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This is my attempt to put together a long over-due thread on what I’ve been painting lately. Mostly inspired by JoshInJapan’s long-running thread. I’ll see about getting some mini’s in the light box at some point, but for now, my apologies for the ugly pix.

Anyway, pre-COVID, my local gaming group had started playing SAGA Age of Magic and I painted up a Kingdom of Death force based off of some Nighthaunts. Great, fun, set of rules by the way for anyone looking to play a “large skirmish” (i.e. bigger than Warcry, Frostgrave, etc...) Anyway, I’ve loved those models since they came out and this was as good an excuse as any to get atarted on painting them. Then things got kind of out of control, and I ended up painting a decent sized AoS force...

I’ve been painting heavily with Contrasts and have learned quite a bit about using them. Great, great, paints. But often really best as a starting place vice being the be-all-and-end-all. For the Nighthaunts, they could do most of the work but for other applications, they often just provide that first step in getting a decent (IMHO) looking model. But enough rambling...

First up, an illustrative shot of my painting area...



I wanted to have the option of fielding the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse for my SAGA army, but really don’t like GW’s Hexenwriaths, so I converted up four scyth-bearing cavalry using Dreadlade Harrows... I’ll have to get a group shot of the 4, but here’s how they looked while I was working on him. And yes, Death should have a pale horse, but I liked the look this way...







That’s also a major upgrade over how I painted my first 4 Dreadblade Harrows as I got more comfortable with mixing the Contrast paints. I also discovered that it’s fairly easy to swap the two riders in the Dreadblade Harrows kit to have some variety of models. Just takes a bit of drilling to make new peg-holes and job’s done.

Right. So more to come, but I wanted to at least get this thread started after putting it off for so long..
Automatically Appended Next Post:
So any force needs its leader and I really like the Kurdoss model, so I had to paint him up. In SAGA terms, he’s typically fielded as a Warlord on flying mount. I went with purples only for high-level leaders to keep with the whole purple-is-royalty thing. It also sets him apart nicely from the rest of the army with it’s heavy focus on blues/greys.



I ended up getting the Mortiarch of Grief in a trade and, initially, didn’t really plan on painting her anytime, but I got inspired by working with the models,. I wanted her to stand out a bit more and I didn’t see purple looking that good for her, so I went with red and white. Also could simply not get her two handmaiden banshees to stay in place. GW, you guys make some great kits, but between this one and the Spirit Swarm models (dang, I can’t for the life of me remember what they’re called...) rival Wyrd’s best for the “tough to assemble” awards. And I’ve assembled the Beard of Yan Lo, dammit!



And then a family shot. And, yes, I’ve kinda exceeded what I could ever use in a 6pt SAGA list...



I’ll get a couple of close-ups of that I think are “interesting” models...

Valete,

JohnS

My early attempts at the ghostly effect, mainly using NIghthaunt Gloom, were a bit monochromatic, especially the cavalry units since the mount and rider tended to blend in together...



I wanted to keep the blue/grey palate fairly strong, but this was a bit too plain. When I started mixing some of the contrasts, however, I got some much better results! I’m probably happiest with the Four Horsemen (Hexenwraiths) that I converted from Dreadblade Harrows..



In this case, I did need to break from the blue/grey scheme a bit since, for SAGA, each of the Horsemen has to be distinct and distinguishable as they are removed as individuals not just as models from a unit. Another of the early mounted models I painted up was the Knight of Shrouds...



Again, pretty monochromatic and after the Four Horsemen, he really looks to be lacking... But I hate to repaint models, so I’ll probably just paint up another one which, happily I have from the boxed set. But I’ll probably do some minor conversions on him before I do. I picked up another Kurdoss head and scepter and I’ll probably convert the next Knight of Shrouds with those so I can use him as a Warlord on Mount rather than flying beast for my SAGA force if I want to go that route.

My first attempt at painting a Mournghul was an absolutely disaster. On of my first tries with Nighthaunt gloom and the model really didn’t work. So I ended up repainting it using ‘Gloom mixed into white paint, and using more conventional layering/dry brushing techniques...



Again, not perfect and dang does the combination of contrast paints, bright lights, and gloss sealant make it hard to get a decent picture... Lots of detail got washed out there..

I really like the EZ-build banshee models, and they showcase how far GW has come with making models. Really impressive...



I originally was going for the whole “white veil” look, but I just couldn’t get it to work, so I ended up going with the maroon headgear, although I managed to get the white look to work on the Mortarch of Grief, but I kept the maroon to try to tie the female models together. There’s some verdigris in the bronze breastplates, but it didn’t come out very well in the picture.

While I do love how ethereal GW was able to make those models, there were a few that were just darned frustrating to build. In fact, one of the Spirit Hosts gave me so many problems, I ended up completely converting the three spirits. Overall, I”m pretty happy with how they turned out, although again the contrast, gloss coat, and lightbox really wash out the details and, wow, this picture looks kinda crappy...



Still, it was fun to convert one of them and it’s a nice bit of variety to the 6 I have.

It occurred to me that I didn’t put up pix of any of the little guys...



About half-way through painting the Chainrasps, I realized that I really liked the arms to be more ghostly than skeletal so I changed from using Skeleton horde to Apothacary white for the “skin”. I kept the skulls bone-like though. But that means about half my army has the skeletal arms and half the ghostly ones... Ah well...

The overall painting technique for these guys was surprisingly simple. The contrast paints really work for this role. The ghostly parts are just Nighthaunt gloom over bonewraith (and later I found that Rust-oleum Painter’s Touch Satin finish heirloom white also works very well as a fill-in for the rather expensive, and sometime hard to get, GW primer). Then I dry brushed/layered wraithbone and then white back over the finish working to pure while when the ghostly trails vanish. The black cloth is either two coats of Mechanicum grey or thinned Black Templar depending on what I had on hand at the time. Just about all the wood is simply Snakebite Leather. Works really well and shows wood grain better than Wyldwood. Iron stuff is silver with a Nuln oil wash and then rehighlighted with silver as needed. All the gold and bronze/brass is Vallejo gold given a Guilliman Flesh wash and then highighted with gold as needed. Any ropes and bones are simply Skeleton Horde. It seems that the texture, alone, is enough to make your eye clearly differentiate the different things without needing to color them differently. Oh, and any gravestones were mixes of griffhound and and space wolf grey. Spirit flame was just Warplightning that was highlighted with a bright Vallejo yellow.

Again, I wanted to keep mainly to a cool grey/blue palate. For some of the characters, I added a bit of color and, as noted above, I’ve put a strong maroon color in the female models to unify their looks.

Tomorrow, I’ll try to post some of the other characters, objectives, sacred ground (For SAGA scenarios) and some army shots.

Then I’ll probably move on to the next project...

Valete,

JohnS

I'm really impressed by all these ghostly guys! I haven't tried to put together olynder myself but it does not surprise me at all that she was tough, gw's approach with a lot of the nighthaunt seems to be "how can we make this as painful as possible"

I really like your painting approach for these guys, i think they look genuinely haunting, especially the ones clawing over the grave like that.

I’d be interested in what others though about the two different color schemes for the Nighthaunts. I’ve kinda thrown my lot in with the ghostly blue vice skeletal brown...





Those pix also show off, at least a bit, how the different blacks have worked. I seem to recall that the skeleton guy was done with two coats of Mechanicum while the ghostly one was done with a thinned coat of Black Templar. Definitely like the Templar better... I also got a better handle on how to do the layer/dry brush transition from the Nighthaunt Gloom up through ivory to white to work the “fading into nothing” effect down better. Still not perfect, but I think the ghostly guy shows off the effect I was going for a lot better than the skeleton one.

And I promised some of the characters... I have been finding that I’m getting better results just holding models and taking the shot vice trying to use my lightbox. Which I wholly attribute to user error...

Anyway, first some close-ups of the rest of Four Horsemen.

Death:



War:



Conquest:



And just realized I never put a close-up of Famine in here:



My Knight of Shrouds of Foot (Ichor?)



For some SAGA scenarios, you need objectives, so...



I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. Next, again for the SAGA scenarios, I painted up my army’s Sacred Ground (with a couple of defenders in this shot...)



The patina came out a bit too blue, but for first try, it’s not too bad in person. And I have the rest of a Morr’s Garden in the works. Next up is a better shot if one of my Spirit Hosts...



A Guardian of the Souls (typically run as a Sorcerer in my SAGA llst...)




And I’ll wrap up for today with a couple more Chainrasps because, well, they’re just fun!





Alas, I believe the second one is Yorrick?

Ah... And one last picture... I really like the Glaivewraiths even though they really suck in both AoS and Warcry. But they remind me of Time Bandits, in all the right ways, and so I had to paint ‘em up. Plus, in SAGA, I can run them as Warriors or as Hearthguard and they’re worth taking...



Right. That’s it for now. I did get a question about the painting handles I use, so tomorrow I’ll probably put up some pix of how I make them and the stand as well as something that temporarily distracted me from painting wargaming figures...

Oh, and @amazingturtles, thanks for the reply! You get the (very dubious?) honors of being my first (and so far only!) reply! So thanks. And, yeah, Olynder is a serious pain to assemble and paint.

Valete,

JohnS

That's a pretty impressive photo dump. It's nice to hear that you're gaming and painting-- for whatever reason, I assumed that all of your time and energy was eaten up with work.

Everyone is talking about Contrast paints, it seems. I've been using a homebrew version which I assume gives the same effect ( I assume, as Contrast paints aren't available locally), and while I find them convenient, I still end up highlighting/layering over them to get the effect that I want.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
That's a pretty impressive photo dump. It's nice to hear that you're gaming and painting-- for whatever reason, I assumed that all of your time and energy was eaten up with work.

Everyone is talking about Contrast paints, it seems. I've been using a homebrew version which I assume gives the same effect ( I assume, as Contrast paints aren't available locally), and while I find them convenient, I still end up highlighting/layering over them to get the effect that I want.

Thanks! Been on a bit of a roll with a lot of free time due to coronavirus restrictions...

I am a definite contrast fan. They’re kinda like a wash, but do some pretty amazing things. That said, they’re not a be all and end all. For some applications, they can virtually do everthing you need, but for others, they’re simply a good start to the painting process. But dang if they can’t make painting a faster process!

I should have quite a bit more to feed updates over at least the next few weeks...

Valete,

JohnS

Very nice work cygnnus.

Cheers,

CB

BTW, you forgot the silent "e" on my name.

edit: much better, thank you.

@CaptainBrown: Thanks!

@Josh(e)inJapan: My most humble apologies. I’ll endeavor not to make that mistake again...

So I’m thinking I won’t bore folks with just more army pix, so it’s time to move on a bit. I‘m a big fan of the Hobby Holder made by Kit over at Gameenvy.

https://gameenvy.net/new-hobby-holder-miniature-holder/

A mutual friend of Kit’s got me one of the 3-d printed prototypes of the Hobby Holder to try out, and I backed his first Kickstarter for two after that and still use ‘em. But sometimes you want to be able to work on a bunch of models at one and swapping models in and out of a holder can be a pain. Kit’s Hobby Holder was made to work with wine corks or bog standard screw-on bottle tops. As much as I like wine, the bottle tops seemed like a more promising solution to make a bunch of holders. And especially once I realized that the inside of the neck of a regular soda bottle (or at least regular soda bottles here in the ‘States) is a perfect fit for 1/2” PVC pipe.

Thus was born the DIY paint handles which can be seen holding a bunch of “in progress” models in this thread. I first tried to attach the models to the bottle tops with hot glue and that was spectacularly massive mistake... That stuff is way harder to remove than I figured it would be, especially from the underside of a slottabase. But EZ Tack sticky putty works a treat.

Making the holders is dead easy. Just cut some 1/2” PVC pipe to the length you want. I settled on 4” since my local DIY store sells pre-cut 2 foot sections and I wanted an easy multiple of 24”.



Then cut off the top of a soda bottle just below the plastic rim below the screw top.



Both can be done with a hacksaw, but it’s WAY easier using a PVC pipe cutter. Then just superglue the PVC pipe in place, making sure not to glue the screw cap on.



Et voila! You, too, can turn a probably unhealthy amount of soda into painting handles... I don’t recall what the PVC costs, but it’s a couple of dollars at most.

For the stands, I just used a 26mm forstner bit and drilled about 3/4” down into some sections cut from wood 2x6’s. Of course, if you don’t have a drill press (and I don’t) it’s really hard to get ‘em to come out straight, so my first few attempts are kinda wonky. Then I realized I could build something like a test tube stand. You can see that in the back ground of my very first picture in this thread, but I’ll try to get a better picture of it once it’s not loaded with partially painted models on my workbench.

Right... For those that stuck with this post this far, a bit of painting. A friend of mine has a 3-D printer and I ran across a model on Thingiverse that he graciously agreed to print for me... Painting it distracted me for a day or so from painting more wargaming models.

So, without further ado, The Child...



He’s about 4” tall in person. The print is a little rough, but I think it give it some character and I’m really happy with how he turned out. Biggest challenge was getting the colors right since it’s big enough I didn’t really need to to a lot of layering other than on his flesh. And the gloss finish on the eyes worked out better than I had hoped it would.

So that’s it for today. Thanks for reading this far.

Valete,

JohnS

DIY painting handles look nice. I'm still holding minis by their bases or cradling them in my hand when I paint.

When JoshinJapan, and some other friends and I first got into Warhammer (Second edition baby!) way back in the day, I seem to recall chasing down Essex medieval figures to build human armies. You know, back when the FLGS was the only place you could easily buy miniatures? And, of course, we had Orcs and Dwarves, and all that good stuff. But the first fantasy army I really fell in love with were Jes Goodwin’s amazing Skaven sculpts.

Then GW came out with the Fantasy Regiment box..

http://www.solegends.com/citboxes2/pbs3whfbregs/index.htm

Ah.. The memories. Some of the first fantasy plastic out there (I never got my hands on any of the Drastik Plastik models). I forget how many boxes we bought back in the day, but ultimately we ended up divvying them up and I took all the Skaven to bulk out my limited number of metal models. The Skaven model was, for the era, fairly convertible. I kept the shields off of some, and swapped their swords for slings made of thin strips of paper making Skaven slave slingers. And swapped the swords on some for spears. Three regiment types in one! And for my money, the Skaven hold up the best as sculpts even to this day...

So for quite a bit longer than I am comfortable to admit, the great headless albino Skaven horde terrorize (well, more often, didn’t terrorize!) The ping ping gaming table that lived in our apartment . Then one week during Spring Break, my best friend Josh(e) and my college roommate Bruce went skiing and I painted like a mad-man. By the time they got back, the headless albino Skaven horde had been, uh, headed and painted! Over the course of that week, I painted something like 150(ish) Skaven. And thus, before we even knew what a meme was, the meme of Josh(e) and Bruce going skiing was born.

Over time, I managed to actually build it up to a pretty sizable force, but those fantasy regiment Skaven filled up a lot of back ranks of my units,

And there was much rejoicing!

But then GW had to go and create their “next” version of the Skaven, those ugly huge-handed dog monkey models. So, so ugly... And I fell out of playing WHFB, so I ended up trading off my Skaven army...

When Isle of Blood came out, with the re-imagined Skaven, harkening back to Jes’ old sculpts in aesthetic and design, I kinda knew I’d have to get back into Skaven quick-quick! Of course, at that point I was kinda kicking myself for trading off the old army, and in particular a few of the characters and conversions I’d painted up at near the peak of my early/mid-‘90’s painting skills.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Skaven army of mine if it didn’t sit around, unpainted, for a ridiculous amount of time... But between some COVID-19 driven mandated down time, and the successes I had with the Contrast Paints on the Nighthaunts, I decided it was time for Josh(e) and Bruce to go skiing again!

One of the things I really like about Contrast paints is how seamlessly you can blend colors...



The basic flesh is Darkoath applied liberally over all the fleshy areas. I hit the base of the tail, but left the rest of the tail bare. Then while the Darkoath was still wet, I started with Volupus Pink working from the tip back to the base and then mixing the still wet paints to get a nice gradient from the tannish skin to the pink rat tail.



The tunic is a 2:1 mix of Flesh Tearer and Mechanicum, although I’ve tweaked that here and there to get a better look. Anything iron is just Vallejo Silver with a Nuln Oil wash.



The shield is Snakebite Leather and I really love how it looks on wood grain. I forgot to take a last picture of him, but I highlighted the teeth and nails with ivory and white, cleaned up bits and bobs here and there, and -to keep with how my old army ended up- went with red eyes. Shooting for millions and millions of red-eyed rats! Oh, and I used Wyldwood on any “fur” bits (checks, forearms, legs, etc...). I’ll probably get a decent close-up next time I get a chance.

For basing, I went with a dark green woodland mix I’ve had sitting around for a long time..



And in the background, you can see the test tube-style painting handle holder I made. It’s 36” long, so it’s a bit of a beast to handle, but it can hold about 22 models at one time. And, yeah, that’s a couple of beastmen I was playing around with painting off to the right.

Finally, the unit is (mostly) done!



I did’t do anything with the standard yet aside from painting it. I just ordered some inkjet water slide transfer paper and I’m planning on printing up a bunch of standards using some of the old GW “photocopy your own” Skaven standards from way back in the day. The one purple dude in the back of the picture was actually the model I painted up, pre-Contrast, to test out Kit’s Hobby Holder prototype, so he’s a bit of an odd-man (rat? Ratman? Manrat?) out, but a painted Skaven is a happy Skaven!

I can pretty much do a single regiment of 20 in a few hours painting. To contrast with the grey/blue palate I’d been working with on the Nighthaunts, I”m going much more red with the Skaven. I guess it’s kind of a Clan Mors look?

Now, of course one regiment of 20 Skaven is hardly a “horde”, but it’s probably something like one double diamond run down the slopes!

Oh, and I suppose I should mention the bases. I’m really not a fan of AoS, especially for a rank and flank army like the Skaven. And The 9th Age just doesn’t do it for me. Seems to retain some of the biggest issues I had with where WHFB was going rolled into a kind of kludgy set of rules. So I’ll be painting and basing these guys on square bases for Kings of War. Which’ll cause at least a few little changes from what I’d do if I were an AoS/T9A list since the Ratkin in KoW are a bit different than Skaven.

But that’ll be for another post.

Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this far.

Valete,

JohnS



.

Oh, yeah, I remember that--coming back and finding a million ree-eyed rats waiting for me. These new guys are pretty sweet.

Well, my post-painting shot of the first Skaven didn’t come out so well.. Nothing like a glossy finish to wash out colors and detail under bright lights...

But here he is in all of his glossy glory!



I guess you’ll have to trust me that he eyes are red since that glare just washed it all out. One regiment done, I”m well into the second one, this time Clanrats with spears. I also decided that wanted to play around with more than just the Wyldwood for fur and needed a bunch of rats to paint to try that, so the obvious next step was rat swarms!



I used the same basic techniques on them as the Clanrats. Darkoath flesh for the head and limbs. I didn’t bother to blend the tails into the skin color, and just went with thinned Volupus Pink. I then used different contrasts for the fur. Some are Wyldwood, some are Snakebite Leather, and some are Apothecary White. I tried the latter because I know I‘ll want some albino Skaven and it worked out fairly well IMHO.



I picked out boils and what not in Warp Lightning and called the job done. I mean they’re rat swarms, for goodness sake! And, under KoW, their primary purpose is likely be be “Expendable” Vermintide batteries fueling Brood Mothers casting Drain Life, although they might still also serve as decent chaff if need be. But that does remind me that I will need to find a decent proxy for some Ratkin units that don’t show up in Skaven lists. Brood Mothers at the very least, but I’ll also have to mull over how to field The Tangle since I”m not really a fan of the Mantic Ver-Myn Tangle model. It’s okay, but I want to see what else I might be able to do. Anyway, the completed Vermintide Regiment...



That done it was time to get working on some of the Clanrats bigger brothers... Rat Ogres! I’d painted one up months ago when Contrast paints first came out and that experience was enough to convince me that the Skaven army was actually a realistic target to paint using the new paints.

And then, I had to go and read the Uncharted Kingdoms Ratkin list more closely... Mantic, in their infinite wisdom, deleted the Brutes entry from the Forgotten Empire Ratkin list! The Brutes were, clearly, the “counts as” option for Rat Ogres and Mantic just dropped them completely. Are you freaking kidding me?!?!

I know that Mantic wants to go their own way, to at least some degree, with the list and they have models to sell but come on! I’m a Skaven player since the Ravening Hordes list dropped and a Skaven/Ratkin list simply MUST have Rat Ogres in it! Rat Ogres are a key part of the whole Skaven/Ratkin idea. And, heck, if you read the fluff in Uncharted Kingdoms, they didn’t even bother to remove the references to Brutes from the Ratkin fluff, and there’s even an option to field a Brute Hero! Just seems either a) really petty, b) really sloppy, or c) all of the above. Any way you look at it though, it’s annoying... I realize I can field them as Ogre Allies (I’m thinking Ogre Berserkers?) but it still bugs me. I also realized at the same time, they had removed the listing for “The Blight” (which were pretty obviously the Ratkin version of Plague Monks). But that one doesn’t annoy me as much since Ratkin Shock Troops with Plague Pots make a decent enough proxy for Plague Monks.

Anyway, enough complaining about Mantic taking away the “easy” way to field one of my toys and on to the Rat Ogres themselves (and, forever more, they will NOT be Brutes to me!)...



They’re a mix of Isle of Blood and GW “Rat Ogors”. The design aesthetic of the Isle of Blood Rat Ogres and the boxed Rat “Ogors” is different and I really like the IoB ones better, but there’s, sadly, just the two monopose models. So I did what I could with some conversions to mix things up. And I’ve been eying some of the Punga Miniatures Rat Ogres, but any purchase there would have to wait until I get the current backlog down to a somewhat more reasonable level.

But since I ranted on Mantic, I’ll give GW at least a minute... “Ogor”??!??! No... Just no... I mean, I get it. They want protectable IP after the whole Chapterhouse debacle. I mean, heck, I’m pretty much okay with calling Imperial Guard, Astra Militartum. But that one’s just too dumb for words. As much as they’ll never be Brutes to me now, they abso-freakin-lutely will NEVER be “Rat Ogors” to me!

The paint scheme is basically the same as the Clanrats, although their bigger bodies, Skaven-style “scarring” and steampunk-y components will likely give me a bit more freedom to play around with them a bit.

So that’s it for today. Thanks to anyone who read this and I’ll try to put up some more pix (and, yes, probably do a bit of ranting as well) tomorrow.

Valete,

JohnS

Finished up the regiment of Rat Ogres! First, the group shot:



Then a couple of side perspectives....






As I said before, they’re painted up with basically the same scheme I used for the Clan Rats. I went with Nazdreg Yellow for their, uh, rags since that’s about the closest proxy I could find to the yellow scheme I’d used for all my Clan Moulder models in my previous army. So, out of nostalgia, if nothing else, I decided to go with the same general color scheme. You can also see the Wyldwood brown fur much more clearly here than on the Skaven models.

Of course under KoW, there’s no need for separate Clan Moulder beast handler models, so I’m not quite sure what I’ll do with all the Rats with whips I have laying about. I’ll probably get around to figuring out what to do with them at some point, but for now, there are plenty of other fish to fry (or more accurately, I suppose, rats to paint).

Also finished up the second regiment of Clan Rats. This time with spears. Eventually, I’ll want to get at least 40 of them to make a KoW-proper Horde. WIth the Phalanx rule due to the Spears, a pretty decent nerve for the cost, Rallying, and likely some support from a Brood Mother and/or Tangle, they should be able to take at least an initial punch and set the army up for counter-charges. First, the regiment:



And then a close up of the unit leader. And, of course, once you take a picture, you notice that bit of sprue that you didn’t completely trim off of his sword... Ugh...



Finally, back in the day, I had the foresight(?) to pick up 4 packs of the metal sling arms and pouches that GW used to make to convert plastic Clan Rats into slingers. After wortking on some battle line units, I figured I needed some skirmishers/chaff, so here’s the first 10 done...



Sadly, as I read more and more about Scurriers in KoW, it looks like those guys might spend more time on the shelf than on the battlefield (well, obviously, all of the models will spend more time on the shelf than on the battlefield, but you know what I mean). They have a bunch of special rules (that you end up paying a lot of points or) that just don’t really synchronize together very well. But a Skaven army has to have slaves with slings, so I’ll keep painting them. The second unit is on the painting table...

So painted so far is 40 Clan Rats, 6 bases of rat swarms, 6 Rat Ogres, 10 Skavenslaves with slings, Again, not quite a horde,but getting there! Next up are 10 more Skavenslaves, another regiment of Clan Rats with Spears and, I think, it’s time to get some character models done!

Thanks to anyone who read this far. Josh(e) and Bruce? Keep hitting the slopes!

Valete,

JohnS

It feels good to see square bases again. I particularly like the rat ogres

@JustALitteOrkish: Thanks! Round bases have a place, but when you get bigger than glorified skirmish games? Nah... You need square bases for rank and flank style games!

The next regiment of Skaven with spears and the last of my currently assembled Scurriers are done! Woot! No pix of them since they’re just more rats, but I did get a good start on some models to lead the growing horde..

I decided to jump in with both feet for my army general. I’ve always liked the FW Verminlord figure and I picked one up in a trade on Bartertown a few years back. That said, I’m pretty darned sure it’s a Chinese copy, but what can you do? Anyway, I really like the model more than the newer plastic one and so, although I have both, I decided to go with the resin...



And top...



Technically in my KoW army, he’ll be the unpronounceable DemonSpawn special character from the Ratkin list. He should have wings since he has Flight, but I really didn’t want to break up the lines of the FW model by tacking some wings on, so we’ll just call that Skitterleap. In KoW, this guy’s a serious point sink but also a complete beast. Brutal in melee, but also provides some great support with Inspiring and Rally (2). Plus, he can really move with nimble and Flight, and should hit like a ton of bricks... He doesn’t quite have the attacks to take on big units by himself, but what he hits will definitely feel it.

Same painting techniques overall as the the rest of the rats with a thinned Flesh Tearer red in the recesses of his scars. I was torn between going with Warp Lightning to have that whole “Demon glowing with inner energy” feel, but I decided I wanted some contrast with the warp stone chunks hammered into his skin (and eye!) and to, instead, go with a more physical presence. Dunno if it worked or not, but I’m pretty happy with him overall.

Next up, the obligatory Grey Seer! These shots are still WIP, so there’s definitely some things I know I need to clean up...






I went with his fur in Apothecary White. I’d been thinking about how to do an albino Skaven since started and I’m glad I tested that scheme out on some giant rats before trying to tackle a Grey Seer. Again overall, I’m pretty happy with him. He’s almost completely done in Contrasts.

Unfortunately, in KoW terms, he loses some of this Grey Seer luster. He’ll “just” be a Warlock and not quite the spell-slinging, Warpstone chomping, personal messenger of The Horned Rat that is his birth right. But what can you do?

Next up, some help in the form of the threat of a knife in the back...



The newest member of my Skaven clan. Literally, picked him a his “twin” up off of eBay not too long ago... I wanted to try him out before I jumped into Deathmaster Sniktch. Again, pretty much the same technique as the others. He’ll be a Master Scurrier in KoW terms. Now, here, unlike the standard Scurriers, the special rules work out nicely, and he should be a pretty good threat hiding out in woods or other cover, keeping other enemy characters or war machines on their toes.

Finally, I’m planning on jumping into Clan Pestilens with both paws... I have 40 Plague Monks built and ready to go., My test scheme:



Lots of boils I missed the first time, but I’ll rectify that. Also realized the yellow is the same I was using for my Clan Moulder colors, but since I don’t have to do a lot o Clan Moulder handlers, it’ll probably be okay. I probably should have gone with Green and Grey, but I’m kind of already committed... C’est la vive.

These guys will be a Horde of Shocktroops with Plague Pots when I’m done. As I think I noted previously, Mantic (in their infinite wisdom) removed The Blight entry from the Ratkin list in Uncharted Empires. But Shocktroops with Plague Pots works fairly well IMHO, so I’m not quite as bend out of shape as I am over the loss of Brutes (grumble, grumble...)

So that’s now 60 Clanrats, 20 Slaves with Slings, 6 bases of rat swarms, and 6 Rat Ogres, plus three Heroes to lead them.. The horde continues to grow! If I’m matching correctly, that’d fill out most of a 1,500pt KoW list (if I add some magic items to a couple of units, and extra spells for the Grey Seer).

Right. That’s it for now. Thanks for reading. Plague Monks look to be the next big goal, but I’m also tee’ing up some and my first big non-GW addition to the hordet...

Valete,

JohnS

AM I reading this right? Are you doing these skaven using Contrast only? Are you putting the contrast over white, or are you putting down a basecoat and then contrast? Either way, they're turning out quite nicely.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
AM I reading this right? Are you doing these skaven using Contrast only? Are you putting the contrast over white, or are you putting down a basecoat and then contrast? Either way, they're turning out quite nicely.

Yup. Contrast right over Wraithbone (or more typically over Rust-Oleum Satin finish Heirloom White) for virtually all of ‘em. The iron is Silver with Nuln oil. Where needed, I’ll dry-brush/highlight, but typically it’s just the Contrasts. I’ve been really happy with how well they work.

Valete,

JohnS

Short update today...

Finished up the first tranche of Plague Monks:



Again, kinda wishing I’d gone with Grey and Green vice Yellow and Green, but I’m going to stick with the scheme... 24 down, 16 left for the Horde...

The movement tray is a base-x-of-war Vermin tray.

https://www.base-x-of-war.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=64_126

Kinda wish I’d bought more when I got them a few years ago. I have a couple of 10x4, a 5x4, and 2 5x2 as well as a chariot base. I think I’m going to have to put in another order at some point...

Anyway, that’s today’s update. Next up should be some Jezzails and maybe a thing or two else...

Valete,

JohnS

That really is 100% more skaven.

Glad to see a fellow square baser.


They're looking really good. You've done a really good job of using the contrasts. Im using them more and more at the moment especially on colours which I'd historically struggled. Looking at you yellow.

Keep up the great work!

The yellow works for the plague monks, but I wonder if there isn't a way to make it grosser. A green glaze (overall or spot), perhaps? Also, you are a member of one of the rarest gaming tribes-- a KoW player who uses full model count. I salute you.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
The yellow works for the plague monks, but I wonder if there isn't a way to make it grosser. A green glaze (overall or spot), perhaps? Also, you are a member of one of the rarest gaming tribes-- a KoW player who uses full model count. I salute you.

Well, that’s more a factor of the models I have than any kind of principled stand...

I’ll have to take some close ups. They’re fairly “grosser” Their boils are a nice shade of purple.

And @howie, thanks. Square bases all the way! At least for massed battle games. I’m good with rounds for skirmish games...

Valete,

JohnS

Fair enough. It's just something that I, as a former WHFB player, find annoying about the KoW scene-- putting 50%+1 models on a base, filling the rest with terrain and calling it a mini-diorama. Imagining the unit lugging little buildings or fallen pillars or whatever all over the battlefield sort of takes me out of the game (theoretically, as my only opponent is a ten-year old who only uses my models).

 JoshInJapan wrote:
Fair enough. It's just something that I, as a former WHFB player, find annoying about the KoW scene-- putting 50%+1 models on a base, filling the rest with terrain and calling it a mini-diorama. Imagining the unit lugging little buildings or fallen pillars or whatever all over the battlefield sort of takes me out of the game (theoretically, as my only opponent is a ten-year old who only uses my models).

To some degree I empathize with that.. I do like the ability to have some flexibility on basing, especially with how hard it can be to rank up models on 20mm baes, but I’m not really a fan of the 50%+1 either. But there’s also the whole rule of cool angle.. If someone can pull off a great mini diorama, I’m all for it. But doing it just to cut down on models? Not a fan...

That said, I’ll probably pull a couple of models off some of the units to let models rank up better...

Valete,

JohnS

I decided I needed at least some long-range firepower for my horde, and until I get a plague catapult or warp lightning cannon painted up, the next best bet are jezzails. I have to admit I still like the original ones better, but they’re kinda hard to find and pretty darned expensive when you can. Regardless, these guys are orders of magnitude better than the horrid second-generation models! But in any event, I ended up getting 10 teams of the current models (in metal, not finecast to boot!) in a trade, so that’s what I went with. Group picture as the first 5 were on their way to get sealed...



Again, I’ll have to get some better close-ups at some point...

And next, my Stormvermin test scheme. I really think GW knocked it out of the park with the current Stormvermin model. I had a unit of 20 of the original ones back in the day, but these are just so much better! They are a royal pain to rank up on 20mm bases (see previous post!) but they’re just really, really nice models. Same basic painting scheme and techniques...



Obviously, he needs some touching up but that’ll probably be the scheme of the Horde of 40 of them. Pretty easy call in KoW terms... A Horde with the Heavy Halberd option. Sadly, that doesn’t make them any “hitty-er” than the Plague Monks are, but it fits the models and does give them a slight defensive edge against an opponent’s likely heavy hitters. Plus I can always throw some kind of magic weapon or what have you on them to make them hit harder if needed.

So that’s it for now... I’ll probably put the Stormvermin on the back burner for a bit since I’ve been churning out the smaller rats lately. Something much bigger is lurking on the painting table next...

Thanks as always to anyone who’s read this far...

Valete,

JohnS

So how is it that it’s only after to take a picture if a figure, you notice all the things you missed/messed up, etc?

Anyway, here’s one of the Jezzail teams (uh... Clawshots?) up close? And, I only noticed when I took the picture, I completely forgot to do the fur on the lot of them! I personally blame trying to paint whilst watching The Things We Do In the Dark, but whatever. The first 5 are done and sealed, so that’s that...



But on to the next big model.. After getting my Vermin Lord done, I was looking at the next heavy hitter for the list and settled on painting up a Hell Pit Abomination. Well, okay, on painting a Mutant Rat Fiend since this is more for KoW. I have one of the GW models, but I’d been poking around Etsy and ran across a Giant Mutated Rat. Several sellers offer them, but I decided to order one (largest size they printed) along with a couple of other models that may show up in this painting ‘blog at some point from a seller called DynamikCreations.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/776747445/mutated-rat?ga_search_query=Rat&ref=shop_items_search_1

Considering the whole COVID thing, they turned the order around pretty quickly and I was very happy with the quality of the print... It’s not like I don’t like the GW HPA model, but I wanted something different. Again, I’ll probably paint up GW’s model for the “next” Giant Mutated Rat model in my army, but for now, I think one’ll do. So, without further ado...









Kind of a mix between a gigantic rat and the Demogorgon from Stranger Things! Which, I know, is nothing like the AD&D Demogorgon, but whatever... As with the Vermin Lord I kinda decided to keep his paint scheme in the a “realistic” (yes, as realistic as a gigantic 6-legged, 3 tentacled, mutated rat whose face rips in two when it’s attacking things can be) scheme. So it was a lot of flesh tones, reds/pink, and fierce in tooth and claw. I did go with a nice putrid green for the boils, though for a bit of contrast.

He (?) ended up fitting pretty well on a 100mm x 80mm base. Bigger than the 75mm square that KoW titans are supposed to fit on, but the rules do allow you to use larger bases as needed, so I don’t feel any shame. Game-wise, he ought to hit pretty hard with Crushing Strength (2) and a decent number of attacks, but with both Regenerate 5+ and Aura of life, he should be fairly hard to put down since he should get back just over 1/3 of any damage he has suffered going into the movement phase. Best of all, you roll for regeneration at the start of the movement phase, but add the one healed wound from Aura of Life at the end of movement, which maximizes the chances of getting as many wounds back as possible.

Right... That’s all for now I think. I have some character models and supporting units up next before I tackle the big block of Stormvermin.

Thanks to anyone who’s taking the time to read this.

Valete,

JohnS

I've never seen Stranger Things, but I have seen John Carpenter's The Thing, and that ripped open face really reminds me of that.

@JoshinJapan: I don’t think I ever saw Carpenter’s take on The Thing, or if I did The Thing itself didn’t make enough of an impression to override the Stranger Things impression... It’s also entirely possible that I’m just getting old and forgetting things from my youth...

After painting up a “lesser” assassin, I figured it’s time to take on the biggie himself, the Deathmaster... The original model was one of my favorites, one whose paint job I was particularly happy with, and one of the models I most regret having traded off years ago, so I did want to do the current one at least some degree of justice. Not sure I entirely nailed it, but overall I’m fairly happy with how he turned out.



It’s kind of hard to tell in the picture, but his pants and cloak are different shades of grey in person and the gloss coat does make him look a bit messier than he really is. But all-in-all, I’m happy enough with how he turned out. Perhaps not quite up to the standards my 20-something-year-old self would have managed, but I’ll take it for now. The only thing I’m not really that happy with was using Apoothecary White on the bandages/wrappings on his face and feet. They worked okay, but just didn’t quite pop like I’d hoped. I’d used the same technique on the face wraps of some Tallarn Guardsmen (perhaps a post for the future?) and it worked quite well. But maybe there just wasn’t enough sculpted fabric and the effect just wasn’t quite as good.

In KoW he’d just be another Master Scurrier which is a bit of a shame, but give him a magic weapon of some kind and he might approach the glory that was The Deathmaster. Okay... Probably not... But certain concessions must, I suppose, be made from time to time.

So now that I had the assassin and Grey Seer angles all worked out, it was time to get a proper Warlord painted up. You can’t expect a Grey Seer to personally lead an army, right? I mean not until after they’ve won their battle... If you lose, you need someone to blame-blame. And if you win? Well.. Any pesky warlord attempting to hog all the glory-glory can easily be addressed with a simple Warp Lighting blast, right?

So speaking of the Rat with the giant lightning rod on his back, it’s kinda sad how far Queek Headtaker has fallen from being a named character to, “Skaven Warlord”, but them’s the breaks amongst the Ratkin. This was another of my favorite models back in the day, but I have to admit GW really nailed the new (okay... So not really so new, but these things are relative if you’ve been playing WHFB since the late ‘80’s) sculpt. So much more dynamic... Definite step up IMNSHO....

I tried to go for a red lacquer armor for Queek by glazing Flesh Tearer over SIlver. Worked fairly well, although the metallic effect really doesn’t come out that well in the photo. Nor do all the silver rivets in his armor. Tried using a metallic silver pen for those vice trying to paint each one individually. Overall, I think it worked. Otherwise, the paint scheme’s Mor (Mor? Get it? Hah...) or less the same as the other Skaven.





Finally, some weapons teams for the army...



Again, I used to really like the original metal Warpfire Throwers, and I wasn’t sure about the IoB plastics. But I have to admit I’m pretty pleased with how they painted up. After struggling with the Jezzails (not quite as old, but definitely sculpted in a different era), I was more than happy to stick to the plastics. Now, I just need to decide if I want to try out the metal Ratling Gun models or bite the warp stone bullet and order one of the Punga miniatures Teethbreaker gun models. But either way, there’s not much of a hurry since two weapons teams is a good enough start. Besides, the Uncharted Empires list took away the option to “upgrade” weapons teams to make them more ratling gun-like, so warpfire throwers will work for now. I do have a couple of plague mortars on the table and I may get around to painting them as well, but they just don’t quite speak (squeak? to me like the Warpfire throwers do...

Next up, aside from the Mortars if I find the inspiration for them, should be the first Tunnel Runner. The first time I read the tunnel runner entry, I missed their pretty darned large number of attacks. Those attacks with Thunderous Charge and Crushing Strength, along with a good speed and decent melee rating, should hit pretty damned hard. The model might be a *bit* small for a chariot-sized has, but I like the model a bit more than the Doomwheel. It has a nice steam-punk, Labyrinth-esque feel to it that appeals to me. I have one Doom Flayer model on hand, and one of my FLGS’ is trying to get two more for me so I can put together a full unit of 3. I’ll keep the Doomwheel I own for the larger Impailer...

And I want to do something for what I guess would be my first KoW-specific model... The Tangle. I have an idea there since I don’t like the Mantic offering, and I’ll see how it works out.

As always, thanks to anyone who’s read this far (in this post or in the ‘blog in general)...

Valete,

JohnS

For today’s update,

The first tranche of Stormvermin lined up to be flocked...



Pretty much followed the test model I painted up and showed in a previous posting with these guys. Again, I just love this sculpt although it’s a serious pain to get them to rank up. This is definitely a case where I’ll likely cull a few models from the full 40 I plan to paint to let them fit on a movement tray better... But this batch makes it 23 of the 40 total I have to paint.

Next up is the first of the Tunnel Runners (née Doom Flayers)...



Happily I both like this model and, at least in KoW terms, it seems to be worth taking. Well, at least once I get two more of his brothers painted up. Looking at this model reminded me of the old Chaos Dwarf Whirlwind (Which I had one of back in the day, but have no idea where it went over the past couple of decades...) and I thought, “Dang, I bet you could make a cool conversion using the old Whirlwind to make a nice variant Doom Flayer model”. Then I looked at what they’re going for on eBay these days... Ugh... To slightly misquote one of my favorite aphorisms, “Another beautiful idea slain by an ugly price”. Ah well...

And the first overtly non-GW model, my take on The Tangle...

This one’s probably worth a bit of set up. The Tangle is a Ratkin support model that provides some very nice buffs to your army. As I think I alluded to, I’m not really a fan of the Mantic model (Although I have to admit it’s grown on me over time). Anyway, clearly Mantic was taking the Germanic myth of the Rat Tangle or the Rat king as their inspiration for The Tangle. So I was looking for Rat King or Rat Tangle models, and there are a few out there. But the one that finally caught my eye as best fitting what I wanted to use was the Rat King Boss from the MYTH board game, so I found one at a reasonable price on eBay and, a couple of days later, I would have my model. I’d originally planned on having the model riding on a wheeled platform built from Screaming Bell parts since he’s supposed to be on a 75mm square base. So I hacked up a wheeled platform I was pretty happy with. Two tiers so that the Rat King could stand on one and then have a brazier or something on the other. Then he (they?) arrived, and dang... He (They?) were a lot larger than I’d planned and it was clear my little Tangle Wagon (itself sized for the 75mm base) wasn’t going to work. So I just used the King with some assorted rats added to the base to kind of spruce things up. Looking at the model, though, it looked a bit plain, since the MYTH Rat King is a board game piece and sculpted to the same level of detail that wargaming minis typically had. But I realized that I could do some hand swaps since the model was big enough to have Skaven hands in place of some of the Rat King hands. So after some cutting and drilling-and-pinning, I gave The Tangle some Plague Monk parts (book and bells) along with a converted standard with a triple-length pole to let it stand tall enough to get over The Tangle’s highest head.

Anyway, without further ado, my take on The Tangle...



For scale, that base is 75mm square, so he’s a pretty hefty model. And, yeah, I realized there’s a glob of paint in the red standard. I’m hoping to cover most of that up when I finally print up some water slide transfers to finish off all the standards in the army.

So that’ll wrap up this installment for now.

Valete,

JohnS

Fantastic rats aplenty. I particularly love the Demagorgon rat