mutating roots, and a couple are seriously transformed into semi-rootlings. Most are mentally and morally degenerated, making them perfect assault troops, concerned only with the baser parts of human violence and the drive to get into melee. Most of them are cannibals too, spurning the blessed parsnip soup in favour of the flesh of their enemies.

One has aggressive cancerous growths plaguing his throat.

The Musket Brutes

The well-armoured musket-brutes have yet to succomb to the root-mutations, and are still able to maintain competency with firearms.

Sadly, one of their number suffered a fatal headwound a year or so back. They haven't told him yet and so he fights on in his undead, rotted state.

The Rootlings

These fellows are heavily mutated and degenrate, being utterly infested with rootling mutations. they are more parnip than men now.

So...there we go.

I’m a gamer, and I build and paint toy soldiers so that I can actually get to play. For me therefore the enjoyment of the hobby breaks down as:

1. FUN: Gaming
2. NECESSARY: Painting
3. TEDIOUSLY UNFUN: Building fiddly multipart figures

However, the kit bashing and modelling involved in this project was actually quite enjoyable so thank you T28! I’m sure I won’t get to play with these miniatures, but they were fun to put together.  Perhaps I’ll sell them on?

Anyway, the first completed project of 2022 and its onto the next one. The Plastic Mountain still needs a lot of mining out to get it down to a manageable size! Not sure what I’ll tackle next but Oathmark has recently wandered onto my radar so perhaps I’ll get those 28mm fantasy armies done.

Turnip 28 (Part 1)

Turnip 28 (Part 2)

Turnip 28 (Part 3)