SKAVEN PLAGUE LORD

utilising the same method as previous for painting up this guy i decided to give the same methods a whirl on a model that has been sitting in my pile for a while.

when i tend to buy all my paint via mail order i normally chuck a random miniature in there for good measure...of course I've been painting up Skaven for a while now. so seems perfect I drop a character into the mix. not much to add to this but i wanted to try the whole thin washes approach again. going for a grimy approach to this character as it clearly fits the theme. and also helping to me grow with this painting style.

this model itself must be a cast off from the finecast days because the detailing on it is just crazy, making it very paintable indeed. however I'm trialling new techniques. so fully expect a little hit and miss.

first up the obligatory cinematic shot!

now these finecast models are so detailed it actually makes them hard to paint in a certain sense. there are little details i just couldn't see with the human eye and it wasn't until i actually took these pictures that the cracks started to show. but again. trial and error right?

also another thing i've come to realise...i am due a new camera. this one has served me well over the last few years but I'm starting to notice the odd pixel is damaged here or there and the photos dont seem to come out as crisp as they used to...so perfect excuse for me to start looking for a new one.

so this new way of painting. seems to be quick...much quicker. i still need to work on my accuracy on this front as i can see some of the very deep recesses haven't had much paint hit them. but this model took me about 3 hours to paint..and its a character model that I've also applied a lot of freehand to. so hoping to put this into practice soon enough to help me get around me unit painting woes!

anyways hope you like the new cinematic photo too as i did a little more on that one as opposed to normal.
oh and a nice shiny new banner too! :)
peace

SKAVEN PLAGUE MONKS

a couple of months back i managed to nab a few sprues of various skaven stuff for only a couple of quid. one of those sprues consisted of 5 plague monks and some giant rats
well i actually managed to do 6 plague monks because one of them is actually a pack master thingy.
that came on a sprue of 3 pack masters and some giant rats. so of course between the 2 sprues i was able to add to my skaven bestiary 3 times over. consisting of about 12 giant rats
6 plague monks and 2 pack masters. so not bad for a couple of quid.
now ive got a very minor gripe with the GW plague monks in that they all look like an old gypsy woman.

so i tried to minimalize this a little by sculpting the hoods to make them look like they were part of the robes and in turn make the heads look a little less 'stuck on'.
Anyways. im quite happy how these turned out really

now my skaven pack seems to be growing a little more. i think its about time i started adding a few characters into the fray.

i still have the rest of the island of blood skaven to paint up. as well as a few other characters ive purchased and not yet had chance to get painted up yet. im also considering trying my hand at a little converting. ive got so many skaven floating around im sure i can stretch them out even more. the poses of the clanrats are kind of hard to do much with. but im sure ill be able to cook something up.

till next time :)

giant rats

taken a break from doors as i have way too many to get through (i do have a few more completed ones to post up)
so i thought i would tackle something simple and easy. so fleshing out the skaven bestiary i managed to pick up a plague monk sprue and a slaver sprue for pretty cheap. from this i was able to throw together a total of 12 giant rats (slavers and plague monks to come later)
nice simple paint job on these of base colours and a devlan mud wash and they are ready to go.

ive come to the conclusion also that i absolutely hate unit painting. i really cant bring myself to put a good paint job onto a unit anymore without the fear its going to end up taking me 12 months to finish.
so ive decided that any unit types i do from now on are going to be table top standard at very best. and spend more time on characters. i mean really. 12 giant rats? they are just cannon fodder right? im never going to win a golden demon award for even my best jobs. so why waste so much time.
anyways im currently stocking up all the skaven ive done thus far. and the shelf they are sitting on is getting pretty full. so maybe ill be able to throw some full clan screenshots into the mix pretty soon.

anyways until the next time
happy exploring dungeoneers!!

Clanrats

so i havent blogged too much recently. havent really had the time. so my infrequency to post things is purely based on me having free hobby time. ive made a ruck load of graphics, tiles, speelbooks for AHQ this year so will be posting these up shortly.

but my job at hand is fleshing out my bestiary. whilst most recent posts have followed along the lines of skaven, this post is no different, with 1 exception.
I GOT LAZY!!!
yup. too many things to paint with very little time to do so.
i also have to state. whilst skaven are great creatures. they arent particularly inspiring to paint. so having a mountian of figures to paint can be daunting. so i went for the very basic method of base colours and washes for a average table top standard

so here they are

whilst they would probably only get a 4 or a 5 on CMON. it doesnt really matter. what does matter is that i now have 15 clanrats ready to drop into my dungeon

so far ive got the skaven slaves.
rat ogres
and these boys.

so my decision to go basic painting on the basic models should hopefully pay off. and later on when i start doing characters and the more 'special' ones. i can apply a better paint job to those to help them stand out on the table.

so there we have it. one of my very rare blog posts..
sometimes i wonder if i just post to myself on here. i never get much feedback on things and whenever i try to kickstart a discussion i get no responses. maybe this leads to the infrequency of my posts i dont know. but be sure of one thing..ill still be posting what i create. even if it does pan out more as a personal library
:)

see you in 6 months lol

Skaven Slaves (pt 3) COMPLETED

yay!! ive completed my skaven slaves!
whilst having to fight back the urge to do fully detailed minis all the time, knowing full well ive got near on 100 minis to paint. i decided to just dip in and get these finished.
so for some reason i did 11.. i have no idea why but theyve turned out pretty good. and will look great on the board.

they have a total none uniform look to them. which was totally what i wanted to achieve.
i had really hoped to of gotten these looking a little more worse for wear. but at the end of the day. these are so i can play AHQ. and they are more than fit for the purpose
if you missed any of the previous slaves i had painted and now feature in the above shot.
they can be found
HERE 
and
pt 2 HERE

here are the additional slaves that make up this almost dirty dozen

so thats my second unit from the skaven bestiary completed
having painted up the rat ogres some time back now.

next up on this front ill be moving onto 2 separate units of clanrats (10 with swords & 10 with spears)
and a few champions thrown into the midst too.

gotta say i enjoyed painting these up. they allowed to me to trial a few things out. and at the end of the day the paint jobs never needed to be perfect. which is very helpful for me at the moment as my hands are getting pretty shaky these days.

anyways..skaven slaves down...clanrats next

Enjoy!!

Skaven slaves (pt 2)

building upon my earlier start this month where ive been itching and itching to start painting skaven.  I decided to start with skaven slaves for my AHQ bestiary. havong painted the first 2 with a little trial i decided to continue.
making only slight variation changes to how I am painting them to see what bodes well for me.
im happy if the skaven slaves have no uniformity to them. as this would essentially be true to what they are.
and will hopefully in the long run help me discover what works best and so on for when i paint all of the others..because boy i have a lot to get through!

there is a weird transition on some of these between skin and fur. so i decided to mix up and try different things

obviously on the arms being a part where its hard to tell what is what and the back part where some are showing a little bit of a skaven booty! on this i decided to go with the for covered bottom and i felt showing more flesh on the top half would help show off those pustules.

This guy i decided to go for a base cadian flesh tone (all previous others have toyed with bugmans glow and ratskin flesh)
then washing the wole model with agrax earthshade then bringing the raised areas back upto cadian fleshtone.

honestly doesnt look much different from the others. but hopefully they all are subtly different enough to give some variation.

not a bad start so far. however i think im going to need to pick up the pace at some point. whilst my hobby time is limited these days. i do try to squeeze in a few hours a week....i just need to learn how to slap that paint on a little quicker i think :)

Let the Chittering Commence

So. ive been working on a LOT of material for Advanced HeroQuest as of late. working with Slev on his AHQ:Reforged rules changes.
if you like AHQ. i suggest you check these out
HERE

as a result ive made a lot of graphical stuff to assist. (bestiary graphics, spellbooks etc)
now of course with a fleshed out bestiary. you need a fleshed out collection of models too. and whilst some may of complained that AHQ lacked figures and was created as a way to get people to go and buy more models (which is a totally just complaint) some of us feel compelled to go the whole hog and actually buy them. so you cant play AHQ and not have skaven.
so ive made a start finally.
about 2 years back i managed to grab the entire skaven collection from Island of blood for a very cheap price to get me started. unfortunately i never got any further than painting the rat ogres (which are awesome models)
ive since bought a clanrat pack also so i can have some skaven without shields (as all the skaven in IOB have shields already on them.

so without further ado. the first 2 rat men that are no doubt going to get slaughtered at some point! lol

now ive never really painted skaven before. so skaven slaves seemed like the perfect opportunity to mix and match ideas and test out what works and what doesnt. if as a result they all look different. then nothing is lost. as they arent exactly a regiment are they. they arent supposed to look like a team. so usung these as my lab rats seemed like the way to go.....yes that joke was deliberate :)
so the slave above i tested out with a ratskin base colour built up with cadian flesh tone to reikland flesh for the pointy bits. also if knowledge serves me correctly skavens worth is measured in the tone of their fur. so i thought this would give me the opportunity to also toy with fur colours and would also help distance me from the uniformed look

this next one was done in exactly the same way as above but with a bugmans flesh base. built up with cadian fleshtone and reikland flesh.
now one thing is certain. after painting these. i gave them a coat of army painter anti-shine...why do you ask? out of habit. and as a result. this made the models shinier than they ever were!!!
but i like to protect my models. so im a little lost in terms of how i protect my models from now on..less spraying and more wrapping in cotton wool i think!!

about to get their asses handed to them by a halfling farmer.

so there we have it..my first 2 skaven out of about 80 that ive got to paint. i'll most certainly keep you all upto date as i work my way through them. ive got a total of 11 slaves to do. then its onto clanrats. these will look much more uniform. but hopefully will be a much quicker path too. hopefully laid by my experiences with these slaves.

they were fun to paint and will be a nice distraction for me to partake over the coming weeks.

enjoy :)

Rat Ogres

something a little different now. whilst a lot of my stuff is mainly heroquest. i do tend to play a lot of advanced heroquest too. and another part of my own special heroquest is to basically have everything for both games..including fleshing out the bestiary for advanced heroquest. whilst most of the figures from heroquest can crossover to advanced heroquest. there as still some that i will be adding over time. so here is my first advanced heroquest only additions.

these are from one of the warhammer boxed sets i believe. cant remember which. however i do know i managed to pick up every single skanved from that box for 20 quid. of which the rates GW charges these days, these figures would cost 20 quid on their own.
these are so much better than the singular rat ogres they sell. brutish. warped, completely out of proportion. i love em!

this one is my favourite. got a hulking menace about him.

this one has more of a mutant chronicles sort of look about him. the grafted on weaponry and such. frankenrat!!

and finally ....got to have an action shot :)