[8 / 43] 500p Skaven army

A little update on my Skaven army. 8 out of 43 models painted. I am amazed that people play 2000-3000 points worth of Skaven, as there are so many cheap units, and they all take a lot of time to paint:) Then again, it will be an interesting experience playing a horde army:)

Below we have two weapon teams, one warlock engineer (going to play him with the musket, but not the warp energy condenser), one standard bearer, one musician, one clawleader and two clanrats with spears and shields.

What's missing is some static grass here and there (I want to spray purity seal on them first) and some wash on their teeth. On, and 35 more clanrats:) I do have the movement trays painted though, but also missing static grass. Looks like this can be fun!

Librarian WIP

I felt that I wanted to give a librarian a go. For just 40 points I can suit him up in Terminator armor and a storm shield. Which should at least give him a fighting chance when the bullets starts to fly :) So I bought a libby in terminator armor and gave him a shield.

My initial opinion on finecast stands. Awesome material, really nice to work with, and Games Workshop has a quality assurance issue that is very severe. The damn thing looked like a swiss cheese before I whipped out the green stuff and knife. I think that I, as a GW customer, deserve better than that. I pay for what is usually a great product, but with finecast that isn't the case. I don't want to call and complain after I've bought their product, not ever time. I really hope it changes in the future.

That sad part done with I put the brush to the miniature. Enchanted Blue for the blue, and well, I'll let the WIPs speak for themselves :)

The force weapon is electrical! :)

The shield turned out pretty nice, so did the crux terminatus.

Full frontal :) He's not glued onto the base yet so I can still easily paint the base. Going to put on some of my special mix on it as well (Brita filter contents).

More is on it's way :)

Skaven Poisoned Wind Mortar

Another Skaven unit painted. I just need to seal them and then paint the globes with 'ard coat.

Tried some bronze effects, I hope you can pick it out :)

I think these guys can end up looking really stellar on the game table. Now they just need their fellow team and, ehm, wops, 80 clanrats to join them. 80! That's almost twice as many as all the painted marines I have:)

Opinions? Anyone like?

Warlock Engineer

 Warlock Engineers (and Grey Seers) are my favorite Skaven characters. I guess I have a sweat spot for the guys:) The crazy contraptions, the weird tech, the magic, the green warpstone. They are awesome. Unfortunately I don't think I can pay the points for all his gear (15p for the musket is a bit much in a 500p army, and since he will already be 120p :)). Looks quite menacing in this pose doesn't he?

 You might wonder what the odd white thing is. It's a High Elf shield. Not that I do it justice at all, I just painted the whole thing white :)

I used a three color scheme for each color. Base, highlight, and finish it with a wash. Except for the metal, which is boltgun metal or dwarven bronze with a Thraka Green wash on top.

Tallarn Flesh for the skin, with Elf as a highlight and Vermin Brown as a "highlight" for the fur with Ogryn Flesh for a wash. Bestial Brown, Bleached Bone, and Devlan Mud for the wood. Snakebite  Leather, Bubonic Brown, and Ogryn for the leather. Black and Boltgun for highlight (no wash).

The red is just Mechrite Red with Blood Red and a Delan Mud wash. Plus some greens and voila this is what you get.

Not sure what to do with the base. I ended up repainting it after this but I thought it turned out too bright. I want kind of a muddy feeling, and the Chinchilla Sand seems to work out OK. Might need a little more sand though, roughen it up a bit. Going to finish it off with some static grass.

Next step, 40 Clanrats and two weapon teams :) And two 5x5 movement trays.

Skaven!

My sneaky ratty plan is to paint up what you see below and to use everything but the chieftain/warlord for my 500p army. Possibly add a few extra clanrats (yes, I need an extra IoB Skaven set:) Two ain't enough!). We'll see how I'll expand after that. Slaves, ratogres, something :) Jezzails looks awesome but *wow* pricy!

40 Clanrats and two weapon teams! Too me around 3 1/2 minute per rat to clean up. Not a fan of this stage. I also found it hard to build the movement trays. Hard to make them neat. Time to break out the green stuff before I put sand on the sides and prime.

My new cheap grey (light) primer turned out to be pretty neat. I'm also trying out Chinchilla sand as a basing material. I wanted the base to look like it wasn't filled with big rocks :)

And here with some color on. Not all basecoats are on yet. Then some highlights (you might notice that I highlight the black with boltgun metal, looks pretty sweet!) and I will finish up with washes. I hope to get it really fast in the end so that I can speed paint all the guys. Plus it will make them look darker and grittier. Plus the clanrats will get rust on their metal. A Warlock Engineer is liable to have means to avoid rust :)

So what do you guys think of the rats? Think it can work out?