Manic's Slow Skaven Project

[ManicMan]

wonder what over figures the supplement would have had.. probably one for Skreek Deathstrike the Assassin (as ewll as Quirrik and the Rat Golem).. probebly just some more Skaven troops.. but most of the WQ figures (though not all) were Gary Morley.. wonder if some of the Colin Dixon figures were orginally planned for it as I don't think I've seen a Gary Morley Skaven... no wait.. scratch that.. he did the Blood bowl skaven, didn't he?

 

[twisted moon]

I've seen that Skaven Mechanic figure.

which figure is this?

... more like a 40k Skaven... Rats in spaaaaaace....

you have me intrigued.

 

[ManicMan]

which figure is this?

you have me intrigued.

not the best image but from Lost minis:

 

[Fimm McCool]

Interesting that the base has it labelled as 'Marauder'. Perhaps it wasn't intended for WHQ after all?

 

[twisted moon]

i'm not sure i've ever seen that before.
i agree that does look more wh40k like, similar to the gretchin with oversized tools.

 

[ManicMan]

Interesting that the base has it labelled as 'Marauder'. Perhaps it wasn't intended for WHQ after all?

Hard to say. I get a bit confused with Marauder.. the Morrisons created it in 1988 but... as only a 'brand name' for there own studio within GW? in 1993, it's fully back to GW, in 1994, they stop the name. Most Skaven including the 1992 Colin Dixon ones are tabbed as Marauder yet.. was there any reason or rhyme for that? I know most WHQ mins had the character name/type on the base but.. maybe as an early proto they just use a spare tab?.. doesn't make too much sense though..

What's REALLY weird is.. I've seen a better shot of the back on one for sale.. it's says 'Copyright (well, [C]) 1995. which would be a year AFTER that stopped using the Marauder name.. I got a nasty feeling the figure was made by Colin Dixon so the truth of it will probably not be fully known now..

 

[ManicMan]

Being.. not sure.. but anyway, Got myself a second Vermin Lord.. could have sworn rules only allow one in a battle but.. nope.. no limit.. since my old one (of course, the Michael Perry model from 1992) is already painted up from back then, though not by me) a second one I can paint up is nice. It has minor conversion work (not the original tail, and wings added) but I'm trying to think of something to do to it to convert it a bit. Really don't like the modern vermin lords and the whole 'here are 29 different types) etc so.. trying to think.. was looking for some prototype art or early stand-ins but couldn't find much. One thing I'm probebly gonna do is add more fur. While I have a bit of a interest in Perry Rat Ogre's, he kinda liked to remove as much fur as possible on Skaven.. something which seamed to pick up from that point onwards looking at some newer (2010+) figures.. While with a Rat Ogre, I could easy see it losing some of the fur in the mutations, The Vermin Lord is the greater Daemon of the Horned rat. while very warped and mutated, they are 'through' to be the daemonic forms of the Ancient Lords of Decay and parts of the flesh of the Horned Rat himself as kinda an embodiment of him. Just having some missing fur doesn't really make the right image.. That said, I pretty sure they don't know what 'leprous' means when you look at the Vermin Lord.. Wanna see if I can do something interesting..

While checking through the rules (4Ed), I do note that I got the idea you can only have one because not only 600pts cost, but the information about how even the Grey Seers are loathed to summon one without great need, which would make sense.. and alot of Faustine information.. found online, someone trying to claim a picture from page 10 of the Skaven armies book was a vermin lord... if so, it's an early concept idea but otherwise nothing to do with on.. (though always interesting.. in 3Ed, Verminlords were... a hero rank, along with the Lords of Decay.. which you were limited to 2 verminlords, only a level 15 hero..)

Anyway.. FINALLY I've almost finished a customised Pack Master, So I'll have some photos to take soon. Already got one Pack master for my Giant Rats painted, this would be the second one (haven't taken photos of the first yet) which completes that unit, and some bits for my Rat Golem have turned up so I should have all the bits I want to test fit.

 

[ManicMan]

very roughtly bluetacked together




the under carriage will be raised a bit so the pronges won't be touching the floor and it'll be a bit more rasied. And i'll add some sculpted chunks of warpstone on the body as it's meant to be there. so.. this is a 3D printed body based on but not a direct ripp-off of a 4ed Rat ogre body, a plastic head from.. i think 5ed of 6ed Rat ogre, probebly 5ed cause later ones are bionic and this one isn't. Back pack is some.. i think 40K cannon being used as vents/pipes, 4 wheels (2 different sizes) based on standard fancy wheels like ones GW did use, which are also 3D printed, an old Zoid connector piece ontop of the cocktail stick front axle, which has a turret hatch from some 40K thing, a original doom Wheel forward warp lighting projector, and a old 3D printer nozzle. Oh and two bits of warpstone from some skaven spure which is 5ed+ Might use some putty to merge things a bit more (like the turret hatch to the zoid connector to give a better connection

 

[ManicMan]

Finally.. Giant Rat Pack done!
Bad Photos time.

Group shot of 6 Giant Rats with 2 Pack Masters

First Pack master is Throt the Unclean. of course, originally just a Mutant Pack Master, for some reason they must have really liked him as he is pretty much the ONLY older named character who got promoted to a special character in 4Ed

nice figure and one I wanted for some time, so enjoyed it when I got hold of him, three arms, Mancatcher and warpstone eye replacement.


now this one... in a way is a bit of a mess ^_^ released as part of the second set of C47 Skaven in 87, He is 'Mutans Manflayer'. I have two copies of him, Both missing the same one arm which is meant to be outstretched and pointing. This one, the sword also snapped off, So I decided I would use him as another Pack master. the missing arm was from a, I think, 5Ed/ sprue set which.. Don't know, but the bell seams like a large cowbell or something for herding animals to me so I thought it was a good match. To replace the Sword, I was trying to sculpt a whip.. this is the third try and I can't say I'm perfectly happy with it.. For the first two, I tried to follow a guide saying about doing a wire core, then making a basic sausage wrapping over that, then making a thin piece which you wrap around it.. they turned out very crap. Though one might make a nice giant worm..


For the third try, I decided to give up on doing it like the guide said and just make the sausage and I rolled a spring around it as the Spring gives the nice spiral wraping texture. Even though I did leave it for awhile to start to dry before I did that, and then wait more before posing it (green stuff), the end did get a bit flattened. Still.. works well enough. And I guess you need a bigger whip with such giant rats.

PackMasters are pretty cheap so with 6 giant rats, that's only 35 points, though If I count the giant rats as Wolf Rats (which were missing in 4ed) that's.. only really half a point extra per Rat, making 38 points.

So, not counting what is already painted by someone else and I'm not gonna repaint (painted mid to late 90s) I've now done the unit of 10 Plague Monks (96 pts), 1 unit of 30 Clan Rats (180 pts), a unit of 5 Gutter Runners (65 pts) and this packmaster with Giant Rats. Have done two Globadiers but not counting them until the unit is done, oh and 2 rat Swarm bases.. got a few more to make up then either buy some more or figure stuff out.

 

[Fimm McCool]

Nice one, that rat golem is looking great. Did you use a Venom torso?

 

[ManicMan]

^_^ no, just got Black PLA loaded. Designer calls them 'Vermin Hulks' but they are close to being a 4ed Rat Ogre without being a direct copy

 

[symphonicpoet]

Nice looking! I look forward to seeing what that rat/machine bash will be. I suppose that's the "rat golem" Fimm is describing? Not familiar enough with Skaven outside Padre's battle reports, but it looks like it's going to be cool.

 

[ManicMan]

The Rat Golem was a one-off creation for the Warhammer Quest 'Domain of the Horned Rat' from White Dwarf 195. Its believed it was going to be an add-on like the 'Catacombs of Terror' and 'Lair of the Orc Lord' (and an unreleased Chaos Dwarf Set) but wasn't released, so they put it as a WD article (probably cut down a bit.. I don't know how much them add-ons had and this gave 1 new room, 3 quests and looking at the character list.. 4 new minis but probebly some more). A couple of kit bashs were shown for the 'Rat Golem'. He was a creation of an up and coming Skaven Warlord by mechanically modifying a Rat Ogre with chunks of Warp stone also added. My version is inspired by Andy Jones' version as Gavin Thorpe's version is pretty much just Boneripper with little changes.

In the Rules Discussion section of this forum, I've posted some conversion rules to play with it in 4Ed as I think it would be a nice thing to add to my Army

 

[twisted moon]

very roughtly bluetacked together

interesting.

Group shot of 6 Giant Rats with 2 Pack Masters

nice work.

 

[ManicMan]

okay.. Rat Golem is having a tiny problem in that I want to put a couple of chunks of Warpstone.. problem is.. what shape? I was wondering about a couple of little crystal pieces I got with a bunch of miniature bottles and stuff but.. mm.. while not 100% going via 'story', I'm not sure if they are right.. I mean, from what's written and shown with the skaven and chaos Warpstone, and it MIGHT be okay, but.. don't know.. Need to think about what shape/design for how I want a couple of random chunks of warp stone imbedded into his body..

On other news, I got another Skaven done and Photo'd but the photos were REALLY crap so I got to taken another one, as well as I've almost finished another Globaider.. not totally impressed with how he has come out but pretty much just needs basing.

Also.. decided to be a bit stupid and add a non-legal Ally Contingent. Adding a Unit of Fimir Fianna Fimm, lead by a Meargh wizard. Got some of the figures, waiting a bit for others but that's no problem. In 3rd Fimir were not allowed as a legal ally contingent for Skaven.. for some reason.. really can't figure out why.. oh well. But why should that stop me? in 4th which is what I mostly used, Fimir don't even exist (they were only around for a brief period in 3rd) but seriously.. They are classed as 'Evil' alignment.. Skaven are Chaotic, they should be fine. But Skaven are only allowed Chaos, Goblinoids and Dark Elves (3rd), or Undead, Chaos, Goblinoids and Dark Elves (4th).. ugh, screw that.. Fimir can make logical sense.. both on the chaos/evil side, while Skaven don't have a HUGE dislike rule for direct sunlight, they are both more creatures of the dark. oh well.. to make them Extra illegal, they say 40mm bases, I'm using 25mm cause that fits the figures (40mm? I know the figures were big-ish but not 40mm big.. That's ogre size.. As I normally use 20mm square for normal regiment troop, then 25mm square is fine.

 

[ManicMan]

sigh.. I'm gonna post these even though looking at the photos with a stronger light, I need to touch them up a bit..

A Gutter Runner (credited as Marauder but I don't think it was ever released by Marauder as it came out in 1993 when they were completely absorb into Citadel) but I'm using as an Assassin. When I've done the touching up, I'll probably take new photos including the back of his cape which has a basic green camo like texture. Historically, Assassins normally look like any other person. The term basically comes from some Arab country where they were trained and the best in the world. The idea was for an Assassin to blend in so well with any crowd that they could just walk up to there target, kill them and hid in the crowd. They could blend in with peasants or royalty. .. Of course, this doesn't really work in a battle situation nor does it fit the general view in fantasy gaming, So I went a bit more for a ranger/hunter. In British history (and probably other places), there were two main types of hunters. ones which would be out in the open in colourful clothing to flush out and catch their prey, or ones which would sneak up and take them out without being seen approaching the prey. the Cape more goes for the second, so I went for that. They would often have capes so they could easily hid themselves in the long grass so a camo like texture made sense to me ^_^. The model has some slight damage leaving a bit of a ball on the tip of the top sword but... decided to leave that be. Probebly could have filed it flat through..


I felt that with the Purple and green, my last Globadier (using the same model, C22 Gas Bomber) looked a bit like the Joker.. so I went for Batman with this, with the dark blue cape and mid grey suit (Classic batman, not whatever they feel like this month... gee, Batman has No character as it changes soo much and soo often.. very little character kept the same and not even that much of the outfit which stayed the same either..

Either way, this is my 1 Assassin done and now up to 3 of the 5 Globadiers done.

On a side note, some really funny stuff on Ebay.. someone was selling some Skaven as 'Metal Marauder' models, but they were not only based as odd-shape of 5 or so and were pretty much only the AHQ plastics.. sigh... sometimes I can understand mistakes, other times its purely just trying to con people.. But surely anyone wanting Metal Marauder skaven should be able to tell without much effort the difference between a metal Jes Godwin and... no clue who did the AHQ plastics.. kinda wanna say more Colin Dixon then Jes Goodwin but.. with all the original HQ ones being Goodwin, I can see the AHQ ones are too..

 

[Fimm McCool]

From interviews with Bob Naismith and Trish Carden I gather that the early plastics like the AHQ skaven were a group effort. The sculptors would wander over to the table with the 3-ups on whenever they had a moment and tweak one until the chavant became too warm to use effectively, then put it aside and leave it to cool. That's one of the reasons it's so hard to see anyone's particular style in them. I think that changed when the 4th ed plastics were being prepared. The Marauder skaven are Colin Dixon sculpts.

Loving the creeping DC nods in your army. It's really fun seeing how different influences just pop up in people's armies, part of what gives them all distinctive character.

 

[twisted moon]

they look alright to me.

 

[ManicMan]

Kinda given up with this model.. wanna tweak it a bit more but right now.. I've been having a hell of a time working on this.. Not sure why.. it's a fair enough model, being a Harlequin Ver'min Orge (I have both models they released) but... I don't know.. It also seams to be a bit blood bowl-ly with the armour the way it is. I have some 3Ed Rat ogres so I can do the unit with them anyway.. I tried to give it a blue-black fur but.. don't know how well it turned out.. think there are some bits that have gotten a bit chipped as it's been sitting there, slowly having bits done..

 

[Fimm McCool]

I see what you mean about blood bowly. Looks mean though.