Skaven Update #6.1

Small update. Really small.

I finally picked up some cork to use on my Aberration base. It's almost done. I still need to add boils.

I also finally assembled some Empire infantry... which will technically be my second army.



Next on the list is to base a unit of giant rats and finish assembling/basing 2 rat ogre packs. Once they are done I can probably start priming the bunch. However, seeing that it's winter and it's crazy cold outside, I doubt I'll be doing that anytime soon. Sooo, I'll be either assembling/basing more minis OR paint the stuff I already have. Choices, choices, choices...

Skaven Update #6

Update time. Just a couple things though...

1) I've been working on this Aberration conversion on and off for a bit for this small contest held at UnderEmpire. Anyway, long story short the Aberration contest might not happen afterall so I figure I'd still continue my progress but document it here.

An Aberration in Skaven Warhammer world is basically a Skaven Spawn. To make one, I took a fairly obvious route and picked up a Chaos Spawn box and hopefully with some extra Skaven bits I can make a somewhat believable model.





Much of the time at this point unfortunately was used on trying to figure out what 'X' piece to put in 'Y' slot/hole and planning it all out. Pace was fairly steady until I came to the last 2 slots/holes on its chest.



Do I add an eye or a tentacle or visa versa? What about both eyes or both tentacles? Should I add something totally different or cop out and just fill them up with putty?

After much thought and indecision I chose this:





But now I'm having second thoughts. D'oh!

2) I've acquired about 2 large zip lock bags full of plastic rats from someone that dumped his Skaven collection onto me a long, long time ago. A quick count I can do 2 30 clanrat units and and about 20 skirmishers. But they are all crap and not how I want them. A couple nights ago I started taking some of them apart and hopefully put a couple units together and/or maybe revise current ones.

In the end I hope to do the following:
1. get a unit of 30 spear rats
2. get a handful of a slave-looking rats to A) replace minis in current slave units and to B) start another slave unit
3. create more night runners and gutter runners to add to the pool
4. stick whatever is left into a new clanrat unit

Game Day x 2!

Two Saturdays ago I had a wonderful and certainly a well overdue game day. It was a bit of a last minute thing but I was lucky enough to go. Needless to say I had fun. I played 3 games: Wings of War, Citadels, and a new co-operative game, Red November(another Bruno Faidutti game!). All pretty light games but, truth be told, if I played some super light game like Munchkin or MagBlast all day I think I still would've had fun. I was pretty eager to game.

The following weekend(which was a holiday weekend) I was blessed with another impromptu game day! Yay me! Although I played only 2 games, the actual games we did play made the day all worth while. I got there late and caught the group playing Wings of War. Here's hoping we eventually graduate to the WoW expansions! After Wings of War we played a quick game of Red November- lost... again. Then we ended with my highlight of the night: Starfarers of Catan. It's been a long time since I played it so I was glad I got to dust this off and introduce it to a new batch of players. A lot happier now that they actually like it! Sweet, I might actually get to play this game again this year (knock on wood)!

Skaven Update #5

Good news! I finished a unit! I went back to my rat swarms and finally finished them! Yay! They come 2 to a blister but in the game you're only allowed a maximum of 5. Go figure. But the sixth model didn't go unused. I repainted it to look like a plagued rat swarm- an upgraded version of the normal rat swarm. It's a pretty specific mini and I probably won't ever use them due to the new edition rules. But, since I painted one, I'd like to pick up another blister to make a nice size unit. Maybe when the new Skaven army book comes around...

Skaven Update #4

Oi! Five months since the last post?! Well here's what I've done so far...


Finished a unit of giant rats.



Almost done with this unit of Rat Ogres.



Another unit of Rat Ogres almost done.


I'm currently working on this guy.


And this is about 2/3 of my Skaven collection in varying states of completeness. Shortly after this photo was taken, I became overwhelmed and quickly packed them away. Waaay back in the closet.



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Now playing: Coldplay - Strawberry Swing
via FoxyTunes

Skaven Update #3

First Skaven update of the year!

Finished painting a unit of slaves. Next I'll have to do their bases.


I also started a few other minis. Yes that is a dwarf you see. I got it free in a order I placed from GW. They used to put in a free random mini with your order. Unfortunately, they stopped doing that.

I applied a different technique on Veskrit the Assassin's skin and it appears to stand out more than the skin on the slaves. Should I go back and touch up the slaves? Maybe going back to the clanrats also?

I recently talked to buddy of mine and began to reminisce the good old gaming days of Warhammer Epic. I think it was just called Space Marine back in the day. Anyway, the talk got me looking for the minis and found this...

It's suppose to be a Slasha Gargant(wow, things you remember) that someone made for me. I don't think I was able to afford the actual mini at the time so this happened. There were a couple people that scratch-built me a couple of Gargants so I could play the larger games. After looking at this now I'm not quite so sure whose this Gargant this is.

How much is that PS3 in the window?

I recently read an article about upcoming PS3 titles that's due out this year and let me tell you it's going to be excruciatingly tempting for me to just go out to Best Buy and buy a system. Coming out this year: Burnout: Paradise, Gran Turismo 5, Final Fantasy XIII, Metal Gear Solid, and Grand Theft Auto IV. I'm all excited(borderline giddy) seeing these games get released as I am a huge fan of their PS2, PSOne and even their SNES versions (Sorry, I never did play the NES version of Metal Gear; I was a Sega Master System kid).

Thinking it through though, I'd have to still pick up the $500 system in addition to the games I really want- at $60 a pop! Ouch! That's $800!!! Even with the recent tax rebate it doesn't look worthwhile... especially if I'm still happy playing games like Puzzle Quest, Disgaea, and Final Fantasy XII on my PS2. Looks like I'll be waiting yet another year which is fine by me.

Bonus!

Hi folks! Hope you had a wonderful holiday. I know it's been awhile since I posted anything so here's something that happened recently that I wanted to share.

A few weeks ago I had bought a GamesWorkshop Warhammer Giant box at a local game store(LGS) as a gift for myself(woohoo me!). About a week ago I finally opened the box to check out all the nice pieces. As soon as I opened the box I noticed I got 2 of the same sprue! What a downer! I was ready to start brainstorming on how to build this beast and this happens?!?! I quickly imagined the idiot who packed the box. Then it dawned on me that a couple of weeks had already past and I wasn't even sure I still had the receipt. Of course, as I was about to prepare myself to dig through a week old smelly trash bin I looked over and it was right underneath the box itself.

The following weekend I brought it over to the LGS hoping to painlessly and quickly exchange my worthless box with another. Needless to say they didn't have one. I was now forced to call GW customer service, postponing my 'giant brainstorming' (pun kinda intended) even longer. I was already dreading the call- anticipating rude operators, long waits, and an even longer shipping time.

So I called. I told my story, gave my personal info, and the operator told me I'll be getting a box in the mail. I was quite surprised how much we had covered in such little time. The conversation sounded like it was about to end when I soon realized that he didn't ask which pieces were missing. I quickly blurted out the missing pieces to him before anybody hung up. The operator then informs me that they don't give out pieces for this model so he's just going to send me another box. Wow! And just like that GW went up several notches on my cool meter.

And after a few short days I got my brand new complete Giant box! Thanks, GW Customer Service!

On a side note... I didn't realize GW changed the packaging for the Giant box. The replacement box I got was thinner and the art was changed from landscape to portrait view.

Off topic... Progress on my Skaven has been really slow these past few weeks. I only managed to paint a rank of slaves. It wasn't even a complete paint job. I actually just drybrushed 5 minis. Well its progress, right?