Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So the time has come, My local GW store is now running its Fantasy Tale of Many Gamers Campaign. A few weeks ago I had a thread here which helped me to pick Skaven as my first fantasy force since returning to the hobby, so first up, thanks to those who helped me in that thread.

The first task that participants have been given is to produce a single Lord and single Core choice, no points limit - just make what you can afford (or paint up in the time alotted); the idea is to build up a decent sized, fully painted force gradually, with others at the same kind of pace, requiring a minimum of a couple of boxes each month I guess.

A week after those are due, there is a game to collect magic items for use in the campaign, and the next stage will be announced the day this part is due (24th of march)

I've been saving the skaven from my IoB set for this, and also have a skaven battalion on its way in the post along with the book and an army case and for this project to live in.
So a block of clanrats and a weapon team will be my core choice. I'm thinking 40 (10 wide 4 deep) clanrats with spears and shields and the warpfire thrower from IoB. For the lord choice, I need to order something (unless I use the warlord from IoB). I kind of want a Grey Seer... and I'm reading the Thanquol & Boneripper books at the moment, so I might just go with Thanquol over a generic Seer. We'll see after iv pawed through the army book a little over the weekend.
I plan to pop down to GW and pick up some fresh ratty colours and maybe some movement trays tomorrow so I can get down to it. Plenty of images to come as things start to appear, currently theres only the IoB skaven in their grey plasticy wonder.

I've not played fantasy in a good ten years or so, does anyone have any pointers or tips on picking a lord for skaven? is Thanquol good on the table? (he's hilarious in the books ) .. i might have gone with a Screaming Bell but those are a Lord + a Hero choice? (which isnt what we've been told to make)

(I plan to post updates and pictures of this project as it grows like a blog)

Cool, this is going to be an interesting blog, looking forward to seeing some pictures!

Thanks for the interest. If people want to see it will help keep me ontop of things. lol.
Just sprayed up the clanrats,weapons teams and characters with spears from my IoB set with a dark grey primer (actually white acrylic gesso with some black acrylic ink added, shot through an airbrush)

I think I'm going to spray them with one of the basecoat browns from citadel and then drybrush, drybrush, drybrush all the furs in... I'l let you know what colours I get with piccys tomorrow. Fingers crossed that my parcel will turn up containing the battalion and army book too. Then i can build the other 20 spear rats for this unit.

Got a couple of piccys today.
My parcel showed up, and I got some fresh colours


Shiny new army case, skaven battalion, army book,movement trays, paints and chessex dice bag (with some new speckled dice! Can never have too many d6's eh?)


Fresh paints, I felt the need to stop plucking pots off the shelf at 15! Added to the many I already have, things should be fine.
Plans are to do the fur's of my rat kin with calthan brown, tallarn flesh, elf flesh and devlan mud wash. Then the cloth in blue's and grey's, I got necron abyss, shadow grey and spacewolves grey and some asurmen blue wash for those. Got some greens for the plague monks; gretchin green, cammo green and rotting flesh with thrakka green wash.


And these guys got sprayed up in a dark grey primer last night, I can start basecoating these while the glue and primer goes on the other 20 clanrats I guess

More piccys as things happen, Appologies for double posting, is that okay in a p&m blog?

Nice! Cannot wait to see some paint on those guys! Keep up the good work!

Swelling the ranks







My first Skaven regiment of 40 Clanrats with spears and shields ready for painting
Its a bit late to be running the airbrush compressor now, so if I start tonight it will be with a brush...I did plan to spray calthan brown next though.

I've just spent half an hour spraying these up with two thin coats of calthan brown with my airbrush


Never sprayed GW paints before, but it thinned really easy, and sprayed just fine with minimal tip drying.
My paint mix wasn't very precise to be honest, I used approx half a ml of paint and half a ml of Liquitex Airbrush medium with 5-6 drops of water. I needed to mix this up 3-4 times (airbrush only has a 2ml cup) to spray all 40 clanrats and had a little left over to do a weapon team and the warlod from IoB.


next stage is going to be a tallarn flesh drybrushing and a spray of delvan mud before another drybrush of tallarn flesh.

Drybrushed with tallarn flesh using a big brush for speed (took about 30minutes to go through all 40)
Not worrying too much about being too light or heavy, a little variation will hopefully look better, I'm going to spray devlan mud and drybrush again anyhow.


Painting metals in black, tinbitz and chainmail where I see fit will be the next stage of the metals.


Once the black is complete, The cloths will be done in necron abyss, and drybrushed (a little more carfully this time) with shadow grey.

Got through the rest of the ranks with the chaos black



And made a start on the fabrics with necron abyss;



I'v noticed that I missed a few of the shields, will go back to those before I move onto another colour. Next colour on the cloth will be shadow grey, before the metals first coat goes on. After that I plan to spray devlan mud and drybrush the same colours again.

One question I have is; What colour are skaven eyes? red? green? black?

Red!

And consider me subscribed

Rapid response to my question. Thanks.

I think eyes, teeth and claws will be the last thing to go on before them getting based, but I had wondered

Seeing them with a bit of blue on is such a relief! After having them sitting on the desk in varying stages of neutral colour looked a bit plain. I must say the camera flash really lightens up necron abyss, its a much darker shade to the eye.

Finished up the necron abyss


And made a little start on drybrushing shadow grey over the top of it... well somewhere between drybrush and overbrush


Here is one before and one after a quick brushing with shadow grey.


Once the whole lot have had a bit of shadow grey put on, tinbitz and chainmail onto the metals and if needed a little tidy up on the flesh colours before spraying devlan mud. Then work some highlights and details in

been thinking about the bases, I'm not seeing a load of skaven prancing across a lush green field :/ anyone got any tips for making a more muddy, dead grass, sewage style base?

Nice! Good to see more WFB blogs here. Necron Abyss is an interesting colour for their robes- I really like it. It's striking with the browns.

On bases, I have been doing little pools of greenish water on some of my undead bases using wet effect. It's time consuming as heck though, and especially for so many dudes...

Also, you can get yellowish "dead" grass from GW, which I think goes well with diseased and corrupted armies like WoC and Skaven.

I shouldn't read your blog tbh- it's making me want to go out and pick up IoB!

I'l have a looksy at gw at their dead grass on wednesday, do all GW stores close mondays and tuesdays? The one near me is pretty small, single staff member with two 4by4 tables..it could justifiably be because they are slow hobby-bussiness days here.

Yeah the necron abyss was a bit spur of the moment to be honest. I was at gw picking up paints especially for these and didnt really have a planned colour at the time. It came down to purple or blue, but the shelf had no hormagaunt purple... blue it was! I do like to be a bit different, all I was sure of was not going red like the eavy metal colours.
Its looking okay so far...just kind of winging it to be honest! i have no idea what the combination im planning on ends up looking like;
Necron abyss basecoat, overbrushed shadow grey, sprayed devlan mud, drybrush shadow grey, then if needed spacewolves grey too.. but that might make them too clean?
I did buy asurmen wash to go over with.. but dunno if its going to go real bright blue when I'm aiming at tattered and dirty blue/grey.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Finished up the shadow grey drybrushing;


Then I decided I wanted it lighter,so mixed up a roughly 1:1 mix of shadow grey and space wolves grey and drybrushed a little lighter across them all.


Random rat from the front rank - mold line down the musicians head isnt there! haha. (oh well!)


I'm not working too neatly...Its skaven, theres probably going to be a couple hundred of the blighters by the end of this blog so to spend loads of time doing lovely blends on clanrats would demand more time than I have with a stroke of luck, a wash and final drybrush might pull things together a little. Should I asurmen blue wash the fabrics at this point? or would this make the blue too rich?(I do want a dull shade ideally)
Theres a few bits of blue/grey on the flesh which need tidying.
The wooden textured shields along with the spear shafts I might paint scorched brown, and then overbrush calthan brown before I spray this wash I keep talking about (do need to get a move on though, these ideally will be finished and based by saturday the 24th. By the looks of things im using the warlord out of IoB as the lord choice in the campaign, I really fancied a grey seer, but havent got around to ordering one... wouldnt want to rush it too much either.

Quick update



I have gone through the entire unit with scorched brown painting all the wooden shields and spear shafts, and made a start on the metals with tinbitz, still debating if I should put tinbitz on the spear tips or just chainmail. All the tinbitz areas will be drybrushed in chainmail (maybe a mix of chainmail and tinbitz.. we'l see) after the devlan wash. Which is getting close (finally) just got the rest of the metals, the ties around the spear tips and some tidying up to do first.

I havent had time to get to town and look at dead grass for basing yet :( hopefully I can tomorrow as theyre supposed to be painted and based by saturday afternoon hehe.

They are coming along nicely!

Thanks.
Deadlines coming close and they still look like that last piccy :-o been a little busy last night and all today, and still havent managed to get to town so get some dead grass or whatever to base them with! Now looks like I'l have to base them in the gw store on saturday.. or leave it untill I can batch base a few regiments perhaps
Think I might be pulling a late one tonight if theyre going to look finished for tomorrow afternoon..good job I didnt make plans for today eh!



Automatically Appended Next Post:
So, I got my finger out and went through the rest of the armour and shields with tinbitz, and then the spear tips and odd guys with a bit of chainmail armour with chainmail. Then sprayed them all with devlan mud through a 0.2mm airbrush, I sprayed about half a fresh pot of devlan mud though! may need a stockpile of that (or the new equivalent being as the paints change soon)







I was intending to go through them all again with the same colours as a highlight... in the interests of time I might leave that out for the time being (perhaps go back to them later), but they do need eyes, claws, teeth and the banners doing before I can say there 'complete'. As for the bases, theyre going ot have to wait untill iv picked a flock style, maybe get them done while at GW tomorrow...but that would mean hanging around waiting on pva glue to dry :(

Today is the deadline for these. Theyre almost done...... still need basing and eyes/teeth/claws doing. I'm intending to grab some paint and flock for that while im at GW seeing how the other campaigners got on with their projects.



Now that i've done it im not 100% on the warlord having regular fire rather than green warpfire in his torch. might change this later.

The fire was done by drybrushing white, then badmoon yellow, then firey orange, then badmoon yellow again, then white again, then badmoon yellow again, and a red wash followed by a final yellow drybrush.
I have also put some colour on the banners but left the detailing for another time, and some green/black smoke spouting from the warpfire thrower.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just back from town, picked up some dead grass flock. The plan is to glue some sand on, paint graveyard earth, drybrush bleached bone, and glue some patches of dead grass on

I did try the new texture paints out on one of them being as they were demo'ing them instore. I'l put a piccy up a bit later to show everyone what theyre like. Tryed a few of the other colours on the stores demo models, the best paint is potentially the basecoat white, 2 coats gave brilliant white over black spray basecoat! which is good news for everyone I guess! The Dry paints are incredibly thick and make drybrushing consitently a tad easier than before. All in all the new paints seem good to me, giving beginners a massive helping hand in some techniques, and for experienced painters the sheer number of shades is quite enjoyable.

The other campaign players in the store while I was there had Orcs&Goblins, High Elves and Ogre Kingdoms but im sure there are more than 4 of us... we'll see for sure at the game next week for collecting magic items. (once the store manager gets his pic's up on their facebook page I'l post a copy of them here too, the ogres are looking lovely, and the orcs have a rather large beasty from forgeworld for the lords mount!)




Automatically Appended Next Post:

This guy got based with the new texture paints 'Armageddon Dust'. I applied 2 'thin' coats... I say thin, but this paint is nothing but thin. It's very grainy in the pot and on first inspection looks a bit like an old paint pot gone horribly wrong (as do the 'dry' paints hehe)
They only had 2 of them in the demo kits, the one I used and 'Lustrian undergrowth' which is a muddy green colour.

Honestly, Im not sure I like it, Doesnt seem any better than glueing on sand and painting over the top, It's just quicker. I imagine I could make my own textured paint but adding fine sand, and a spot of glue to a paint. But being as I had my rats at he store and the paints were out, I couldnt resist testing a bit on one of them.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
:-o I totally forgot to mention the next stage...D'oh.

The fortnight holds a deadline for a 2nd core unit, and a wizard.

For the 2nd core, im not going to do anything fancy, just a 2nd unit of Clanrats, but with hand weapon and shield and the poison wind mortar team. Perhaps just 20 of them? (Question for the players out there; Is it still worth running 40 hand weapon clanrats? I understand the spears get to attack in all 4 ranks because of being a horde and having spears.. which makes it more wothwhile? - hehe I've still not played a game in over ten years!)

The wizard.. well I missed my chance to put a grey seer in last week because I neglected to order one. So it seems natrual to add one now... Screaming Bell me thinks, wont be buying that till next weekend anyhow so still time to go with Thanquol What would you do?

The basing process has begun


First I glued some sand onto the bases with watered down pva glue. Then painted the bases with a thinned graveyard earth. Next is to drybrush them all with bleached bone, I have made a start on this with the weapons team and a couple of rats. (the sides of the bases will get a decent lick of paint at the end of the drybrushing)
Question; are these too pale? (the camera flash is lightening the shade a little) I could wash them before I do the grass, instinct said devlan mud haha, is it bad form to wash the entire figure in the same wash? If i did that - future units could have the bases done to this stage before I wash the entire lot with the airbrush which would also cover the bases.

The sand I used is some GW sand from about 10 years ago! I found a tub of the stuff with my other bits and bobs in the loft when returning to the hobby, for some reason I could never find a sand with a texture I liked as much as this stuff back then, so I paid GW for sand! Go ahead and laugh but atleast I'm still using the same tub a decade later! hehe.

Then finally some dribs and drabs of the dead grass flock (static grass? whatever) will be glues on.

Eyes have also been started on a few of these, nothing fancy, just blood red. Might look at some of the new washes in a few weeks, theres a red one that might be good on the eyes.
Claws and teeth still to come, bleached bone, maybe thinned a little too much to show the brown through as dirt and discolouration? (i'l have to experiment with that)

First, well done on so many updates. Loving this blog.

Second, I think they're coming together really nicely, and the detailing is going to make them really pop! Well done. I may in fact steal your scheme if I do skaven myself.

As to the bases, the second basing style is better. I thought the armageddon dust one was a bit...yellow. This is pretty yellow-y too. Sometimes I drybrush rotting flesh over graveyard earth to give a more greenish hint and then put static grass on, I dunno if that would work. I think devlan mud would be a fine solution either, and probably easier (like you say, airbrush the entire lot at once.)

Did you airbrush on the basecoats too then? Or are you only using it for inking?

Enjoyed reading this, which is odd as i am not a big WHFB fan. I liked seeing how you approached painting such a horde of figures so effectively. Think maybe you should do a couple of details on the rats like maybe white eyes, i think it would add alot to the models.

Got piccys of the competition today

The Ogres;


The High Elves; (This player has been rather busy with school/college work I believe, so hasnt had time to paint really.


Warriors of Chaos; (sorry I said Orks and Goblins before... I saw green in my memory lol...It was Nurgle! (These are the store managers)


And my glorious rats;


Now I really like those ogres, Slight hints of jealousy he didnt have 40 figures to paint, so has got much further than I have hehe.


I did airbrush the primer and basecoat. Primer was white artists gesso, tinted grey with black acrylic ink. Base coat was Calthan Brown thinned roughly 1:1 with Liquitex Airbrush medium and a couple of drips of water. The wash, I sprayed on quite wet and heavy, the pressure of the airbrush pushed it into all the recesses quite easily - was so much faster than brushing it on, but is a bit less precise - I wanted it all over so no problems, you could probably get a nice fade from top to bottom or something with little effort, but detailing a mini with an airbrush would be hard work



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Eyeeeeees!

Got the eyes done, just spotted blood red straight onto the brown they already were, if I'm feeling special oneday i mgiht use a cocktail stick to put orangy yellow spots inside them, but plain red will do for now
Also all the bases have been drybrushed in bleached bone, and then washed with devlan mud.
All that remains for this unit is a bit of time picking details out,like the teeth, some trinkets and bits n bobs adorning the rats, and the static grass on the bases.

I've decided that I will put a clear coat onto these at that point, the only one i have sprayed onto mini's before was GW purity seal... many moons ago. What do people use to varnish their mini's with and why do they prefer it over another? Something to spray in my airbrush will probably be the most cost effective for me.

Spent a little more time on this first unit this afternoon.

They've all got teeth in bleached bone, its a little clean I think.. Might give them all a dab of wash too, something else to do before I spray wash on future units.
I also gave the flesh a real light drybrushing of Tallarn flesh, mostly around the ears, face and hands where possible, but I wasn't being too picky.(also hit the spear tips with a light drybrush of chainmail using a really big brush)
Bases now have static grass on, and I tidied up the sides with Graveyard Earth. I used Scorched Brown for this on my 40k minis and just fancied a change really.
Also cut out a regiment tray for them, which will make it much easier to handle them as a bunch, oneday I hope to magnetise the trays, but a bit of bluetac on the bottom may suffice temporarily. The tray will be textured and flocked the same as the bases of the mini's, Do you guys just texture the edges? or all underneath where the mini's stand? (was just a thought)

Center of the front rank. This unit I'm happy with for now. The weapons team could probably stand to have some more done to it however. But I'm supposed to be moving onto the 2nd unit for this 2 week slot (starting saturday just passed) So This ones ready, for now. If i get ahead of schedule at any point maybe Il come back to them.(LOL not likely)

The 2nd unit will be getting glued and sprayed pretty soon, going to go with the 20 hand weapon and shield clanrats from IoB with the poison mortar. I will include pictures, but not every little step like the first unit... that was more to show the process being used at the beginning. Next weekend I'm going to get a screaming bell kit I think.... half tempted to order a Thanquol and Boneripper instead.... But I can probably get a few plague monks out of the spare bits for the bell? Still have monks to build in the battallion box.

Dude, your pace with all these guys is simply amazing. Well done! I think a wash on the teeth would work, because the rest of the models are quite grimy and gritty so I think that the teeth should be, too. Another solution would be to drybrush just the tips of the teeth lightly in bleached bone.

That said, the unit is looking good to me!

XmarvX40k wrote:

For the 2nd core, im not going to do anything fancy, just a 2nd unit of Clanrats, but with hand weapon and shield and the poison wind mortar team. Perhaps just 20 of them? (Question for the players out there; Is it still worth running 40 hand weapon clanrats? I understand the spears get to attack in all 4 ranks because of being a horde and having spears.. which makes it more wothwhile? - hehe I've still not played a game in over ten years!)

Yes, it's worth running 40 HW/Shield rats, more so than spears, actually.

1) Clanrats aren't for killing enemy models, they're for holding them for other units(Stormvermin, Plaguemonks, Rat Ogres) to charge in the flank and do the killing(this leads into my next point). With their stats, they won't be doing much killing to begin with. HW/S is also cheaper, which will matter in the long run as it means more furry bodies on the field.

2) Horde formation isn't worth it for Skaven. Yes, you get another rank of attacks, but more often you'll be in fewer ranks. Ranks>>Attacks. Why? If you have more ranks than your opponent, you're Stubborn(no LD modifiers from Combat Resolution). Also, more ranks means you'll be keeping that all important +3 Ld from Strength in Numbers longer. Your units will hold longer outside of Horde due to Stubborn LD 10(General's LD +3 ranks).

In that vein, you'll be wanting to run any units of 40 as 5x8, but the common practice is Clanrats to be run at 30(5x6) and Slaves at 40-50.

Thanks Platuan, although i just cut that 10x4 tray out today! D'oh! atleast the offcut makes 10x6
I still have 20 clanrats on sprues from the battallion box, perhaps I can muster up 2 lots of 30 spears in 5x6 and the 20 hand weapon rats...after that more purchases are required! I may get a 2nd IoB for some more weapon teams, will check flea-bay out for just the skaven too. But a 2nd battallion box is planned for also because I want more rat ogres and plague monks. I had thought about using Ogre Kingdoms Gnoblars as slaves, but maybe their faces are too 'happy' for slaves I'm not sure.

Project news includes the 20 IoB handweapons rats are primed, basecoated (Calthan Brown) and drybrushed with Tallarn Flesh, I'm just hvaing a tea break going to get back to it witht he chaos black in a few minutes.

Little update so you know I've not given up
I've split the 40 rats with the 20 I had on sprues to make 2 blocks of 30, and have the 20 with hand weapons. Am part way painting the new 40, and intend to do all the regiment bases at the same time.


I've been assembling the plague monks (a little ahead of schedule!)


And I got this badboy earlier today...I wanted devlan mud paint... they didnt have any, so to lift spirits I gots a Bell! (hehe just kidding I did plan on buying one this week, but did really want that paint!) might have to make some home made wash, or wait for the new paint lines brown ink. (Agrax Earthshade)


Im thinking about making slaves out of Gnoblar fighters, with skaven heads and greenstuff tails I dont suppose anyones done this? My only concern is that the heads might be oddly proportioned.

I'm currently putting together the beginnings of a Skaven Army so I'm watching with interest. Consider me subbed and good luck

Been putting the Bell together this evening, I've decided that its going to be best to paint some parts before glueing everything in place.
I've got the main frame stuck together without the floor plates or wheels glued yet, and the arch that holds the bell is still seperate. Tomorrow it can be primed and basecoated with the airbrush before I get stuck in with the hairy sticks.

Eventually I want a Plague Furnace too, I had though about magnets, but I don't have any right this minute and it might take a fair few; probably not the best 'first time magnetising project', atleast I can squeeze a Plague Priest on foot out of it

You can't go wrong with a bigger pile of bits! I've had a look at one and decided that trying to magnetise that beast would be nothing short of a nightmare. I would also want to paint them rather differently but thats just me. Love the blue on the Clanrats as well