Dayspring's Fantasy Log: Skaven

[Dayspringer]

Hello Warseer. I've been lurking and commenting around here for a while now, so I thought it was time to start my own log.
Like many of you I'm sure, 8th rekindled my interest in Fantasy. I've been a long term Dark Elf player (and you might see some at a later stage), but when my local club started up an escalation league, I took the plunge into Skaven. I'd been eyeing the miniatures for a while, and the prospect of an all plastic army is fantastic (especially after using Eldar Aspect Warriors in 40k on a regular basis. You might see some of them at some stage as well) So this army will be 100% plastic! The pressure of monthly deadlines will hopefully keep this log alive, and leave me with a fully painted ratty horde. Hooray!

Here's some fluff to get things started:

Chief Rattagantz. Low ranking general of a low ranking clan, bottom of the pile of filth that is Skavenblight. A rat with big ambitions, though. Called upon by the warlocks of Clan Skyre, Rattagantz is sent forth into the world of men. One of their own is missing, the mad* recluse Iklas Quezla. Rattagantz is to find him, and more importantly, find his work. If the rumours about this Enginseer are true however, Rattagantz may just have found his way to the top of the pile. A few of his most trusted** clanrat warriors, a few "gifts" from clan Skyre, and a few favours he was able to negotiate from clan Moulder, and Rattagants is off to find his destiny, or die trying***.


*yes, even by skaven standards
** by skaven standards, anyway
***by dying, he of course means letting his underlings die whilst he runs away

I'm part way through the first 500 point block, so let's get to the thing you are here for. The pictures. First up, some characters:


Chieftain Rattagantz. IoB chieftain with new arms, and a lack of back banner.


Warlock Engineer Quezla. Not in my first block, but looking forward to painting him up for my second!


First 500 point block based, tidied and ready for paint.


Some clanrats! My army's main colour will be green, and all miniatures will have at least some green on them. I normally prefer to take my time with each figure, but with so many to paint i'm sticking to a quick "base coat>wash" for my troops. Characters and fancier units will (hopefully) look a lot cooler.


After burning out a little on clanrats, I took a break and tried something bigger. Still a WIP, but quite close to being done.

Well, hope this works as a good opening post! I'll be off on holiday for the next couple of weeks, but expect some serious progress (and pictures) when I return.

C&C welcome!

[Daniel36]

I LOVE the grey Rat Ogre... Looks really vicious that way, and quite original. So far, your models have a very dulled, earthy look to them, but that's what makes them cool. None of that fancy colourful stuff!

Keep the dark look! I like!

[paelkeizah]

love the gunslinger look of your engineer and the painting so far on your rat ogre is looking pretty sick especially liking the detail around the stitches

[Armond]

Love it, makes me want Skaven!!! And this is an awesome opening post!!!

[Rabid Monkey]

Great job, that rat ogre looks amazing. Now I'm a little motivated to paint mine. Can't wait to see more of your work.

[Asp]

very nice, especially the ogre

[BlazeXI]

very nice rats, Subscribed.

[Dayspringer]

Well, I'm back from my two week vacation in Japan. Sadly failed to locate the Tokyo GW store while I was there!

Thanks for the replies everyone! I'd say my normal painting style favours bold and bright colours, so dark and dirty is a bit of a change.

More rats have been painted, namely the first unit of clan rats. Not very exciting, but I'm hoping quantity will make up for the fairly basic paint job on these guys.


Finished unit of Rat Ogres. In my next 500 point block I plan to bump this unit up to 6. As a long time Dark Elf player I've never really had the chance to play about with monstrous infantry, and I think a mob of these guys barrelling across the battlefield will be great fun.





First weapon team done!


Up next are my Warpfire Thrower, and Chieftain Rattagantz himself. Then it's back to more clan rats!

Also, a quick note on bases. At present they're just a grey drybrush and nothing more, but at some stage in the future I intend to go back and fancy them up a bit with some flock or something. For now however I'm concentrating on speed over fanciness!

[mdiscala]

I really like your style

[mrtn]

Nice start on your army, it looks almost monochrome, like it's out in the night, or moonlight.

[Seville]

Yeah, that store that sells GW stuff in Tokyo is hard to find. There is one in Shinjuku and one in Akihabara, both ultra hard to find. Luckily, you didn't miss anything special. They're small and prices are approximately double what you would pay anywhere else.

Your army is looking great!! Very creepy. Can you tell me how you did the gray skin on your rat ogres? I want to copy that for my chaos giant!

[Elfboy]

Really like your painting style, those rat ogres in particular look amazing. I like the spooky white eyes too.

[8bitMummies]

I agree with both Mrtn and mdiscala, your style rules and I'm really getting the moonlight feeling from your army. Inspiring stuff!

[unwanted]

Nice work there, looks great and grimey. Are the eyes done? They need to be red, IMHO

[Svenn]

Excellent stuff! I love the rat ogre and teh weapons team.

[Ramius4]

Good looking stuff here, hope to see more soon. Keep it up!

[Gloomwhisker]

I'm loving the palette you're using on your rats, Dayspringer, awesome work. Looking forward to seeing more!

Gloomwhisker

[Dayspringer]

Thanks for the replies all! Keeps me motivated.

Yeah, that store that sells GW stuff in Tokyo is hard to find. There is one in Shinjuku and one in Akihabara, both ultra hard to find. Luckily, you didn't miss anything special. They're small and prices are approximately double what you would pay anywhere else.

Your army is looking great!! Very creepy. Can you tell me how you did the gray skin on your rat ogres? I want to copy that for my chaos giant!

Ha, we were looking for the one in Akihabara, but we were actually staying in Shinkuku! Didn't know there was one there too. Oh well, an excuse to go back

As for the Rat Ogre skin, it's pretty simple. Astonomican grey, highlighted with Elf flesh for the "tender" bits like scars and muzzles. Then hit the whole thing with a Devlan Mud wash. Not sure how it'd work with something as big as a giant. It might need another highlight after the wash.

Nice work there, looks great and grimey. Are the eyes done? They need to be red, IMHO

I've not done the eyes on the clan rats, there's too many of them! I might go back and add them at some stage, possibly. Eyes on the rest are done, I went for a very pale green, almost white. I think it's a bit more readable from the tabletop than red. I've never been too good at getting bright reds.


Anyway, I painted some more rats!

Warpfire Thrower team. Maybe one day they'll get to shoot something.



Warlord Rattagantz. The pose on this guy makes him really difficult to photograph.




This might be the last interesting update for a little while, as I'll be working my way through hordes of basic troops now my general is done, and let's face it, no one really wants to see WIPs of boring old clan rats. After that though...more rat ogres and an engineer!

[Cassarus]

Great work so far!

[Dayspringer]

Thanks Cassarus!

I had an excellent idea to batch paint 20 clan rats at once. While I must admit that painting the final bits of their bases and ranking them up, finished, one by one at the end was very satisfying, I don't think I'll be doing it again. Working on that many at once sapped my will to paint a little, so in the end I think doing them in batches of 10 or maybe even 5 would get me through them a little better.

Anyways, my first 500 points is now fully painted! I will attempt to get a group shot of them when the lighting is better, but for now I'm moving on to assemble more of the little rats, including making some unit fillers to bulk out the clan rats a little.

The "holes" should look a little better with sand applied to the bases, I hope.