I'm not as big a fan of the 'floating turret' idea. I was thinking more a bolted down turret system. If you are to use the cellar/sewer hiding in the fortress (which is a total Skaven thing) I was thinking a more bolted down turret style would also be more Skaven. Well, those are just my thoughts, it's all up to you though, mate!
It may end up being both, a turret bolted to a piece of floating masonry..or just a mix of both..I will have to but my thinking cap on.
@Wolfshadow - I like the look of the barbettes, but not so much the 18th century style naval carriage. Funny thing was as I googled the naval carriage I found pics of a "dissapearing" cannon i kind of like the idea of those..not very skaven though. They would just keep loading under fire, none of this "cannon retracting into safety for reloading" crap!
I have been thinking that mounting the battle cannon on a free floating chunk of stone that is encircled by the main body of the "tank" would mean the turret didn't need to rotate, the whole chunk of stone could!
I am still liking the thought of having the driver and seat from the doomwheel as the gunner mounted to the side of the loading mechanism for the battle cannon. I have a couple of shells from a baneblade kit and I might be able to rig up a loader for the battle cannon..I think...will have to do some sketches tonight
Lol, I'm not sure If I wnat my sub-par artwork on the net for anyone to see but I will see...
@Graven - I have PMd you, but one of the ideas I had last night is some form of revolving shell chamber for the battle cannon complete with shells or maybe a "chain" feed coming up from underneath the cannon's carriage..not sure yet.
K, so over the last couple of days I realized I am spending a HUGE amount of time carving polystyrene, covering it in plaster and carving and sanding it to look like rock when i could do something one hell of a lot simpler....
....use actual rocks!
So I picked up a couple of handfuls gravel of various sizes on the way home yesterday and went to town
It needs a unifying paint job but what do you think?
Now, while they are glued on pretty tight they will need a bit of plaster to fill in the spaces and cracks between the rocks....or I will leave them and paint the inside of the cracks to simulate a green glow....
There is of course a minor weight issue but its not much heavier then all the plaster I had on there and happily I have built a lot of redundancy into the frame of the ruins so it should hold up...hopefully..
BLACKHAND wrote:Now, while they are glued on pretty tight they will need a bit of plaster to fill in the spaces and cracks between the rocks....or I will leave them and paint the inside of the cracks to simulate a green glow....
THIS, This, A thousand times this!
Seriously, the green glow idea seems seems like a very cool way to do it, and I'd love to see it.
BLACKHAND wrote:Now, while they are glued on pretty tight they will need a bit of plaster to fill in the spaces and cracks between the rocks....or I will leave them and paint the inside of the cracks to simulate a green glow....
THIS, This, A thousand times this!
Seriously, the green glow idea seems seems like a very cool way to do it, and I'd love to see it.
I cast my vote for this. If you can pull off a nice, creepy glow then it will look amazing.
As for painting I am getting pretty close to the point where I can begin mounting weapons, as this is a Chimera I will be adding a heavy bolter to the front, probably in a sponson that sits under the overhang of the broken floor tiles. I will be able to paint at that point as the multi laser will be a bolt on job ( I am saving the floating weapon platforms for the Leman Russ')
Here's an issue, I have a can of flat grey to lay down the groundwork on the stone but I plan to was the crap out of it after that to pick out the cracks and texture of the rock...thing is I would end up using an entire pot of GW wash every vehicle! I just read on another blog that Vallejo does a big pot o' wash that might be useful, has anyone tried it?
Oh and young logan, I intend to build three chimera, 3 leman russ variants and a Vendetta....every now and then I consider how cool a massive counts as Stormlord would be though...So big!!
Haha, its ok WM...the visions of a mulitlevel floating castle with floating weapon sponsons orbiting it and 40 (40!) Skaven swarming all over it ready to bring chittering doom to its enemies has been haunting my dreams for a couple of weeks now, I just have to put it on the back bruner for a few months as I have a LOT of thing on at the moment ... a LOT!
I've been thinking about commisars in my army, they are really a very skaven unit, a big nasty rat that kills the rats around him to "inspire" the other rats around him
Plus I wonder what a Skaven power claw would look like.........
Hey Blackhand, been thinking about the floating turret thing. Love the idea but I think it's the kind of that you wouldn't want to overdo to keep the visual impact. What if the side sponsons or "body mounts" were built into the castles.. either stone enclosures housing the guns or perhaps upturned sewer pipe sections with the gun inside... and the main (turreted) gun was the one that was floating? Gaming mechanics wise it would make more sense that way.
I wish i had stumbled apon this neat thread earlier (would have saved me several minutes of reading through the thread). 40k skaven is a great idea! (I may have to start a 40k Lizardmen/Slann army because of this).
Superb sculpts and conversions BLACKHAND. Looking forwards to seeing those floating castles (you have to have a tank-commander Howl ) painted up.
@son of guilliam - Thanks for the link I may have to track down that model for Yarrick conversion now...my wallet howls in pain!
@Lord of Change - I would love to see a 40k lizardman army! they have some great models just wating for high tech guns and armour
Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement! They have helped me keep going back to the painting desk this week in the face of total exhaustion...and all your ideas have really contributed to a firmer idea of what the vehicles will look like, thanks again!
Stormlord... don't you mean VerminStormLord? I was wondering the same actually - as in, whether you were going to tackle this! Also, have you tried Army Painter's Dark Quickshade? That might be your solution to terrain magic washing.
The skaven power claw idea has been something I've been tossing round in my head. I think I'll go simple and just use a tyranid warroir/ravager rending claw and paint it that nice green I use, it'll match the color of the power weapons I have. Since there is Chaos symbols on my Skaven the mark of tzeench can be put on the ones useing the power claw/fist.
Have found the quickshade on maelstrom but don't really want to wait for it to arrive in the mail, I may investigate a few sources closer to home,
In other news I just bought an Ikit Claw from an NZ auction site for a sweet $15...already have ideas percolating for a pose, will probably end up carving him to bits and starting with the arm I will build up a GS body...Yay another super involved project!
Just popped back on dakka for the first time in a while (damn university), and just before my eyes gave in to sleep, i remembered this thread.
I remember thinking the floating stones would remove the skaveen further from the 40k universe, but the addition of pipes and the like does away with any concerns over that.
BLACKHAND wrote:@Lord of Change - I would love to see a 40k lizardman army! they have some great models just wating for high tech guns and armour
IIRC, A user on dakka (I think his name was Sirath or something like that) did some 40k lizardmen. He did them up in some tau armour and gave them tau weapons and they looked amazing.
Looking at his recipes I think I would have to order a few of the ingredients anyway so I may as well take advantage of the special deal on maelstrom at the moment and pick up a tub'o wash
Dayum! I wasn't sure about the floating castles at the start, but wow - serious win!
Just tried sculpting flesh, looked like melted poo It was on a nurgle model so at least it looks somewhat okay More Verminlord!
Apologies Readers! Sorry for being awol for so long, was taking a break from Skaven for a a couple of days that stretched into a couple of weeks thanks to Real Life, the Sabre Legion and the beginnings of my next project.
I wish I had some amazing pics of a finished Castle ruin for you guys but..I dont. Instead I have a couple of pics of my second chimera
Heres a close up of the broken open underground chamber I am building into the ruin
Don't worry people, I should have a delivery of army painter wash in a couple of weeks..and then I may be brave enough to spray on some grey paint and see whether my casting and carving is up to scratch....
One happy little incident that occurred during my hiatus was a delivery form the good ol' U.S of A. My good friend Gitsplitta had sent me a few new parts for the Mantis Warrior Resurrection and happened to throw in a few extras.....
...like a fricken Doomwheel!!!!!!!!
So once the shaking had stopped I had a good look through the sprues and immediately saw a few pieces I could use.
First off I knew I wouldn't need an engineer anytime soon, so he became a seer in my psyker squad
Next I am planning on building a Master copy of my vehicle gunners to make a mould from, using these parts
I basically want to get multiple copies of this so that I can slap on a head and some arms and voila! instant (kinda) gunners!
I have some plans for the doomwheel itself but I want to wait until I'm closer to assembling the Vendetta before I post them up.
Last but certainly not least I have the real fun bit, the last bits I needed for my bone'ead!
what do we all think?
Early days yet but I wanted to get some opinions before I began GSing the parts together. I figured since this guy is the boss Rat Ogryn he would get the best gear, including a bandsaw for a close combat weapon!
Thanks guys, I'm glad the axe/saw meets with approval I will be sculpting a GS base to add the elbow and forearm spikes to and that will form around the base of the saw..sorry probably not explaining very well but you will see.
My friend and yours, Mr Gitsplitta has raised a small problem with gun attached to the other arm...it looks too small now compared to the Saw/axe!!!
I think the pics do exaggerate it a bit as they are focused solely on the axe but I take the point and another he made about the lack of a firing mechanism in the gun design so I will do a bit of scrounging and see if I can find a few bitz that I can mount the barrel and GL clip onto to bulk out the gun.
Oh and don't worry Tony_nids, the bone'ead will get some form of covering for his bare genital area
@WM360- It falls under the same logic as the magical knife/ akimbo combo in MW2. Mayhaps Mr. Ratty-gonna-get-pants has a magical third arm, or a prehensile tail!
And I see you are also using osgilliath ruins, I'm using it for bases on my fantasy skaven, they are just perfect for the ratmen aren't they?
The rat ogre looks great, but there is something about it I can't put my finger on, maybe it's just a bit too skinny for my tastes, but still some amazing GS-fu going on there! btw where did you get the metal rat skull from?
Well I always thought of the trigger mechanism being attached directly to the tendons and muscles for the index finger, literally point and click for the big dummies, I also imagined a small horde of Warlock engineers who gathered around the Rat Ogryns before battle, sharpening their blades, whipping off their muzzles and hurriedly loading the ammo clip on before running like hell. A persistant image in my mind is the last Ogryn attendent squeeking in fear as he slots the ammo drum on then exploding in chunks of gore as the Bone'Ead snickers..and getting a huge laugh from the other Rat Ogryn
@leigen Zero - Yep the Osgiliath ruins are great ...looking at that new ruined tower that GW have put out though...so many sweet bitz to snap up! Oh and the meta rat skull is from the squeek headtaker's trophy rack with a lot of modifying
Crazy work as usual BH! The saw arm does kind of unbalance the other arm. Are you working up basic armour on bonehead? You could possible acquire some orky gubbins for the shooter hand. Plenty of their hand guns have large clips/pipes/wires/ err.. misc parts on them and it would theme well with the other hand.
Failing that maybe cut up some weapon surrounds/mounts from IG weapon teams to bulk it up.
Thus far mostly pretty simple conversions, waiting to see how the guns I ordered will fit, but as soon as my paycheck comes in I have an idea for a hovercraft...
Mostly I've been working a ton on the background, making sure that my guys have as much background and individuality as any other race in the 40 universe
Yeah... but I already have the codex Heh I just love the feel of the Orks, I feel like it fits them so much better than anything else... Especially them getting stronger when in larger units... swarming across the battlefield... It's a stirring mental image!
Don't think I would have had the impetus to get started though, if it hadn't been for this blog
BLACKHAND wrote:Cool man, I know I speak for Santo as well when I say,
Welcome to the Horde!!!!
Indeed Welcome!
Yeah that's what drew me to the Ork's as well though I also think they'd suit Necron's oddly enough the "We'll be back" could be like a tunneling thing either way WELCOME and have fun making Ratty nonsense with the rest of us.
@Bossasaurus - I would love to believe that I could get to battlecry..but my partner will be 7 months pregnant by that point and I will be lucky to even get painting time let alone disappear for the weekend to play 40k..I hard a hard enough time convincing her to let me play in the doubles tournament this weekend..a tournament we are losing quite well in if I do say so myself
@Santobell - I have always thought that daemons would be a good fit as well, lots of opportunity for Verminlords, stormvermin could be essentially unchanged, flamer rats rats riding other giant rats the whole deepstriking is actually tunneling thing and giant mecharats as defilers could never explain away the lack of armour saves and the invun saves but still would be fun to play.
I did a skaven IG army back in 3rd edition when the White Dwarf has the PDF list in it.
You're blog is quite inspiring, and I think I may get that army back together again. The plastics to work with are a lot better now then before.
I think the problem in building these types of armies is that you want enough converted skaven on foot so it is obviously a skaven Guard army, but not so many as you would go insane before you finish.
I've got some ideas, and I'll post what I've come up with in a month of so when I can really get started.
BLACKHAND wrote:@Bossasaurus - I would love to believe that I could get to battlecry..but my partner will be 7 months pregnant by that point and I will be lucky to even get painting time let alone disappear for the weekend to play 40k...
Hey, congrats bud! It's one of those things that just kinda happens to the best of us I guess
Of course not, he's starting his new army of invisible 40k chameleons from the lizard men range. Or have you finally capped you armies BH?
The castles are looking great btw the way. Possibly one of the most unique counts as vehicles I've seen. As always, like Oliver, I must ask "please sir can we have some more"
This time I think I will be picking up a rhino or drop pod...
....I know, I know its not Skaven! But really I am laying away some units in anticipation of the release for my first love, the Grey Knights, I currently have 9 metal termies and 27 metal PAGK, with 35 Kasrkin, 2 inquisition rhinos and an Inq Land Raider as well as a GK Crusader and GK Dread.
This all may sound like enough gear but If the new codex gives us drop pods or rhinos for the PAGK then I will definitely need some..I reeeaaaly want to see my GK tear it up! And hey if the codex sucks I can always use DP or Rhino in my Sabre Legion
As for an invisible army....I have had vague ideas about giving my newest army vehicles cast out of clear resin to represent my psyker aliens using telekinesis to form the vehicles out of sub-sentient living water. Either that or floating trees with creatures clambering around on them that have been engineered into living weapons its a toss up at the moment and I have plenty of time to decide as it will probably be at least a year before I can get to them
BLACKHAND wrote:This time I think I will be picking up a rhino or drop pod...
....I know, I know its not Skaven! But really I am laying away some units in anticipation of the release for my first love, the Grey Knights, I currently have 9 metal termies and 27 metal PAGK, with 35 Kasrkin, 2 inquisition rhinos and an Inq Land Raider as well as a GK Crusader and GK Dread.
This all may sound like enough gear but If the new codex gives us drop pods or rhinos for the PAGK then I will definitely need some..I reeeaaaly want to see my GK tear it up! And hey if the codex sucks I can always use DP or Rhino in my Sabre Legion
As for an invisible army....I have had vague ideas about giving my newest army vehicles cast out of clear resin to represent my psyker aliens using telekinesis to form the vehicles out of sub-sentient living water. Either that or floating trees with creatures clambering around on them that have been engineered into living weapons its a toss up at the moment and I have plenty of time to decide as it will probably be at least a year before I can get to them
At first I thought cool idea see through tanks then I thought of this
So yeah that shot that idea down in my mind... oh but please fix it with some devilishly cool custom vehicle I dare you oh and that clip form Family guy about the invisible plane and the invisible toilet and not using the invisible sink.
Not to distract you from this new and exciting train of thought (although maybe that would be a good thing ) the more I read of the new dark eldar, the more I'm leaning towards them as the new base list for my 40k skaven...
I mean... the have hovercraft, they're wicked fragile (unlike my (Santo's) Ork idea), and their main weapon (splinter) fires chunks of toxic crystal...
Heh, what do you think?
I say go with it, I know the poison weapons looked pretty cool and are definitely fluffy.
The models would need very little conversion work in the case of the witches and mandrakes as well.
Will be very interested in seeing what you come up with!
BTW I have not dropped of the face of the earth!, I am just currently working on some commissions so that I can afford more skaven and casting materials, here is a link to my latest commission which I have posted up as a tutorial
I would've also said something about the size of the gun, but you noticed that yourself. How about a piece of muscle that actually sticks out of the arm and is in some way attached to a trigger?
Hey Mano, yes we hope to see a rodent revolution sweep across the face of Dakka!!!
As for the fotresses, in my fluff the skaven teleported their entire city with them when they came to the 40k unviverse. Unfortunately they get sick when they leave the city for any length of time so when they decided to bring skaven justice to their enemies they decided to to take their city with them They used human explosives to blast the ruins into chunks then pumped electricity into shards of warpstone and lifted those suckas straight out of the ground.
BLACKHAND wrote:Hey Mano, yes we hope to see a rodent revolution sweep across the face of Dakka!!!
As for the fotresses, in my fluff the skaven teleported their entire city with them when they came to the 40k unviverse. Unfortunately they get sick when they leave the city for any length of time so when they decided to bring skaven justice to their enemies they decided to to take their city with them They used human explosives to blast the ruins into chunks then pumped electricity into shards of warpstone and lifted those suckas straight out of the ground.
Makes total sense right?
In a universe where fish fire rail guns and one breasted chickens are considered "seductive", anything is possible.
"Steal" away bud, and yeas despite all appearances I am still working on the Skaven , though very slowly I admit.
I did just pick up the Lord Spinetail model while it was instore and not direct order, he's pretty nice and will probably become a "counts as" Commander Pask as it will I don't really want to cut him up.
Dude we need pics! It's been too many pages without them... Even just a group shot of what's finished? Sprues you're planning on using? A box you just bought? Your ceiling? Anything!
Lol, sorry bud I haven't got a damn thing to show you all, I do plan on hammering away at the skaven on the weekend and show you all some progress....hopefully.
BLACKHAND wrote:Lol, sorry bud I haven't got a damn thing to show you all, I do plan on hammering away at the skaven on the weekend and show you all some progress....hopefully.
Really want to see how your castle came out matey come on don't make us Beg!!!
I guess its time to let the cat out of the bag....I really hate to say it, but I also didn't want to have one of those blogs that just faded away without a reason from the OP....
...unfortunately the Skaven have been shelved for at least 6 months (cringes for inevitable angry response)..
The support for the project has been immense and really humbling but I am at the sharp end of the year at work and getting home, doing the requisite study to keep passing my management papers, then get something done on my pile of commissions, spend time with my 3 yr old daughter and my pregnant fiance and then consider working on the conversion intensive 40Skaven has totally burnt me out!
Not to sound like I am grumbling! I love having a busy life and in the winter months I will be able to put a whole lot more time in to the hobby, but right now the Rats are going to have to go into hibernation.
This is not to say that I am not going to be modelling as I have plenty of commission work to do which is varied and interesting. And in order to keep my skills up and try some new things I have another little project that I will set up a blog for in the next couple of weeks, its simple and easy and has totally been a pleasure to work on which is something the Skaven had definitely not been for a while, and that sux! I figure by putting them on the back burner I will get back some of the excitement I had for the army in the beginning.
Sorry again to all of you who have been reading and contributing to the blog I have really appreciated the feedback and enthusiasm from you guys.. and don't worry the rats will rise again!!
It's a shame, I have to say... just have to wait, I guess. Don't feel too bad. Thanks for letting us know the hammer dropped. Hopefully it won't be too long before other things lighten up.
I certainly look forward to seeing the commissions and other bits you do get done, and I will wait with baited breath for the return of the future ratmen.
Well, it's a damn shame but it sounds like you've got some pretty solid reasons there. And once a project becomes a chore rather than a joy, it's usually time to drop it. Have fun with your new free time, and see what's what in a few months!
Yeah, don't sweat it BH, we'll be stocking up on warpstone tainted newspaper they can use to line their nests when they return. I'm sure we'd all rather wait a while for more space-rats than see the project ruin your fun and just disappear completely. Look forward to whatever we see next from you.
I just hope you'll still share some bits of your awesome work... Go & take care of your family, it's more important than a spin-off project after all, amazing though he is...
Believe me, just moving them from my "to be done" shelf to my store room has lifted a big weight off my shoulders and my inspiration is firing again. I have no doubt the Skaven will be finished better and more randomly cruel than ever
Gotta do what keeps you interested, and if this isnt it, time to let it take a trip to the back burner. Kinda funny that this (along with other things) is one of the reasons for commissions. Keep up the original and exciting work, even if ratless!
I know that artist, he did a tolkein bestiary I used to own, I can't imagine how long it takes for him to draw and ink every picture they are so detailed.
As for the rats in your pics...pretty sick, both sick in the cool way and in the diseased rotten way
Thanks man, oh and yeah....the teats...thanks for the reminder
@Misguidance - Thanks mate, he is currently getting a base made of blasted and broken stone blocks, I am attempting (attempting!) to make it look like he has risen out of a smoking crack in the ground.
It was on a nurgle model so at least it looks somewhat okay 
