Skaven Plague Claw Catapult, Warpfire Thrower Team and some Packmasters join the horde

Two clans need expanding in my slightly overgrown Skaven collection: Eshin and Pestilens. On the Eshin side I have more assassins primed (but not ready). On the Pestilens side I mostly need a few more warmachines. With this Skaven Plague Claw Catapult I have started solving that last problem. And as I was splashing more paint on rats anyway, I also added another Warpfire Thrower Team and some Packmasters to the horde.

You have to wonder how disgusting something needs to be before a Skaven puts on a gas mask.

The Plague Claw Catapult is a wonderfully silly concept. It throws disgusting muck at enemies and seems pretty impractical to load. Biological warfare has a bit of (disgusting) historical basis, although I'm more of the 'throwing big chunks of rock was the norm'-school of thinking. The thing that makes this catapult a bit silly is that the (dual) kit that makes this model lacks any spare ammo. It should have a nice, big disgusting vast of goo if you ask me. Come to think of it, perhaps I should just scratch build one on general principle. 

I took quite a bit of time painting and highlighting the Skaven within this contraption. Its a bit of a pity as he's hardly visible. 

The paint job was one of those paint jobs from hell I occasionally get when painting decrepit things. At a certain point it all starts looking like I forgot how to paint and just sneezed paint on. I tried to salvage it by throwing on weathering powders and adding a bit of stippled Ryza Rust. This worked (a bit), but the model was still off. In the end I realized my major problem was the huge block of warpstone serving as a counterweight. I painted it bronze and warpstone green (I was on autopilot) and that reasonably clean look just threw the rest of the model off-kilter. With a bit of trepidation I covered my paintwork on the warpstone with Typhus Corrosion and weathered it with rust powder and Ryza Rust paint. When it all dried I was quite happy. Now it looks like a disgusting contraption with a humongous rusting iron block as a counterweight. In real life you can even see the warpstone vaguely shining through the layers of rust. Happy little accidents. I think this works. Now to get one of those start collecting boxes for a second Plague Claw Catapult and a huge plague censer swingy thing (can't be bothered to look up the proper name). That should round out the Pestilens part of my collection. There also seem to be some new assassins on the way. Apperently the Horned Rat is smiling on me.

More Skaven covered in paint. Best not tell the Dwarves...

This is a  small unrelated addition to the horde in my display cases. I found yet another Warpfire Thrower Team while checking my cupboards recently. As I already had six painted, I briefly considered just selling it. Then again that sounded like more bother than just painting it. So now I'm up to seven teams (I still have another team in a blister and I'm really not sure what I should do with it. There is a point it just becomes rather decadent and all that*). I also had two classic Packmasters (animal handlers) standing around. I decided to use a leftover crew from the catapult as another Packmaster and painted the trio above. Another old blister contained the four metal giant rats above. Its a nice addition to the horde. As soon as my Wolf Rats are in, I think I can build and field a complete Moulder army. That should be fun. Not as fun as fielding eight warpfire throwers though (a bit one sided fun there, but still...).

* I'll paint it.