Your Doom Approaches, Man-Things!

Just to vary things up a little, and to avoid painting more Clanrats, I've decided to make my first foray into Clan Pestilens territory and paint up some Plague Monks. These will add another hard-hitting unit of troops to the army, and provide even more numbers! There will eventually be a Plague Priest (and possibly even a Plague Furnace) to accompany these critters at some point, but I will need to construct a slightly elaborate base for the Plague Priest as he won't rank up without some sort of elevation. 

These are all now based up and ready for painting to begin. Given that they are mostly swathed in robes, I might diverge from my usual method and undercoat them with a suitable sickly green colour, rather than the browns I've used on all the other models in the army. I've also taken advantage of the fact that the Plague Monks are free-standing rather than slotta-based, and used some regiment bases in the unit, rather than have them all as individual models. 

I've begun getting together a few more bits of kit that will finally enable me to start using the airbrush that I got last year. I think the Plague Monks might make for some excellent test models...

The Horned Rat Ascendant!

The End Times continue apace as the Warhammer world awaits the return of Grey Seer Thanquol, with the fourth installment of the saga released this weekend. Preceding the release of the book was a brand new plastic Verminlord kit, which I pre-ordered and got delivered earlier this week.

So, in line with my aim to get the Verminlord painted as part of my Skaven contingent for this year, I began putting the kit together on Tuesday night. 

As I've mentioned previously, the kit can be used to build one of five variants of Verminlord - the Warpseer (Seers), Deceiver (Eshin), Corrupter (Pestilens), Warbringer and Skreech Verminking, a new special character whose story will unfold in the upcoming End Times book. Clans Moulder and Skryre didn't get a Verminlord variant because they have new toys of their very own coming!

The main body is the same for each variant so I settled with putting that together on Tuesday night, while I mulled over which head and weapon variants to use. Given that games are often few and far between for me, the question was largely one of aesthetics - which one looked the best. I knew I wanted a doom glaive, as the archetypal weapon of choice for Verminlords everywhere. 

Ultimately, I ended up following the Warbringer build exactly. I really liked the Warpseer arm holding the Scry-orb as seen on the box picture (and it's a pretty tasty item as well!) but wasn't keen on the Warpseer head, and the Scry-orb with the Warbringer head didn't seem right. So in came the punch dagger and my Verminlord is complete! 

Just for reference, here's a comparison shot with the Treeman - as you can see, the Verminlord towers over him!

And just to top things off, I found this in with the Verminlord box - a cool little Horned Rat pin badge! 

The Bells, The Bells!!

These will most likely be the last painted Skaven models you'll see from me for a while, as I'll be concentrating on painting my Wood Elves for the Throne of Skulls, but I figured I'd get these finished up while I had a bit of time last week before I get started on the elves. 

Grey Seer Pritislik is now all ready for battle, and bringing reinforcements to keep an eye on the Warlord, Queek Greyclaw! I actually had the Bell and Clanrats started way back in February, for our big 5k game (which you can read about here) but I've only just put in the time to get them finished. With these models painted, believe it or not, I've painted more than half of the Skaven I own - only about 80 Clanrats to go!

 

Greyclaw Victorious!

The Skaven came out for another game last week, this time against Gary's Tomb Kings. We settled on a small affair of 1500pts, as we didn't have too long to play. It was also the first time that Gary had used the latest Tomb Kings army book, despite having owned his Tomb Kings army for several years! With my..ahem, I mean Warlord Greyclaw's dubious generalship and Gary's relative unfamiliarity with his own army, it looked set up to be an interesting encounter.

I was all prepared for battle report writing with camera, notebook and a selection of writing implements - unfortunately, in the event there wasn't much of a battle to report! You see, after a bit of moving and repositioning, Gary went a bit overboard with his incantations and managed to blow up his Hierophant on Turn 2. The turn after, a unit of Rat Ogres ploughed through his Tomb Prince and Chariots, and the game was effectively over before it had started. Gary conceded, and we packed everything away.

Of course, a Skaven general like Queek Greyclaw will revel in any victory he achieves, no matter how it comes about, but it was a rather disappointing way to spend an evening in the end. I did take a few pictures of the first couple of turns though, so I'll share those (up to the point where it all went wrong)

The armies deployed, ready for action

My new Warpstone-infused dice; could they be the cause of Gary's misfortune?

The Skaven make the first move, with a barely-controlled rush across the table

The Tomb Kings barely move at all, with the Carrion
 and Horsemen being the only notable exceptions

The Skaven advance more cautiously now, as the Horsemen prepare to
sacrifice themselves (again) in an attempt to slow the Doomwheel

Things start to look worrying for the Skaven, as Scorpions and Swarms pop up out of the ground around them

They think it's all over...

...it is now. 

So that was that. Not the greatest of games, but I'm sure a rematch will be arranged. 

In other news, I finished painting a couple of new toys to take part in the game. First up, my converted Warlock Engineer carrying the dreaded Doomrocket (which is one of my favourite magic items!), which was constructed way back when I was taking part in the Tale of X Gamers on Asrai.org last year.

The model uses one of the spare Master Moulder figures I had from the Island of Blood set as the base. The Doomrocket itself uses the shock-prod "chassis" with the addition of a couple of Airfix bombs from a Harrier Jumpjet! The head is the alternative masked head from the Doomwheel kit, while the backpack is a resin Biohazard Backpack from Maxmini which I had spare from my still-WiP Globadier conversions.

The other new toy is yet another Poisoned Wind Mortar. The ability for them to move and fire makes them my default choice for Weapon Teams to accompany my Clanrat units, and dropping a small template's worth of death on enemy units is always fun

Resuming Normal Service

More than a month has gone by since the last post, almost without me realising it! There's been a lot going on which has prevented me from updating (or at least, sapped the energy needed to write any posts!) but I'm getting back into the swing of things now, so hopefully I'll be able to post more often.

Anywho, what have I been up to during this quiet spell? Well, another year ticked over on my Life Calendar, and with it came a few goodies including The Ortegas box for Malifaux. Along with Rasputina's Cult of December box, this means I now have two starting Crews for Malifaux available so at some point in the relatively near future, I'm hoping to get some paint on them and get a few games in. I've managed to talk my better half into playing (in theory, at least) so if nothing else I have at least one reluctant opponent!

February also saw the first Fantasy game of 2013 in the form of a 5k clash between O&G, Skaven and Lizardmen. Myself and G (of G's Spot fame) teamed up with 2,500pts of Skaven and O&G respectively, facing off against 5k of Paul's Lizardmen. Needless to say, much abuse was given about the overpowered cheesiness of Paul's ridiculously powerful Slann (mostly by me, to be honest...) and the ridiculous number of attacks his Cold One Cavalry Bus (accompanied by two Old Bloods and a Scar Veteran) dished out, but in the end the weight of numbers took it's toll - the Skaven did what they do best (died in droves, that is) and the O&G were mostly happy to let the Skaven do the dying for them (helpfully staying put for most of the game, and only chipping in when their own lives were threatened!), but in the end we were victorious.

Anyway, I'll stop grumbling and instead drop this helpful photo-bomb:

The game begins with a mass Lizardmen advance across the table; in response the
 Screaming Bell gets as far forward as it can while the rest of the Skaven edge as far as they can away from the first turn Comet of Cassandora (the yellow gems in the middle of my army!)

The Doomwheel faces off against the Skink-Krox combo.
Inevitably, it doesn't end well for the Ratmen

The Screaming Bell prior to the forthcoming magical bombardment of the Slann

Meanwhile, the O&G force make great progress....

The Cavalry Bus performs its first trick as it causes one Clanrat unit to vanish!
The second volunteer unit eagerly awaits a similar fate
(P.S. Also note the similar disappearance of the Screaming Bell Clanrats!)

Finally, the Rat Ogres get into the action and the tide starts to turn as more
Clanrats break through the wood to appear on the Saurus' flank.

The Cavalry Bus reforms in the sights of a Ratling Gun. Unfortunately, it's fleeing so can't gun them down.
Meanwhile, the second Rat Ogres prepare to make a meal of the Skink-Krox unit as the other Ogres make short work of their Saurus opponents

The last Saurus unit still can't finish off the Screaming Bell, as other chargers line up to pounce on them

Rat Ogres, Clanrats, a Giant and some Trolls all pile in to the last Saurus unit. The other Rat Ogres make short work of the Kroxigors, while the Night Goblins and Savage Orcs (who've both done nothing all game!) face off against the Bus.

The final deciding combat. The outcome is inevitable, although the Saurus
 finally manage to take down the Bell before they get trampled into the dirt

So there you have it; an enjoyable game, although 5k with two horde armies proved a challenge to fit in the deployment zone. We'll definitely need to downsize for future games, but this was the biggest game of Fantasy that we've ever played, and it was worth it in the end!

Of course, the more astute of you will notice the appearance of an almost-painted Screaming Bell and a third almost-painted unit of Clanrats in this battle. I spent the week before the game frantically trying to get as much of both of them painted in time. I didn't quite manage it, but I'm not far off completing the Bell and my third unit of 40 Clanrats. I'll make a post on them in due course!

Tale of Gamers - Part IV

As seems to be par for the course these days, this is just a small update. Not much to show unfortunately, but it's better than nothing...

I've completed the first (and so far, only...) unit for the Tale of X Gamers army I'm building:

Obviously, there are more Packmasters there than I actually need for the ToXG list, but I needed the extra three for the army overall so figured I'd do them all together. I'm not too keen on the old metal Packmasters, as they're pretty bad models, but every rat counts...

Tale of X Gamers - Part the Third

Once again, it's been a while since I posted. Even though, shockingly, I actually had stuff I could have posted  life has played out like a comedy of errors as far as actually photographing any of this stuff is concerned. Long story short, it's taken me the best part of a month to get a working camera and my models in the same place at the same time in order to take pictures.

BUT!

I have lots (well, relatively speaking) of things to update you on!

First, as I mentioned in the last post, my Screaming Bell arrived from Wayland Games and, even though it's not for the Tale of X Gamers project (which should really be a priority at the moment), I couldn't resist breaking open the box and putting it together. It's a nice kit (although I'm still disappointed at the complete lack of extra parts to spice things up - you get the bare minimum to make a Bell or Furnace, and that's it. Not even the odd few rats thrown in, as there are on the Doomwheel...)

Anyway, it came together very quickly. It's not totally glued together; as you can see, I've left the bell section, the Seer, the brazier plus the Rat Ogre Bellringer as separate pieces, both for ease of painting and transportation purposes (I still haven't found anything big enough to carry it in pieces, let alone as a single model...)

As it's not for the Tale of X Gamers, the painting of the Screaming Bell will be put on the backburner until I have at least a decent portion of my ToXG army painted...

...which brings me nicely onto my next update - the Warlock Engineer conversion is more or less complete. I might possibly have gone a bit gung-ho on the Doomrocket; something a bit more understated may have been more appropriate, but I figured Skaven don't do subtlety! 

Finally, I've been working away on the Globadiers. I plan on sculpting hands holding poisoned wind globes and then attaching these to the Clanrat right arms (or left, in the case of the Bombadier), which is why those are currently missing. In this regard, the giant monkey-like paws of the older Clanrats may work to my advantage, because it will mean my sculpting hopefully won't need to be too brilliant to get away with it.

You'll notice there are only nine Globadiers with torsos and heads at the moment. I took these with me when I went away for a couple of weeks, but somehow only managed to pack nine bodies (but still managed ten of everything else). I'm half convinced I managed to lose the tenth torso on the way, but the more likely explanation is that I simply can't count. Anywho, the last Globadier will join the ranks of his more bodily-endowed colleagues shortly.

Until then, ciao!