Skellies Part 1

 So, as I slowly work towards getting enough together for Five Leagues I needed more adversaries than just goblins. With the number of plastic ranges nowadays, skeletons/undead seemed like a plan. 

I picked up a sprue of Wargames Atlantic skeletons and a sprue of Oathmark skeletons to plan. I knew GW would be too large as I have some Nightgaunt sprues from one of those part work jobs, so no dice. I did however have a sprue of armoured skellies I bought years ago (2005 on the sprue anc now on eBay if anyone wants it) and inexplicably have a single sprue from the original GW Skeleton Horde (from 1986!). Looking at these arrayed some were obviously not useful - as my collection is tending toward 28mm and matches historicals rather than the current vogue for 32mm heroics. The WA skeletons were very chunky boys, with oddly smaller arms. The GW2005 were too big by far. But the Oathmark and the GW1986 were spot on and of course compared perfectly to the rest of my stuff. So I picked up a couple more sprues and kept a casual eye on eBay for the GW1986.

Now I didn’t fancy depuddling the Oathmark lot, so basing meant them all being on slight hillocks. But enough of the standard boys. This post is about the GW1986 and kitbashing them with the Oathmark, because Oathmark leaves you with lots of options…

The horn (a long standing gag for skeletons) and arm were from the WA set and matches closely enough to the Oathmark arms. I’m not a huge fan of the Oathmark helmets, they are perfect for the theme of Bronze Age undead, but I just think one of the first things someone will lose upon death is the headgear (yes my French Napoleonic undead still have their shakos, don’t judge). Luckily, Oathmark have plenty of options… but not quite enough bare heads to go around. Then I realised (for some reason) the GW skulls sprue are more or less identical to the Oathmark heads. I’m sure Northstar could probably spot the difference but the only ones I can tell apart are the ones with the separate jaws that I used, so works for me…

You have to remove the ball shoulder joints and I drilled in very minor divots to take the spare Oathmark arms, so the shoulders might not be 100% anatomically correct but work. The GW1986 arms were good enough for their time, but big and clunky so not really useful. Similarly the old heads were a little oversized as well. But the bodies mixed well enough with the Oathmark bits. 

(I had to use the GW1986 scythe though)

A bit of greenstuff adds some (very) rough approximations of the armour. I ran out of shields, ArmchairGeneral over on LAF kindly donated some metal Sea Peoples shields that would more match the Oathmark shields, but testing them I got concerned about the weight on that small weld joint at the shoulder, rooting around I found the buckler shields from the WA Conquistador set, a bit different stylistically but work for the sword unit.

So, with some fun kitbashing (and stripping of some bargain eBay GW1986’s) I have more than enough for Five Leagues and even extra for a Dragon Rampant force: 6x bowmen, 12x spearmen, 6x swordsmen and 3x character types. 

I’m happy.

Campaign Map finished…

Well, after a meh month finished with some crappy hot weather, finally finished the last tiles for the map. These are mainly coastal tiles with beaches or villages. I did another curve just to allow for more twisty rivers and I had a final tile… after some thought, canvassing on LAF and some very good suggestions I decided to go with a lost world plateau just for fun.

No big group shot… there are just too many of them now. 😂

 

Campaign Map Part 8

More tiles - first the last four from the first wave…

And the start of the coastal tiles proper…

 

Campaign Map Part 7

More tiles… so I caved and after a very positive job interview I ordered a few more. I didn’t get the job which is a whole different story, but after that knock back, back to the grind… the inevitable mountains, including 2 river sources, another full forest tile, another moor tile and 3 marsh tiles, including another 2 river sources and a marsh estuary - which is a clue to what else is coming up. 

A little note on the full forest tiles. Probably didn’t need a third, but the tike was very warped and otherwise unusable. I couldn’t bend it, so snapped into three, and re glued them together with the edges flat leaving a peak in the middle, the addition of foam pvc and greenstuff hides the peak and reinforces the join and it’s useable again. 

Everything so far:

The magnetic tokens are also done:

As well as the banners, I’ve made a series of numbered event tokens. These should allow for any rumours/events to be marked. These are just plastic rod nested in plastic tube with an orc skull from the GW Skullz box and some old railway modelling plastic numerals I was glad I remembered I had. They all live in a cheap eBay tin. Magnets!

Campaign Map Part 6

Next batch - mostly woods. 

And so far:

These group shots are very useful as it gives me a better idea of how it’s coming together. Case in point, I changed two tiles, adding two new river pieces, one as marshland and a fork going in the opposite direction. Much more practical than a hill tile and another walled farm tile. But I’ve got such an itch to do more. I’ve loved this project.

Just a couple of villages to do now. Need to attack the edges with some sandpaper though, some are very snug - looks like there are little knobs from the 3D supports that will need seeing to…

Campaign Map Part 5

 Next batch, marsh, moors and a couple of bits to make up numbers in the batch. Points of interest - my own little Isle of Ely, standing stones, ruins and an isolated moor hall/farm. Last pic is everything so far…

Campaign Map Part 4

 River tiles done. A bit of shine still, and some touch ups needed, but I love how a good matt varnish makes it. The eagle eyed will notice the town has grown a dock area, which should double for river or coast (when that inevitably happens).

Campaign Map Part 3

 Well, that’s all 50 pretty much done.

16 river tiles, including a manor, 2 villages, 2 woodland and 3 river bends.

34 lowland tiles, including a town, a manor, a henge, a ruin, 2 farms, 2 villages, 5 marshes (including a monastery), 4 isolated barns/cottages, and sundry woods, hills, moors and fields.

If I had the cash, I’d get more tiles as I’ve really enjoyed making these. Mountains and coasts may yet happen.

Campaign Map Part 2

Progress so far:

A henge tile and some moor/hilly terrain tiles:

A manor house and a village on river tiles:

Ruins:

Farmland, including a village and a courtyard farm:

And forest/woodland tiles, including a village and some occasional fields:

I’ve some river tiles still being worked on, including marshland.

I’m currently at about 37 tiles done, with 13 to go. I need more river and another marsh (currently at 12 including 2 marshes). The plastic ME set had 48 tiles, 24 of which were river, but they don’t appear to have distinguished between wood and farm land. At the moment, not planning on doing mountains or coastal.

EDIT: Forgot to add… I added some steel washers I found in a drawer looking for some bits, as I realised I’d need a way to track the party on the map. I’ve made some banner markers with bits and added a small magnet at the base, just strong enough to keep them upright.

 

Campaign Map Part 1

 After yesterday’s preview. A woodland village tile, not sure how to do the grass yet, and contemplating extending the wooded sides down the side with my finger, but not sure. An original Mighty Empires village tile with an extra street from Irregular. They match quite nicely. 

Randomness

 So, end of December and January almost done. But I have been busy… just not finished anything.

All simmering projects that get to move a bit as I’m still out of work. Oathmark Goblins (infantry and slave sprues) have been mixed and matched and almost set for finishing, but I needed a change… so looking at my homemade Mighty Empires lite to act as a Five Leagues campaign map. I’m basing the tiles on what terrain I have so will be river, village/farm, plains and forest initially. I have some 3d printed tiles a while back (50 of them) but they have a little lip within the larger boundary lip, so have been using plasticard to bring it up to one level. This has allowed me to work on the tiles, before committing it to the hex tiles as I was very unsure if this would work. But it’s looking pretty good so far. Settlements are 2mm stuff from Irregular Miniatures and I had some of the tokens from the original 90’s edition of Mighty Empires, and they match quite nicely. 

Oldhammer Imperial Dwarf

An original Citadel Dwarf from 1986, dug up from my childhood collection, dipped for an excessive amount of time (I forgot) and repainted - ironically exactly as he was but hopefully a bit better than 13 year old me. I have a few others in progress, just waiting in some shields - the Arab teardrop shields from Gripping Beast work nicely to replace the long gone plastic shields, the dimple fits the peg with minimal trimming back and the shape makes a decent dwarven kite shield for that medieval aesthetic that was possible back then.

But, damn do they look weird alongside more realistic historicals. Big nostalgia though, so will plod on with the others as and when, will probably end up going elsewhere for dwarves for Five Leagues.