100!!!

It's my 100the post!  To commemorate this insignificant achievement I will in turn post something of equal measure.

Skaven Warlitter- Underempire's painting competition for July-August just ended so I can finally show you my entry.  The theme was Warlord on mount and I chose to make a warlitter for this.  I came in 3rd... out of 6.  A little disappointed but whatevs, it got me motivated.  So here it is!

Warlord Ratbone's Crimson Vermin Warlitter

Now I've had this idea for a long, long time- might have been shortly after I got the new codex.  There were a few key points about my overall direction:

1) I wanted the Warlord to have a big weapon- really big.  I mean how else is he going to fight from up there?
2) I wanted the stormvermin to carry the palanquin on their shoulders.  I've seen a lot of warlitter conversions where they use the spear arms to hold it up but it doesn't look right imo.  I think if you rest the platform on their shoulders and hide their hands underneath it's more natural.
3) And finally I wanted some sort of trophy rack and fit as much bits as I can afford/find... well that was the original plan anyway.

WIP pics

What took the longest was figuring out how to build the palanquin.  I was going back and forth on how to make it.  I ended up using a combination of popsicle sticks and sprues.  Finding all the bits that I needed to make this happen took just as long.  But as I quickly accumulated bits that I thought that would be cool for the project I found out that a lot of it would be overkill.  One such example is the trophy rack.  I originally wanted trophies like shields, heads, and weapons from other races and the little gnoblar lookout on top of it but the whole thing got way too big and cumbersome.

One mistake I did make was gluing the stormvermin one at a time and basing around their feet one at a time. It really made sense at the time.  I was worried about the their shoulders not being level with each other making the palanquin uneven.  Having them flat on the base minimized the margin of levelness. But then of course that would mean basing and painting around their feet.  That was a bitch and a half.

It wasn't until the end of the project I found a subtle and effective way to keep the palanquin level- funny how that always happens.  It's the same idea behind sanding a leg of table to get it level.  I sanded down the part of the palaquin that rests on the stormvermins' shoulders.  Brilliant!  (face palm)  Had I known this earlier I would have based first and then painted before gluing the stormvermin down.  I might have even done something nice to the base maybe.

All these hurdles did affect the quality of my work losing a lot of painting time.  I had to ditch a couple ideas so I can finish on time.  I originally wanted shields on the side of the palanquin but didn't think I would finish in time.  Despite all that I still rushed the paint job and I think it shows.  Eh, anyway all 3 points I wanted done were completed so I think it came out pretty good.

If you want to see the other entries from the competition head over HERE.  If you want to see more pics of the warlitter head over HERE.

Infinity- Back to Infinity again and still anxiously waiting for my campaign book and a box of French people.  Next post, I plan to have some min wips or complete ones depending how long I wait to post. Until next time!