Where Did September Go?!

Wow, I can't believe it's already October! Work has been crazy trying to meet all kinds of deadlines, mostly all unrealistic. These past few weeks has been quite a blur that I hadn't realized I completely neglected my minis. It was only last week that I had the chance to go back to painting again. Funny enough, it was when I was sick. Anyway, onto the minis!

So I started painting the Ariadna Line Kazaks or 'Grunts' as what I'll be calling them in the future. Also, I was missing my rats already so I continued painting my rat ogres.

I'm about half way in and they are starting to shape up I think. I'm basing my color scheme on the G.I. Joe Grunt so they will all have basic green fatigues. I picked up GW's Camo Green specifically for them and it seems to work nice as a highlight for the Catachan Green basecoat. I think after some washes and more highlights they should be good and done. Oh, and yes, there is the Tankhunter but he's taken a backseat at the moment, sorry!

The rat ogres need a bit more TLC. They need another go of highlights and a definite rework of their bases so that may take some time to do.

This weekend a LGS will host their biannual auction and may take a peek. They tend to attract big spenders so I don't expect to be picking anything up. But, if I do luck out and sneak a buy (praying that it not hurt the wallet) I'll let you know. Later!

Skaven Update #32

Quick update here:

 

Well, I was going to say that I was finished with these guys but as soon as I uploaded the pictures I noticed a couple details that were overlooked. I'm gonna have to touch those areas up.
Started repainting the next batch of rat ogres.

Potpourri of Sorts

I've been working on different things this past week. Here's what I've done so far in my ADD-induced state:

All finally based. A couple need some green stuff loving but the rest are ready for priming. Also threw in Throt in the mix to get the Moulder groove going.

Painting-wise this was it for the rat ogres unfortunately, which was part of the reason I chose not to include it to my usual Skaven Updates.

The bottom half of the rat ogre on the left shows the original coat. The top half is coated with Elf Flesh. The rat ogre on the right shows the final look. It has been painted with a coat of Elf Flesh then a generous wash of Gryphonne Sepia. Both still needs work though.

One morning I stopped by my workstation and had a sudden urge to magnetize the captain, anticipating that I could swap him for another knight or something. I had planned on this for awhile, but it was just weird that I had to do it that moment. Made me late for work too! Hahaha, ahem...

 

Worked on a couple of Reaper minis intended to be Warhammer proxies. First is a Reaper Thug that I wanted to use as an Empire Militia champion- I'm pretty sure they have champions, right? I got stuck working on the shiny metal. Second, I thought this looked to be a perfect proxy since GW's is just simply terrible. Not much to this, added a VC coffin shield and worked on the base a bit.

Last but not least are the start of my Infinity collection! These are wicked minis, but my only gripe is these are very delicate pieces. The handle bar for the Tankhunter is really soft and has flash. I'm really hesitant to do any fix on it. The knife arm for the SAS is also soft and I'm worried in time after much handling it might break off. It maybe just these particular minis but they are definitely not for kids. Still I can't help but think how cool these minis will be once I get some paint on them!

Oh, I even did another sprite. That's now 2 and counting!

Skaven Update #31

I was expecting to get some good quality hobby time these past couple weeks but that was not the case. The little time I did find I...

...expanded!

Since I'm working on rat ogres at the moment I thought it'd be a good idea to open up my 2 unopened Moulder boxes that's been collecting dust and to finally start on them as well! They've been on the shelf for a long time. I picked one up way back during the Lustria summer campaign (remember that?) and the other one when a LGS went out of business shortly after. Aside from a single packmaster everything else is assembled and most are based. Y'know, I do have a couple more rat ogres that are still in their packages- the more recent Boneripper and the Mordheim Skryre rat ogre. I wonder if I should assemble them as well. This project just got a little bigger.

Rat Ogres!

Okay, it's official. I'm committing myself to paint this hulking bunch next.

Looks like they're almost done but let's take closer look...

The packmasters have obviously not worked on. They don't even have their bases sanded yet.

At the time, I rushed these dudes to have them tabletop ready (for an entirely different game system no less) and in doing so, prematurely added the static grass when I clearly wasn't finished. I need to brighten the skin tones a bit and finish the smaller details. Also need to paint around the grass to finish the base. Well that's the plan anyway. I may need to strip the grass all together.

These guys look about half done and need some serious wash and highlighting. These earlier models clearly look different from the others so I wanted their paint scheme to reflect that a bit. After seeing them within the unit I may have to tone down contrast just a tad to have a more uniform look.

The old Boneripper is now my master bred. Still needs some painting to do but what it really needs is special treatment on the base to have it stand out more.

Well, there you go. We'll see how long this project will last.

Skaven Update #21

Ok done with my littlest rat ogres Riff and Raff.

I think they came out alright. Seeing them up close on the monitor, I may do some touch ups but I think I can call this one done.

An added bonus... well sort of...

I thought you might want to see some size comparisons of the different metal figs from previous editions.

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