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Ok, I've decided I need a block of 20 Clanrats to hide my Battle Standard Bearer in. This will be a small (and very cheap) unit that will skulk around the back of my main battleline protecting my Chieftain whilst he waves his flag in a morale boosting manner. The prospect of trimming, undercoating, painting and basing another 20 Clanrats is a bit depressing, so I'm going to get it done fairly quickly. My wife has taken the baby to see her sister in Cambridge, so I have until around lunchtime tomorrow of uninterrupted modelling and painting.

Thought I'd do a blog to inspire people and show that it doesn't have to take forever to get a block of Skaven ready for battle. It will also keep myself going! So here are the 20 blighters freshly cut from the sprue. First task is to trim the mould lines off and glue the weapons on.

When you cut models off a sprue, you'll have pretty large chunks of plastic still attached to the model. Sometimes these can be a bit stubborn when you're trying to remove them, so if you get frustrated, put the model and down and come back to it. The moment you get angry is exactly the same moment the knife will cut through the offending chunk and carry on into your thumb. I've already incurred one minor injury today!

Good luck mate! Wish I had motivation to spend my days off painting a whole unit like this. Still have over 100 state troops waiting to be painted. Look forward to the finished result.

Cheers FB Well, I'm half way through trimming the mould lines off the bodies. By a comfortable margin this is the most boring aspect of the hobby for me. Every Warhammer kit has some fiddly bit where the mould lines are particularly hard to clean without ruining part of the sculpt and with Skaven it's the tails. I'm not painting for Golden Demon here, so I confess a lot of the tails are slightly flatter on one side.

Try working in a decent light source for trimming. I'm using the sun, but any light emitting astral body will do. As you trim, turn the model over in the light and any mould lines you've missed will be more obvious. Strong light also stops you straining your eyes!

I wish you good luck! I'm going to follow this and hope that it inspires me to do the same!

Good luck! you've given me inspiration to do a similar thing once my masters dissertation is handed in!

Personal advice, have just assembled and beginning to paint a unit of my own clannies, don't glue the arms on until they are all painted because:
a) painting the inside/underside of the weapon arms becomes a PITA
b) painting all the little details the arm obscures becomes a PITA

in addition, a smidgen of blu-tak in the arm socket prevents undercoat going where the glue needs a good surface!

You don't have a moustache Flashman?! I'm disappointed.

TheFirstBorn wrote:You don't have a moustache Flashman?! I'm disappointed.

This. Oh, and good luck.

TheFirstBorn wrote:You don't have a moustache Flashman?! I'm disappointed.

Mrs Flashman is not a great fan of facial hair.

Right, progress is slower than I would like, but I've done all my trimming and now I'm sticking the arms on. Sorry Leigen Zero, I read your advice too late. You're probably right, but I usually do it this way and muddle through ok.

I've got to pop out for a few hours now, so feel free to watch another blog for the time being Will post further updates later this evening.

Looks like a great idea - all the best with this!

Really interesting blog/thread idea

Ok, I said 20 hours of uninterrupted modelling and painting. Does going to the cinema count as an interruption? Just been to see The Social Network. I like about 50% of David Fincher films and this one fell in that category even though I know a lot of it was dramatised to silly levels. Useless information alert, Andrew Garfield (the actor who played Zuckerberg's best mate in the film and is also the next Peter Parker/Spiderman) was in my ex-girlfriend's year at school.

Atre wrote:Looks like a great idea - all the best with this!

Really interesting blog/thread idea

Thanks Atre, but "painting x amount of minis in x period of time" is a popular blog theme (some people attempt entire armies in a weekend!) and thus one I can't claim for my own

Anyway back to business. All 20 Clanrats have been put together and undercoated black. Time to get painting!

good luck.

Have fun, usually takes me a week to get a block of five done.... Did you prime the models with spray or brush?

sgt1480 wrote:Have fun, usually takes me a week to get a block of five done.... Did you prime the models with spray or brush?

Spray, currently tank brushing them scorched brown

All 20 models were given a basecoat of scorched brown. The dark colour enables the coat to be fairly water heavy without effecting coverage too much and making it quicker to paint on. Unfortunately this means it has yet to dry fully so the next colour has mixed with the brown in places (see the top middle Clanrat's paw). Anyway have done the fleshy parts (Tallarn Flesh) on five models. It as a bit thin in some areas which suggests I'm watering it down too much. Might have to go over it again. Tsk!




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Quick update...

I've finished all the flesh parts & it's 4 o'clock in the morning. Slow progress? I'm hoping that's because Skaven skin is quite fiddly. It covers relatively little surface area of the miniature. Going to do cloth now so maybe that will be a lot quicker.

Shan't bother posting another pic, just look at the pic above and multiply by 4! That's where I'm at


Automatically Appended Next Post:
It's 07:19 and I'm still slogging away. Just finished the cloth. What do you think of my colour scheme? It's nothing groundbreaking, but I like the simplicity. As the night went on, I got quite sloppy, so some tidying up will have to be done at some point. In the meantime, it's time to break out the Chainmail

Weapons and armour done. Think I'll now go back and do a general tidy up and make some of the colours a bit smoother. After that, it's the obligatory coat of Devlan Mud. Oops, really should the bases now as well.

Cool! But may I sugest investing in a spray gun next time your going to paint this many skaven? Spraying all of them scorched brown from the start would be a life saver! Good progress anyway sir!

Rose_Mountainz wrote:Cool! But may I sugest investing in a spray gun next time your going to paint this many skaven? Spraying all of them scorched brown from the start would be a life saver! Good progress anyway sir!

Agreed, however some have mentioned the GW flamer type spray gun. i own one and i cant stress enugh that you shold not use this perticular model, its crap, ugly usless crap. others my argue but alot wont. get something else.

Hawkins wrote:Agreed, however some have mentioned the GW flamer type spray gun. i own one and i cant stress enugh that you shold not use this perticular model, its crap, ugly usless crap. others my argue but alot wont. get something else.

QFT, If you want to get into mass production of skaven then an airbrush, not a spray gun, is definitely a very good way to go.

Ok, this is where I got to in the allotted time. After that the wife came home and I had to do some chores quickly (24 hours of painting Warhammer figures babes? No, I've been doing the washing and hoovering). Pretty pleased to get all the main basecoat colours on and I reckon I can tidy them up over the next week or so. I had the odd issue basing them up, but tend to have this problem with all Warhammer regiments. Something from one model always seems to be poking the model behind in the eye. In the case of Skaven it's the bloody tails again. Visually it's great to see them waving around, but from a modelling perspective, I'd like to see the poxy things tight to the body and leave the dynamic tail posing to the likes of Deathmaster Snikch.

Regarding Spray guns, yes they're probably quicker, but tank brush is cheaper and surprisingly speedy for what it is

Well done!

Good luck with this! I tried the exact same thing and it did not turn out too bad to say I rushed them a bit too fast (I had the same problem with the tails btw)

Flashman wrote:
Regarding Spray guns, yes they're probably quicker, but tank brush is cheaper and surprisingly speedy for what it is

QFT