The Plague Claw

Deep in the wilds if the Caliburn Fell, past the Morrowvale road, lies the remains of the underminer incursion. The high water mark for the tides of scuttling ratmen, fought off by the free peoples of Stonehollow, is a war machine abandoned deep in the Fens of Gyle. Rumours persist that there is a massive chunk of warpstone still attached, and so many a brave - or foolhardy - adventurer has set off to claim it.

None, so far, have returned. 

After finishing my two entries for my first ever painting competition - as laid out in the previous posts - I needed a little palette cleanser while I decided what project to start next.

The random christmas present from my youngest son was the prefect solution. 

As you may recall I used some chunks of it on a previous project  but there was more or less an entire Plague Claw kit left ot play with - although lacking some crew. And this led to the idea of using it more as a scenic piece. 

Obviously, me being me, I wouldn't just build it stocck, so I raided some clockwork parts and started to add some more cogs and gears to it. 

I went with dark, weathered wood for the frame with lots of iron and brass for weathering later. 

The one crewman I had left I painted in my now usual Pestilens palette which is bascially WW2 German Dunkelgelb, fact fans. 

The base was pretty simple, with lots of liquid paint blending to create depth in the swamp water. 

While this was drying I rigged some hawsers and ropes for the catapult, using the same technique I learned for the Napoleonic ships

And then the whole thing was finally put together. 

I've never collected Skaven but every time I do any work with them I do enjoy it loads. 

RATS FROM THE SKIES!

Happy New year, everyone. I'm kicking off with an unexpected project. You can tell it's unexpected because I don't have any narrative to with it. This is one of those cases where the concept presented itself from the miniatures. I'm sure I'll fit it into the AoS setting I'm developing - the Caliburn Reach - for the Narrative Campaign at school somehow, but for now it's just there.

Fpr Christmas this year the Good Lady She Who Must Be Obeyed bought be a shedload of Kharadron because even she likes the idea of steampunk dwarves. However, she took my eldest son into the local games shop and encouraged him to pick something for me - so I also got this:

This is another of those kits which can be built in multiple ways, but my eye was caught by the massive cannon which looked exactly like the kind of thing you could mount on a ship.

And so the idea of a stolen dwarf airship retrofitted as a Skaven Privateer was born.

The main modelling change was to rip open the endrins and replace them with chunks of warpstone. Carved from blue foam, they were randomly splattered with pva meaning that when they were sprayed, they would melt in interesting patterns. The interior of the endrin was built up with bits of sprue and the broken edges and retaining bars made from plasticard.

The rest of the build was more or less stock, but I replaced the crew with Skaven. One I put into a Kharadron suit because the idea simply struck me as really funny. I added a suited tail made from guitar string. As it turns out, he's one of my favourite looking models.

The main gunner had to have a new tail and arms sculpted from greenstuff, which my meagre skills could more or less cover.

The spotter/captain figure was lifted straight from the Plague Claw kit.

The ship was airbrushed with the base blue and then I launched myself into very serious weathering.

Overally this was a fabulously fun little build and a good stretch of the old creative muscles. I'm also left with an almost complete plague claw so I suppose this year will be the Year of the Plague Rat.

I may yet add some rigging to the structure with some Skaven runes; but as yet I don't have a name for this might vessel. If you have any ideas, please leave them in the comments. As per usual I'll nick the one I like the best.

You Dirty Rats!

Continuing my Bloodbowl adventures - still the most frequently played game I own by some considerable margin - with a new team.

But this time the team is not mine!

My regular opponent - an ex-professional rugby player who's never been one for toy soldiers - has completed his metamorphosis into the 'Full Geek' as he puts it by buying his own team. Obviously this meant that I had to paint them, but I'm not complaining. It gave me the rare opportunity to sus out the miniatures before I paint my own set.

Whether this means the Multiple Scoregasms are to be retired remains to be seen but when he looked at the Games Workshop page he decided to go Skaven. For team colours he sent me this:

I started construction but kept conversions to a minimum - just some headswaps and repositioning of tails to break up the silhouettes and make them look a little less uniform.

Painting was then done mainly with vallejo transparent paints for the uniform and inks for flesh. The flesh was given a couple of washes and glazes but the uniform wasn't to keep it vibrant.

I used the flourescent green to add a slight warpstone effect to the balls. 

Pretty happy with these: I'll be interested to see what they play like. He often plays a running game so they should suit him quite well. I'm tempted to put my dark elves up against them to see how that works out. Two runny/throwy teams should certainly make an interesting match....

Anyway, I hope he likes them. At the time of writing, he hasn't seen them.