And the winner is...

*Squeek*

...The Stormvermin!  (tada~bugles etc.)

Let's take a look at the results shall we?

1. Stormvermin: 67% (29 votes)
2. Tie: Doomflayer, Clanrats, Plague Censer Bearers: 9% each (4 votes each)
3. Plague Wind Globadiers: 4% (2 votes)
4. Warpgrinder: 0% (absolutely no votes whatsoever.)

Well, that is a whole load o' love for the Stormvermin, and a disappointing kick in the crotch for the Warpgrinder. I guess not only do current Skaven players not field this thing too much, they also aren't too keen on seeing them painted...

...at least when one of the other options is the Stormvermin!

Copyright Games Workshop

So, I guess that pretty much decides what I will paint and post a "Step-by-step guide" to next. It may have to wait a little bit though due to a pretty busy week, but I am looking forward to it.

A quick look around seems to show two distinct ways of painting these guys.

1. Use your main army colour on the cloth, and keep the armour in traditional metal (Boltgun Metal etc.) with lots of Devlan Mud (or black) as in the GW unit pictured above (an informal Google search shows this to be the most common approach.)
2. Use the main army colour on the actual armour itself, and do the cloth in a complimentary colour. (Kind of like Queek Headtaker's armour in the image below.)

Copyright Games Workshop

Certainly, when GW does the latter it looks very striking (especially in red.) I think though that a good compromise between the time it would take to do approach "2" on all the models and a good effect would be to do only the Unit Champion with coloured armour, and the others with regular armour.

This could work because it would show that the Champion is not just special by being harder and meaner, but perhaps he also inherits the best armour with the colour. This would be a mark of leadership or favour AND a good way for him to be known when on the battlefield. I'd have to be careful to show that he isn't as important as Queek though - a good excuse to learn how to weather armour with scratches and chips?

I only have 20 Stormvermin at the moment, but who knows, once I get them painted up, perhaps that will spur me to buy more?

Thanks to everyone who voted and thanks in advance for your patience until I get this underway!

Cheers,

*Squeek*

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*

Skaven reinforcements - completed!

*Squeek*
Following a very quiet Christmas (in painting terms at least...) I spent some of last week working on more Skaven Clanrats to reinforce my current core units. I managed to finish these up tonight.


By themselves, 15 clanrats don't add up to much. However, put them with my other Clanrats and I am now up to about 135 Island of Blood clanrats. Not a huge number by some standards, but enough for three units of 45,  which I don't think is too bad. (I also have old, 4th generation clanrats, but I prefer to use them as slaves as they have an even more subhuman and degenerate look to them.)

I tried one or two new things this time around:
Firstly, a more extreme highlight on the edges of cloth items. I wanted to see how this would look from "Tabletop distance". Actually, I don't think it looks too bad! Here is a close-up:

Detail: Blood red edge highlights on cloth.

Secondly, as you can see in the unit images above, I have kept in a couple of Clanrats using different colours to add just a touch of variety among my units. In this case, the Blood Red used could mean they could be from Clan Mors or possibly Clan Moulder (I wonder what their stories are? Renegades?) What do you think?


Thirdly, I followed a different process for rust. Usually I use a very watered-down Blazing Orange wash. This time though I used a very watered-down Vermin Brown and then (for some models) stippled on a bit of (again watered-down) Blazing Orange. Kudos to the My Wargame blog for the tip. You can see how it turned out below on the clanrat's blade.

Detail: Vermin Brown and Blazing Orange rust washes.

Next project is decided...
...Queek Headtaker!
My first ever Finecast! Looking forward to finding out with my own eyes (and ratty fingers) what working with this new material is really like...

*Squeek!*

I'm a slave...

...to painting slaves.

From Warhammer Online Wikia 

*Squeek*

I haven't done any painting for a long time, so it was with horror that I opened my "Clan cupboard" and realized I must still have a good 70 to 100 figures left to paint (and a couple of warmachines too) before my clan is truly finished.

Having purchased some Night Runners I got good advice that I should paint them up quick because they are so useful (as Gutter Runners). However, after assembling them and taking a look at my horde I realized that my slaves are still far too few in number to be really useful...and as everyone seems to think that it is slaves that are actually our most important unit I thought I should buff up my unit size a bit first.

If you take a look over at my clan you can see that I use previous edition Clanrat models as slaves. I really much prefer the Island of Blood clannies, so use them as my core troops. (I think the older generation look really weak and slave-like compared to them.)
So here they are!

I think they have come out OK, considering that painting these models is actually a bit of a chore and I didn't lavish too much attention on them.

Some errors I made, mainly through laziness, that could/ should be avoided in future:

1. As I have had these undercoated and lying on the shelf for ages I didn't check that they had been carefully sanded to remove mould-lines/ flash. If you look closely it really shows. These older models in particular suffer from this is on the:

• a.) Feet. 
• b.) Spearheads. Particularly along the back ridge of the spear.
• c.) Shoulders. The pauldrons in particular.

2. When buying these older models secondhand (especially from eBay) always check with the seller that you are going to get the tails. Many of my lot are missing tails and it annoys me now. (I tell myself that in my clan, slaves are punished by having their tails clipped off. Or they lose them in fighting? Or perhaps sell them in exchange for food?)

3. Overexuberant rust washes! This is a Solar Macharius Orange that has been heavily watered down, but it looks way to "orangey"...

4. At the time I added sand to the bases before undercoating the model, I wasn't careful enough about the application of glue. Most of these models have sand on their feet. It doesn't sound like a big problem but actually it makes painting the feet a lot harder - and it looks bad.

I used the save overall techniques as used before in my Clanrats/ Slaves 4th Generation Guide but with the addition of a Solar Macharius Wash to get the rust effect.

So...now that I have done another 21, that brings my number of slaves to 51. I can increase that number another 40 by taking out one of my 3 units of 40 clanrats, but I really should consider painting up another 50 actual slaves.

Gutter Runners next I reckon, as they should add a whole level of new tactical options to my horde.

*Squeek*

How to paint Skaven Clanrats (Island of Blood)

*Squeek*

"Ifs ya gonna be Skaven, ya gots to has lots of Clannies!"

"Ere, quit pushin' at the back!"

The new models by Games Workshop are (in my opinion) a huge improvement over previous generations - for one thing, they are much easier to assemble and paint. For another, much more durable! (I've lost count of the number of times the tails of the older models have dropped off when knocked...)
 
Below you will find a step-by-step guide to a basic process for painting "5th Generation" Clanrats to what many people would call "Tabletop" standard. (To compare Clanrats through the ages, take a look at this excellent post over at My Wargame.) I'm not a great painter, so can't do much better than this anyway!
(By the way, if you are looking for older Clanrat models, take a look here. While I don't like these sculpts, they are cheap if you can get them on ebay and they make good Skavenslaves.)

EDIT: Following the launch of the latest Citadel Paint range in 2012, please note that the colours listed below are from the previous range. I hope to have time to rewrite in the future, but for the time being, you can use the conversion chart/ list I made here or use the official Citadel Conversion chart here.

The process followed was:

A.) First basing and undercoat:
After assembly, liberally apply PVA glue to base and dip in modelling sand. Wait until dry, then undercoat. (I use Chaos Black spraypaint.) 


Earth: Drybrush Calthan Brown across the sand.
Base edges: Calthan Brown.
(I like to do my bases like this at the beginning so that I get it out of the way. Nothing depresses me more than finishing 40 models and then going back to do basic work on the bases!) 

B.) Basecoat:
I do these in the following order (so I can cover splatters or mistakes easily.) 
- Skin/ Tail/ Feet: Tallarn Flesh. 
- Fur: Calthan Brown.
- Cloth: Ice Blue.
- Metal: Boltgun metal. (Weapons, belt buckle)
- Leathers: Snakebite leather. (Belt, wristband, armour crosspiece on the back of the Clanrat.)
- Wood: Calthan Brown. (Spear haft, wooden shields.) 


C.) Apply Washes: 
- Skin: Ogryn Flesh.
- Armour, robes, weapons: Liberally apply Devlan Mud.
- Rust on weapons or armour: Very watered down Solar Macharius Orange. 

Basecoat colours only.

After Ogryn Flesh Wash.

After "Rust" wash (watery Macharius Solar Orange)

D.) Layers:

(Reapply base colours and add layers of lighter shades/ colours) 
- Skin/ Tail/ Feet: Calthan Brown/Dwarf Flesh 50/50 mix on raised areas, then 25/50 mix.
(Be careful to leave some Tallarn flesh areas and the shadows created by the Devlan Mud wash and the black undercoat - especially on the tail.)
- Cloth: Ice Blue/ Skull White 75/25 mix on raised edges, then 50/50 mix. 
- Leathers: Snakebite leather/ Skull white (50/50 mix). 

After layering on flesh.

 

















E.) Drybrushing: (Optional)
- Fur: Drybrush Calthan Brown/ Skull White (50/50).
- Metal: Drybrush Mithril silver (Weapon edges) buttons etc. (e.g. Rivets if the model has a shield etc.) or just apply as an "Extreme Highlight" on the edge of the weapon/ armour.
 
F.) Final Basing:  
- Base: Drybrush Tallarn Flesh
- Apply dabs of PVA glue onto the base and dip into green flock.
  
Just a couple of final notes...

...my preferred method is to sit down for 2 hours every night for a few days and complete one step on all 40 models in each session (E.g. Adding a different base colour, doing one wash, painting the bases etc.) slowly making my way up to the same standard for all models.  Using this approach I am able to fully complete a unit in about a week.  

However, this time around I decided to only add detail on the command unit (Champion, Standard Bearer, Musician) to save time. I saw this in an edition of White Dwarf - basically, you spend the most time and effort on the front rank, with progressively less detail on the back ranks. (Back ranks would get only as far as washes, ranks in front of that would get highlights on hand and face only, front few ranks would get full highlights and drybrushes as well....)

...definitely consider a "Rust" wash on all weapons using very watered down Solar Macharius Orange. It is the easiest way to add a really "Skaven" feeling of dirt and disuse to the whole unit. When applying, dab away excess with a dry tissue to leave a "mottled" rust effect.

Hope this is useful!
:-)

Cheers,
*Squeek* 

New Clanrats Update - Part 7!

*Squeek*

Well, I think we are nearly there! (Famous last words...)

I managed to get the Devlan Mud wash onto the whole unit this evening and I think they would be OK on the tabletop at this point! I was careful to apply it to the clothes, armour and weapons, rather than put it on over the Ogryn Flesh wash I did yesterday. As usual, the Devlan Mud has toned down the Ice Blue nicely, and given the unit a dirty (Skaven-like!) look.

Here is a comparison of one model before and after washes:

Before washes

Ogryn Flesh wash on skin/ tail etc.

Devlan Mud wash on cloth, armour, weapons.

 And here is the unit together:

As you can see, I also painted the eyes Blood Red and also brushed a lighter layer of Calthan Brown on the bases too.

To finish off the unit, I still need to do the banners, add some grass to the bases and (time permitting) drybrush the skin, armour and cloth. On the command squad (Champion, Standard Bearer and Musician) I might also do some detailed highlighting as they are the key models in the unit.

I'm getting excited about finally seeing this unit on the table next to my other Clanrat units!
:-)

*Squeek*

New Clanrats Update - Part 5!

*Squeek*

Nearly there I think! Finally got to the end of applying the base colours...(I think!?)

• Dwarf Bronze details on helmets/ armour.
• Snakebite leather on belts.
• Bleached bone on teeth and nails and bandages
• Calthan Brown - spear hafts and drybrushed on shields.

 

Unfortunately, the weekend is over, so I have to stop, but I reckon I can have these guys done in one or two more sittings...

Next sitting: Washes with Ogryn Flesh, Devlan Mud and Gryphonne Sepia.

Final sitting: Highlights/ drybrushing/ tidying up bases...

The end is in sight!

*Squeek*

New Clanrats Update - Part 4

*Squeek*

Eyes hurting...losing focus...hands shaking...DEFINITELY time to stop painting Clanrats for the day!

Managed to get down:

• Ice Blue (army main colour)
• Codex Grey (army secondary colour)
• Snakebite Leather (bases - haven't done belts or other parts yet)

Also tidied up a few missed areas from stages 1-3!

Base colours still to do?

• Dwarf Bronze. (Metal, ear-rings etc.)
• Snakebite Leather. (Belts etc.)
• Bleached Bone. (Rags, bandages.)
• Calthan Brown. (This time on shields, spears etc.)

At this point, if this was my first time painting Clanrats I'd be thinking "They look TERRIBLE!" but I know that once I have the base colours done some washes will make a world of difference!

Until next time...
*Squeek*

New Clanrats Update - Part 3

*Squeeeeek*

Day 3 of painting a unit of x40 clanrats - first application of Boltgun Metal is DONE!

It took about 2 and a quarter hours to do this using just a regular Citadel "Standard Brush". Some of the models took just a few seconds as really as the have only a few "metal" parts to paint - only the spear head for example. Others took quite a bit of time, especially the ones where the rat is wearing banded metallic armour. (Some of the armour looks like the classic Roman Lorica Segmentata - pretty cool!) When doing those I tried to be careful to leave the gaps between the armour with just the black basecoat as this will form nice looking natural shadows later.

Here are some pics:

Hey, starting to look like an actual unit!

Interestingly, although the unit is starting to look quite martial because of all that metal, the whole thing looks messier than when it only had browns on it (at least when close up.)

What's next? I'm probably going to go with one of my major army colours - Ice Blue. This will go on the robes. I'm expecting that doing that colour will also take around 2-3 hours too. I feel like I am making progress, but finishing the unit to a good enough standard to use it in a battle still feels a loooooong, long way away!
:-)

'till next time!

*Squeek*