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!

Graeme's Skaven - July - Wrap-up

Graeme's Skaven  (266.5 points)

Wow, six months have flown past!

It's been a proper challenge this year. It started with indecision about which army to go for, and included some dips in motivation, severely limited hobby time due to work, and the usual amount of procrastination. Starting to paint with magnifying lenses really helped my eyes, but slowed down my painting when I realised how much detail I had been missing...

While I'm glad to have finished, I really scraped through on the bare minimum of models, and let's not even start on points value...

My plans were much grander, and I just don't feel this year's effort is up to the standard I was aiming for, or really completed - there are loads of details I want to redo, and I still didn't get round to painting up their shields, due to a silly amount of work in the last month.

Still, it's another dent in the pile of shame. I'm a step closer to fielding a proper Skaven army. Progress is progress!

Anyway, here's the end result:

So the final tally is 42 figures, broken down into:

1 Warpweaver level 10 Wizard, armed with a spear - 82 points
15 Clanrats, armed with a hand weapon, spear and (still not done) shield - 97.5 points
15 Skavenslaves, armed with a hand weapon and spear - 45 points
5 Clanrats, armed with a hand weapon and light armour and (still not done) shield - 30 points

6 Giant Rats, armed with malice and evil intentions - 12 points

Which is a whopping 266.5 points in total! I'm lucky this was a special edition of OWAC, or I would have been resting gently and deeply in the field of bones!

Thoughts of OWAC VII are already floating around in my head. I've got to try to come up with a realistic and less grand plan if I'm going to take part next year. I came up with a list of options for armies and the popular vote in the OWAC group pointed to extemely Oldhammer-esque candidates of either Slann or Norse. Now I'm not ruling out another last-minute, ill-advised switch to Skaven again, but those are looking like the strongest contenders so far. Some test models are in the pipeline!

I've also got plans for the next 'special edition' OWAC, which involves a Rogue Trader theme. So the summer months should be busy, prepping as many figures as I can.

Massive congratulations to the challengers who managed to finish the challenge. I'm incredibly impressed with the number of challengers who go above and beyond, with not only well-painted armies, but also huge quantities of figures (and scenery)! I'm envious, but also inspired! Keep it up!

Graeme's Skaven - May - Rank and File #4 (75 points)

Graeme's Skaven - May - Rank and File #4 (75 points)

Well, May was the first month where I felt confident that I'd finish my monthly contribution. Unfortunately, things were busy at work in the last week and I didn't really have time to get the finishing touches done, yet again. So it's a pretty basic look for some of this motley crew, but it keeps me in the race... with the finishing line in sight!

May's contribution of 10 Clanrats:

Luckily, rounding things off with my leader month should give me enough time to catch up on all those shields, details and finishing touches I've missed over the last few month, so I'm aiming to make sure the final results will significantly better.

10 Clanrats, armed with a hand weapon, spear and (still to be painted) shield - 75 points

Breaking my monthly total record yet again with a whopping 75 points!

I've made a start on a couple of the leader models already, and have a couple of ideas for bonus models, so am looking forward to putting together the final lineup.

Graeme's Skaven - April - Rank and File #3

Graeme's Skaven - April - Rank and File #3 (52.5 points)

This month should have been a walk in the park - I'd almost finished painting my March contribution, but just couldn't get things over the finish line. I expected it would take a few nights of adding the finishing touches and then I could get the April post done early and make a start on some of the May contribution, or pick up some leaders or more exotic troops.

The reality was slightly different.

The end result for April:

5 Clanrats

5 Skavenslaves

Naturally I had forgotten about a short break in the beginning of the month - I went with my wife and a group of friends to Islay (my fourth pilgrimage to the island) for some whisky-tasting and sightseeing. The preparations and trip effectively took up the first 10 days of the month. Well worthwhile! I tasted some great whisky and brought back a nice memento or two.

Just a little souvenir...

After returning I half-heartedly picked up my paintbrush and faffed for a week. I think I painted, re-painted, and then refined the same pieces of tunics and armour on three figures for about a week. I got stuck in a weird rut, where I just didn't like what I painted.

Then one of our two cats, which we've had from kittens, suddenly developed a blood-clot. My wife adopted them when a friend found them abandoned in some woods in Germany, about nine years ago. Within two hours of me spotting something was wrong, I found myself sitting at the vet's, watching her being put down. This was on my wife's birthday. The day before my birthday. This resulted in cancelled celebrations and a week or so of little motivation to do much, let alone paint.

Baloo

I finally forced myself to sit down and get some painting done in the last few days of the month, in a desperate attempt to avoid the field of bones.

Yet again, it's not my best work, and I don't feel the Slaves are really done, but they'll do. I'm pretty happy with how some of fabric and details, especially on the Clanrats, turned out. I was finally enjoying painting them in the last couple of days and it was a welcome distraction from the suddenly much quieter apartment.

So, the final tally for April:

5 Skavenslaves, armed with a hand weapon, spear and (soon to be painted) shield - 17.5 points

5 Clanrats, armed with a hand weapon, spear and (soon to be painted) shield - 37.5 points

Resulting in my highest monthly total yet: 55 points! That's an army total soaring into the dizzying heights of three-figures!!!

Anyway, the end is in sight! Lots of unpainted Skaven still await me, as well as loads of little details to finish off, as well as shields and bases still to complete, so that should keep me busy enough. I really hope I find my zone again in May and I can put in a strong finish.

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)

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)

Graeme's Skaven - January - Rank and File #1

Graeme's Skaven - January - Rank and File #1 (45 points)

I expected getting back into the OWAC saddle was going to be a challenge, and I wasn't disappointed.

Breaking last year's record of 2 painted miniatures wasn't going to be difficult, but getting the minimum 10 done before the end of the month came down to the wire, again.

Scraping in by the skin of my rodent teeth, I present my motley crew for January:

January's mob

I've mixed feelings about these. I had to rush in the end to get them done in time, so the bases still need flocking, the Clanrats are missing their shields, and there are a few things that I'm going to tidy up later. So, on the scale of things, not my best effort.

On the other hand, I had to start facing the realities of getting older by using a magnifier while painting, to take some of the strain off my eyes. It's definitely helped there, but also let me see all the flaws and sloppy errors I make while painting, in glorious detail. I think I'm painting more neatly now, and can pay more attention to details (because I can finally see them!), but this has the downside of costing more time. I'll have to adapt a little, to up the tempo...

The bug-eyed monster

Anyway, I'm happy with what I did paint, and I suspect I'll be satisfied once I finish off those niggling details that are missing. I've been getting into the swing of things the last week, so I'm planning on painting smaller batches, to help speed things up.

Some more detailed photos of the meagre January offering:

Skavenslaves with spears - front

Skavenslaves with spears - rear

Clanrats with swords - front

Clanrats with swords - rear

One of the things I forgot to prep, due to my last-minute switch of army, was some suitable shields. And the weather over in The Netherlands hasn't been conducive to undercoating anything - the temperature hasn't gotten up to 10°C in more than 2 months. Fingers crossed things get warmer soon.

Luckily, this edition of OWAC doesn't have a minimum points requirement per month, otherwise I'd be in a spot of trouble...

5 Skavenslaves, armed with a hand weapon and spear - 15 points

5 Clanrats, armed with a hand weapon and light armour (with shields still to be done) - 30 points

So, a whopping 45 points of Skaven rank-and-file to add to my army!

On to February! More of the same, I suspect. Although I might have to do a small batch of Giant Rats to meet the figure count in the shortest month...

ZeroTwentythree's January Skaven (130 pts)

January Skaven: Clanrats (Rank & File)

As with previous projects, I wanted to start off this year's Skaven project with the backbone of the army. If a cowardly Skaven army can even be said to have a backbone. "The core troops upon which the army is built" is perhaps a better description? No, not the slaves. The clanrats!

I had ambitious plans for a full regiment of 30 clanrats, including standard bearer and musician, for the first month of the challenge. But life has been busy and I've spent a considerable amount of time away from home. About midway through the month I revised my goal to get 20 of the 30-strong regiment painted, and I managed to finish them just in time!

Here's the full batch of 20. All metal, and with quite a few duplicates as expected. I'm going for a dark & dirty look. Although they seem to have a lot of red-tones, I'm imaging them as not seeing that themselves, as I understand that rats are colorblind to red. So these Skaven may think they are mostly dressed in stealthy black gear, which is only half correct.

To add some variety, I made some minor conversions, such as the two figures on the left. One is a simple sculpted hood, the other is just repositioning the spear arm so the weapon looks "shouldered" rather than held forward.

It's not visible, but the clanrat in the center was broken, missing it's shield hand. Nothing a little bit of sloppy putty-work couldn't fix.

These are the remaining 10 figures that didn't get painted in January. As you can see, I am using brown primer, as this has worked well for me with Skaven in ages past. I depend on the brown primer and a couple of black/brown washes to tone down a lot of the color, tie all of the figures together, and keep them looking like verminous troublemakers who crawl through tunnels and sewers.

While most of the figures are 2nd/3rd edition, I do have a few "newer" figures hidden in the mix, such as this standard bearer.

These "remainders" will still get painted at some point in the challenge. I had other plans for February, but maybe I will switch that up so I can complete the regiment before moving on.

January Points:

130 pts        20 Clanrats with Spears

130 pts         TOTAL

Graeme's OWAC VI Introduction post

OWAC VI: Embracing Chaos...

OWAC V was a complete washout for me. I had grand plans of a glorious Elven force, which never got off the ground. Getting married at the end of January soaked up more time than I expected and I fell at the first hurdle. The trip directly to the field of bones was unexpected and disappointing...
This seriously dented my painting mojo and I lost my motivation. Coupling this with a new job in the middle of the year, I ended up painting a grand total of two minis in 2022.

OWAC has been the main driving force in getting me to the painting desk over the last few years, so I decided that I would re-focus my energies on the prepping for OWAC VI. I was determined to avoid my previous mistakes and go into this challenge as well-prepared as I could. So, I spent months cleaning, de-flashing, basing, and base-coating an impressive amount of Wood Elves. I focussed on mostly compulsory troops, with some special troop types, big monsters, and characters to add some flair.

Some of the compulsory archers

Some additional troops

Great, right?

But doubts and uncertainty had crept in...

I wasn't really feeling the inspiration for painting these graceful fighters.

Being spoiled for choice on what I could paint wasn't helping the decision either.

However, the pile of unpainted Skaven from my first OWAC started calling to me, eager to be unleashed on the battlefield to fight for the Horned Rat...

One of the two minis I managed to paint in 2022 was a Rat Ogre for Oldmanpaints #OctOgre challenge. I really enjoyed the process and end result... an albino Rat Ogre: (https://oldmanpaints.wordpress.com/2022/09/30/octogre-painting-competition/)

Painted mini #1 for 2022

This special OWAC VI edition meant that I wouldn't have to submit a minimum number of points of miniatures each month, just a minimum of 10 models... perfect for troops with a low points cost... Skaven, for example...

Then I saw ZeroTwentythree's introduction post (http://oldworldarmychallenge.blogspot.com/2022/12/zerotwentyhthrees-owac6-introduction.html) and the call of Chaos grew too strong to resist!

My originals plans found their way into the bin...

I'm back #teamskaven!!!

The new plan is simple - paint as many Skaven Clanrats and Slaves as I can. I want to work through as many of these compulsory troops as possible, with the aim of being able to field a legal 3rd edition army, based on Warhammer Armies, by the end of OWAC VI. For this, I want to finish 50 Clanrats and 20 Skavenslaves. If I get bored of painting these, or my sanity falters, I've got plenty of other models which I can turn to for some variation.

Some of the leftovers from OWAC III:

And some of the remaining pile, that still need some prepping:

Yes, you may have spotted the flaw in the plan - I've switched from a well-prepped force, to a furry horde at the last minute... I can't promise this is going to work, but I aim to embrace the Chaos and enjoy trying!

And finally, as an offering to our glorious Overlord: a Bob Olley Chaos Harpy!

These can be Chaotic hosts for a Skaven army and I've never painted one before. I decided to go for a rather more colourful interpretation than usually seen - a colour scheme which hopefully pleases the mighty Overlord.

Painted mini #2 for 2022

Good luck to the rest of the challengers in this special edition of OWAC!

There are some great-looking projects again, with a lot of variety. It's going to be a blast seeing them take shape!