OATHMARK EXPRESS
Building armies continues
Part 4: The Dead are following
Kev Dallimore
The Dead Men of Dunharrow here led by the King of the Dead
When I first saw the Oathmark Revenants  and idea
immediately popped into my head
  “they would make great
undead to add to my Lord  of the Rings armies”, these
were the armies I fast painted
  in lockdown as detailed in
the Oathmark Express articles,
  which I did and wrote
with wargaming buddy John   Treadaway, sometime back
(see here).  I had thought  of this when the Oathmark
Skeletons  were released, but  I wanted ghosts or undead
not full-on boney chaps so the
  Revenants would be ideal
I thought.     
The troops I was hoping to represent were the Dead Men
of Dunharrow,  appropriately   also know as the
Oathbreakers. These Men   were cursed to remain in
Middle-earth  after they abandoned
  their oath to aid the
good side in the War of the Last
  Alliance. The Army of the
Dead was led by the King of the
  Dead.
I had built build up a frame of five models already for
I then carefully snipped off the hand holding the spear at the
wrist at an angle that would hopefully match a handless
Revenant arm. (this is a Elf Spear)
MAKING SPEARMEN
The first task was to make them spearmen. The
Revenants come armed with  a variety of weapons but no
spears, so I needed to look  elsewhere for spear armed
hands and arms, as it were, to   graft on to the Revenants.
 
I started by sorting out all the spear armed arms I could
find, and trying to workout if  that would fit and suit the
Revenants. I rejected the dwarf   and men spears as being
to big and solid, I wanted a  lighter look to them.  As it
happens I keep a large bag of   spare plastic parts for just
such an occasion left over from   all the other frames I have
made up over the years. The  donor arms holding spears
came from across the North  Star plastics ranges, most
from the Oathmark Elf Infantry,   with other contributions
from, Oathmark Goblins,   Frostgrave Cultists  and
Soldiers II and just one   from Oathmark Skeleton
Infantry.  
publicity photography, and fortunately still had them
around so I experimented on  them so see if I could do a
fast job on them like the rest   of the armies we did for
Oathmark Express. Well it didn’t  quite workout as I had
envisaged, for two fortunate reasons.
 
The first reason came when I showed them to Nick and
he said, “Trouble is, the description
  of them describes
their spears like a winter thicket,
  and the Revs don't have
spears”… and when someone   quotes Tolkien at you it’s
time to listen. The quote is by   Legolas. "I see shapes of
Men and of horses, and pale  banners like shreds of cloud,
and spears like winter-thickets  on a misty night. The Dead
are following." So I needed spearmen…
 
The second reason was in spite of the fact I had already
painted the first five, I wasn’t  entirely happy with the end
results, so I was pleased have   another go at them and
see if I could get a more satisfactory
  finish.
A nice crease at the wrist (on the elves) that was just right
and off the hand came a treat, but be careful not to nick the
spear or yourself when cutting.
I then carefully snipped off the hand holding the spear at
the wrist at an angle that  would hopefully match a
handless Revenant arm. As luck   would have it there was
a nice crease at the wrist (on  the elves) that was just right
and off the hand came a treat,   but be careful not to nick
the spear or yourself when cutting.
  Tidy up the spear and
hand before you do the surgery   so that it’s all nice a clean
to pop onto the waiting arm.  
 
Initially I did think I would have to slice off loads of sword
hands but fortunately the right   arms for the two handed
axes are hand free, because  the hand is moulded on the
axe, grasping it, and not on  the arm. It could have been
made for it! Of course, I did   slice off three or four sword
hands before this occurred too   me, doh! However it wasn’t
wasted effort as I used those  too and it added a bit more
variety to the mix of arms.  Always snip off components
with modelling side-clutters and  tidy up with a knife.
 
Fortunately the right arms for the two handed axes are hand
free, because the hand is moulded on the axe.
To get a good position for the new limb with spear I just
lightly tack the arm and hand in place with just a smidge of
glue.
Then you can assemble the rest of the Revenant in a way that looks good with the new spear arm.
Once you have your component handless arm and spear
with a hand on it, you can  assemble these and then fit
them to the body.  To get a good   position for the new limb
with spear I just lightly tack the
  arm and hand in place with
just a smidge of glue, this  allows you a bit of play to
reposition if needed. Then once   you are happy slosh on
more glue to fix it in place. On most of these guys I tried to
have more than one attachment point, to give it a bit more
strength, as these figures will   be gamed with so need
And here are some more examples of the conversions, see if you can spot where the odd rogue heads have come from!
Always snip off components with modelling side-clutters and
tidy up with a knife.
On most of these guys I tried to have more than one
attachment point, to give it a bit more strength, as these
figures will be gamed with so need some robustness.
some robustness. Often the spear was glued to the
ground or thigh as well as the new wrist joint.
 
Then you can assemble the rest of the Revenant in a way
that looks good with the new spear
  arm.
And here are some more examples of the conversions,
see if you can spot where  the odd rogue heads have
come from!  
 
PAINTING SPEARMEN
Keeping to the same ethos as before in this Oathmark
Express series I wanted them  to be super fast painting so
no shading or highlighting, a   straight neat paint job, then
Army Painter Quickshade  Washes  all over to provide
all the shading and contrast.   As before this relied on two
main things the quality of the  models and the neatness of
my painting. I had planned initially to also use a coat of
Army Painter Quickshade -  Strong Shade  varnish, but
after a test out on the first five
  Revenants I made without
As ever keep the block of colours neat!  Flesh – (or where flesh should be) Ash Grey.
COLOUR SCHEME
As ever keep the block of colours neat! It’s not a vast
range of colours but luckily  Army Painter  does enough
greys and the odd extra bit  of mixing gives you enough.
Below is a list of the sort of colours
  I used, and as you can
see I have mixed it up a bit throughout
  the unit.
 
Flesh – (or where flesh should be) Ash Grey.
Dark Clothing and boots – Necromancer Cloak or
Uniform Grey mixed with more Black.
Dark Clothing and boots – Necromancer Cloak or Uniform Grey mixed with more Black.
Armour and metalwork – Bright Gold mixed with Shinning Silver.
spears, I decided it didn’t quite give the ethereal look I
was hoping for so I decided  not to go with it for the rest.
This meant I couldn’t use the  first five for the Dead Men
of Dunharrow but they aren’t   wasted and have been
repurposed for Frostgrave… 
 
PRIMER
The models were sprayed up with car primer, very lightly,
and then Army Painter Uniform
  Grey Colour Primer
Spray.  
Clothing – Uniform Grey mixed with Black.
Light Clothing and boots – Stone Golem or Uniform
Grey mixed with White.
Light Hair and teeth – Gorgon Hide.
Woodwork and boots – Uniform Grey.
Armour and metalwork – Bright Gold mixed with
Shinning Silver.
Wash - Quickshade Washes Green Tone all over the
whole model, I did a couple of coats.
Wash - Quickshade Washes Green Tone all over the whole model, I did a couple of coats.

VARNISH made up by John by the bucket. It is self-coloured and

dries to a rock hard mostly matt
  textured finish.  Once the
As before these models are to be troops on the table not compound was thoroughly dry  and hard it was drybrushed
cabinet pieces they needed  a good protective coat of with Desert Yellow, in a fairly  rough manner and covered
varnish. This was in fact two
  coats of Anti-Shine Matt with various flocks.  
Varnish, brushed on.    
THAT’S IT AGAIN
FINISHING
One layer of paint and a wash, no highlighting, just
I used the same mixed up basing compound, which is neatness, good models and good
  basin
   

Far left has a Frostgrave Cultist spear, next right Frostgrave Soldiers II spear, next another Cultist spear, next another
Frostgrave Soldiers II spear and far right has an Oathmark Elf spear.

Far left has a head from the Oathmark Skeletons set and second from left’s head is from the Frostgrave Barbarians set, these
two both have Oathmark Goblins spears. The next two have Oathmark Elf spears and the one far right has a spear from the
Oathmark Skeletons set.

These boys all have Oathmark Elf spears.

These are the metal command figures for the Revenants.

Here they are as one big unit for Oathmark.

Here are the first five non spear armed I did, then rejected for the Dead Men of Dunharrow, based up to have another life or
death in Frostgrave.