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Gathering the horde

 Building and painting an army is only a part of the hobby for me. My efforts over the weekend have given me the confidence to actually get everything painted without being too concerned about it taking me months or years. I started off today by applying Stirland mud to the bases of the clanrats and rat ogres I painted on saturday, its easy to apply, and once drybrushed with some grass added, I expect it will look like mud (imagine that...) with some not too healthy grass in it.

Since my wife was working late I also took the opportunity this evening to undercoat over a hundred more of the stunning and brave rat men. It took longer than I had hoped, my airbrush clogged a few times which I will totally blame on the hot weather and not my lack of skill or experience. It's not a terribly expensive airbrush as I wasn't sure when I got it if I was going to like using it (spoiler, I really do) and I was also experimenting with the air pressure, paint viscosity and overall controlling the application of paint. I made a few mistakes, but since I was just doing everything brown, the spidering, over application of paint, and other heinous errors wont show, particularly since they are only Skaven. it leaves 50 rats, and a few war machines to prime.

45 minutes work, even with airbrush issues

One of the things I did discover was that the first generation plastic Skaven are awful sculpts, the hands and feet are over sized, the weapons are too big, and the poses are comedy gold. the old metal miniatures that preceded them, and the newer plastic kits are much better (with the possible exception of the plague monks). I have 46 clanrats that are without a doubt either going to visit eBay, or get boxed up and never see the light of day again (all offers will be considered). I will have to keep another 50 around to act as slaves until I can get some replacements, and they WILL be replaced.

Contenders for the worst GW miniatures award

The second thing I discovered was that 200 skaven does not actually equal very many points, and I lack a lot of the cool toys and units that make Skaven such a threat on the battlefield, such as Plague monks (and censer bearers) Jezzails, and gutter runners and assassins. The third and last thing I noticed was that one of the most iconic units in the army, the Doomwheel, is missing from the 6th edition army book. Thankfully, the rules were published in the Warhammer Journal (issue 49) and the PDF is available online. I still don't have the miniature though.


The horde so far

As it stands, I can easily make a 1000 point army. Initially it will be heavy on infantry, and light on tricks, but i'm sure that will change over time. I have:

Chieftain

2 Warlock Engineers

80 Clanrats, divided into 2 units of 25 and 1 unit of 30

50 Slaves, divided into 2 units of 25

20 Stormvermin. The 'Elite' of the Skaven aren't really spectacular in any way, except how many points they cost.

3 Giant rat packs. for a total of 18 rats and 3 pack masters

6 Rat ogres (missing 2 pack masters)

some weapon teams, 

and a warp lightning cannon that is currently sat in pieces.


Undoubtedly the force will outnumber anyone they face, but they have the hitting power of a wet paper bag. Its a good core to start with though, skaven armies are made up of masses of cheap infantry, backed up with lots of unpredictable but lethal gadgets. I've got a lot of the cheap infantry, I just need to get the gadgets. squeek squeek.











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