Skaven warlord on brood horror and some classic Plague Monks

I should've known the Gutter Runners where just a vanguard heralding more Skaven to come. That and the new Battle Tome. It restores the Skaven to their own backstabbing and conniving version of unity. I love it. I haven't had time to get a game in with my Skaven, but just seeing all the clans back together is a treat in itself. Over the course of this weekend I focused on finishing two units that had been getting some on and off again attention over the past few weeks. The first unit is a Skaven warlord on Brood Horror by Forge World and the second is a group of twenty classic Plague Monks. Lets start off with the Warlord, I should say Clawlord on Brood Horror (although Forge World hasn't updated the warscroll just yet).

Now there is someone I wouldn't want to invite over for dinner.

I bought this model during Warhammer Fest last year, just to round out my collection of Skaven a bit further and I must admit I felt rather intimidated by it. It is highly detailed and gave me that sinking feeling I could never do it justice. In the end I decided that it was a Skaven, so justice should not feature very highly on my list of worries ;). After building it I primed the model and started on the hairless rat it is mounted on. For this I used the same color schemes I go for when painting zombies, sickly Nurgle types and related models. Just go for a slightly paler then normal skin color and the use an airbrush to add translucent splotches of color. Purple, blue, yellow they all work and make skin look rather diseased, bruised and otherwise unhealthy. Also it adds some color and color is always good (in my very humble opinion).

I'm rather happy with the way the glowing green stands out from the deadish skin tones.

The greatest joy painting Skaven (and Greenskins) is that you get to play around with badly maintained and even rusty armor. Most of the examples GW gives have Skaven wearing plate armor painted blue or red, but I just like the idea of bare metal with splotches of dirt. I decided to give the commander rather shinier armor than most of his troops. He is the boss after all. But still a bit of Vallejo Smoke and a wash of Agrax Earthshade (or two) where necessary. The other great joy you get with Skaven is warpstone, especially in something that came from the vats of Clan Moulder like this Brood Horror. Aside from using actual warpstone there are several practical options to make warpstone glow. On this monster I decided airbrush Vallejo Fluo Green around the painted warpstone. Easy to do and I think it looks nicely menacing.

Now all I need to do is find the time to try this guy out on the tabletop, maybe I should wait for some updates rules (and keywords) from Forge World first.

Another thing this monster just demands that you do is add some strategic Tamiya Clear Red to it. I layered it up here and there to make it a bit darker and added some select drips of Agrax to other bloodied parts to enhance the effect further. I could probably have worked faster with Blood for the Blood God, but that technical paint is so thick it obscures detail, so I only apply it on flat spaces for added effect (almost) never on models.

I just had to try my hand at painting some classic Plague Monks to put next to the ones I painted somewhere at the start of the nineties.

Next up I decided to finish a bunch of Plague Monks on my paint station. December last year I bought this lot of twenty second hand. I own another unit of these classic Plague Monks that I painted when they where 'new' plague monks and I don't want to strip (all) models I painted over the years. So getting my hands on an identical set gave me the chance paint the same models without destroying my old work. As I had no command set I had to make some small conversions. First off I added a banner from the plastic Plague Monks by cutting one of the metal woe-staves (quarterstaffs) to a flat end and pinning the plastic on top. I added a plastic gong for a musician in the same manner, using a pin to get the drumstick in place. I finished by giving one of the models a scroll. Its from the Empire Flagellants line and I had to cut it in two halves two fit around the hand. This conversion does not work quite as well as I would like it (maybe I should've just stripped one of my old scroll waving models for the occasion).

I almost turned my stomach giving the boils on these guys heads a yellow puss look, but it was worth it.

With these older models the sameness of the pose can quickly make units boring. To ward this off (a bit) I decided to go for four different base colors on the robes: grey-green, dark green, off-white and purple. As I also want a sense of unity in units I I decided to lift the idea from the new Battle Tome of giving the whole group ochre colored hoods. Last (but not least) I applied a quick freehand to the banner using a glyph design inspired by Uniforms and Heraldry of the Skaven. Every once in a while GW makes these kind of only background and art booklets and I try to pick them all up. You can get so much fun and inspiration out of leaving through these. Maybe I should do one of those braggy 'look at my stuff' type posts about the ones I own (or maybe not).

Hidden in the unit three Plague Monks on the left where painted at a later date, one is standing (rather grumpily) unpainted on my paint station. I really should give that one a coat of paint after a 25+ years wait. 

Let's close of by sticking the old and the new next to each other. I think I see a bit of progress over the years (I also think I should add some tufts to the new bases on the old models). All in all it was a rather productive weekend. I also splotched some paint on other projects between the scenes. I painted two Crypt Ghouls and actually managed to settle on a paint scheme that way, more on those later. I also sprayed more paint on the hoarding for the Mighty Fortress and stared at my Eldar thinking 'I really should finish those'. Okay that last one doesn't count. Next up: I don't really know. I'm having so much fun it is almost criminal.