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.

Hello everyone. I have been playing Warhammer Fantasy Battles on and off for several years now, but over time I've found myself losing interest in the actual gaming part of wargaming and almost exclusively going for the hobby part. Because of this I figured I'd skip the whole process of making armies for actual play and instead going for a lot of mini-projects. Any playable army I get in the end would be just a bonus. I have a few ideas at the moment, mostly focusing on Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Bolt Action, but I think I'll mix it up with other games as well.

I have decided on using fairly simple paint schemes. I really don't think it's worth the time to hand paint highlights and such and I usually end up being disappointed in the end result anyway. Given this, I will try to do as many conversions and kitbashes as possible instead.

What I am looking for at the moment is:

- Kits or bits of kits to use to make models that have rules but no ready figures to buy. Especially characters on mounts and similar.
- Suggestions of kits that are fun and painless to put together and easy to paint. Are there any older models I should look out for? Anything I should avoid in terms of metal models?
- Fun stuff to do using bits from the Isle of Blood figures or other starter sets.
- Fillers and other stuff to add to the big infantry blocks to spice them up a bit.
- Has anyone had any experience with the Mantic models? They seem to vary in quality a lot. Are there any good ones from the Undead or Orc kits?

The project will run until I get bored of it.


Warhammer Fantasy Skaven:
39x Clanrats with hand weapon and shield
Weapon team
Battle Standard Bearer

Warhammer Fantasy Warriors of Chaos:
1x Warrior with hand weapon and shield, mark of tzeentch
1x Forsaken
1x Marauder with great weapon, mark of khorne

Bolt Action Russians
11x Regular infantry


First I painted up a few models to get a general feel for the level of painting I intended and especially figure out what basing to use. Here are some Skaven.



And some Warriors of Chaos that I have been messing around with. I am not totally sure about the forsaken guy. I used some bits from the spawn kit, but the proportions are a bit strange since those bits are fairly large. Do you think it works or does it look too silly?




Then we have some Russians from the Bolt Action game. Very nice for their cheap price (they actually cost less than Skaven!)

I have updated the thread with a new focus. I don't think just painting Skaven will be interesting enough for me. So enjoy some more pictures!

I'm a fan of Skaven so you've caught my interest there.

Just finished my first block of Clanrats. I figured 39 (two boxes, with room for one character) would be roughly enough. Some of these are from the Isle of Blood starter set, but I think they look good enough that you can't really tell from a distance.



Also made a weapon team to go with it. I don't know anything about the rules of these yet so I just went with one of the Isle of Blood ones.



I also converted together a BSB. Some minor greenstuffing of extra cloth too. I will probably get a more interesting model later but this one will work just fine in the meantime.