Skaven Update #13

Well it has certainly been a long few months. Work has been quite busy as of late and only just recently I've been able to sneak in a little bit of hobby time. So onto the WiPs!



With all the current Skaven hype I thought I'd go back to my old plague monk unit and see if I can finally finish them. They are about half way done. I still need to figure out what to do with the banner. So far I think they are coming along nicely.



This little guy will be added to one of my slave units. Pretty close to finishing him, just final highlights and static grass.



Finally got paint on this CAV/Mechwarrior conversion. I'd like to paint additional details to the mini but I'm unsure as to what. I thought about adding hazard yellow/black stripes but I'm not sure where to put it. I'll need to look at some more mech pictures for ideas.

I've been seeing a lot of great Skaven conversions and been taking notes! Hopefully I'll be able to jump in with the rest and start creating my own warlitter, rat ogre bodyguard, abomination... *gulp*!

Other Skaven related news...

I've been an Underempire member for a few years now and I've had my avatar for about just as long. There's actually a tiny bit of history behind my avatar. Another Underempire member was in a middle of an ambitious project trying to make an old school, 8-bit style, Skaven-themed, role playing game and was requesting help. I eagerly volunteered my services and I ended up working on the environment tiles and the main character, Sharpfang. Long story short, the project lost steam and I was left with a bit of unused art. As a result, Sharpfang became my avatar ever since. In fact, I've used the Sharpfang avatar on all the other GW message boards that I've joined.

Just recently I noticed a new Underempire member using my avatar. I wasn't ticked or peeved. I was actually a bit flattered. But, it did make me want to create another skaven sprite. Just what would it be?

It' Here!!!

Just got my Skaven book in the mail today! Woohoo!

It's Thursday, What Else Is New?

I've held off my Skaven projects until I get the new book. With all the rat talk about rules and stuff I don't want to be making/painting anything that I won't be using. Hearing about my nightrunners and gutter runners becoming rank and file, for example, is making me reconsider the way I assembled them. I intentionally used the large tails because they were skirmishers. Now that they are ranked they're going to be a real pain in the ass lining them up. Once I get the rulebook I'll be able to straighten all this out.

In the meantime, I've been keeping sort of busy with these...

Do you have a bunch of old Mechwarrior minis collecting dust? Want to use them somehow? Buy a weapons pack from Reaper's CAV line and tada!


I have an old WE treeman and added a couple branch bitz from the dryad sprue and came up with this:

Don't know much about treemen but thought the mini was cool at the time. The new treemen minis are way bigger so this would have to be a treekin.

In other news, I saw great episode of Castle a couple nights ago called Vampire Weekend. If you are a Nathan Fillion fan from the Firefly(sniff sniff) days watch it. If you like anything Nathan Fillion you're probably a fan of the crime show already. Check it out at ABC or on Hulu.

More Rats, More Problems Pt. 2

So I just just saw the new Screaming Bell/Plague Furnace kit and OMG they are huge! There's no doubt they look awesome but man it's borderline over the top. The previous bells were 2x6 or 40x60mm and these 2 look like they're 60x100mm big. Maybe I'm just used to the last 2 versions and seeing these is a bit of shock. Are large unit types like dragons, stegadons, and hydras the new trend these days? Will we be seeing a new Empire War Shrine or Griffin in the future? Or how about a big Dwarf train? It's like GW is trying to replicate the large scale of 40K Apocalypse with it's tanks, stompas, and valkyries.

If I see a second wave of Skaven releases and I see an Abomination plastic kit I'll certainly crack.

More Rats, More Problems

GW posted new pictures of the new Skaven today and guess what- I am in love with them all and that really sucks for my wallet.

Stormvermin
Just really awesome. The style closely resembles the fifth edition version with the crested helmets. The similar reddish color schemes also reinforces their similarities. I currently have 2 units of 20 Stormvermin and seeing how the new box is going for $50, I don't think this will be part of my initial purchase.

Clanrats
These are also great. I noticed that they have 2 different sizes, one taller than the other. The taller minis look more heavily armored while the smaller ones have little to no armor. Possible slave/clanrat mix? It'll be curious to see how these will compare to the previous minis. In any case these will definitely be a first buy.

Doomwheel
I think my absolute favorite from this wave. Very streamlined and more steam-punk looking. It looks more like a 2nd generation Doomwheel rather than a different take or a re-imagined warmachine. My biggest concern is how much of a pain it will be to assemble and paint it. I anticipate much planning. It's a good thing it's plastic; that's half the battle.

Snikch
I thought the old model was great but it was way too big for it's base- like a lot of the character minis back then. This Snikch looks great with the 3 poisoned daggers. The cape flowing upwards feels a bit too stylized for my taste but considering that the mini seems to fit it's base better than the previous mini that's a good thing in my book.

Skweel
New character?! Bonus! From the fluff it sounds like he'll be a Hero type. Personally for a horde army where quantity over quality is best, I think there should be more Hero types than Lord. But that's just me. Anyway the warpstone- tipped cat-o-nine tails looks sweet!

Queek
I think the coolest character of the 3 characters. Not too crazy about his leaping pose but I can live with it. Not sure if I'll pick him, or the other characters for that matter, up in my initial purchase but sure enough I will sooner or later.

Overall I was pretty impressed with the quality of the models especially the Doomwheel. Quite surprised really. Which to buy first? Well aside from the book I think the Doomwheel and the Clanrat box- you can never have enough of clanrats! I am so much into the look of the new D-wheel that I really want it. As for the others I can live without them... for now. So kudos to GW for a great start!

Looks like I'll be eating Ramen for awhile...

It's in the Cards

I'm in a weird 'cards' phase at the moment. I've been on a miniature painting hiatus so I've had time to wander around the net and check out a number of games that's been mentioned at the recent Gencon and various gaming sites. The following games are card games that piqued my interest recently but aren't necessarily in the same category or genre that you'd assume card games would be in.

It first started with me jumping back into an old college favorite and the grandaddy of all collectible games: Magic: the Gathering card game. I finally picked up the set of intro packs in the new 2010 core set for light, quick, casual multiplayer games. I haven't played this game since '95 so it's nice to see that the game hasn't changed much. This was the first game that quickly taught me the harsh lessons of a collectible game. Just after a year and a half, 2 expansions later, and one college drop-out friend less, I was done buying.

Funny enough, years later when my friends and I started playing Mechwarrior, the collectible miniature game, they didn't want to hear about the evil cycle collectible games have.

This next game I heard a lot of good things. One of the top 5 games of 2008 from what I gathered. And all this time I assumed it was a board game. Dominion, in fact, is card game. Some 500 cards to be exact, all in one box. More importantly, it's not a collectible card game but instead has expansions like any other board game. I'll have to find a way to pick this one up.

The next card game is an abstract version of a typical miniature game, but without the minis. War of Edadh is a collectible card wargame with armies and troops and terrain. It's not at all like Battlegrounds where the cards are units and played out like miniature games on a table with dice. WoE is more abstract than that which involves card drafting and card management and without- as far as I know- dice. Currently, I am more intrigued on how to play this game than I am wanting to pick it up at the moment.

The last game is quite the opposite of War of Edadh. Malifaux by Wyrd, more famous for their minis, is a miniature game without dice. The game instead uses decks of cards to determine outcomes such as combat and magic in the game. Very different from every other mini game out there as dice are practically a must in the genre. This is another game that I'm just curious to try out now than to pick up. Although getting into the game is quite affordable ($60 for the book and a faction box), for me, I'm just tapped out for miniature games.

Ouch, My Wallet!

Wow, a few things popped up just recently that made me jump up and down like a little kid and sad like a whimpering puppy at the same time.

First, Games Workshop recently announced that they will release Space Hulk, an old board game I remember fondly as a kid. As soon as a I saw the pictures of the gorgeous minis and board tiles I was ready to add it my basket. That quickly came to a halt when I saw the price tag of $99!!! Ouch!

Second came from Sony. Sony is finally releasing a new slim version(smaller, less noise, and less power consumption) of the PS3 with a bigger hard drive(from 80gb to 120gb). They also dropped the price to $299. While that is extremely sexy to me it's still a fairly big chunk of moolah. I would still have to pick up a game and/or a couple Bluerays on top of that.

Finally, Warseer posted new pics of the upcoming new Skaven Clanrat minis slated for later this year and they are awesome unfortunately. I was hoping they wouldn't make any new Clanrats as I already have 3 units of 30 clanrats and another unit of 30 in the works. More new Skaven minis are coming and if they look just as good as the new Clanrats I really don't know what I'm going to do. Hmmm, there is a plasma bank near my work...

As much as I loved Space Hulk back in the day, $100 for a board game is just way too rich for my blood. For me it was the easy yet fun rules that made this game rock. The enriched 40k theme was secondary. I could just very well just pick up an old copy of the game or even make one from scratch from the resources online. Incursion by Grindhouse games has a similar rules to Space Hulk but with a Weird War theme and their stuff- aside from minis- is free. Here's hoping someone I know will pick this one up.

When the first PS3s came out at $399 and $499, I plainly refused to buy one. But, I knew I was going to get the PS3 eventually. Now that they announced the price drop I may be picking one up sooner rather than later.

The new Skaven minis will also probably be a definite buy depending on the sculpts of course. I'm just hoping I won't be buying the entire new line! Curse you GW and your fluffy rats!

Ack, all of this in a span of a week. Shortly after GenCon even. I didn't go to the convention but I sure don't want to see my buddies who went. They'll start talking about more crap that I'd want to pick up. Game overload man! Game overload!

Skaven Update #12

Been awhile since I last posted anything miniature related. Rest assured I was busy painting! I've been working on a unit of jezzails for a painting contest over at Rites of War. There are great entries so do check the site out!



I originally wanted more arrows on them but I kept breaking them off by accident. Very frustrating! Eventually, I'll add more. Right now I'm just glad I finished another unit!

E3 Goodness

E3 finished a few weeks ago(a bit late yes I know) and news of future video games have already been online for people to see. I'm I a bit behind in consoles, still happily gaming on my PS2. But, after seeing some of the trailers my wanting to get a PS3 is greater than before. The only thing preventing me from jumping in is the price. I still can't justify the $400 and $500 price tag. In fact I was expecting a price drop announcement from Sony by now but no budge. Guess I'll still game on my PS2 for a little while longer. By the time Sony drops their price I'm sure all the games I want to play would already be marked down... which is quite alright by me.

Check out some of the coolest trailers from Gametrailers...

Video Games | Best of E3 2009 Awards | Best Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

This game is not helping me keep away from buying a PS3 this moment.

Video Games | The Last Guardian | E3 09: Debut Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Need to occupy myself. I better get back to painting!

Skaven Update #11

I finally finished my Aberration project over the weekend. Well pretty close to complete. After taking some pictures I noticed the mini looked rather dark. I've already sent my entry so I may have to add more highlights later. Pictures will have to come later once the competition is over.

In the meantime, here's a non-Skaven, non-GW mini I also worked this past week.

It's a Reaper CAV mini called the Chancellor.

On to the next unit!

Mini Break Update

Well I'm done with my little side project, for now. The Lupines are table top worthy and if my gaming group will play more often I'll go back and work on them some more.

I'm happy with them. They turned out pretty good I think.

Also did some doodling over the weekend. Been awhile since I put pencil to paper, felt a bit rusty. Pencil and Photoshop, 6-8 hours in a span of 2 days.

I've had this idea for quite some time and wanted to make a conversion of it. But, seeing as how I work at a snail's pace when it comes to this hobby I figure I should just draw it. Based off of the Jai alai's cesta I thought it would be cool for a Globadier to use one to lob globes with. I imagined this version of a globadier as part of a weapon team: the lobber and the globe handler. I should go back and finish the second skaven :P

C&C as always!

Now off to paint more Skaven!!!

Mini Break

Adepticon wore me out, and I only played one tournament. A team tourney even! So, I've given myself a break from my rats and work on something else.

A few friends started playing a game called Warlord by Reaper Miniatures. It's a skirmish type game similar to GW's Mordheim. It's a nice little game and I was instantly drawn to their Lupine faction. Unfortunately, I didn't care much for their minis. My story would have stopped there but I absolutely love Rackham's Wolfen minis from their Confrontation game. It was a great excuse to pick them up and with a quick base swap- voila!


They are prepainted minis but they aren't bad actually. With maybe a little wash and highlights it'll look great I think. In the end, I did pick up the Moor Hound, my only Reaper mini in the bunch and the only real painting I'll have to do for this project. This shouldn't take me long... knock on wood.

I haven't completely taken my rats off the list though. My next step for them will be to bring them up to 1500 points. At first, I thought it'll be another big project for me. But, after taking a look at a couple mock lists it's not as bad as I thought. I have a few options...

1) add a plague monk(20)+censer(5) unit which are mostly painted
2) add a jezzail unit(7-8) that hasn't even been primed
3) add a giant rat(3 packs) unit that's half painted
4) add a rat ogre(3) unit that are done except for their packmasters
5) add a warp lightning cannon that's half done but I want to add a base to it that needs a bit of planning

Although the rat ogres are practically done, they really suck game-wise so I'm a bit reluctant adding them to my army. I can pretty much do a combination of any of them except with #1 which would use much of the 500 points.

Adepticon 2009

My very first A-con is finally over and boy am I exhausted!

The first thing everyone saw was the enormous 14' Ork spaceship.

More pics here.

The line to registration was tolerable. After a half hour or so waiting in line I got my bag-o-goodies.

I was surprised by the amount of cool things you got.



Walked around the rather small vendor area. Saw some great Battlestar Galactica minis but decided not to get any.

There were a lot of cool painted armies and I wish I had taken more pictures!


On Saturday I played a Space Hulk demo. I forgot how fun and easy the game was!


The Team Tournament was on Sunday and overall it was great. It didn't start well, but as the day went on, the more I enjoyed it.

Team 'Green Legs and Sqeeks' in all its glory!

Our first game was against VC and Demons. What an evil list! It wasn't even fun. The hightlight of the game (if you can call it that) was when my slaves rolled 'snake eyes' for their break test. Talk about insanely stupid courage! First game, Lost.

Second game was against Goblins and Nurgle. Not as tough as the last game but they did have the Great Unlean One and 4 spear chukkas. Nice players though; funny too. Weirdest game of the day. Never saw so many 1s rolled on both sides. Highlight of the game would have to be my gutter runners popping up near their chukkas and wiping them out. Draw.

Third game was against Warriors of Chaos and Demons. This was probably the most enjoyable. Really nice folks from Ohio. Tough list but still not as tough as our previous opponents. Closest game of the tree too. Draw.

Final record: 0-2-1.

For more insight, check out my teammate's post of Adepticon.

Additional pics courtesy of prelude_to_war.

Skaven Update #10

Another end of the week progress report.

I think a couple more nights and all 3 units will done and ready for basing.


Just started doing the washes on the clanrats armor. They also need a bit of highlighting on their skin. Finishing touches to come soon, I hope.


More finishing touches here.


I should point out that during this time I have been painting only 4 minis in this unit. I had replaced 4 skaven with 3 night goblins (for variety) and 1 proper looking skaven slave.

Skaven Update #9

Another update! Still chugging along. It's taking longer than I expected. I wanted to be done- or mostly done any way- with these units by now.


I have to do the armor, shields, and hand weapons. Still needs a wash.


Only got to do a couple of coats of brown on this unit.


This slave unit needs a bit more touch up and finish the goblins.

Still loads more stuff to do. Need to also start working on my general!

An Awesome Surprise

So let me tell you a story about a friend of mine. He and I used to work together. A few years ago he had an idea of making a board game. Off and on, he'd bounce ideas off of me (and a lot of other people too). Early on, he'd ask me to do some art but towards the end he did most of it. He's quite a Paint Shop Pro veteran now. Last year, after many iterations and play-testing he decided to enter it to Hippodice, an annual design competition held in Germany. Fast forward to yesterday morning and I get a call from my friend telling me he actually won first place! Yay!!! On top of that, his game might actually get published! Holy crap!!! Check out his Holy Crap post on his Noblemen blog and check out the links. Congrats again Dwight!

Skaven Update #9

Quick update time. Didn't have much time over the weekend as I'd hoped.


If you didn't notice any changes from last week's pic I drybrushed heavily all the primed minis scorched brown and did a second drybrush of bestial brown on both slave units. I also started basecoating the night goblins. This week I hope to drybrush the clanrat unit with bestial brown as well, and start basecoating the details on the rest of the army.

Skaven Update #8

Ok, I've finally finished priming everything for my army so aside from doing the movement trays it's all painting from here on out.

Skaven Update #7.1

Work was brutal last week so I didn't get much done. This week was little more productive.

I finally finished basing both slave units and my general. Took 2 nights to finish. Now I need to base all of clanrat unit #2, finish the conversion work on a few slaves(thanks Chris for the night goblins!) and conversion work on my general. Once everything is primed I'll post another progress pic.

1) clanrat unit #1: paint bases, and static grass
2) clanrat unit #2: everything
3) clanrat unit #3: paint bases, and static grass
4) slave unit #1: prime and paint
5) slave unit #2: finish conversion work, prime and paint
6) gutter runner unit: paint bases, and static grass
7) ratling gun team: paint base, and static grass
8) warpfire thrower team: paint base, and static grass
9) warlock engineer: paint base, static grass, and retouch paint
10) hero: finish conversion work, prime and paint
11) giant rat pack: paint bases, and static grass
12) paint/magnetize all movement trays and bases

Skaven Update #7

Well, after much talk with my teammate I think this is the army that I will be fielding. I'm short on a few slaves but I hope I can find something on Ebay... something like night goblins would be nice to fill up the ranks. I'm also needing a proper hero to lead the bunch. I have a couple ideas but it's still up in the air.



Pretty much everything will need to be touched up in some way. So here's my To-D0-List:
1) clanrat unit #1: finish basing
2) clanrat unit #2: everything
3) clanrat unit #3: finish basing
4) slave unit #1: base and do everything to a few replacements
5) slave unit #2: start basing and do everything
6) gutter runner unit: start basing
7) ratling gun team: finish basing
8) warpfire thrower team: finish basing
9) warlock engineer: finish basing and retouch paint
10) hero: find one and do everything
11) giant rat pack: finish basing
12) paint/magnetize all movement trays

All this by the end of March/ beginning of April. Wish me luck, 'cause I'm going to need it!

Skaven Update #6.2

So it might be looking like I'll be participating in a Warhammer team tourney in April. In which case I'll be doing a lot of painting in the following weeks and in turn more updates! Soon I'll have a list so I can figure out how much actual work I'll have to do. Keep your eyes peeled!