Kings of War - Kingdoms of Men Speedpainting Oathmark Humans 2

Following the test model for the first unit of my new Kingdoms of Men army (here), I got on with painting the rest.

Stoic Defenders

I didn't really change much from the test model; the hair and beards/moustaches were Pallid Bone to which I added varying amounts of other paints, such as Zealot Yellow, Gravelord Grey, Hardened Leather or Fire Giant Orange.  Four of the minis are wearing cloaks.  I chose one of these as the leader, and gave him the full helmed head, and the waving sword arm.  His cloak is a bright red, but the other three cloaks were various colours, I was aiming for a more muted, natural dyed look. I also put a coat of APS Zealot Yellow over some of the leader's metalwork to give it a golden look.

The shields were all painted on the sprue.  Airbrushing the primer (with added varnish) certainly gave a much smoother surface.  The standard was made from wine bottle foil, and hand primed on the mini.  this was less successful, and I don't think the Speedpaints work too well on large flattish surfaces (I subsequently repainted the flag with conventional paints).  In fact the photos make the flag look better than it actually is.  A rare thing, a blog writer claiming that its worse in real life.

The darker spearshaft is on the test model, it's partly the angle it's photographed at

The base was 4mm MDF that I cut to shape.  I gave it a good coat of MDF Sealer (readily obtainable from DIY and homeware shops).  This stops the MDF absorbing moisture so reduced the risk of bending.  For the basing texture I used a mix of DIY filler (or spackle) with added sand, PVA glue and Burnt Umber craft paint.  This is always a fiddly job, as I know well from my various 15mm units.   To make things a bit easier I placed all the minis on the base to work out what looked best where.  Then I glued the back rank in place and textured round them.  Then I glued the middle two minis on the next rank and textured round them.  Then the outside minis for the third rank and repeat for the rest of the regiment.  As the texture was drying I scattered a little more sand and a few very small stones over everything to add a bit more texture.  It's still fiddly, but better than trying to texture a full regiment once everything is glued in place*. 

Sixteen minis look fine for a regiment

Now that this regiment is finished, a few words about both the models and the Speedpaints.

I really like the models, they cover a variety of options.  I don't know Oathmark, but for Kings of War Kingdoms of Men they cover three options easily (Shield Wall, Spear Phalanx and Bowmen), and I can use bits from other kits, such as the Frostgrave soldiers' crossbows and pole arms for other options.  The Cavalry set also covers Mounted Scouts and Mounted Sergeants; again, a little kitbashing could provide more options.  The distinctive rectangular shield (which I must admit, I didn't like at first - it's grown on me) can also be used on other models to tie them in to this army.  

The Speedpaints were a success too.  I've tried Contrast paints before, and had variable results.  T'Internet raved about the Speedpaints when they were released, with many pundits claiming they were far superior.  I suspect some of the hype was simply a touch of GW hatred, but I was happy to give them a go.  
The test model proved that I could get a decent result, certainly worth doing for a quick unit.  The paints flow onto the model nicely.  I should say that these are not my first try with Speedpaints.  I tried them first on an Asterian strike force for Deadzone, but I primed those by hand, and I think they benefit from the smoother surface of airbrushed primer.  Adding some gloss varnish to the primer helps too.
The paints mix very well, and this enabled me to get a much wider range of colours than the ten I got in the starter set.  I'll add to my collection soon, once they are available separately, but I might not go for the whole range.

But were they speedy?  Well, I logged the time taken with the Speedpaints on the whole regiment.  The fifteen minis averaged out at sixteen minutes each.  This doesn't include priming or the metal; nor the shields, varnish, basing etc, which were steps I'd take anyway regardless of the paint used.  Pretty fast eh?

Now, the elephant in the room.  If you've done any reading or viewing about Speedpaints you may have heard about REACTIVATION.  Briefly, the paints dry, but become liquid again when (depending on your source) another coat of Speedpaint is applied on top or any paint is applied on top.  Speedpaint on Speedpaint does tend to reactivate.  I have found that the longer the first coat has to dry, the harder it is to get it to reactivate.  

I've experienced some reactivation, but used it to my advantage.  There were several instances where I got paint in the wrong place, spearshafts seem especially prone to getting patches of other colours (usually blue) on them.  Reactivating these patches when I painted the shafts allowed me to 'push' the resultant darker shade up against the hand, giving a shadow effect.  Definitely a happy accident.

In conclusion, I'm really impressed with both the new paints and the models.  I'll be doing more with both.

Finally, the colour scheme.  I generally avoid politics here, but I felt I couldn't ignore what's going on in Europe at the moment.  I am building and painting a 500 point army like this (another spear regiment, a bow regiment and a mounted scout troop plus hero).  Once I've had a game with them (to get rid of the curse of the newly painted mini) I'll be selling them and donating the money to the appropriate charity.  (link up once its sorted).  Another reason why I wanted this to be a quick project.

* I must put this into practice again and finish the Orcs I painted ages ago.