Graeme's Skaven (part three - Revolutions)

Graeme's Skaven - OWAC 7 Introduction Post

Paint something different this year! That was my plan. I wanted to get out my comfort zone and paint something new. Not more Skaven. Definitely not!

I put a poll up in the OWAC Facebook group and Slann came out on top, with Norse coming a close second. I dutifully dusted off both my Slaan and Norse models and started counting out and organising them. I had enough models to do either. I had some interesting models looked out to give both armies a bit more character. I opted to go for Slann, because they're ancient, sentient, space frogs, with an Aztec theme!

Then, halfway through my prep, I hit some snags with my Slann...

...and at the same time came across my remaining Skaven models.

I got to thinking...

I wasn't happy how I left off on OWAC 6...
...and I still didn't have a full 3000 point Skaven army I could play with...
...and I had a bunch of already prepped Skaven, just squeaking out for some paint...
...and I was tantalisingly close to having enough painted models to be able to field that Skaven army I dreamed of...

...and, in the end, yet again, the lure of the Great Horned One was too great!

There's definitely some masochistic tendencies needed when choosing a Skaven force to paint for an OWAC. The Jes Goodwin sculpts which make up my force are packed full of detail, which makes them a real pleasure to look at, but sometimes a bit of a chore to paint. And you need lots of them for a decent horde army.

So, ehm, I might have gotten a bit carried away with my prep...

I mean, I had a few Clan Eshin Gutter Runners lying around from my first OWAC...

And it was obvious I had to add to the Clanrats I had left over...

And maybe I could either add to the main Clanrat unit, or create a new Stormvermin unit...

Bulking up the unit was spears was needed...

And adding to the Skavenslave unit was a no-brainer...

Then I added to the bunch of Black Skaven I had lying around...

Obviously I'd need some firepower from Clan Skryre...

And some muscle from Clan Moulder, with something exotic thrown in for good measure...

And, of course, we have to have some leaders and special troops...

To be honest, I stopped counting after a while. It's the largest number of models I've ever prepped for an OWAC. The only thing I need to do in the next five or six months is paint (sounds so simple, right?). I have a few of conversions and something special in the pipeline, but only if I have time.

Realistically, though, I'm going to aim low. To complete a legal, practical force which I'm likely to actually play with, I'm going to focus on finishing these:

• 20 Clanrats, armed with hand weapons, light armour and shields (120 points)
• 10 Clanrats, armed with spears, light armour and shields (65 points)
• 5 Skavenslaves, armed with spears and shields (17,5 points)
• 2 Jezzailachis teams (78 points)
• 2 Poisoned Wind Globadiers (52 points)
• 1 Plague Censer Bearer (41 points)
• 1 Warpfire-thrower team (81 points)
• 1 General (level 20 hero, around 100 points)

This little horde of 42 Skaven only brings me to about 550 points - well short of the target 1000 points.

Either I paint a LOT more Skaven from the core units, or some elites (Black Skaven or Gutter Runners), or I recruit the swarm, Rat Ogres, and the Manticore (or Harpies that I planned to use last OWAC) to bump up the points. We shall see!

Fingers crossed I can make it through at least the stuff I plan to do. I'm hoping for more, but I've seen real life get in the way far too often.

Good luck to all the other challengers! (Especially the other member of #teamSkaven this year - AdamH).

There are some great-looking plans already afoot. I suspect this will be a sensationally good OWAC!

ZeroTwenythree's March Skaven (235 pts)

March Skaven: Clanrats & Clan Moulder (Rank & File)

For March's entry I finished the figures that should have been part of January & February entries but didn't get painted on time. 

First are the final five clanrats from January, including the champion, standard, and musician. The standard is one of the few "newer" figures in my plans. He scales pretty well with the older figures.

Next are some more packmasters, giant rats, rat ogre, and a bonus figure -- Throt the Unclean!

Another bonus, after finishing all of the above figures I thought I would make a small bit of themed terrain. Warpstone!

March Points:

31.5 pts         3 Packmaster with light armour

20 pts            10 Gian rats

38 pts            1 Rat ogre

45.5 pts         5 Clanrats with Spears, standard, and musician

100 pts           Throt The Unclean (lv. 20) w/heavy armor, halberd

235 pts         March TOTAL

423 pts       OWAC TOTAL (so far)

ZeroTwentythree's February Skaven (59 pts)

February Skaven: Clanrats & Wolf-Rats (Rank & File)

After failing to paint all 30 clanrats in January, I switched up plans to finish the last 10 in February and then paint some "bonus figures." As February started winding down, I had just finished the first 5. 

So I went back to some of the figures that were to be in my February entry from the start. I had planned to paint Clan Moulder troops in February, figuring I would paint the easiest figures in the shortest month. I only got to some of them.

Back in my youth, in 3rd edition, we didn't really have good figures for wolf-rats, aka ROUSes. They're still sort of lacking, but some of the more recent metal giant rats aren't exactly large, but in the context of old 3rd ed. scale, I think they're decent enough. Not too far off from the metal giant wolves of the day. Plus, they're not exactly massive combat beasts anyway. So here we are. 6 wolf-rats.

I will be overwhelmed with work/travel for the rest of the month, but managed to squeek (heh heh) in one last figure. The wolf-rats needed a Clan Moulder packmaster.

Actual brand of mints I just discovered at a local grocer. Only slightly altered the flavor when I inserted it into the appropriate ad background. Kudos to the company marketing mints to the underserved Skaven demographic.

Mmmm... love those half points in 3rd ed. 

February Points:

10.5 pts         1 Packmaster with light armour

18 pts            6 Wolf-rats

30.5 pts        5 Clanrats with Spears

59 pts         TOTAL

189 pts       OWAC TOTAL (so far)

AdamH’s Skaven - March Rank and File – Random rabble of relentless rats (210 Points)

This month has been a tough one for me for a number of non-challenge reasons, and to top it all off I am writing this while suffering from the dreaded plague of the 19.

I had intended to get the rest of the packmasters for this unit completed as well however I ran out of time. I will try and do them next month in addition to what I had originally planned.

For those of you wondering about the dogs, they are actually an old 3rd edition Skaven beast option but since I play 5th edition I use each one as two giant rats.

Once again here is a close-up of some of the more ‘interesting’ models, due to the vast majority of the unit being pretty samey:

A little bit of OSL on old Thrott's warpstone eye:

I’m going to stop promising that I will show off more interesting models though because I don’t want to be thought of as a liar.

My submission for March is as follows:

UNIT	EXTRAS	#	TOTAL
REGIMENTS
Giant Rats (2.5)		60	150
Packmaster (10)		6	60
TOTAL			210

 

John R's Month 1 - Rank and File (681 points)

January is done and I'm learning loads.

Mainly what I'm learning is that I prefer painting toy soldiers to photographing them.

This is Bogrot and his ladz. They hail from the dark lands and have been awed into the service of the Axis of Evil after Aksys exploded their shaman in a magical dual.

I took photos from other angles in the hope they'd come out better. Not sure it worked.

Bogrot, the contingent leader and the contingent standard carried by Wozgrub (2nd and 3rd from left). Also the unit champion: Zogga and his command group (center and right). All flanked by two of the units fanatics. I was pretty happy with the way these came out so I took an extra photo :)

42 Goblins, light armour, shields and spears, standard and musician:      220 points

3 goblin fanatics:                                                                                         90 points

Bogrot (level 25 goblin hero): light armour and double handed weapon   69 points

Wozgrub (level 10 goblin hero): light armour and contingent standard     80 points

Zogga (level 10 goblin hero): light armour and additional hand weapon   31 points

Total: 48 minis. 490 points

Other stuff I managed to get paint on this month:

12 Dark Elf crossbows:              156 points

2 Clan Moulder Beastmasters and 8 giant rats: 35 points.

All in all this was a very productive month. However I've known from the off that I have to break the back of this army in the first 3 months. In the last 3 months my painting time is likely to be much more limited.

Onward to Victory!

Graeme's OWAC3 Skaven wrap-up

My first OWAC is done! My lead pile is dented (if you look really closely)! My purveyors of pestilence may have got a little carried away though... sorry 'bout that!

Thanks to Iannick for organizing a great challenge and congratulations to all the challengers who overcame some serious adversity to deliver some truly impressive armies! This has been a weird year so far and it's been great to be part of a little community that share the same passion and have provided support, encouragement and the threat of shaming to keep everyone going. Special mention goes to the other members of #teamskaven, Adam and Brendan - together we managed to delivery the vermin triple whammy in the year of the rat. No mean feat.

Okay, on to the final muster...

- Gnawdoom (level 15 wizard), with hand weapon: 144 points

- Clan Chieftain (Level 5 Hero ), with spear and light armour: 31 points

- 1 Clan Chieftain (level 5 hero), with hand weapon, shield and light armour: 31 points

- 1 Clan Skyre Poisoned Wind Globadier, with hand weapon: 25 points

- Warpfire-thrower team: 81 points - Jezzailachis Team: 39 points

- 3 Plague Censer Bearers: 120 points

- 3 Clan Moulder Beastmasters, with hand weapon, and light armour: 31.5 points

- 16 Giant Rats: 32 points

- 8 Black Skaven, with halberds, and light armour: 60 points

- Clan Chieftain (Level 5 Hero ), with halberd, and light armour: 32 points

- 14 Plague Monks, with hand weapons, and light armour: 82.5 points (including extra 5.5 points for the standard-bearer)

- 10 Clan Eshin Gutter Runners, with hand weapons, light armour, and slings: 140 points

- 2 Clan Moulder Beastmasters, with hand weapon, and light armour: 21 points

- 5 Clan Moulder Rat Ogres, with hand weapon: 190 points

And of course the Offering to the Overlord (25 points) isn't shown, as it's already found its way to Iannick.

So here's what my 1060 points of Skaven look like:

I had been planning to paint more in the last couple of months of the challenge, but I lost my focus. I've got about 40 models in progress on my painting desk and a bunch of scenery sitting not far away. I made a start on some banners too. All these mini-projects vying for my attention meant that none got finished... Still, it leaves me something to do in the months before the next OWAC... :-)

Right, I'm off to feast my eyes on the other submitted armies. See you next time!

Brendan's Clan Moulder Conclusion

Challenge Completed!

I would like to thank Iannick for organizing this competition and especially my friends James and Brennan who have competed before and convinced me to enter it.  I'm glad I joined as it was a lot of fun.  I would also like to thank #teamskaven for being super supportive and getting to see their awesome Skaven.  And of course to everyone else who posted as there is amazing amount of artistic talent out there.  Ok, enough of me sounding like I just won an award.

In total I completed 1089 points of Skaven from Clan Moulder:

I wanted to focus on the theme of my Skaven, so to me that was a lot of giant rats, rat swarms and at ogres.  

Of course I had to include some clan rats.  Clan Moulder can't do all the heavy lifting without the backing of its rat citizens.  

I also had to sell out a bit and hire some clan Skyre and Eshin.  

Overall I'm happy to have participated and enjoyed reliving my 12 year old self who played with Skaven way back in the day.  Oh, and collecting and painting rats really made another creature in my household very curious...

Brendan's June Clan Moulder (30 points)

It's is Complete!

For the competition I really only had enough models owned or purchased for 1000 points, so I technically finished my army in May, however I went searching and painted up an agent from Clan Eshin to help surprise my enemies:

Skaven Assassin: 30 points

Grand total of my army came to 1089 points, and I'm happy with the way they came out!

Graeme's Clan Moulder Marauders for May (213.5 points)

The gap in the defender's lines was small, but enough for the horde to exploit. The masses swarmed forward....

I got off to another great start in May, getting a Clan Skryre Warpfire-thrower and hero done quickly. I experimented with different metal effects this month and was pretty happy with how the barrel of the warpfire-thrower turned out. I finally managed to get the right sequence of inks, washes and verdigris. I tried a similar effect to create a bronze-style blade on the Rat Ogre.

Warpfire-thrower team - 81 points

Clan Chieftain (Level 5 Hero ), with spear and light armour - 31 points

I had admired Brendan's mass of Giant Rats from January and March and set my mind on a big unit of them for May. Real-life intervened again.... my job threw a spanner in the works, then tossed in the rest of the toolbox for good measure.... so the heaving mass of Giant Rats turned into a rather modest unit...

Sixteen Giant Rats - 32 points

One tip for the fashion-conscious rat overlord: your giant rats really shouldn't be seen dead without some earrings this summer... flesh wounds are optional.

Three beastmasters - 31.5 points

One Rat Ogre, to bolster the Clan Moulder contingent - 38 points

All of May's force

Warpfire-thrower team - 81 points

Clan Chieftain - 31 points

3 beastmasters - 31.5 points

16 Giant Rats - 32 points

1 Rat Ogre - 38 points

Total for May: 213.5 points

Total for the army: 1085 points

Even though I've reached the 1000 point target, I'm going to keep going - I want to build some Clanrat or Slave units and finally get a banner or two done, so stay tuned for more next month!