Final Engineer/Wizard Complete, and so is my Ratkin Army!

It gives me great pleasure to present the last model in my army, a Ratkin Wizard (or Skaven Engineer):

And so with him finished, time for some army shots!

I started this army nearly five years ago, and I'll admit at times it looked like an insurmountable task. But it's done! What a feeling, just great.

I've learnt a lot from this project (no more horde armies! Ever!) and feel ready to up my game on the next one. While I'm overall very happy with how this turned out, I regret not doing more with the basing, so that'll definitely be an area I'll improve upon in my next army.

As to what that'll be, watch this space...

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Death and Pestilence

It's been a long time since I've been able to hobby, but I'm back! And to prove it here's my most recent bit of work: a horde of Ratkin Blight.

So, Ratkin eh? Not Skaven? Well yeah, as I've mentioned before, I'm done with GW now, but Mantic's Kings of War is really doing it for me. So a few changes are being made to my army to enable the switchover, although very little is necessary. These were initially going to be Skaven Slaves, but given the abstracted nature of KoW there was no reason not to grossify the rats up and into members of the Blight.

Coming soon, my first attempt at multibasing!

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From the pits...

Wow, has it really been over a year since I updated?

Yes. Yes it has. Crazy.

In that time I have continued hobbying, but not at the same pace. However, I've failed to post what little progress I've made, so time to sort that.

I don't remember when I finished these exactly, but it was some point last year. Rat Ogres + Packmaster!

Now all I have left to paint in this army is one engineer and 40 slaves. I had planned on adding an Abomination, however the rumours about 9th really do nothing for me, so I can see myself wrapping up the army at that point. It's a shame, but after painting this many rats it's also a bit of a relief to have a clear finish-line.

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Critters in the Dark...

So I finished some more Skaven not long ago, this time it is the rest of my giant rats and packmasters. These shouldn't have taken me as long as they did (three weeks) but I've been getting distracted by all the BFG... anyway, here they are.

These will be spilt in into four rat darts in games, should prove a great irritant to my opponents!

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The Hidden Blade...

Painted up the last of my very old models a few days ago. I wasn't sure what to do with him for the longest time, but I had the idea of making him an assassin who's hidden himself among my Stormvermin.

Up next, clan moulder delivers a shipment from your nightmares...

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Stormvermin!

Its been a long time coming but I've finally made a significant addition to my Skaven horde. Tremble before my fighting Stormvermin!

And with my Warlord, BSB and attached weapon team:

Painting these guys was a tough slog (sooo much metal!) but at least now my Skaven leadership have a nice bunker in which to hide from from any other ambitious rats in my horde. Insurrection will not be tolerated!

Anyway, next I've got to paint either 4 rat ogres or some 40 slaves. I think I'll take a break for the next few days though before making a decision one way or the other.

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The hero Skavenblight deserves...

Been far too long since I posted, mainly due to me working on hobby projects that I don't feel are worthy of posting yet (been working on some speed painting with Chaos Space Marines), but I took a break to do this little fella and I'm pleased with the result. A very old (and cute!) assassin model. Enemy wizards/war machines beware!

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A foul emissary appears...

As a break from my Guard (pics coming soon) I've painted up a Plague Priest. This is an old model (kindly donated by a friend) which I'm pretty certain wasn't intended to be a Plague Priest, but I think works pretty well as a lvl1 scroll bearer.

I tried a few new things with this model, like painting his flesh to look very sickly, and painting his fur a more blondy brown. I think the first worked well, not sure about the second.

Back to the Guard production line I go!

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Clanrats!

After spending the last month working on getting these 60 clanrats I can honestly say, though it has been said many times before by many Skaven painters, I'll be happy if I never have to paint another one ever again. Fortunately, for me that is now the case, since that's all 100 of my clanrats done!


Unit 1:

The Warpfire Thrower with this first unit is the one I painted a while ago, now joyfully reunited in fully-painted-ness with its unit.

Unit 2:

With the release of 6th ed. 40k now a few months in, I think I'll be taking a break from my rats for a while. I am however going to try and get some battle reports made with them soon.

Painting wise expect to see some of my Imperial Guard marching about soon enough!

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Progress Report #1

In the next few days I'll be going far, far away from my hobby table for a while, so I really wanted to get my remaining 60 clanrats finished before then. Alas, I was only able to get them up to a minimum tabletop standard (base coloured, washed, some details and based). However this is still a good point to take stock of how I'm progressing so far and what I still have to do. So on to the pictures!

"Capture the Football/Soccer field we must, quick-quick!"

The first three pics show everything which is completely done, and in last pic you can see the two minimum standard units on either side. I hope you'll all agree that from this distance they are fine, I'll of course show them in more detail when there is more detail to show!

Still to do:

Finish 60 Clanrats, 1 WFT.

3 Warlock Engineers (1 with Brass Orb, 1 Doom Rocket).

23 Stormvermin.

40 Slaves.

2 Giant Rat Darts.

4 Rat Ogres.

So lots to go, but I feel like I'm about halfway through now. Anyway, that's gonna be it from me for a while, later!

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Finished BSB

Just got this done and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

I did the banners first so that I could hold the model further up without rubbing off the paint, and after I did them I wasn't really taken with them. I imagine many people have similar feelings when it comes to freehanding though, since it takes practice to really get the image in your head onto the model. But anyway, now that the whole thing's done I'm happier with them.

I'm sure some of you have noticed the out of place shiny bits on the top banner in the second picture. It seems that Agrax Earthshade sometimes goes on matt, and other times glossy. Yeah. :/

Anyway, back to painting clanrats I go!

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More Clanrats, BSB w.i.p.

Just got done with another 20 clanrats with spears, which completes a unit of 40. I'm planning on mostly just using this unit as a bunker for my Grey Seer.

Also apologies for any blur in these pics, I'm still getting used to the camera I'm using.

As a break before I get started on another 20 (I dunno about anyone else, but painting these guys gets old fast) I've started working on my BSB, built from the stormvermin kit and doomwheel banner, with the mutilbanner inspired by Kimzi's fantastic BSB. In fact now that I look at it again I think the general feel of my BSB is going to be pretty similar, I think it inspired me more than I realised!

This model may prove a challenge as my freehand skills leave much to be desired, but as the internetz would say, challenge accepted!

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Doomwheel!

Well, it took longer than I thought it would (while at the same time I did less with it than I could have) but its done and I'm pleased with how it has turned out.

The model mainly consisted of painting two types of materials, ie metal and wood, neither of which I'm particularly comfortable with. However the new Balthasar Gold was a big help, it went on like a dream. I shudder to think about what a nightmare it would have been to get a consistent base coat down with the old range!

Another big help was the guide over at chatteringhorde.blogspot.co.uk . With bigger models like this I never have any idea where to start and the clearly laid out guide was a godsend. He has loads of other Skaven guides, check them out!

Also this is my first Skaven model where I used Agrax Earthshade instead of Devlan Mud, and I have to say that despite some of the things I have read about the new liquid talent I think it looks pretty good, yes it is different from Devlan Mud but its not bad different imo. The hint of green in it actually gave a subtle verdigris effect on the gold areas (hard to see in the pics) but just came up brown on the silver areas.

Anyway, time to get to work on those 80 clanrats and 40 slaves giving me evil glares from the worktop. I expect my next post won't be for a while... :)

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