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So - This is my first P&M Blog

Maybe a little introduction is due.

The only army in Fantasy i found interesting was Skaven, I loved the idea of Rats lurking around in sewers and sneaking up on people. So when i saw the starter set was including skaven i was totally interested. I knew i wanted it to be a very "Sneaky" Army, my first thought was "Genestealers". So i waited around for the first pictures of the sprues. Excited, i made a 1500 point list Using the 'Nid dex.

It is something along the lines of this - Not exact.

2 - Flying Hive Tyrants.

Death Leaper

10 -Ymargl Genestealers

3 x 9 Genestealers With a broodlord.

My tactics would involve Using everything i could to mess with peoples leadership - and using hive commander to make most my stuff come on turn 2. Not a competitive list, but hey for 50 bucks worth of models, it aint bad at all.

Now that i had my List - I started Building. (Excuse the Quality of these first few pictures.)

Tyrant 1


Tyrant 2


Random Genestealer


Death Leaper



And Now i find myself Painting my first HQ - Fluff wise He is a genetically modified monster who for obvious reasons wont fit in the sewers with the rest of his buddies. So they were gracious enough to build him something to help him scout ahead for his rat friends and shoot down some baddies as well.

(This is mostly done i would love some input on how to improve him though!)






Leave your thoughts below, I would love any suggestions!

I would try to convert the " genestealers" more just kinda look like a clanrat on a circle base i like everything else maybe give them some chain axes and swords maybe make the death leaper have a chain pole arm like you did with the rat ogres . Your painted minis so far are beautiful love to see more

I would make sure every guy had some 40k stuff or scifi stuff on him so it felt more like a conversion not a proxy. Also make the size similar to the nid for fairness and maintaining the proper scale between the massive creatures of the nids and the little ankle bitters.

Also i think it would be good to take inspiration and echo design elements of the nid unit. For example:

I think a "genestealer" rat ought to have 2 weapons and be a little larger than the average rat, which would be something like a hormagaunt. the genestealer has 4 arms so one weapon and no conversions seems pretty lacking.

The death leaper rat is a good height, consider the real model. But i really think it ought to have to spear like weapons because a Death leaper has 2 long spiky arms.

Overall i think you would benifit from some tyranid bits that would tie the rats into the nid theme. Right now it looks more like orks or Imperial Guard. They could be nasty mutations from a evil genetic test by the hive mind on the rats.

The painting is very evocative. What is the plan for the fur?

The rat ogres are crazy and mental, but oh so goooood... keep it up it.

I agree with the others about the clanrats.

Clan rats= gaunts and stormvermin = genestealers maybe.

Definitely add some conversions if you can like crimsonmicc suggested lol, i am sure the warlock engineers could create something suitable manic?

Are you going to use the skaven mortar as a biovore? and warpfire thrower as pyrovores?

Overall though a great concept, looking to be well executed. Will be watching this with interest

Well, my plan was to have some fluff about how some run of how a run of the mill rat was mutated somehow during the conflict on Armageddon, he became self aware and tried to recreate what happened to him on other rats.

Due to the fact that rats breed like rats, and he is still able to communicate with the average rat. He was able to recreate what happened very quickly - allowing for the creation of his forces. Every now and then he messes up, usually this kills the rat, but occasionally this creates the hulking behemoths of rats you see above. They are still a very small force that are only able to survive thanks to their extraordinary martial skill - Honed over hundreds of genetic mutation experiments and training. They are one of the most difficult things to kill in the galaxy and they sneak up on their prey from sewers and such. Catching them off guard.

My plan is to run the "Giant rats" from the Fantasy Line as Gaunts - Allowing me to create my Eventual Tervigon. Which will be a Mutant Rat holding a Barrel of rats.
- But that is for my 2000 point list. I still need to get this done first

Gonna start working on my other Heli-Rat tonight.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
So i did a little bit of Modeling work tonight as well:

Introducing my first squad of 'Genestealers' for my "Space Rats"

'The Guardsrats'

These Rats have killed hundreds of guardsmen over their surprisingly long lifespans - and have grown fond of the guardsmen. They long to be a imperial trooper fighting for the emperor. However, they are Mutant Rats. So they kill just about everything that moves.


They are lead by a squad leader:

I really love this guys basing, There is literally none of his body on his base whatsoever. It looks pretty sweet though.



This shows him leading his buddies. The old catchan plastic stands out against the newer darker plastic. so you can tell what is what.


Expect Every Squad to have a different army they are rooting for.

i think giant rats are too small to be guants. i think you ought to use skaven slaves or maybe some skaven slaves riding giant rats .

For genestealers i think these would be good Skaven Night Runners they have two weapons and a similar flailing arm look.

But thats just my opinion. A barrel full of rats sounds ingenious and excellent.

I have been thinking a bit about this and i agree with crimnsonmicc, giant rats would be your ripper swarms... small, numerous and unbreakable.

Gaunts would be skavenslaves while gaunts with guns would be clanrats (simple reasoning being that gaunts with claws have no weapons... but claws, and toxic sacs or other enhancements could be where clan moulder mutated them) clan rats for gun gaunts as they arte 1 step up the food chain so they would get a weapon of sorts.

Storm vermin as tyranid warriors, your elite bruiser types and clan eshin gutter runners as genestealer, with deathmaster sniktch as brrod lord or supreme lictor of death.

BTW the ratling barrel gun sounds cool.

PS this 4 armed 2 weapon thing.... why not put 2 per base, gives you 4 arms and also a swarm/ horde effect, but no shields/ minimal armour to reflect the 1 wound thingy

Well except for the fact i have no plans of putting ripper squads in my list. They dont fit the style of army i want.

These are a small force of Rats who cant just charge into the enemy because they lack the numbers to do so. They genetically alter themselves and train constantly so they can be some of the best fighters around.

Cool, sounds like a good idea.... and i like the pics so far

My your tyrants are outstanding. Love the conversion.

Oh look - Hive Tyrant #2








Expect to see my Deathleaper next he's just so cute!

Like your tyrants, but you need more Tyranid bits!

and why not give them four arms? they are mutated rats after all

Not totaly sold on the "counts as Nids" But some of your modeling and painting is really quite good.

Tortured-Robot wrote:Not totaly sold on the "counts as Nids" But some of your modeling and painting is really quite good.

Same I'm not buying it (the nid thing), but the work itself is great I've seen a few people do pretty similar kit-bashes with those rat ogres since they came out (it's the reason I avoided the models for my rats) on the other hand I can totally see the Skaven doing that to a Rat ogre, which brings up the next thing (I just thought bout it while typing) Rat Ogre's are not what you would call smart yet you're using one as a Tyrant which is Smart would a Vermin Lord not be a better choice?

All in all top notch keep it up.

I have to say that your painting skills are pretty epic.

Allthough I (personally) don't like the idea using such a different figures as "count as" list.

I don't mind the idea or running them as Tyranids at all - hell there's an awesome Genestealer Hybrid army that runs as counts-as-Orks. This is a lot easier to swallow.

However I don't think you're listening to the community when they say that your army is, and will continue to be looked at as if were modelled for advantage. This is a WAAC move and opponents won't like it.

I certainly don't like the idea of a Hive Tyrant being the same size as an Ogre, rather than the size of a Hive Tyrant. And I wouldn't play against Genestealers that were shorter than a guardsman.
If you were running those clanrats as Gaunts, awesome.
If you want to run them as 'stealers, model comparable weapons onto them and make them the same height.

That squad leader on the giant base whiffs of Modelling for Advantage too.

I'm not so fond of the nids, but i love the Guard'

BLACKHAND wrote:Like your tyrants, but you need more Tyranid bits!

and why not give them four arms? they are mutated rats after all

Thank you! Once i get the first 1500 points done - i am thinking about getting the rat ogre kit and giving all the arms to one of them to be my swarmlord. lol.
Then hopefully have enough bits for my tervigon using the rest.

They aren't spose' to be Tyranids - I am just using the rules to represent what i want the army to play like. Since i want all my troops to be outflanking, Sneaking around in the sewers, Genestealers make sense.

Tortured-Robot wrote:Not totaly sold on the "counts as Nids" But some of your modeling and painting is really quite good.

Thank you!
Same as #1

Remos wrote: I have to say that your painting skills are pretty epic.

Allthough I (personally) don't like the idea using such a different figures as "count as" list.

Thank you!
Same as #1

Tek wrote:I don't mind the idea or running them as Tyranids at all - hell there's an awesome Genestealer Hybrid army that runs as counts-as-Orks. This is a lot easier to swallow.

However I don't think you're listening to the community when they say that your army is, and will continue to be looked at as if were modelled for advantage. This is a WAAC move and opponents won't like it.

I certainly don't like the idea of a Hive Tyrant being the same size as an Ogre, rather than the size of a Hive Tyrant. And I wouldn't play against Genestealers that were shorter than a guardsman.
If you were running those clanrats as Gaunts, awesome.
If you want to run them as 'stealers, model comparable weapons onto them and make them the same height.

That squad leader on the giant base whiffs of Modelling for Advantage too.

I've seen that Army - Totally epic.

As for they WAAC stuffs - I have other legit armies for when i play tournaments and such. This is for for playing with friends. This is also a pretty sweet budget build since i am spending less then 100 bucks to make a 1500 point list. The Ogres are based on rocks and have those huge helicopter blades that get them pretty close to actual size. If i wanted to be a total WAAC jerk i wouldn't have used the tyranids codex either. I could make a much better list then this for just killing people.

I based that squad leader like that to be awesome. Its my way of poking fun at over the top basing. He's not even on the base whatsoever!

I originally considered using the daemon codex for a 40k skaven army, deepstriking could represent the rats burrowing out of the ground, and lots of hand to hand so the models wouldn't have to be converted too much...went for guard instead though as I am slightly better at playing them...slightly

BLACKHAND wrote:I originally considered using the daemon codex for a 40k skaven army, deepstriking could represent the rats burrowing out of the ground, and lots of hand to hand so the models wouldn't have to be converted too much...went for guard instead though as I am slightly better at playing them...slightly

I was just thinking about that this morning! My Tyrants could become Demon Princes and such. Think of the Multi-codex Possibilities!

Looks good. I like the Guardrats. I have a Renegade Guard army and I was considering modifying some Skaven to be my "Ratlings." I decided not to field Ratlings, but your unit turned out great.

I like the Rat Orgre Tyrants too. I think some of the modeling looks disconnected, but overall still great.

I don't mind the tyrants too much, or the guard-rats, though for the big dudes I'd go for something Vermin-lord sized rather than the rat oger, still, not bad. (And really guys, they are standing on top of what looks like 1" of rocks, so they are the right height, yeesh)

The guardrats are ok, but I don't like the dude with so many rocks on his base, it's too hard to see his base! I would definitely work on a new 'counts as' for a broodlord

Tek wrote:I don't mind the idea or running them as Tyranids at all - hell there's an awesome Genestealer Hybrid army that runs as counts-as-Orks. This is a lot easier to swallow.

However I don't think you're listening to the community when they say that your army is, and will continue to be looked at as if were modelled for advantage. This is a WAAC move and opponents won't like it.

I certainly don't like the idea of a Hive Tyrant being the same size as an Ogre, rather than the size of a Hive Tyrant. And I wouldn't play against Genestealers that were shorter than a guardsman.
If you were running those clanrats as Gaunts, awesome.
If you want to run them as 'stealers, model comparable weapons onto them and make them the same height.

That squad leader on the giant base whiffs of Modelling for Advantage too.

All good points I ran into this with my Skave, the Rat ogre which was to be a Mega Nob ended up just to big and so to Avoid these very issues he will be added to and will operate as a dread of which he is the same height and with the addition of some combat arms (weapons) will be the same girth as well. since then all my models have been constructed with dimensions in mind so that my "Plays as really fits the bill".

I had an idea like this a while ago. I'll probably make a 40k skaven army eventually and count them as orks. This is EPIC.

wow.. fantastic painting!

GalacticDefender wrote:I had an idea like this a while ago. I'll probably make a 40k skaven army eventually and count them as orks. This is EPIC.

Thats exactly what I'm doing right now you should check out the blog...

These guys are growing on me though I love the look and the paint job and in a fun game these would be jaw dropping to be laid out in front of say an IG army or any really.

I am all out of wash.

This is my update for today.

<3

Stubby wrote:I am all out of wash.

This is my update for today.

<3

I make my own there are some really good Youtube vids out there on how to do it, saves me a lot of cash even though there is an outlay at the start.

Edited because it sounded like I'm some kind of an arse! lmao

What I mean to say is I got annoyed with running out as my local GW store (nearest stock-est at least) is an hour and twenty away by train, so I started just using a thinners, hell even water to thin out the paint to work as a wash then in the end I found some Youtube vids and DAMN it saves some money and a lot of messing about

Ladies and Gentlemen - I give you - Deathleaper.

Very cool, a bit top heavy, but very cool.