A Lightning Cannon, Doom-Flayer and Stormvermin join my Skaven army

My current obsession with Skaven continues with a few extra units that have joined my army. Around my birthday at the start of this month I decided to give myself the present of more Skaven for an army that I've been collecting on and off for the past 25+ years. The dawn of the Age of Sigmar makes the Skaven a very versatile and colorful army that allows you to play in many different ways (most of them involve dishing out a serious amount of nasty mortal wounds). My army lacked the excellent new Thranquol model and it was the first I assembled and painted (it is pictured in the link above). The second unit that has been missing for all these years has been a warp lightning cannon. I think the original model arrived on the market just as I went into the traditional 'beer and women hobby hiatus'. Anyway I got a new plastic one, had some fun being headstrong during assembly and created this model.

Rat or no rat, just kill anything that comes to close, close, squeee!

I stuck the Skaven with the binoculars on top. It helps him see the enemy approach from a long way away (allowing him to run fast,fast when that distance closes). I kept the other two crew members off the model. They are supposed to be inside the superstructure where you hardly see them while by the same account I could use them to decorate a scratch-build Plagueclaw catapult (the required hand is a leftover bit from this kit after all). But increasing Clan Pestilens is a long term project for now...

Painting lenses requires looking at a lot of different websites with basically the same tutorial, thumbing through a Forge Worlds Imperial Armour Model Masterclass book and then just missing the mark. 

Painting Warpstone is a continuing exploration of using green paints. Vallejo Fluorescent Green is an interesting addition to any painter wishing to make his warpstone glow. In this instance I've added fluorescent powder for nail artists to the mix. Dabbing on some of it with a bit of mat medium to make it stick. The lid of the powder says 'born pretty'. You can say what you want, but that warpstone is pretty.

I have five Warpfire Thrower teams, four (ancient) Warplock Jezzail teams, two Poisoned Wind Mortar teams and One Warp-Grinder team. Now two Doom-Flayers round out the collection (or made me realize I need two more Jezzail teams and another Warp-Grinder).

The second model I've added to my collection is a Doom-Flayer Weapon Team. At 20 euro a piece I always considered this Finecast kit overpriced (but as with all models owning them makes me forget the price). I did have two other considerations: a) I want a complete collection of Skaven warmachines and b) prices on Facebook trading groups and e-bay tend to be even worse for obscure kits. So I decided to bite the bullet and order two (I know, I haven't been able to adequately explain the logic behind the second one to my wife either). 

The poor Skaven at the bottom really has to push the machine and carry the rider at the top.

A strict condition to myself is that these models have to be painted up, no languishing in the shed for them. So here is the first one painted. The second one will follow a bit later on...no not the shed! It is not allowed...must paint it...

Now to cut some enemies to ribbons before they realize what these things do...come to think of it, what are the rules for these models? Off to the AoS App.

As far as the look of the Doom-Flayer goes, it is priceless. Only by painting I realized that this insane war machines has no saddle. It is just one Skaven riding piggyback on a second one while being hooked up to this machine. This model basically represents Skaven society from clan Skryre's perspective. Now here's to hoping they are a real annoyance to my enemies on the battlefield.

Skaven Stormvermin are bigger than Clanrats, better equiped and have an arrogance to match it.

Last but definitely not least I have assembled a box of twenty Stormverm into two units of ten. This is the first painted unit. Now first off these models are insanely cool. They are bigger than regular clanrats and nicely detailed. The big halberds, extra armor and knife-helmets give them a seriously menacing look. As I've already (tried to) explain in my previous post I did go to town on the banner as pictured above. 

I was inspired by the red and white look of Skaven in The Balance of Power (Age of Sigmar Realmgate Wars book 3). I tried to give this unit a look that came close to that but I wanted the white darker to keep it all a bit more grimy so I picked Zandri Dust as the 'white' for my Skaven.   

Aside from that I wanted to show a bit more care and effort with this unit than I displayed while mass painting my clanrats. So I chose to use a lot of edge highlights on the brown robes and red hoods. The metals have been inked with Vallejo Sepia (excellent for all your rusted needs) and at certain part Nuln Oil for extra black goodness. I also used splashes of Modelmates Rust on the metals, contrasting with some Stormhost silver to make the rusted bits look sharp enough in places. 

Hopefully the highlighting will show a bit more care was given to this unit than the regular Clanrats.

All in all I'm quite pleased with the unit as a whole. I've been a bit naughty and have already used them unpainted in a friendly battle where I learned two things. One is that three Ogors (Ogres) can kill nine of them (out of a twenty strong unit) without a lot of effort. Two is that eleven Stormvermin can easily kill three Ogors. So for the future I'll make sure to select this unit first in combat rounds.

Now go off and quick, quick, kill, kill lots of enemies (don't forget to bring the warpstone to your grey seer you loyal creatures (must remember to stab their commander in the back back after the mission and check his pockets)).

A last detail of interest might be the eyes. For the Skaven in this batch Evil Sunz Scarlet as a base color for the eyeballs with a dot of Lugganath Orange to make the eyes glow red. Around my army eye color varies from splotched on red (old models) to Averlands Sunset with a spot of Flashgitz Yellow (yellow eyes) to White with a small dab of Bloodletter Red (or Lamenters Yellow) wash. I like the Evil Sunz Scarlet with Lugganath Orange combination because it gives a very nice glowing red eye look that is easily spotted from a distance.