Skryre Lord Skreekits' Lightning Engineer Cult

This weekend, in between my other freelance and commission work, I took the time to take some proper photographs and add a Skaven gallery to my site. There are a few new pics in there, and I'll be updating it regularly (well, as regularly as I update the other galleries).

The army is designed around a very shooty, Clan Skryre theme, with Warlord Skreekits as the general. I've incorporated little details like poisond wind grenades and warplock pistols into the units, and the Rat Ogres have been heavily converted using Space Ork and Inquisitor parts for their claws.

In the Fast as Lightning post, I had mentioned how my Skaven have always been a "fast and dirty" army. My goal with this force is to get models on the table as fast as possible, while still looking top notch. This is one of the few armies I collect that doesn't have a slew of assembled models waiting to be painted. With the exception of some Gnoblar-converted Skaven Slaves that have been patiently waiting in their figure case, every model I've begun has been finished. 

Part of this is due to the speed with which I paint them. Even the 30-man units only took about a week each to complete. (Although as I was setting up the army shot, I noticed that I had neglected to paint the Stormvermin's noses!)

One dilemma I'll be facing in the future is the mixing of the older "monkey" Skaven models (the ones with the giant hands and feet) and the new, slim Skaven from the starter set. I've decided to keep the two segregated by clan. The larger Skaven Clanrats, which I still have boxes of, will be reserved for the Skryre and Eshin clan models. The new ones will be for Clan Pestilens, probably painted with olive green robes. It will be fun to branch out from the main theme and build some of the new plague machines.

Poisoned Wind

The Doom Wheel has made me eager to work on something else, and The Poisoned Wind Mortars are it. The mortars can be fielded as weapon attachments for Poisoned Wind Globadier units, so I need to fill out my six Globadiers to create two 5-man units, each with a mortar attachment.

Digging through my parts bin, I came up with enough Globadier models to fill out the units, and some spare Space Ork parts to customize the mortars.

The Globadiers have access to unit champions who can take magic items. I've added some modeling putty to distinguish this guy as being equipped with a Death Globe (That's not a poke-ball!) These champions also needed more impressive weapons, so I replaced their puny knives with serrated blades from the Leman Russ tank's bulldozer. 

The Poisoned Wind Mortars took a bit of work to incorporate the new parts, mainly figuring out where to attach the pipes and whatnot. I've also inscribed some Skaven runes and damage on the machinery.

Here are the Globadiers, with their new comrades, ready for priming and painting.

These two guys are probably my favorite. I'm using the old Jezzail riflemen (riflerats?) to represent Warlock Engineers armed with warplock muskets. The engineers are only 15 points, and the musket upgrade is also 15 points, making for a 30-point character. (If you don't play Warhammer, that's dirt-cheap in army building terms.) The one with the longer scope is equipped with Warlock Optics, making him a better shot (until the rifle explodes in his hands, anyway).

But before I work any further on these, I've got 30 Stormvermin noses to paint!

'Til next time!