Where Have I Been?

Sorry, it has been so long. I will have something up in a few days, more like a week. Bear with me. It has been a tough few weeks, school, trip to Sarasota for a Skills USA competition (my guys didn't place), and now find out our cat has cancer and about three months to live.

As the british poster says, 'Keep Calm and Carry On'

Drats, rats!

I have a new unit addition to my Skaven, a unit of giant rats. I am not your regular gamer. I am more of a traditionalist and a fluff player. I don't go for all the killer combos. I just don't see the sport in that or the gamesmanship. My opinion, so don't go off on me about it. Nobody I see uses giant rats, and since I have had many of these guys for over 10 years; I decided they needed a reboot. I have also included some shots of the pack leaders as well. 

Here is a shot of some of the old guys with their original paint scheme. I never knew they were too green until my wife told me. I painted up a total of twenty-three rats, nine of them are the ancient ones.

Here are some of the finished guys with their new pack leaders on the right. There are three generations of pack leaders in my army. The really old ones are dated from 1986. Two are from the new box set, and the rest are from the rat ogre box sets.

With eleven pack leaders, I will have extra guys left over with nothing to lead... I guess I need to find something else just to give them a purpose and an excuse for me having painted them all up!

As a finish, I am trying some new things with my 'leaders'. The last two shots on the right are upgraded pack leaders. You can see that their skirts have a band across the bottom. I am getting into the practice of up-painting any leader-type character in my army. Let me know what you think, good or bad.

Thanks!

Gnomes!

Yep, these are gnomes. They are from a Ral Partha set, 1986. They put out blisters showing a character's advancement in experience. I went ahead and painted up all three simultaneously just to speed up painting. I wanted to use purple this time and tried some extra stylings with the cloak. Eh, they came out ok, but as you can see, when you zoom in the details aren't that great. Let me know what you think.

The colors I used are Liche Purple with a Warlock Purple for slight highlights. I tend to keep my highlights subtle. I don't go for the extreme edging as you may see in some minis. I want to keep them realistic, given that gnomes are aren't real, outside of a garden. Anyway, I also used Bestial Brown and Scorched Brown for the cloak, pants, boots, packs, etc. 

The off white that was used is Valejo Game Color Bone White. It is much easier to work with than the GW one, smoother and better coverage. I used Vermin Brown for the shade. The white was shaded with Astronomican Grey and another Vallejo color, Ivory for the white. Again, the Vallejo went on nice and smooth, no chalkiness that the GW Skull White can produce.

The minis, as most Ral Parthas did, came with a small footprint of a base. I could have cut the figures off and pinned them down, but that would take some extra work that could just ruin the figure if I wasn't too careful. Instead, I just glued them down on to a regular base and added some greenstuff to the level of the base. After that I simply carved some cobble-like grooves into the putty. It came out pretty good. I then put on a layer of Adeptus Battlegrey and drybrushed, Astronomican Grey, then Deneb Stone. Th base was finally given a slight wash of Devlan Mud.

GW vortex grenade, google it!

The Orb was a bit difficult and can be hard to make out. My wife suggested something similar to the Vortex Grenade look. That 'look' is akin to galaxy with a lightning field flowing through it. It's something I can do, but at that size, it's a tad bit tough. As for the other details, such as the cloaks, I just out down a think line of silver or black, and carefully dragged the brush down the middle with black or silver.

If you notice, as you look a the mini, he gets more and more elaborate. He gets more rings on his finger, his helmet gets bigger, and fancier and his wand gets larger too. Keep your mind out of the gutter!

Thanks!

Battle Report

I have a quick Battle Report that took place at Coliseum of Comics this past Saturday the 26th. There were 6 entrants; Bretonnians, Dwarfs, Vampire Counts, Two Skaven, and Ogres. They were 2000pt armies. Unfortunately the only photos I took were of Tim Wrights Dwarf army. Besides my army and Tim's all others were mostly black or white primed. A few models sprinkled throughout, but not many. Anyway, the quick and dirty reports.
My army was a hodgepodge of 2 spear armed clanrat units (24 and 40 models), Stomrvermin (30 strong), slaves with spears (27), 7 Gutter Runners, Doomwheel, Hellpit Abomination, two Warpfire weapons teams, and for characters I had a Greyseer, level 2 Engineer, and two Chieftains.

Battle One: Several units randomly started the battle off the table but could arrive whenever we wanted, even turn one. The table was split diagonally. Against Vampire Counts with only three units. A five model unit of Wraiths, a 60+ unit of Ghouls with regen and poison, and a large unit of Grave Guard with great weapons. There were three characters, a level two necro, a level two vampire (general), and a Wight as the Battle Standard Bearer. The Hellpit died to the grave guard, the large unit of skaven killed the grave guard, the slaves died to the wraiths who died to the smaller clanrats through attrition. The Stormvermin tried to avoid the huge block of Ghouls but eventually succumbed after two turns of fighting. I lost the victory points battle in a Minor Loss.
Highlights/Lowlights: My Engineer got off two Scorch spells onto the Ghouls killing about 30 total but not enough. M Greyseer tried to remove the lined Wraiths with Cracks Call and got three of them before being zapped by the Doomwheel and strength 2 shots.... very disappointed with that. I was able to take out the Necromancer who was hiding behind the Ghouls when a warpfire shot overshot the ghouls. The Mob was just too big to take out.

Battle Two: The Maw, Attacker had to split his army onto the two short table ends, while the Defender must setup within the middle 24" of the table. The winner was determined by Table Quarters. Fighting against Dwarfs with three units of gunners, two guns, a cannon, two large blocks of Slayers, and a General on an Anvil. They were split with gunners on one end with a gun. The other side had the slayers, the cannon, the other gun, and the Anvil. My setup was  heavy to the gun side hoping to engage within the first or second turn. Only the large block of Skaven and Doomwheel facing the Slayer side. I was able to squeak out a Minor win.

Highlights/Lowlight: The first turn of shooting was very effective for the dwarfs, almost wiping out the smaller Clanrat unit. The Abomination ate up two units of Gunners and made about 10 regen rolls out of 14 from one turn of shooting! Large unit of skaven got flanked by Dwarfs sneaking through a forest who lost 8 guys to dangerous terrain, zero to me! A cannon shot landed right in front of the Greyseer and the remaining 5 skaven before it misfired allowing him to live and eek out the minor victory and challenge the table quarter.

Battle Three: The battle was fought over a central 'Well of the Gods' that offered up goodies to the armies. You get bonus points of you do not partake of the well. Both players failed that. The opponent had Ogres with three units again. Two huge units of Ogres with a small three man of Ogres with greatweapons. All characters were in one unit of Ogres with some banner that increases miscasts on doubles.
I hoped to have my Doomwheel take out the small unit and sweep around while I whittle down the other units.
Highlights/Lowlights: My big block of Skaven got ripped apart in one round after the big block of Ogres w/ characters reformed and moved 21" to move right in front of my when I was on their right flank! My Doomwheel almost got destroyed by the small unit of ogres until my turn it conjured up three strength 10 shots at the Ogres and took them out! One weapon team malfunctioned and ran right at my Engineer to kill him! My Greyseer was able to Curse the other Ogre unit and take them out making a five man clanrat squad. My Hellpit alomost took out the monster unit of Ogres w/ characters on a flank charge but was unable to run them down, rolling 5". I lost to victory points, badly!

Overall, I took Best Painted. Tim and his Dwarfs was Best Sportsman, while Thor won Overall Champ with his Vampire Counts. It was fun and I learned much. Since I only play once every 3-4 months, I was happy with how I did.

Been Busy

Sorry there have been no updates. I have been busy studying for tests. The results of the studying are positive as I passed the Comptia Network+ Certification exam. I will be updating more pics of skaven in the next few days. As well there is a fantasy tournament this weekend at Coliseum of Comics that I plan to attend. I will grab some pics from there as well. Wish me luck!

Luna Wolves

Bolter n Chainsword keeps asking about my Luna Wolves. I painted these up a few years ago for a contest held by Coliseum of Comics in Kissimmee. I was fortunate to come out the winner. They are based upon the cover from the Horus Heresy novel, False Gods. I only painted up the five guys.. I posted them originally on Bolter n Chainsword and received several requests on how they were painted. The basic, quick 'n dirty way is this: based in white, given a very thin wash of matte medium/codex grey/water, highlighted with a thinned white, then black or red where needed. The hardest part was getting the decals. These are from the Bell of Lost Souls site, and worked out quite nicely. I will provide links to all three above listed sites at the bottom of this post.

The 5-man squad

Luna Wolf Sgt

Wolf with a Space Wolf head

The shoulders done with plastic tubing

You can see the Chaos breastplate

Final Guy

Bolter and Chainsword
Coliseum of Comics
Bell of Lost Souls, Decals
Black Library - Horus Heresy: False Gods

Skaven Painting Tutorial

Right, I said I would do a tutorial on how I painted up the little rodents. I now present to you the skaven tutorial.

First off, I primed all of the little guys in black. As they are going to end up being rather dirty, dingy, and for the most part dark, black is the way to go. I sprayed them with Army Painter Black. This stuff is great. Very good coverage and comes out with some strength. I highly recommend it. I used to use Testors to prime them with, but Army Painter is extremely good.

Here I have given a rough covering of Calthan Brown to the fur areas.I paint in layers to the model, skin first, then the next layer up, armor or clothing, then the next, and finally what ever may be on top of those layers. It is much easier to paint interior items when you don't have to worry about getting paint on the layer above it. If you follow the steps properly, you can avoid having to reach the paint brush in to tight spaces having to avoid dabbing any already painted edges.




Anyway, the next layer I had was the skin, the actual flesh. I had this meet up with the fur I put on previously. This will join when the wash comes down. I used Tallarn Flesh for the skin color. I have also painted the spear shaft with a Bestial Brown

Here I have already put on the yellow, red, and the metal. I used Iyanden Yellow, Mechrite Red, and Boltgun Metal. The model right now could be used in a regiment. For me it is only half done. It hasn't taken long to get to this stage; as I have only used 5 colors not counting the priming or the base.


I have just give this skaven a wash with Devlan Mud. This will tie many of the colors together. You can see this on the hand where the fur and the flesh meet. As an added bonus, the wash will creep into crevices and folds as it dries to give a shade to those locations.



Again, you could field him as he stands now, but to get a good effect with your models, you really want to have three layers to each color. The whole base, shade, highlight theme. Since I already have the base down and the shade as well, I need the highlight. I simply went back with the original color for each location and painted along raised edges or areas that will catch the light better. You can see the hand is looking much nicer now, more subtle and somewhat realistic for a ratman.


Finally, after the paint has dried, I sealed him with a gloss coat first for strength and resistance to chipping, followed by a dull coat. Both of these were sprayed on using Testors sprays. The dull coat for Testors is one of the best out there. I will say, the sprays will basically re-wet the paint underneath it which will again create a fusion of areas, tying them in again. It's rather nice to get that effect. It can also be a pain if you had just gotten it perfect and the spray ruins it. I plan ahead and expect it now. That is one of the reasons the Heavy Metal team at GW doesn't spray them.

So that is it. What was that 7 colors, fur, skin, armor, hood, skirt(?), shaft, and the wash. All GW colors and most of them Foundation paints, mainly for their coverage ability. They can go over black, or any other color, with one coat. Thanks, comments are welcome!