Surprise, surprise manling! A Skaven Assassin jumps forward!

Busy, busy, busy and due to a small shipment error there is a slight delay in getting my workspace finished. In the meantime I finally found time to sit down and paint a bit. I was planning to get started on Necromunda so I took out some Skitarii sprues, put those aside, picked up my undead, dropped them again and looked at my Kharadron. To end this confusing story, I started work on a group of  (mostly) ancient Skaven. By going through my boxes (and friend's lead piles and the second hand market) I managed to acquire a nice collection of older Skaven to add to my horde. The first one to end up painted is this Skaven Assassin.

Quick, quick, kill, kill, and then run, run, I'm too valuable.

This model is mostly black cloak, so I got the chance to really work on my painting black skills. This time I basecoated with Vallejo German Grey and airbrushed (zenital) a mix of Vallejo Anthracite Grey and Shadow Grey on top of the cloak. I poured the remains of this mix out of my airbrush cup and added a bit of white to work up to the edge highlights. The darker folds where washed with Nuln Oil and I finished up by painting some pure (Vallejo) black in the deepest recesses.

Painting black is an ongoing struggle I'm not willing to give up.

Blown up on my 24" screen the highlights look as if applied by a drunk, but in real life it all looks quite OK (I think). The base is left unflocked or static grassed and bereft of tufts. I stored these materials in a very smart location. Unfortunately I don't seem to be smart enough to recall where.

Here's to hoping GW will one day release a new Gutter Runner plastic kit with models that look good. This guy needs some friends. 

The Weeping Blade was painted with a pair of very light greens and coated in Tamiya Clear Green. A standard go-to for warpstone. I might add a bit of glow in the dark nail powder later on (it is stored in the same location as the static grass, tufts and flock).

A last shot of my old Verminlord paint job, just prior to getting covered in Biostrip-20

Pictured above is my ancient Verminlord. Its been stripped of the above paint job my 16 year old self applied to it. It has also been reassembled with pins and basecoated. I'm planning to use an old White Dwarf paint guide to give it new life and add it to my Oldhammer pantheon. I am a bit unsure about applying a square base though, round just looks better (IMHO). On the other hand it will break style (so I might have to rebase the lot).

Yet another shot of my old Pantheon, I'm quite happy to own this lot. 

Another Skaven project awaiting completion are these three guys I picked up because I'm playing at an AoS event later this month. I needed to flesh out a Clan Skryre army I was planning on taking along.

Stormfiend are a terror on the tabletop and the models look lovely, but breaking them out of their monopose takes work.

However on a second test run of the army it turned out to be a rather unsportsmanlike mortal wound fest, so I'll probably branch out and make a generalized Skaven horde. I just don't want to be that guy. Still no reason not to finish these guys. I had a ton of fun making minor conversions so they look different from the three I already have painted.

Washed and ready for basecoat. Mental note: touch with rubber gloves only.

These guys have just been dried after a detergent wash. The Jezzails have been stripped last year, I bought the Poisoned Wind Globadiers Skryre Acolytes straight from GW to round out a second unit of five. They come in three poses but the mail order staff just took a grab at the stand and send me four with identical poses. I complained, they told me their staff was very sorry but they didn't have the time to really look at the orders they were collection so this happens....yes sometimes I really miss old GW (Q: 'Could you send left arm B from page 17 and Head C from page 82 with my order?' A: 'Off couse we can'). Sigh....

Ready for paint (or going on sale soon), I really want to see the metal Warp Lighting Cannon painted.

Pictured above is the stripped, pinned and basecoated Verminlord, an old Warp Lightning Cannon with crew just begging to be painted, two animal handlers, a Warplock Engineer, two Plague Monks and another Skryre Acolyte (number five). This acolyte was bought second hand so it actually has a  different pose (enough sour grapes now, moving on). I'm not quite sure what to do with the uncoated Skaven. I think I'm going to troll around for another Jezzail so I can paint a third team of three bases (hopefully a mid-nineties one as I don't have that model). The chieftain, standard bearer and Grey Seer will probably end up on the Oldhammer Trading Community at some point, I've already painted the Grey Seer (with the name Thanquol on its tab in stead of 'Grey Seer'). I'm not sure about the other two. We'll see, maybe I'll flip and just paint them too.

Leftovers from last years Skaven painting activity. Maybe I'll finish these of this year.

I'll close up with my leftover Skaven from last year. I think I should actually make an effort to finish these guys. It would give me bragging rights that my Skaven lead pile has been fully painted (ignoring a bunch of Pestilens plastics). On the other hand if I don't get in a rabid painting fugue like I got with my Orcs Greenskins last year, that's ok too. Having a bunch of unpainted models is part and parcel of the hobby (and I really feel like painting Skitarii, Necromunda, etc.)

Taking a forced long break has put a bump in the long road towards Bingo.

As a sort of post scriptum I'll quickly add a stamp to my Warhammer Hobby Bingo card and award myself a 'play with an army you have not played with for a year' stamp for actually putting my Skaven on the desktop.