All Creatures Great & Small

 

All things vile and verminous,
All creatures great and small,
All things wild and wickedness,
The Horned Rat loathes them all.

With the release of the Skaventide box for Age of Sigmar 4th edition, I return to my stop-start attempt to build something useable from my existing backlog.

I'm still focusing on trying to field a Skaven force, just using very old models, and having already put together two units of Clanrats led by a Grey Seer, my attention has turned to something a little heavier.

I've had these three Rat Ogres for something like thirty years (maybe) and they were originally bought for use with Bloodbowl.

Only Boneripper (the one with three arms) ever got a coat of paint as part of my championship winning team, the Pitspike Stealers, and so he needed stripping before assembly, whereas the others needed some old glue chiselling off them.

When it came to painting, I used much the same simple methods that I've used on the rest of the army so far, relying largely on contrast paints for the base coats of the skin (Gulliman Flesh), fur (Wyldwood) and claws and horns (Skeleton Horde).

The fur was drybrushed Ushabti Bone and the metal was given a coat of Leadbelcher before both were washed with Agrax Earthshade.

I'm terms of details, the loincloths were done with Nazdreg Yellow, scarring was picked out with Agrax Earthshade and the gold elements on Boneripper were done with Retributor Armour and washed.

Meanwhile, I made plentiful use of GW technical paints. Wounds were bathed in Blood for the Blood God, pustules were done with Nurgle's Rot over Elysian Green and the eyes were given a glow with Hexwraith Flame.

Bases were done simply as well, with AK Terrain Muddy Ground texture paint with pools of Nurgle's Rot and a black rim.

Although I'm not going to win any awards with these models, I was struck by how easy modern materials make getting miniatures finished to a decent tabletop standard, and I considered just how much more I would have got painted in my youth had they existed.

Luxury! Young whippersnappers, don't know they're born!

I'm addition, the release of the pdf rules for Age of Sigmar 4th edition highlighted that not only are there currently no rules for Giant Rats, but also the Endless Spells (or Manifestations) are something that a player can automatically access.

This made making a decision about what to do with the Giant Rats I had already painted easy, and I based then up as the Vermintide Endless Spell effect.

This was easily done with the right sized base, a few bits of cork and the same basing strategy. In fact, it was so easy I'm not going to count it as a painted model (also, I've already counted the rats).

This decision also gives me a couple more mini-projects to do as I need to put together the other Skaven Endless Spells. Additionally, I think I also need to kitbash some Endless Spells for my Tzeentch Daemons, although I have plenty of spare bits from the Lord of Change that should be useful.

In terms of the Skaven force, I still have models to paint but I don't have anything to use for the Clan Skryre Engineer or Clawlord on Gnaw-Beast to complete the Spearhead force, so I might need to actually...you know...spend money...

Acquired: -82
Painted: 284
Lead Mountain: 686