The hiatus in hobby as a result of the countdown from third edition Kings of War to fourth has given me too much time to overthink other projects. For a while I’ve been trying to work out what to do with a growing collection of metal rats from way back in fourth edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle.
I’ve been cycling through some many different ideas and systematically finding reasons not to do them. I’ve done my best to try and be positive, and rather than dwell on reasons not to paint them a certain way or base them another way, I’ve tried to string together my thoughts about what I want the project to become. Truth be told though, that kind of made things worse as I complied a contradictory wish list which was only going to be solved by collecting the same miniatures several time over.
Then, a couple of months ago I stumbled over a picture from a White Dwarf battle report. The image hit me between the eyes. It was a riot of colour and ratty weirdness. In short, all the reasons I first got interested in Skaven, and dare I say rank and flank wargaming. This has now become my north star and the first staging post on my adventures with these thirty-year-young works of art.
Having debated with myself for some time now on what colours to use I now realise the answer is, of course, all of them. Whilst I know there are some people who love the more realistic (an utterly relative concept when dealing with fantasy races and their fashion choices) 50 shades of brown rats of more recent times I want my vermin big, bold and brassy. To that end I’ve made a start on the plague censor bearers. Exact replicas they won’t be, but they were never going to be.
The one model I’m most interested in doing is the Doomwheel. As a rule I don’t use a lot of black, so it should be a bit of a learning experience (I also need to get me hands on a Doomwheel, and if anyone could point me in the direction of the original White Dwarf I’d love to know how Thanquol’s raider actually did, and who they were up against).
I’ve tried to suppress practical gaming questions, like what are the chances of me getting a game in with these? Although I have had a cheeky look at The Old World legacy factions and worked out that by splitting the warriors into two separate regiments I’m well on my way to a couple of thousand points, so there’s always that. At the moment though I’m very much trying to getting the basics done.
That’s all for now. Have a great week.
If you don’t want to miss another post, drop your email below to subscribe.
The Wizard's Bookshelf 