Reader Poll - Choose my next painting project!

*Squeek*

OK, now I need your help with a decision...

...what unit to paint next!

Please do me a favour and click on the poll on the screen to help me choose. 
I will paint whatever you - the hated man-things, decide. (If you happen to be a Grey Seer, or other notable member of the great Skaven race, then accept my apologies for such an insult....)

I own the following models so really just need a decision. In brackets below you can see how many of the unit I actually already have "ready to play" and painted in my force. 

The choices are:

1. Poison Wind Globadiers. (Currently: 0)
2. Plague Censer Bearers. ( Currently: 0)
3. Stormvermin. (Currently: 0 )
4. Warpgrinder Team(s) (Currently: 0)
5. Doom-flayer(s) (Currently: 0)
6. Clanrats. (Currently: 120)

My thoughts are:

Poison Wind Globadiers
Copyright Games Workshop

Globadiers? 

Cool, but would almost never use them. Also not so keen on the fact that they all look so similar, so might do some light conversions with the weapons etc to shake things up a bit.

Plague Censer Bearers
Copyright Games Workshop

Plague Censer Bearers? 

Not a huge fan of the models compared to the IOB and more recent plastics, and it seems as though not many people take them these days. On the other hand, I only need a small unit so they wouldn't take too long...

Stormvermin
Copyright Games Workshop

Stormvermin?

I have had these from my first purchase but just never got around to them. I only have 20, so they couldn't be a major force on the battlefield. They might be useful as a small bunker for my general or battle-standard bearer though?

Warpgrinder
Copyright Games Workshop

Warpgrinder? 

Now that I actually have some Clan Eshin guys in my army, they might be helpful. On the other hand, why take the risk of a cave-in when the Clan Eshin unit can probably make its way to the enemy's backline without too much trouble anyway?

Doomflayer
Copyright Games Workshop

Doom-Flayer? 

A big plus - it is a cool model and the fluff is great. 

A big fat minus - most people don't seem to think they are too effective on the battlefield. (But then again, I never get to play any games of WFB anyway!)

Skaven Clanrats
Copyright Games Workshop

Clanrats?

Who doesn't need more Clanrats?

Now that I have a pretty strong core of my army built up, it might be fun to spend some time on units that don't seem to be essential to the Skaven in 8th edition, but I will leave that up to you - the voting public - to decide!

Cheers,

*Squeek*

Plague Monk reinforcements FINISHED

*Squeek*

Just a few lads to add to my small unit of PMs, which should taken the frenzied ones up to about 40. 

As the beady-eyed among you will notice, even though I thought they were finished when I took these pictures I have forgotten to do the eyes!
...but I want to get these pictures posted anyway as it has been a while!

In a departure from my step-by-step guide to Plague Monks I didn't do any layering on these models. Instead I just did a wash of Devlan Mud (Ogryn Flesh on the skin) and then drybrushed the models with one or two lighter shades of the main colours. In addition, I started the skin as a Dwarf Flesh without a layer of Tallarn Flesh first underneath.

Also different is the fact that I used a Vermin Brown wash to add rust to the weapons. When I painted the first unit, I hadn't learned to do that, so I guess at some point I need to go back and "rustify" the other 30!

As these guys will be mixed in amongst the rank and file, I don't think much more detail is necessary at this point (except of course painting those eyes!)

All comments and feedback welcome!

Cheers,

*Squeek*

WIP - Plague Monk reinforcements

*Squeek* Plague Monk update...


They stink, they reek, they spread disease. They're PERFECT for any Skaven army that has a Clan Moulder army, or even your regular Warlord Clan like mine. (Although lets be honest, frenzy can be a bit of a double-edged - and rusty - sword.) 


I already have a medium-sized unit of thirty Plague Monks. They were one of the first units that I painted-up and posted a step-by-step guide for. After finishing some slaves, I thought that I should bump this unit up a bit, so the other night I started another ten. Ten is a good manageable amount.


I managed to lay down some base colours this week. (After being painfully reminded that PMs need quite a lot of filing on the tails, cloth and skin to remove excess flash...)

One of my favorite Plague Monk sculpts...

...love the way half of his head is covered by a skull and the other open

a possible Plague Censer bearer?

Deneb Stone for bandages.

One thing I did differently for this batch was to use Dwarf Flesh for the skin basecoat (rather than Tallarn Flesh). Slow, as it took several coats...


Just over the past couple of days, there was a good thread over on the Underempire about Plague Monk colours. One of the points that came up was that it is incredibly common to see monks in green, and were there any other colour options? I have kept to green, but I would love to see some good examples of alternatives! Any leads anyone?


I should have these guys done by the end of the weekend and will post again then.


Cheers,
*Reek*

More Failcast...

*Squeek*
...sigh.
Failcast?
FineCost?
Fineshaft?


More examples of poor "Finecast" models come to light. I read an interesting entry over at Scott's Wargaming Blog (great blog!) that had some links to a particularly poor Beast of Gorgoroth model.  Now, I've had bubble issues in the past, but this is In fact, shockingly poor.


Working at a company that sells a physical product, I know that almost any item that is manufactured can have issues. Despite everyone's best efforts, from time to time we have a defective item, and so do all of our competitors. For this reason it is only normal, and reasonable, to accept some small defects in a run of tens of thousands of units being produced. In addition, there is no evidence I have seen of GW not willingly replacing defective items upon request...


...but I also think it is reasonable to question why these same products are being promoted and positioned in the market as:
"incredibly detailed"
"high-quality"
"...the highest quality miniatures the world has ever seen."


The claimed "...new era in wargaming" seems to be off to a pretty poor start, especially when it appears to many people that:
- the quality of the product may actually have declined.
- prices have exponentially increased.
- for many people, there is in reality not a great deal of difference in detail between these and metal models.

If a company decides to tout their product as the best in the world, and raises their prices accordingly (despite it being the case that they could pass on some of the reduced manufacturing costs to the consumer, shipping weights being reduced) then the product had better be pretty good.


Whining?
SURE! 


The people who complain the most about products and companies tend to be the ones who love the product and/ or invest a great deal of money and time in them. 


And for people who say it is easy to fix (just "Green Stuff it", "put it in hot water and bend it back into shape" etc) these things might work, but when you are being charged top-dollar, you don't expect to have to try and fix these things yourself.

"Problem with the new Jag sir? Don't worry,
Green Stuff should sort out those holes in no time!"

It would be very interesting to know what the actual % rate of defective products is in a batch of Finecast models, as this would mean we could see if the rate was acceptable, or high. It might very well be entirely acceptable for this kind of production process. In my case, both of the two Finecast models that I have had big enough problems that I would consider the overall quality poor. 


Maybe I was just unlucky, and I don't respond well to overblown marketing hype...


In the final analysis, this hobby has brought me hundreds of hours of enjoyment in painting and gaming. Collecting and painting miniatures can still be called great value for money in the long term when compared to the paltry return on investment (in hours) received from going to the cinema, eating out, or taking the family out for the day.


Happy Valentine's Day!


*Squeek*

Fifty Finished Goblin slaves (with pictures.)

"Which way ladz?"

"That way you Goblin scum!"


Ahem, I mean "I've finally finished my first unit of Goblin slaves".


It took me a week to do them, working pretty much every night for a couple of hours on each stage of the painting process. I would do a base colour on all fifty, then back to the first one etc.


At the beginning of this unit, I realized that I would have to do something to break up the uniform look of these old WFB starter set models. I think I have been partially successful, but only a decent unit filler will really do the trick...
(I have something in mind - Rat Ogre holding the chains of a Goblin Warboss and a squig, all of them being whipped on by a master moulder...)


Here are some photos of the unit. 

50 Goblin Slaves!

Clan Moulder "Cheerleaders" keep up the unit's motivashun.

Snotflikka leading from da' front.

Rats added to the movement tray

"Old bonez" da spearman

Snotflikka 'n friends.

Shoot from the back.

"I feel safer wiv my big choppa"

"We'ze in charge den?"

Here are some things you may have noticed I did with this lot.

1. Replaced a lot of the original spearblades with blades from Skaven weapons.
2. Removed weapon arms and replaced them with Skaven arms and weapons. (Some from the IOB clanrats, some from the Plague monks sprue)
3. Removed the original Goblin icons from their shield bosses  and replaced them with Skaven icons. (From previous edition clanrats)
4. Replaced whole shields with Island of Blood triangular clanrat shields.
5. Added giant rats to some models.
6. Added "regular" rats to some models.
7. Mixed Goblins spearmen with Goblin archers.
8. Used a Skaven standard. 
9. Added Skaven pennants from the Plague Monk set.
10. Added rats to the edge of the movement tray.

Pretty obvious, but still quite a lot of work...


All comments and crit welcome! Thanks for looking.


Cheers,
*Squeek*