Skaven Gutter Runners and a new photo backdrop

This month I crowded my paint station with Eldar with a few sneaky Skaven among them, just for fun. The arrival of the new Skaven Battle Tome, natural Skaven sneakiness and my inability to stay focused for extended periods of time, has caused a few changes. The number of Skaven on my paint station seem to be rapidly multiplying. I also had a lot of fun with some side projects, but more on that later. Lets start of with five freshly painted Skaven Gutter Runners.

Quick quick, sneak sneak kill the...eeek! Big target run! Aaargh! </projected future battlefield actions>

Lets start with a small admission. I never really liked the plastic gutter/night runner models. And going by the internet (I know, it's not the most trustworthy source) I'm not the only one. I even have trouble finding their original release year. Solegends.com has them on a page where the (c) notice is unreadable and I can't find them in the Skaven Collector's Guide. Going by the equally unappealing 1999 plastic Clan Rat Regiment I would place them somewhere around this time. Enough history. I knew I had a small number of them. They where in a second hand lot I bought a while back. Some had been glued together by the previous owner. But none of them where painted and some where still on sprue. With a small glimmer of hope* that Eshin will get some new releases someday (* 'Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment') I decided to paint them right now. New releases would definitely demotivate me from ever coloring these guys in.

Painting models does give you a new appreciation for them.

To be honest, as with most stuff I paint, they have grown on me. They may not be the prettiest sculpts on the planet, but they have a lot of nice options. And they do look properly assassin-y.  One of the Gutter Runners is holding up a throwing star. This will give me endless 'he might put an eye out with that' material to annoy and bore opponents with during games. I'm actually vaguely tempted to pick up a full box of these so I can build a Night Runner unit. But I'm not quite there yet...maybe I'll find a second hand one, that would give me an excuse.

Rescuing unwanted and unloved models by giving them a paint job. It's not really charity work, but it does feel like it sometimes (and it makes collecting huge armies a bit more wallet friendly).

As with most second hand purchases these guys had been lingering rather sadly in a box stored in a box. The plastic had started yellowing with age and a few tails where lost during this rough phase of their plastic lifetimes. Luckily the sprues had more then enough spare parts and my scalpel was sharp. The only thing missing was extra cloaks. Only two of them are have this attribute every proper villain wears. I think hope I'll get over it.

Lets move on to another subject as I have too many projects on the back burner (I'm looking at you Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay campaign report backlog) and want to blog about all of them somewhere in the coming weeks. If you are an especially astute reader of this blog and this post in particular you may have noticed that my 28mm models no longer have a 1:1 scale background (looking just like a very ordinary garden). That's thanks to my first photo backdrop. I can now show off my skill at splotching paint like this.

Screaming Bell, now with added drama!

Here's a screaming bell I painted up a few years back. Let's zoom in a bit, show some pictures and not blather in my usual way...

I love this model. Now here's to dreaming it will one day make an impact on the battlefield.

I still have parts left to make my own interpretation of a Plague Furnace. Lets add it to the to-do list.

One moment of inattention and the Skaven symbol snapped of the back of the bell. For those of you worried, it's back in place and pinned this time.

Yes I can go for full on drama now and thanks to the magic of sliding glass patio doors I can take my pictures inside the house without sacrificing access to my favorite studio light source. No more rain and cold for me! Here's a quick snap of the highly professional studio setup I used for the pictures above. To cut a long story very short I took a stock photo of a stormy sky and had it printed on an A0 sheet of 180 grams paper, single side laminated. I think I need another one, this time with a picture of a pretty valley on it.

I made happy misuse of a child's bouncing cow to complete my high grade, ultra-professional studio setup. 

As I mentioned, there's a lot of projects on the back burner and I'm basically wasting dividing my time jumping from one to the next (and occasionally dumping one in a project box to be forgotten about for a bit (case in point: my plague bearers)). Here's a few snaps of what is on and around my paint station and some 'soon to be expanded into a post' activities I haven't had time to blog about.

And to think I almost spend upwards of 40 euro on a flock box to do this.

I made my own grass tufts using a converted electrified fly swatter.

The verdict so far: excellent and affordable dry brushes. Still have to test a number of the round headed ones.

I ordered a bunch of Rosemary&Co. brushes to try out synthetic and mixed brushes.

Scrapped (for now) my plan to do four more themed hoardings.

I build and started painting a hoarding for my Mighty Fortress.

There's something wonderfully macabre about a head-cork. 

I started work on some bareheaded Stormcast...

I'll get back to you guys and your silly Bloodbowl-style shoulder pads.

...who have now been relegated to the back of my paint station....too much to do (looking at this picture: replacing my spray pot should feature on a to do list too).

So many half finished models, so little time...

I'm slowly chipping away at a group of metal Plague Monks, still working on some Biel Tan Eldar and I've taken most of my abandoned Skaven projects out of storage.

A new Skaven, a fresh ghost, some ghouls and a set of still te be put together endless spells.

I've picked up Lady Olynder, mortarch of grief, to round out my Nighthaunt collection. With a back story like hers, I just needed to have her join Kurdoss Valentian in my display case.

I should finish some of these Eldar.

I have moved my overtly ambitious Eldar project to the very side of my painting desk, but I'm still positive I'll at least finish the guardians and support weapons (as soon a a proper replacement number 2 brush arrives...).

To do: making terrain.

I've got a rather long list of nice ideas for terrain (sets) that have been floating around, waiting for e to actually put them together. Maybe someday soon.

No I have enough boxed sets...a new Skaven you say?

I really only needed the one new Skaven Warlock Engineer in Carrion Empire so I managed to hang on to my self control and not buy the new set.....wait what? Where did that come from? Oh dear, I convinced myself I needed to get a Flesheater Courts Army at a later date. Now what to do with all the extra Skaven stuff? I could try and sell it, but maybe I should just quit my day job, win the lottery and spend the next few years hobbying full time (or was that win the lottery first? (Do you need to enter the lottery to win? (Will have to look this up sometime #nevertellmetheodds))).