All engines are on full throttle.
In the last couple of days I have been hard at work on my skaven. First task was to base the remaining slaves and get them undercoated for painting. So that is 44 actual models to make a 50 strong Skavenslave regiment. Or, more likely, two 20 plus ones.
Second was solving my problem with the Plague Monk standard falling over. A quick rummage through my bits box yielded this old lead shield. I filed off the attached arm, drilled holes in the shield and Plague Monk, and pinned it in place. This seems to be doing the job of keeping the model on its feet.
This was followed by a quick basing, and when that was dry, an undercoat.
After a lot of considering my timeframe and bank balance, I decided to start converting some of the unused Plague Monk bodies into Clanrats. The plan is to initially do 30 and see how that goes. I have roughly another 20 spare bodies around the place, though I’m hoping to pick up a couple of boxes of the new Clanrats that come out in a matter of days.
So above we have 21 of the Plague Monk bodies, with a monster base included for the unit filler.
This is the front rank, with standard bearer, champion and musician. For the command models I am using Packmaster bodies, as these have armour plates on them. While putting shields onto most of the rank-and-file will make them look more like Clanrats, I needed to armour them up some more to make sure the point got across.
To do this I rustled up as many armoured heads as I could. The older skaven heads don’t fit neatly onto the Plague Monk bodies as is, so I cut the join ‘bulge’ off of the head. With this gone they seemed to fit fairly snuggly. Arms still have to be added to the rank models.
With a closer shot of the command models. The drum and arms come from the Empire Halberdiers box. The champions arms come from the Empire Militia box. I also used the skaven banner from the older plastic Clanrat box.
While the armoured head, coupled with the eventual inclusion of shields, might have been enough, I wasn’t convinced. Biting the bullet, I broke out the Greenstuff I bought recently and had a go at sculpting armour for the Clanrats. Mostly I took this route, filling the robes opening with Greenstuff and sculpting chainmail. Though on some I modelled plates instead.
I have never used Greenstuff before, and I am glad I started with something smaller and not as prominent on the model. It gave me a chance to become familiar with the qualities of Greenstuff. I doubt have even begun to grasp the use of this material, so my education of the hobby continues.
