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Exciting, very exciting

Subbed. Another awesome sounding project, can't wait to see your pics!

Thanks for all the support and subscriptions guys, I know how annoying a paint and modelling blog can be when it is relatively picture free

So on that note, onto some pics!

First up is a pic of the master copies of my custom bases, they are supposed to represent the flagstones of the ruined city but I am thinking I need to add more rubble to next few I build without making them too unique as it may look a bit strange to have a bunch of different rats standing on several identical piles of rubble.



Here are a couple of pics of my WIP sponson, it will end up with two booms extending from the vehicle that connect to the top and bottom and allow it to swivel...hopefully





Last are a few pics of my 2.0 version of the "chimera", the denser, finer styrofoam is better but as you can see it still has a lot of messy voids around the bubbles which I can only hope will be able to be hidden under a thin coat of plaster of paris...obviously not my first choice but the Great Foam Hunt will continue!







And with that I better go watch True Blood with my Fiance

C&C is welcome as always!

Cheers

BLACKHAND

How about a thin layer of PVA glue to seal the foam , then some textured masonry paint? Or there's a few types of 'stone effect' spray paint used for arts & crafts.

Spackle will seal the foam and is easy to apply.

Your reading my mind Monkeytroll!
I have been thinking about making up a mix of pva, plaster and water then brushing it on.

Spray paint may melt the foam but with a basecoat it could be ok..

Another con with styrofoam is that I will have to cut out the gaps between all the blocks of stone then sand them to get a rounded look..painstaking!

The urethane foam you can cut a line with a knife then run a pencil along it to crush the foam into the shape I want.

Sorry don't mean to bitch more about the foam issue but it's really bugging me!

@Em_en_oh_Pee - I will look into spackle (or whatever we call it over here) in fact I have some hole filler I use to clean up nail holes in walls that I can try, I 'm pretty sure thats the same thing

Yea, didn't realize you were in New Zealand. What you have should be the right stuff. If I remember right, you can put a layer of that down and spray it safely. However, for the effect you are shooting for, you will need to tinker with stuff.

You know Blackhand, those bases are good enough to sell commercially.

Love the progress on the chimera. Who'd of thought that construction insulation board would be so hard to get anywhere on earth in this day and age... but you're doing a beautiful job!

Nice one blackhand, as always, I eagerly look forward to seeing the fruits of your labours.

Recently I've seen latex spray paint for sale in the US. It doesn't eat pink foam and other paint can be applied over it.

Yeah, that's the Krylon H2O stuff. I've fooled around with it a bit, but it's colors are limited and you'll be covering a fair amount of detail with it (though with foam I guess that's not a problem is it?). Meh, think a coat of diluted white glue with do just as well.

Subscribed! Love the idea of 40K Skaven; can't wait to see how the project progresses...

On the issue of the foam, maybe you could get someone to get the foam for you in a different country and mail it to you? It can't be 400 bucks a sheet the whole world over...

Interesting... Subscribed!

@gitsplitta - Thanks man I am liking the bases myself, I think when I'm done I will start taking a set to my local club day and see if anyone is interested.

@chaoticmind - I will ask around about the krylon spray and see if it is available, I think I will try holefiller first as IIRC it has a nice texture which should resemble stone if I do it right.

@masterDRD - I have asked Hobofisherman here in NZ to look around the city he live in her in NZ. I used to live there and I know I bought some there....10 years ago of course

I've been scouring modelling websites in the UK in the hope of finding one that sells it but it's probably like trying to buy sand or dirt, it's so common that no one would think of selling it

Thanks again for all the feedback guys!

Cheers

BLACKHAND

Pink foam is absolutley the best, but it is so hard to obtain. My sheet that I have was found at a construction site I happened to be at, after deciding they were not going to use it I transformed it into some decent scenery

I guess we're lucky in the US. The pink and blue dense sheet has become the standard for building insulation, so you can buy it at any lumber yard or big hardware store at... what, $25 for a 4x8 sheet. Really neat stuff. Our game board is made out of it.

You're playing as Imperial guard? Seems appropriate.

Fluff comment: Personally I think the idea of rat-like races existing in space as standard are possibly more realistic than orks in space. I can think of many ways rats could become intelligent/ mutated/ evolved/ humanoid from contact with alien ooze/tech etc. I find them quite pleasing as a stand-alone 40k feature and not imported from Fantasy.

Also I would love more, interesting alien races in 40K.

Thank you
superscenic

Thank you everyone for your patience....


...THEY HAVE ARRIVED!!!



Yep thats

1x Stormvermin
1x Rat Ogres
1x Screaming Bell
2 x Ruins of Osgiliath

Hopefully this will provide the bulk of what I need for my incredibly trooper- light/vehicle-heavy Skaven list

And since I've waited long enough already I couldn't help but have a play around with one of the Stormvermin



It's a rough mock up but a good example of what I hope to achieve with the project.

A few things I have learnt while salivating over my new plastic crack..

..The stormvermin have INCREDIBLE detail, if this is the way the new skaven coming in december will look then I will probably have to buy some for conversion bits.

...The Ruins of Osgiliath are the heaviest terrain I have seen so far out of GW, sure they may not have as much detail as Cities of Death but they feel less flimsy and are in my opinion are what terrain needs to be..solid enough to last many a battle!

....I am probably going to have to buy another Screaming Bell, my god is it pretty! So many sweet bits, smoking braziers, bells, chains and TWO different crews to be split up amongst my vehicles.


Now I hope to get some work in on this army in the next week but I can't promise it will be as fast as either you or I want! Tonight though I will be happy exploring new sprues and inhaling that new plastic smell

Cheers

BLACKHAND

Cool Blackhand, can't wait to see what you're up to!

^Ditto.

Awesome...it's an idea that I'm sure someone else on the interwebs will want to do as well.
Very inspiring Blackhand.

That Skaven looks great with the las gun. The new island of blood box set is out now, maybe the skaven in it could become part of your army!

Sweet looking ratman there.

Rat Ogres? Why whatever could they be in a Rat IG army?....

@gitsplitta - Thanks man So am I!

@sanctjud - I'm hoping that people are interested, I have been trawling the net for the past year and found very little in the way of 40k skaven. I guess now that the new good looking plastic skaven are out that conversions might be more common, I've discovered that the stormvermin at least are great for conversions with separate arms and heads to save on cutting and GSing.

@commander Cain - I have looked long and hard at the Island of Blood box but the clanrats in the box have their shield fused to their bodies so would be too hard to convert, even the heavy weapon teams aren't really useful for my needs. In the end I would only want the special characters and the rat ogres so I will buy them separately when the box comes out.

@tim the bivore - Hehe, my plan is to run 4 Rat Ogryn with a Colonel Stracken "counts as", chuck em in a chimera and see how they go.


Thanks for the comments guys!

Cheers

BLACKHAND

its good that your order arrived, I shall be waiting to see these rats take form!

MOAR.

This is great stuff! Have you thought about maybe using Chaos Defliers as tanks? I can see it now, screaming bell on legs...

Hey, Tectured paint would stop the foam from melting, its quite cheap and would give a good surface.

TR

TBH I hadn't thought of defilers, I did consider making giant cyborg rats as sentinels and tanks but once I had the idea of the floating ruins I just couldn't turn a way from it! for me the army will be as much about the flying castles as it will be about the skaven conversions

BLACKHAND wrote:TBH I hadn't thought of defilers, I did consider making giant cyborg rats as sentinels and tanks but once I had the idea of the floating ruins I just couldn't turn a way from it! for me the army will be as much about the flying castles as it will be about the skaven conversions

Love it. Stick to it! No offense intended to immygravenimage, but your current direction is just awesome. I am very, very jealous, by the way. Such a unique idea, I wish I had thought of it. Might just steal the idea and make up a few tanks and some guys, just for a display.