The Unrelenting Tide (WhiteWulfe's Skaven army)

[WhiteWulfe]

On 2018-04-30 at 2:24 AM, Glitterwolf said:

You got a cool collection of vermin there!

 

About the shield, cut it in half!

You will have two..

Put one half on the base, with a little sand and small pebbles / debris around it.

Done!

And you will have another half for another base that way!

Glad to hear you like them.  I'm kind of looking forward to the point where all of them are assembled, and awaiting paint, as that could make for a rather nice looking group shot to say the least....  Biggest thing though is going to be getting all those bases sorted out, as that's, uhm...  A decent amount of bases to work on, to say the least.  Oh well, I don't mind, I wanted them all on slightly larger bases anyways!

 

As for the shield, I'll keep that in mind!  At the moment I don't really have an easy way to cut it in half other than side cutters or an xacto, and my core focus at the moment is on the warlord, so I have at least a few more days to decide what my eventual plans are with such.

 

~~~~

Progress has been made on the warlord, even if some of it seemed not so great.  I believe it was Thursday I finally gave that new purple brush a try, and, uhm...  We'll just say I don't like how it doesn't hold much paint, nor does it let me move the paint around smoothly.  Oh well, it was an experiment, and such things can happen.  Friday out came my "old standby" brush (Citadel Standard Brush from 10-12 years ago, not that it's seen anywhere near that long of use) and things went a lot smoother with regards to painting

 

Paints used in this update:

9037 Pure Black

9437 Dragon Black

9448 Dragon Copper

9452 Blade Steel

 

^So first and foremost, he has some armour that actually looks like it's metal.  Woohoo!  Started with a base coat of Bladed Steel (mixed 4 drops to one drop of water, if I remember correctly, I didn't write notes last night), then did a second coat because the first one didn't really go on all that well with that purple handled brush.  Then came a wash (1 drop Pure Black to 8 drops of water) to darken things up somewhat and add in a bit of detail...  I might wind up selectively adding a bit more to some areas like where the plates meet in order to deepen the shadows, but we'll see, since I'm aiming for a combination of techniques used in the two LTPK's (aka standard base/wash/drybrush kind of stuff mixed with layering) in order to find a happy medium for it all.  Aka, I like experimenting, and learning as I go.

 

Initial shadow layers were also added onto the metal parts of the weapon, as well as the helmet, although it would appear that not much of that came out in these pictures...  Probably because I'm holding the mini just a few inches from my main source of light   Shadows were done with a mixture of Dragon Copper and Dragon Black... I think it was 4 drops of copper, 1 drop of black, and 2 drops of water?

 

That wash mixed up for the armour was also applied to the bits of rope, the weapon's shaft, his maw, and also to the etchings/runes/markings on his cleaver...  Clearly I got somewhat sloppy with the cleaver, but I'm hoping it'll still clean up without issue - my fault for trying to get something watery into a small area while still using a size 0 brush instead of the 3/0.  For some reason, I'm getting this feeling they should have some sort of ominous glow, so I very well might give something like that a shot in the near future..  Oh right, and some of the wash was also added into the skull's sockets, to add a bit more depth to it.

 

^Since I had so much of that watery glaze left, I hit up some of the parts of his base with it, and am fairly happy about the added detail to some areas, especially the cobblestones that are barely visible.  Kind of nice to have a bit more shadows in there, and more depth to them overall.

Edited May 5, 2018 by WhiteWulfe

[WhiteWulfe]

More progress!

 

Paints used this round:

9430 Polished Leather

9434 Wolf Grey

9437 Dragon Black

9439 Dragon White

29833 Ash Grey

 

 

Much as I hate to say it, I totally forgot ratios for mixes.  Whoops.  Anyways!  Woudn up hitting a few key areas...

- Gave a wash to his fur... I think this was a mixture of Dragon Black and Dragon White with water, as I was trying to get some details for the shadows the "easier" way... Looks like I've gone and made myself a lot more work.  That or I've made a grey rat, hard to say.  Given my goal is more of a murderous white Skaven, yeaaaah, it's going to need some work.

- Darkened the armour and weapons a tad further, although some areas feel like it's too much.  Here's hoping they won't be too too difficult to lighten up somewhat.

- Did the eyes of the pendant, although I'm still trying to figure out what I'll be going with for the actual colour of the emblem itself...  Purple or green I'm thinking.

- Gave the leather a second coat... Doesn't quite feel right yet though, although at the moment I can't quite tell what's bugging me about it.  I suspect it's the fact it needs lining again to help with the separation...

 

Also, I really need to start factoring in my desired lighting.. I kind of keep forgetting about that o_O

[WhiteWulfe]

EDIT: Totally forgot my silly playful bit at the beginning.  This post "sponsored" (like how a coffee in the morning "sponsors" you being an adult or something) by the first album in the series of "This is Hardcore" albums.  Made it through track 10 or so for painting, and then up to track 13 for taking pictures and writing this post.  Mmm, I like these albums, they really should do more compilations (end edit)

 

Didn't get as much painting as I wanted to do today done, but that's life when you decide to go out and do a few things, like get an exchange on the Windsor and Newton Series 7 size 0 brush you picked up.  New one is a LOT better, holds it point without issue, and...  Yeah, is enjoyable to paint with.  I'm going to be tired tomorrow, let's put it that way.  Alarm is supposed to go off in five hours, yeah no, I'm setting that a tad later.

 

Paints used this round:

037 Pure Black

9407 Marigold Yellow

9430 Polished Leather

9438 Tempest Grey

29802 Brilliant Red

 

Won't be mentioning paint mixes because of previously mentioned "I should be heading to bed really soon" bit.  Most of them were just straight up with water, don't think I mixed any paints together this go-around.

 

 

So let's get the obvious things out of the way...

- Yup, I changed the colour on the banner, covering mostly over what was previously done with Marigold Yellow.  I think it was three drops of paint to four drops of water for the mix.  Why this?  Well, I've decided I wanted to go with more of an ancient parchment kind of look, even if it's more cloth.  Just feels better in my eyes, or something.  Can't say precisely what it is.

- He. Has. EYES!  I didn't like what had previously been attempted (besides, it was faded mostly out) and so went in with the Pure Black (mixed with 2-3 drops of water, can't quite remember) to get the edges of his eyes... Then went in with Tempest Grey to lighten it up somewhat, then two layers of Brilliant Red.  That's where things are now, and I'm seriously contemplating something like green or purple irises to showcase a slight addiction to warpstone, or something to that effect.  Aka kind of sort of but not really play on the albino aspect, and maybe even showcase the sheer murderous side of him, since Warlords tend to be that way.

- Some parts of the armour were lined again, but I think I only did the one arm, so I'll have to take a look again with fresh eyes.

- Leather straps got another coat, and I'm happier with them...  Now it'll be a case of getting them more like I want, and of course adding in more lining between the straps and his fur once again...  And figuring out just how on earth I'm going to make the fur on his back stand out better.

 

I'm thinking the first areas I'm going to tackle next will be his fur, because there are far too many possibilities of trying to paint that and getting the colours over everything else, so I'll start there, then work outwards.

 

Oh, I'm also planning on doing some sort of freehand on the banners, but uncertain as to precisely what just yet....  And of course I'll have to come up with a more thorough plan for the robe half of his garb, but thankfully that's probably a few sessions away from where I am now.

 

 

 

 

Before I forget...  My thoughts on the Winsor and Newton Series 7 brush?  It's nice, that's for sure, and I can definitely see it becoming a workhorse.  Is it a night and day difference?  I'll say I'll hold my judgement, but I know this much....  I'm a LOT more daring when it comes to going for smaller details then I've ever been, and I don't think it's me growing more confident about my painting skills...  It's nice to have a brush that gives precise feedback about where it is, and also can vary in how much paint it adds onto the mini depending on HOW you press it against the surface you're working with.  I'll have more coherent thoughts on it some other day, but I'll say this for sure - I like the brush, and that's that.

Edited May 7, 2018 by WhiteWulfe

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

While these aren't the best pictures ever, this is the banner page from the 93 Skaven armybook, hopefully something here might prove helpful .

[WhiteWulfe]

19 hours ago, Lord of the Dish Pit said:

While these aren't the best pictures ever, this is the banner page from the 93 Skaven armybook, hopefully something here might prove helpful .

Spoiler

 

 

 

I'll definitely have to keep those in mind!  Still uncertain as to actual plans for those banners, but blank just doesn't feel right.

 

 

Today's music: Bonkers 16, CD1.  Mmmm, happy and UK hardcore.  Good times.

 

Today's paints: 

9401 Dragon Red

9404 Cinnamon Red

9422 Nightsky Indigo

9430 Polished Leather

9436 Bleached Linen

9437 Dragon Black

9438 Tempest Grey

 

....You might be spotting a bit of a trend....  That's right, I'm indecisive!  

 

^Decided to get "fancy"  with my phone's camera, to try and get a basic "reference" for how I'm planning on the light to hit him with the layering.  We'll see what I can replicate, and if it comes out how I want it to. ^_^;;;;

 

^One of the main focuses I've been trying to work on the past few sessions is nailing his fur colour....  Having it be SOMETHING like a dusty white...  Problem is, I wind up going either too bright, too dark, or hey look, it's the primer grey colour again....  So this time I said screw it, tried to get something out of Bleached Linen, aaaaand... Yeah, okay, it isn't perfect, but I'll use that as a base.  I think.  Covered some of that up with watered down Tempest Grey, which brought some of the shadow areas closer to how I wanted them....  Then I said screw it, throw caution to the wind, I'm trying advice @Cyradis likes to give due to their preference - that's right, I gave purple within the shadows a shot...  A mixture of Tempest Grey and Nightsky Indigo to be precise for a second layer to the fur where I want it to be darker...  We'll see how it plays out, although I'm kind of liking it, even if it doesn't quite show much in the photos.

 

I know the tufts of fur on the back are waaay too bright at the moment, but I wanted them to at least sort of kind of stand out, so I could get a better idea of what I'm going to do back there... So that's why they're so stark white.  Bleached one might almost say  

 

I've also decided to name the skull.  His name is now Steve.... Or he used to be Steve, hard to tell.

 

Additionally, I did a bit of work on the insignia, using Cinnamon Red as the first layer for shadows, only to realize that hey, that was kind of the base layer I used, or at least it looked really close....  Second layer was a mixture of Cinnamon Red and Dragon Red, and third layer was a mixture of Cinnamon Red, Dragon Red, and a bit of Dragon Black.  I don't think I quite went dark enough on the shadows, so it seems I'll have to go at least another layer, which I don't mind.  Kind of used the emblem thingy as a distraction from all the work on the fur, since brain was trying to tap out...

[Cyradis]

Yay for purple!

[Glitterwolf]

Purple is the best!

[WhiteWulfe]

Been working on my dragons the past week so haven't really given the warlord any attention, but I'm hoping to do a bit more work on him this weekend, since it's been a while since I've finished a mini and I...  Yeah, kind of want to actually finish a few this quarter ^_^;;;;

 

But I do have something to go with this for now...  A bit of a group shot, even if certain parts of it are blurry because a fox kind of totally forgot to close the apeture somewhat on his lens.  Yay for f1.7 and small depth of field, but great low light performance or something! ^_^;;;  Next time I do this, I'll make sure it's f4 or f5.6 ish so that a lot more is in focus ^_^;;;;

 

I also really should get a proper photo editing program, because Paint is a tad too restrictive when creating JPG's, and that's why some of the shots look smaller than usual.  As with Wyrmgear, clicking on them will bring up the full size pictures as hosted on my site.

 

 

For those wondering, it's a 12x18" cutting mat they're placed on ^_^;;;;

 

So yes, as one can tell, a decent portion of the army is put together, although I still have 20 Night Runners to finish assembling (they're the ones on the right, in the third pic, mostly missing heads, tails, and some arms), 20 Night Runners still in a box, 2-3 packmasters, and a full box of Clan rats that's still sealed (20 more).

 

I also still have quite a few bases to convert, and that's just these guys, not including all the new ones I'll be adding in over time...

- 2x 40mm (Rat Ogres)

- 178x 25mm (80x Clan Rats, 40x Plague Rats, 40x Night Runners, 10x Plague Censer Bearer, 5x Giant Rats, 3x Packmasters / Master Moulders)

- Another 30x 25mm bases since I apparently have another 30x giant rats hiding in a bits box o_O

- 3x Cavalry bases (portable weapons)

 

In short, I know what's going to be a good portion of the bulk of my next Reaper order - that's right, bases and paints, wheee!

 

 

 

Additionally, in a "surprise" turn of events, at least kind of to me, I've decided I'll be toning down on what to get for this army.  It isn't necessarily because of the sheer insane amount of things to paint that's in the pic, but because I'm already fairly happy with the size of what I have and just want to flesh out a few more things.  In short, I want to flesh things out so that it's flexible, and usable on the table, but also isn't a monstrously sized endeavour - I still want to have it all finished before 2020 happens.

 

There was also another realization.  I currently have 4x 10 man squads of Plague Rats, and 4x 20 rat squads of Clan Rats...  Which means I could have the Clan Rats right behind the plague rats, and I suspect it would look absolutely amazing.  So I've toned the list of eventual extras down to the following, with a few units getting a slight bolster to them...

 

Spoiler

• 1x Ratling Gun
• 1x Verminlord of some description
• 4x Rat Ogres (in order to have two units that have four ogres each)
• 1x Screaming Bell (with Stormvermin attached)
• 2x Plague Furnace
• 2x Plague Catapault
• 40x additional Plague Rats (because it's actually $28 CAD cheaper to buy 2x Skaven getting started boxes compared to just the 2x Furnace and 2x Catapault, PLUS I get 40 more guys with it all - that and someone has to push the Plague Furnace...)
• 10x Plauge Censer Bearer (they come in blisters of 5, and I've always been more of a melee kinda fox - that and I prefer their look compared to the poison wind globadiers)
• A few rat swarms (these would be made out of all the giant rats I'll have extra lying around)
• 3x Doomwheel
• 2x Warp Lightning Cannon
• 3x additional Assassins
• 20x StormVermin (to push the Screaming Bell)
• 2x Warp Grinder Team

 

Which would give a new army composition of....

Spoiler

Leaders:

- Verminlord Corruptor (or of some variety after I've researched them)

- Warlord

- Warlock Engineer

- 2x Plague Furnace (each pushed by 20 Plague Monks)

- Screaming Bell (pushed by 20 Stormvermin)

- Grey Seer

- 4x Assassins

- 7x Packmaster (Master Moulder apparently isn't an option anymore)

 

Units:

- 2x 20 mini Plague Monks (each set pushing a Plague Furnace)

- 1x 20 mini Stormvermin (pushing Screaming Bell)

- 2x 10 mini Plague Censer Bearers

- 1x 10 mini Poison Wind Globadier (AoS naming is Skryre Acolytes)

- 4x 20 mini Clanrats

- 4x 10 mini Plague Monks

- 2x 20 mini Night Runners, each with a Warp-Grinder Weapon Team attached

- 2x 4 mini Rat Ogres

- 2x 10 mini Giant Rats

- 2x 4 unit Rat Swarms (made from the "leftover" giant rats from various kits, placed onto 40mm bases)

- 2x 3 unit Warplock Jezzails

 

Siege Units that aren't quite siege:

- 2x Doom-flayer Weapons Team

- 1x Poisoned Wind Mortar

- 2x Ratling Gun

- 1x Warpfire Thrower

 

Actual Siege Units:

- 2x Plagueclaw

- 2x Warp Lightning Cannon

- 3x Doomwheel

 

Okay, it's not quite all that much smaller in the end, but it's still at least somewhat of a chunk smaller :P  Looks like it would be about 311 units (including rat swarms as one each, small weapons teams as one each, and the on foot leaders), alongside 2 small siege and 10 large siege weapons (if you include the furnaces and bell).  In dollars, yeouch, it's another $1,111.75 CAD ($1,167.34 CAD with GST) for all the stuff I don't have, but I suppose I'll live ^_^;;;; o_O  Still a fair bit cheaper than the original idea, too, so I'm definitely happy there

 

What's also slightly surprising to me is how many more bases I'll need...  And that it's "only" $121.79 USD for such, which isn't all that crazy in my eyes (was originally almost $201 USD, but that was including a bunch of stuff for other armies) - assuming I calculated things right, it's a total of 21 more packs of bases I'll need to pick up...

Spoiler

12x packs of 25mm rounds (240 total)

3x packs of 32mm rounds (30 total)

1x packs of 40mm rounds (10 total)

2x packs of 60x35mm ovals (20 total)

1x pack of 105x70mm ovals (4 total)

2x 120x92mm ovals (8 total)

 

With bases, I have a fairly strong feeling I'm going to continue rolling my own bases, not because of cost or whatnot, but because I'm enjoying doing such...  That and I like the lip they have.  Okay, fine, I'll also admit that I can't quite decide what kind of theme I'd want if I went with resin bases from other companies :P

 

I have a distinct feeling this is going to be a rather fun long term project

[WhiteWulfe]

While working on Wyrmgear tonight, I did up another 10 splintered deck bases, bringing me to a total of 40, which will all be used for my Night Runners....  I also wound up doing up another 3x 40mm Dark Runes for my Rat Ogres and 1x 25mm Dark Runes for my Plague Censer Bearers as I had leftover material and it was starting to cure.  Nothing wrong with having a few extra bases than planned!

[Glitterwolf]

Run Run Manthings!

[WhiteWulfe]

6 hours ago, Glitterwolf said:

Run Run Manthings!

Yes yes, manthings must run because we chase, with wheels of doom.... Doomwheels! 

[WhiteWulfe]

 

^Ooooh, they look kinda nice murdered out....  Err, I mean coated in a layer of Grey Liner.  Four parts grey liner to one part water.  Tried out the "night mode" on my Huawei P20 pro, which seems to do okay.  Just eight more of thes guys to prime - yup, they'll be the first unit I paint up alongside my Warlord, who hopefully will be seeing a brush again soon ^_^;;;;;;

[Chaoswolf]

AHHHH!! R.O.U.S.'s! A whole army of 'em!

Good army shot!

 

[WhiteWulfe]

5 hours ago, Chaoswolf said:

AHHHH!! R.O.U.S.'s! A whole army of 'em!

Good army shot!

 

Many thanks!  I'm looking forward to a few different milestones...

 

- Everything (that I have at the moment) assembled

- Everything on a "proper" base (aka stampled/sculpted/rolled base of some description)

- Everything primed ^_^;;;;

 

It'll be quite the shot then I suspect!

[WhiteWulfe]

While painting was part of the original plan for today, I wound up doing a few other things for hubby instead (and chores, and errands, whee!), so instead we now have two additional guys primed, although it's definitely obvious I'm going to have to retouch a few areas, but that's life...

 

^First up is my Warplock Engineer from Isle of Blood.  Nice and techy, with plenty of shooty...  And stabby to go with said shooty!

^And my Rune Priest, who in the end wound up not having anything else added in, even though I spent a while working on that sword and hat, for, uhm, uhhh... One reason.  I kind of put them in a safe spot, and got to the point of "okay, it's on the desk, and I'm priming a bunch of stuff, I'm priming this and "finalizing" his base.  If I happen to find them we shall see if they get added back in, or if I'm more than happy with how things are now

 

I had considered priming at least a few more of the Poison Wind Globadiers, since I have eight more ready for priming, but decided there's enough stuff on the desk that's primed and ready to go so I'll deal with those first (like various characters and my other projects)!