Goblin Skaven Slaves update. Part 3

*Squeek*

After giving myself a break from large units by finishing Queek Headtaker, Deathmaster Snikch, and Scar-Scath (Vermin Lord) I think it is time to return to reinforcing the core of my Warlord Clan.
For many Skaven warlords, "Core" probably brings to mind two essential unit types: Clanrats and Skaven Slaves.



Having come into a large number of old Goblin models, I thought it would be great to use them as "counts as" Skaven slaves. After all, the green-things are a constant nuisance to us Skaven, competing with us as they do for control of Dwarven holds, mines, and prime underworld real estate. (I imagine any generals of the lesser-races reading this will think it ironic that we Skaven should think of Goblins as an infestation! But, while infestation they may be, when captured they can prove useful in the vanguard of our armies - or perhaps the cooking pot!)



In two earlier posts (here and then here)  I talked a bit about the simple modelling I did to make the unit look more "Skaveny". I have since added texture to the bases, primed the unit, completed basecoating and highlighting the skin. Basecoating the skin took me 2.5 hours for 40...(so much for speed painting!)

Primed

Basecoat of Calthan Green

Highlights of Calthan Green/ Snot Green

Drybrush with lighter shade of Calthan Green

Now I hardly ever get a game in, so I can't speak with confidence about any personal battlefield experience with my slaves, but the general opinion around the intertunnels is that they are pretty critical to any Skaven army! If possible, they need to be deployed at a minimum of 40-60 troops (any comments on that dear reader?), as this will give them plenty of ranks to stop them running from combat AND allow them to die in droves (exactly what we want so they hold up the enemy unit.)


More updates over the course of this week, at the end of which I hope to have finished up the full unit of 50.


*Squeek*

More filin' n' cuttin'. Goblin Skaven slaves update 2

*Squeek*

So yesterday I started to put together a unit of Goblin Skaven slaves. These gobbo spearman models came from the 4th edition starter set (thanks for the info yesterday Ian!) As I discovered after a days work, they still all looked too uniform due to the static poses.


After sleeping on this problem, I decided today to reduce the number of spears. 
Firstly, I thought that would make them look immediately less uniform. 
Secondly, this would allow me to do more conversions from the bits box with handweapons. Finally, I reckon this would be more in keeping with slaves too.


So here they are after 3 rounds of choppin' and changin'. (Sorry the pics aren't great.)

1. As assembled. Facing diagonally.

2. At the end of day 1. Too many spears!

3. More hand-weapons, less spears.

Overall I think it had worked. The unit feels more rag-tag (at least compared to yesterday). What do you reckon? (Sorry the pics aren't great)


In addition to filing each and every single gobbo head smooth (!) I also spent some more time on individual conversions in the hope that this would give the unit more character and break up the outline if the unit as a whole.

Gobin wiv' special headgear.

'ome made spearrgghh

nice for cuttin' and choppins.

no cleva capshun ere.

Wiv man-trap.

curly-wurly blade.

big choppa

Although I am no great modeler, I am actually quite happy with one or two of them as I think have taken on a character of their own.


I reckon that with the addition of some rats to bases and shoulders I should be done and ready to start adding texture to the bases, and then move onto priming. To take a break I will then go back to Snikch and Queek. (Snikch has some washes on now, so I should finish him tomorrow.)


*Squeek*

Goblin Skaven Slaves. Part 1.

Copyright: Goblin image by8Hungry

*Squeek*


"Green things, your time has come to serve a great-great cause. The Great Horned Rat calls his children to war, and all those that hear the call must answer! Forward...and feel the lash!"

So I have read about (and occasionally seen) on the web "counts as Skaven slaves" units made up of other models. Popular options might include models that look raggedy enough (Empire flagellants) or fit neatly into Skaven lore. Good examples of the latter would be Goblins (as small, or smaller than your average clanrat) and Dwarves ("hates, HATES them we does", said in best Gollum voice.)

When a colleague cleared out his attic and offered me some WFB models he found I offered to take them. What I got was 2-3 boxes worth of old Goblin archers, Spearmen and Orcs, about 35-40 of each. Can anyone identify what edition they are?


At the time I wasn't really sure what to do with them. While Squeek and Snikch were drying today I decided to get out the greenskins. Despite having recently said that I would try to avoid doing large units for a while I immediately wanted to see if i could make these guys into a unit of slaves.

Goblin spearmen

Goblin archers

Some immediate problems presented themselves:

1. Every single model was based at a diagonal. Therefore every single model faced sideways when ranked-up.
2. As an old set, each model was identical in pose and main armament (spear and shield). Great for goblins, not so good for slaves.
3. Spears...a forest of ramrod straight, identical spears. Most sources I read say don't bother with spears on slaves, so I certainly didn't want all of them like that.

So, after opening my bits box and getting out my tools I decided to see what I could do to make them into the rabble I wanted.


Here is how I spent my afternoon.

A.) Cutting each gobbo off their bases with a craft knife, I then filed down the feet and bases and glued them on facing front and center.

B.) I removed 70% of the original goblin shield and replaced them with shields from the latest style clanrats (triangular) and previous generation clanrats (circular).

C.) I clipped, chopped and glued my way through an assortment of spears, hand weapons, pouches and banners to try to vary the unit somewhat.


Here are some examples:

So guess what? I FAILED to make the unit the way I wanted it to...

I think the problem is that even doing all that, the body position is just too static...
...and they are ALL like that, so you can't escape the feeling of immobility that it brings. Also, it would be too time consuming to do something with the shield arm on models where I have removed the shield, but right now those arms just kind of sit there looking weird.


Finally, they look too well-armed (and a little too LONG-armed in some cases) to really be slaves.


What to do? Four possible solutions come to mind:

1. Try mingling some archers in there to mix things up a bit.
2. Add a couple of packmasters.
3. Add some rats to some of the gobbo bases.
4. Create some kind of unit filler of a reasonable size. This would break up the visual profile of the unit and add some appropriate Skaven "DNA" (a spare rat ogre holding onto chains running to the gobbos?)   

Any ideas out there that might be simple to do for a relatively inexperienced modeller like myself?


Cheers,


*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*