Classic Screaming Bell painted up and ready to go

"The Screaming Bell is one of the most fearsome creations of the insane Warlock Engineers." With those words GW introduced a large, chariot-like model for the Skaven. To my surprise that was in 1993. I thought the model was older. I remember having the budget back then to get either a Screaming Bell, a Doom Wheel or a Verminlord. As my standard opponent was fielding a Great Unclean One at the time, I picked the Verminlord (and I restored the model a while back). With a recent lucky find on a second hand website I've been able to finally add a classic Screaming Bell to my collection.

Come to think of it, this bell is quite on time for Christmas this year.

For the paintjob I checked out the old White Dwarf and Army Book first. I was toying with the idea of going for a really classic look. But the nineties is not my period when it comes to paint jobs (and don't get me started on those horrendous Goblin Green bases (that's what Facebook is for)). So after cleaning the previous owner's paint off, I decided to against copying that style. Instead I went for a dark, weathered wood look for the bell's carriage. Going for a bit of a gritty Skaven style.

I see progress in my painting skills. Still no chance of making the 'Eavy Metal team :)

The Grey Seer riding the Screaming Bell is a key part of the model. His white furred face gets to draw a lot of attention. The classic 'Eavy Metal version of the model has the seer dressed in white robes to get even more contrast. I couldn't follow that example as I still have my own Grey Seer from back then. I bought the model on its own (you could do that with phone mail orders way back then) and painted it in the nineties to act as my general. Getting the same model in my hands now, I decided to emulate my old color scheme. Its quite satisfying to conclude my painting skills have improved over time :).

The glow in the dark powder I use for warpstone has a wonderful product name: Born Pretty.

As I didn't have a duplicate of the bell striker I could go wild. I decided to give him a nice and dirty white robe. I especially liked the enormous clunk of warpstone in the skull-hammer he's holding. I painted all warpstone starting from Caliban Green and layering up with Warpstone Green, Moot Green and finnaly a VMC Yellow Green highlight. After it had dried I took some glow in the dark green nail stylist's powder, mixed it with Lahmian Medium and applied several layers to all warpstone artifacts. If you're wondering where the green glow is from, that's the trick.

This marks the first time I've used an MDF base for a model. 

I painted the Screaming Bell itself, and all bronze parts on the model with Scale Color Decayed Metal, adding a bit of silver to drybrush progressively lighter layers on it. I wanted to add some verdigris to the bell as well, but my standard go-to Nihilakh Oxide goes on a bit too thick to my taste (even with water) and I wanted a some color differences in the oxide. I decided to google around and found this tutorial. It advises 1 part each of Caliban Green and Kantor Blue with a lot of water and a bit of glaze medium for a dark verdigris and 1 part each of Warboss Green, Caledor Sky and White with a lot of water and a drop of Glaze Medium for a lighter variant. I followed it and drybrushed the bell a lot more afterwards. I have to say, I'm very happy with the results. Will be using that tutorial again.

It looks like an almost collision, but don't worry: with no clan rats to push either cart it's quite safe.

To finish this one off, lets have a bit of a chuckle over scale creep. The model on the right is my current Screaming Bell. A rather integral part of quite a number of AoS battles my Skaventide has been fighting recently. As you can see, the poor clanrats have had to pull quite a lot of extra weight onto the battlefield in comparison to the old days. Both models have been based on an equal size base. I love the dramatic pose of the recent Grey Seer (and the imposing nature of the model), but the classic model oozes style and looks slightly more believable (for a fantasy model). Ah hell, I like 'm both. On a sidenote: I've also been able to acquire the 2002 version of the Screaming Bell. This is sitting on my paint station (between a lot of other projects) right now. Funnily enough its slightly smaller than its predecessor. For those of you wondering: No I don't have a clue what I need three Screaming Bells for, except that my Skaven collection has just gotten even more comprehensive so...worth it!