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This part is a bonus and as lock-down continues, feels  appropriate to add it in. It did also involve some very  minor transgressions, painting not legal, from the  painting I had agreed to, but only very minor  transgressions… I was just testing my eyes BUSTED As it happens I had, as you might suspect, already busted the golden rules when I painted the Wood Elves.  Not in a  major way but as I painted the flesh on them, using  Tanned Flesh, it only then occurred to me that on the  Dwarves it came out darker than I wanted to have on the  Armoured Elves. Having painted the Wood Elves flesh in  Tanned Flesh it seemed the best approach was to just  slap on a bit of the lighter Barbarian Flesh as a quick fix  and as a highlight in a very rough and quick way. That  however left me in somewhat in a quandary as I wanted  all the Elf flesh to be the similar, so I repeated the  “mistake” on the Armoured Elves too.   EXPERIMENTING The Armoured Elves were primed with Platemail  Coloured Primer Spray, just like the Armoured Dwarves,  as they have a lot of armour on them though it’s mostly  chainmail on the elves. I wanted a distinctly different look  for them so instead of painting in all the details then  reaching for the Army Painter Quickshade Strong  Tone, I followed the route I had used on the dragon but  utilising Warpaint Washes Blue Tone Ink and in the  end, not using the Quickshade at all . This did require a  bit more planning as I would have to use colours that  would be successfully shaded but the dark blue of the ink,  but I reasoned that this would give then that distinctive  
OATHMARK EXPRESS
Above. Armoured Elves with Spears & Swords
look I was after.  Also I fancied I could do the armour as  well with the Blue Tone Ink, and that would save more  time.   As it happens Army Painter make a lot of blues,  more than you would think, but I stuck to using a pallet of  Deep Blue, Crystal Blue, Electric Blue and  Ultramarine Blue, and used the odd non blue that would  shade OK with the Army Painter Blue Tone Ink like  Necrotic Flesh, Wolf Grey and Uniform Grey.  NOT QUICKSHADE So I painted on all the colours that were destined to be  shaded by the Blue Tone Ink. Once dry then sloshed all  over with Warpaint Washes Blue Tone Ink.  Making  sure it didn’t pond or form unsightly blobs.  And them put  aside for a good while to dry thoroughly, it’s not like  there’s not more to do!  It is worthwhile just going and  checking on them from time to time just to make show no  unsightly blobs have accrued, a quick flick of the brush  will sort them out. In an attempt to save a bit of time I left the shield fronts in  the Platemail as I had a plan to use up some spare Little  Big Man decals and I wanted to see if they would look OK  on the Platemail, which they did.  NOT BLUE And that left the rest, obviously some things were never  going to work with blue shading, as I have mentioned  previously the flesh, I’m not going for Dark Elves here but  Tolkien’s Elves of light. For the flesh I used the Tanned  Flesh and Barbarian Flesh combo as above, the  woodwork like bows etc was painted in Fur Brown, some  hair I did Uniform Grey but others Desert Yellow.  Some  of the small metal details were painted in Greedy Gold.  
MORE WASHES With non-blues all done I did consider hitting them with  Quickshade Strong Tone all over like the rest of the  troops, but I was worried that it would dull down the blued  areas to much, so I went for using the Warpaint Washes  Strong Tone (which is a brown wash) out of the bottle,  just like I used the Warpaint Washes Blue Tone Ink on  the blue. Carefully restricting it to the not blue areas. To  vary it up a bit, I did swords blades and some helmets  with the Strong Tone.  
North Star Military Figures OATHMARK: BATTLES OF A LOST AGE. Fantasy Mass Battle Game from Osprey Games. Miniatures by North Star and Osprey.
Building armies  under duress. Part 3: of Elves and Spiders
Kev Dallimore and John Treadaway
DECALS So that’s the High Elves all but done.  But I did want to  use those LBM decals.  To this end and for the models  general protection I gave them a coat of gloss varnish all  over. When this was very dray and hard (like next day) I  applied the LMB shield decals in the approved way, see  my article on PAINTING ELVES.  It’s not difficult to use  the LMB decals but it does require a specific procedure a  bit different from normal watersides.   VARNISH And then two coats of Anti-Shine Matt Varnish which –  again – was brushed on the Elves and Spiders. 
Above. Armoured Elf Guard – double Armed (Line Breaker).
The units of armoured elves are similarly just built from the box.
Above. Armoured Elves with Bows.
The units of armoured elves are similarly just built from the box.
QUICKSHADE CONFUSION Note. The Army Painter Quickshade is the stuff in  the tins like a varnish (wash your brushes out in  brush-cleaner or white spirit).   The Army Painter Warpaint Washes are in the  small bottles like the paint, water-based, but with a  red cap, wash out in water.
Above. Armoured Elf Warriors with Swords. Showing the LBM shield decals.
The units of armoured elves are similarly just built from the box. These shots show the LBM decals on the shields.
FINISHING The basing was done, like before, and to match the rest of  the good army, Dwarves, Wood Elves, bears etc. The  Spiders got similar basing treatment as the rest of the evil  side.  MORE TO COME? Yes inevitably; with the Oathmark human cavalry arriving,  some Riders of Rohan might just hove into view, and  more Wargs and Riders to match them! 
Above. Armoured Elf Warriors with Spears.Showing the LBM shield decals.
The units of armoured elves are similarly just built from the box. These shots show the LBM decals on the shields.
Above. Elf Commander (General) with his bodyguard.
The units of armoured elves are similarly just built from the box.
EXTRAS
Above. Armoured Elf Warriors with Spears. Showing, primed and washed with blue ink.
Armoured Elf Warriors with Spears. Showing, primed and washed with blue ink.
DRAGON ATTACK I went on to then paint a Dragon using the same fast painting method. The Oathmark model was primed green with  Army Painter Spray, and then – after painting in detail like eyes, horns teeth and a tongue – I did the same Army  Painter dip painted over routine and then based it in much the same way as the rest (and on as small as base as  possible!). Again this took me less than half an hour.
I went on to then paint a Dragon using the same fast painting method. The Oathmark model was primed green with Army Painter Spray, and then – after painting in detail like eyes, horns teeth and a tongue. I went on to then paint a Dragon using the same fast painting method. The Oathmark model was primed green with Army Painter Spray, and then – after painting in detail like eyes, horns teeth and a tongue .
A TROLL As this developed, we decided the evil needed some  punch so Kev painted a troll for them using the brilliant  two-headed Frostgrave Troll sculpted by Mark  Copplestone. Obviously it was a metal model which  broke the “let’s do it all fast from plastics” rule we’d set  ourselves but – on the phone – Mr Dallimore promised  he’s make up for that by painting it blisteringly fast. So  that’d be all right then! As good as his word, he painted it  in 20 minutes... The model was primed with Army Painter  Army Green Primer when Kev was doing some of the  good forces priming. Then the hair was painted black,  thinned a bit so the green grinned through then sloshed all  over with Warpaint Quickshade Green Tone Ink. Then  the eyes picked out in Pure Red and the teeth and claws  in Warpaint Skeleton Bone (again no shading) and the  tree he was holding was painted in Oak Brown. He was  then sloshed all over with the Quickshade, but we are  getting ahead of ourselves. But it’s a testament to the idea  that two heads are better than one... JT.
As this developed, we decided the evil needed some punch so Kev painted a troll for them using the brilliant Frostgrave Troll sculpted by Mark Copplestone.
Above. Dwarf Commander (General) and bodyguards.
I added a Dwarf General and his bodyguards from the Oathmark metal champions.
Above. Orc Commander (General) and bodyguards, we added bodyguards to the Generals after realising the vulnerabilities of a lone Commander.  
Orc Commander (General) and bodyguards, we added bodyguards to the Generals after realising the vulnerabilities of a lone Commander.   And I painted a grey wizard.
SPIDERS Before I finish, I just couldn’t resist some of the Wargames Atlantic spiders, especially as we set these armies within a  stones throw of Mirkwood. So I put together a frame of one big and two smaller arachnids to add some more punch to  the evil side. The painting of them followed along the evil lines as in part two, they got primed grey, but I had no white  primer on hand so they got brush painted white with black spidery markings and claws and Pure Red eyes.  Then  Quickshade Strong Tone all over them in the accepted fashion and put aside to dry. 
Before I finish, I just couldn’t resist some of the Wargames Atlantic spiders, especially as we set these armies within a stones throw of Mirkwood. So I put together a frame of one big and two smaller arachnids to add some more punch to the evil side.