SkavenTide and Beyond
Recommendations: 207
About the Project
Got the SkavenTide box. Love the Skaven minis. Started to build and paint them and wanted to share
Related Game: Warhammer Age of Sigmar
Related Company: Games Workshop
Related Genre: Fantasy
This Project is Active
Brood Terror kitbash
There's something about this GW model that I don't like. Can't put a finger on it. Just not a fan. I have lots of Skaven spare bits and am considering ways of making my own Brood Terror.
I started piecing together bit box components
I have some great rat ogre heads that should work. Will probably have it be at least twinheaded. Maybe even go with three heads.
I glued two diabetic needle covers together and cut off one end on one of them. Slapped a shield over the end and painted it all gold and feel with some skin wrapped around it here and there it will centre the kitbash.
I am going to go for two "grafts" instead of one on the GW version.
I picked up a 90mm base cheaply at Salute 52. The ogre sized body was smaller than I imagined, so I cut off the feet, made them look more abdominal, added some height with some additional calfage and this gave me an armature to build on.
I added some more diabetic needle case parts to bulk out the shoulders. The rat faced grafts ended up under each armpit. I have learnt a lot of hard lessons on this model. I think it's going to look OK once painted. 
Zenith prime was great... Then realised he doesn't have a tail. Oh well, it's only a minor delay.
The flail chain is a bit long, and his arm a bit short, but in my head canon his huge shoulder beneath the arm and the pipe direct into the arm give him the strength to wield the flail. The blades of the flail are a bit box odd angled blade and a Mantic Games ogre shield.
The base felt empty. The mini must not just be a Frankenstein rat monster. I think there are some rituals required to get him on the move and the flames amongst a pile of bones and weapons does the trick. I used an alternative Gotrek Gurnisson base and a bits box raid as "offerings". The flame pots are the corners of old Project Z sprues.Clanrats - beg, steal, borrow, yes yes
My army will have random colours in their clothing because it more fun for me to paint and because uniforms sounds like an unskaven idea.
I think, if in doubt, I will reach for purples, dark reds and yellows, but I give myself scope to use any colours.
More beyond the box - Doom Wheel
Picked this up at a fair price and had always wanted one. The riding in a wheel type vehicles have always appealed to me aesthetically. And apparently in-game it’s a relatively OK selection for a growing list.
I saw a YouTube video online suggesting approaching the paint job while it is still in 11 parts. I took the advice and feel it was probably a very wise route. I primed the string of rats, the wooden slatted wheels and Skaven bellows guy in Lazer Cut Brown and all the other parts in a TTCombat bright silver. I then covered the bronze parts with Aggros Dunes Contrast and a dry brush of Retributor Armour gold. Then slowly worked my way through the hoses and wood parts until I was ready for a Sepia and Nulin Oil Wash over everything that wasn’t bronze (Sepia) or was iron or steel coloured (Nulin Oil).
Assembled. Just some basing and finishing touches required.
Clanrats - Red armour
I like the new fancy Stormvermin models and the studio red armour. I think I might get some, but until I do I think the armour idea can be stolen and used on my better armed clanrats.
I went for a well weathered look. Some bare metal showing. Not anything in the way of rust, but dirty, seen better days and needs attention.
Keeping the palette colourful but not overstated.
It started with a metal base colour. Not being uniform in which citadel silver I am reaching for, or the red I chose to cover after.
When I applied the red I was very careless and slapdash to leave metal showing. Mainly avoiding the edges to leave plenty of exposed metal where there would be maximum wear and weapon strikes.
"Mini of the month" sprue at a GW store in February had two nicely posed clan rats. #1
The clan rats - First steps
Copied a flag from some Gnawhole terrain I scratch built.
There are standard bearers and musicians in the set. They provide some buff in game too so I will be fielding those all the time.
I liked picking a rat at the feet of the flagratman to paint white. Just so he stands out against the basing.
I think they will all get a splash of gore somewhere to show they're in the thick of it. Not necessarily weapons caked in blood, but certainly splatter from the fighting around them.
Thought I would start with the fun stuff. The flags and drummers. Then maybe after that need to speed up with some batch painting of the clan rats
Lloyd shot 
These minis have plenty of detail, which slows you up a touch, but the brown primer is great as a grimey base. If you miss a bit it's rust, mud or some other grime.
I will probably have one unit with more purple in and one with more red in to help me define the 20 rat squads.Already beyond the box
I won a £10 voucher on a Chaos Cards competition and wanted to collect some of the new releases. The Doom-Flayers being a favourite on looks alone.
I got some Gamers Grass beige grasses so added a clump of that.
The whole mini was primed in Leadbelcher and covered the gold / brass areas in a brown contrast (Agross Dunes?). I then drybrushed it with retributer armour gold. The verdigris and blood spatter help make it look a bit more grim and threatening.
The progress was pretty swift on the second one. The Contrast Dunes brown was a nice starting point for the wheel, then the dry brush of gold and silver and the Typhus Corrosion brown and verdigris all worked out well.
Didn't go as heavy on the blood this time, but happy with the look.
Jezzails
These were fun to paint. It took me longer than I hoped to get them how I wanted them. Though I realised that this should take longer on reflection. Each base is two miniatures not one and the posing gives you some hard to reach spots.
I enjoyed painting this more orange outfit from a bright contrast orange up to almost yellow in some highlights. I don't see the need for complete uniformity in a ratman fantasy army. Not sure that their seamstress skills and military outfitters industry would be a paramount Skaven concern.
I like a GW burgundy I picked up and a lovely purple. I will definitely keep this theme going.
The harlequin colours on the pavise carrier amuse me and are an interesting contrast the plain robes of the marksman.
These are lovely models and apparently very effective in game, so I might get some more.
Hoping they do me good service in the game. They've been fun to paint and experiment with.Ratling Warpblaster
I built and primed this model in two halves. The top half sprayed silver and the bottom half Lazer cut brown spray. I somehow got confused during construction of the bottom half with the 4 clan rats pushing the gun along. I forced a part into a poor position and broke part of the front wheel. I made a bodge fix and it looks ok.
I could've potentially added another sub assembly stage to make painting easier, but having the top half available to turn upside down gave me the access I needed to avoid some problems. I wasn't troubled with missing parts of the gunner's clothes and gears and hard to get machinery.
I am keeping a theme of yellow purple and red as my go to colours for clothing, though I don't think that meets the "hereldry" of any of the known clans from the Skaven background.
The basing theme of a mix of grey urban flock and brown flock looks interesting enough. The occasional tuft and sprue brick / masonry work is also going to be a recurring theme. Some of the lovely detailed bases that come with some hero models suggest fighting through ruins so I try to keep that going through the rest of my force.
