Kings of War: Kingdoms of Men. Speedpainting Oathmark Humans - 1

For some time now I've been wanting to build some of the Oathmark Humans from North Star. I know I already have a sizeable force of old GW Empire troops for this, but with the availability of plastic Halflings I'm tempted to turn them into a League of Rhordia army. Besides, if I need an excuse, the Oathmark humans are too nice not to paint.  I have a decent 500 point list (you can see an extended version of it here, in glorious defeat), and now North Star have released cavalry, I can do the whole list.

But if I'm going to do this, it will have to be a quick project. I was set to use Contrast paints, but then Army Painter released their Speedpaints and I decided to try them instead.

This is my first mini from a unit of spearmen. This is a test mini to see how well the Speedpaints work, and if I like the colour scheme.

The mini was primed with Vallejo Gray Primer with a touch of black added using my airbrush. I then gave it a zenithal highlight with Vallejo Air White with a drop of Vallejo Gloss Varnish added to give a smoother finish.  I think the grey needs to be darker.  I primed the whole unit at once, future units may have a darker grey prime.

The longest stage by far is doing the metal.  I painted the helmet, spearshaft, belt buckle, knife and armour studs with Vallejo Game Color Chainmail Silver.  Once the jerkin gets painted, it will stain the silver to give a brass look.  The pictures shows the metal, plus coats of Army Painter Speedpaint Zealot Yellow on the hose and APS Crusader Skin on the flesh.

I only got the ten colour starter set, so I had to do some mixing.  Fortunately, the Speedpaints mix well.  The tunic and vambraces are a mix of 1 part APS Hardened Leather and 2 parts Pallid Bone.  The tunic is APS Highlord Blue, the shoes APS Gravelord Grey, the belt and pouch is straight Hardened Leather, and the hair is Pallid Bone (I'll have to come up with some variants when I do the whole unit).  I mixed 1 part Zealot Yellow with 2 parts Pallid Bone for the spearshaft.

I used Gravelord Grey to wash the helmet, spearhead, buckle and knife blade.  It works well as a wash for metal, and rather remind me of the old Citadel Armour Wash.

I'm very impressed with the Speedpaints, and the Oathmark minis are nice too.  I must take a bit more care when prepping the minis though, those mould lines really stand out.  Like Citadel's Contrast paint, the result is a little 'pastel'.  I'm fine with this if the look is carried across the whole army.  It might look odd if it were mixed with my more traditional painting style.  Ultimately, I feel the result is well worth it for the time taken.  So on to the rest of the regiment next.