AdamH’s Skaven month two - Big pew pews

I’m busting out my wildcard early this year. As everyone who has done an OWAC before will attest February is a brutal month, you are off the high of starting the challenge in January and with it being a shorter month it claims a lot of victims to the field of bones.

There was a real risk of me being included in them this year since I had/have two trips in Feb, losing me over a week of painting time. Therefore I bit the bullet early and decided to use my wildcard early and paint something big in size but small in number.

So yea, I went for my Warplightning Cannons and Globaiders, the first of the Skyre reinforcements for my force.

But AdamH I hear you say, those models aren’t from WHFB 5th Edition, the edition you play, and you would be right. However I strongly believe that “oldhammer” is a mindset and a style rather than a time period. There are plenty of models released today from some wonderful makers that really capture that oldhammer style. However you would be right if you were to highlight the fact that there are no rules for Warplightning Cannons in 5th edition. Therefore I will be claiming no points for these in the challenge, but I will claim them as being two models that I painted 😛

Anyway, enough justification, look at my models!

Also I did some OSL that you can’t really see unless you are close enough to touch the model with your nose, definitely the right thing to have done when I was short on time:

These two cannons enable me to play later editions with my army, and I have even seen some fan versions (WHFR) that have ported the rules back to be usable in a 5th edition style ruleset.

Next up we have the Globadiers, these jugglers are some great models but there aren’t very many variations in the classic style, so I painted all of the ones I have (I have since bought two more on Ebay and will be painting them in a future month to bring my total to ten), but here is a shot of each of the sculpts:

And all of them together:

So that brings me onto my month two stats:

Models painted: 10 individual bases, maybe 16 if you count each piece separately?

Total points: 80, hey look at that, same as month one!

Pointless details you can’t see when the models were built: Lots

Next month I will have much more painting time so will be tackling one of the bigger units, the Plague Monks or the Clanrats, so look forward to seeing a big block of scurrying vermin coming from me next!

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!

AdamH’s OWAC VII Intro Post – The rats are back in town!

Why do I hate myself... a question I have been asking for years without an answer. 

Here we are again, me plus over 100 rats. You might be thinking that surely I must have run out of Skaven models by now? Ha, I laugh, I could probably do the challenge another two times with what I have left in my box of shame.

But yea, once more around Skavenblight we go:

Just like my previous Skaven entry I am looking at filling out my existing force with missing units as well as bolstering the core:

Mainly this means some additional Clan Skyre units in the form of a unit of Globadiers and while not technically from 4th/5th edition a couple of Warplightning Cannons:

As well as a few Jezzails:

And who better to lead this part of the army but a selection of Warlock Engineers:

I am also filling out a few older units with additional options, mainly this means random command models:

and some more Plague Monks:

For this year’s challenge I am targeting the following list:

Every time I do Skaven for the challenge I increase the number that I plan to paint, and somehow I manage to get them done. This time is no different, this is the most models I will have attempted in an OWAC yet (as long as we don't account the many small Giant Rats from last time). But if I can get them done I think my army will be touching 5k points when fully equipped! (On a side note if anyone in the UK fancies a game hit me up!)

Best of luck to the rest of the competitors as always, and especially to my fellow #TeamSkaven!

ZeroTwentythree's April Skaven (620 pts)

 April Skaven: Clan Skryre (Wild Card)

I thought I would get in the April Fool spirit and paint some crazy and/or dangerous things  for this month's entry. Thus, Clan Skryre month. As with many of my OWAC projects & entries, there's a bit of nostalgia behind it. (See below.)

At first I was going to paint 12 Clan Skryre models for my Wildcard month. Then I added "one" more model, a rat swarm. Because 13 is better than 12! But I got jealous after seeing big beasts in other people's armies...

I first started playing Warhammer not long after 3rd edition came out. After a bit of experimentation with various "armies" I eventually settled two, Skaven and Dwarfs. If I had to guess, I'd say Skaven were the army of choice 80-90% of the time. A unique army with a quite a few unusual options. However, I was always jealous of all the other armies that could select awesome mounts like dragons, griffins, wyverns.... hell, even horses. This was probably exacerbated by the fact that my second army was in a similar situation.

At some point I figured I would try summoning a monstrous host. I always loved Lewis Carroll's Alice books, and The Jabberwock poem in particular. I picked up three figures back then, two of the Citadel model and one from Ral Partha. Two ended up being painted in gaudy fluorescent Polly-S acrylic paints. Perfectly chaotic! A "brightly colored" mutation. Although the creature was borrowed, it always seemed like one of the most chaotic of the creatures of chaos to me.

So that was my choice for summoning. They were usually unimpressive on the battlefield and a waste of spell points. But I continued to use them on occasion just so I had an excuse to put the model on the table and surprise my opponents.

I still have one of the Citadel and one of the RP figures, but they have been repainted in more drab colors to serve another purpose outside the scope of the OWAC. But I recently picked up two newer Jabberwock figures, one from Reaper and this one, from Satyr Art Studio/Drew Williams (sold by someone else now, I think.) I can't help but think that Drew's figure is a tribute to the Tom Meier sculpt from Ral Partha, similar to the giant he did a few years ago. I had to bend the figure a bit to get it into a similar pose but a little more three dimensional

I prepped the figure before the month started, but then wrestled with the color scheme for weeks. At first I was going to try to emulate old color printings of the original B&W John Tenniel illustration from Carroll's book. Then I thought about ultra-technicolor-izing that into a vivid RGB color scheme. But I couldn't get entirely behind either option. I haven't been sleeping well, and one night in my sleep-deprived tossing & turning late at night, I had the idea to paint it red. I like the way it has a cliche meanacing "devil" look to it, but is still a Jabberwock and creature of chaos. "Brightly colored" doesn't have to mean fluorescent blues and oranges and yellows and greens.

The Jabberwock is a creature of Skryre because it is a summoned host.

But the clan has more direct yet equally chaotic and unreliable means and methods. I had to get a few different photos for clarity, but below are a poisoned wind globadier and the one non-Skryre figure I did this month, a plague censer bearer.

The plague censer belongs to Clan Pestilens, but as I am not doing any plague monks (I think the clan was underdeveloped in terms of rules and figures until later editions) I figured this fella fit well with the Wildcard entry.

Back in the day... as a kid, I had to request my FLGS (I didn't even have one of those for a long time, and just picked up whatever scraps of Skaven figures were available scattered model train and comic book shops within a reasonable distance.) I don't know how it was elsewhere, but the US catalog had one code, "Skaven." And whatever they sent was what you got. I was hoping for a whole great variety. I got a boatload of warpfire-throwers. Like six packs of fire-throwers, and six packs of everything else. Luckily "everything else" included 2 rat ogres and some globadiers, but almost no actual troops. For most of 3rd edition the only foot soldiers I had (clanrats, slaves, stormvermin, black skaven, plague monks, etc.) that were available were just plastic Fantasy Regiments clan rats painted with different color schemes. 

Back to the present. I wanted to paint a fire thrower for the challenge, and knew I had a few of the old six still lingering around. I could strip one team and give it a fresh look. But after searching for months, I couldn't find them! I ended up ordering a fire thrower  team on ebay, and as expected, about two months later I found the two teams (one of each sculpt) that I had been looking for. Not a horrible end result. I still have my originals, plus I got to paint a new team for OWACV.

There was only one jezzail team sculpted by Jes back in the day, but I used to use the hero with a rifle as my "champion" among my old jezzails. All of those old figures are long gone, but I managed to collect the hero along with a single jezzail team before the challenge started. I used a modern plastic figure in lieu of the jezzail (musket) brace holder so I had the required two figures. Unfortunately the actual jezzail team are among the figures I didn't get to finish in time this month.

Not a terribly clear image, but I also painted one of the two "gas mask" poisoned wind globadiers I had planned for this month.

Lastly was the sort of "bonus" figures of the month. I never used a swarm host in 3rd edition. No one has in any of the games I've played or watched. This is the single most expensive figure (points wise) in the Skaven army and I just don't get it. But I had some extra swarm figures from 6th edition (I think?) which look pretty nice but are meant for a 50x50 base. Since no one I knew ever used swarms in 3rd ed. it came as a surprise to me that they go on 50mm diameter bases. Or 50mm radius bases. As discovered by the OWACV Team Skaven, there is a conflict in the rules, but I had already based mine on 50mm diameter. I think I will probably make a 50mm radius base with some additional rats for this swarm to fit inro so I can play it either way. Well... not exactly, because actually playing a swarm seems like a complete waste of effort. But maybe just so I can have it in my collection. :)

April Points:

50 pts          2 Poisoned Wind Globadiers

81 pts          Warpfire-Thrower Team

39 pts          Jezzail

200 pts       Jabberwock

250 pts       Rat Swarm

620 pts         April TOTAL

1,043 pts       OWAC TOTAL (so far)

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!

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!