# RATS! Rats everywhere!!



## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Hey folks,

I have been taking a break from my GKs since saturday to paint something very different. I started the hobby with fantasy battle, but I have since sold much of my stuff. One of the armies that I sold, was a skaven army. I still regret that to this day, because the sight of a big units of mean rats coming at you is still breathtaking!

However, that army never really became big. I just didn't find a way to paint all those rats that was anywhere near fast enough to finish an entire army. But now that I have an airbrush, I took heart and finally went for it.

Mind you, I still cheated quite a bit by using the army painter quickshade on these models. It's a very fast way of painting and the results aren't too bad. Only bad thing about it is, it takes a looooong time to fully cure and lose it's "stickyness". Also, you'll need a propper matt sealer, because that stuff is shiny as hell!

Anyway, this is the first model that is finished. It really is just painted amongst a bulk of 20 clanrats... But this one got finished because I started earlier on it's base. 

It's also one of my first attempts at OLS, I figured I'd give it a shot with a few of the warpstone weapons in this army. 






































The fingers on the hand do look a bit off, I might try to change that a little. Other then that, I'm rather pleased with how it turned out. At this pace, I should have my first pack of 20 rats finished by sunday, along with the start of a screaming bell. 

I'll keep posting pics as the army starts to take shape!

Enjoy


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## Zognutz (Jun 15, 2011)

lovely painting style mate. I cannot flaw this one.
Kudos for the wonderful glow effects!


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

The OSL is very good; I especially like the glow within the barrel.

You have also chosen a good palette to make the rest of the model visually interesting without losing the dull rags look of Skaven.


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## arumichic (May 14, 2011)

Looks really good! I do agree to a point that the hands look a bit odd on the first rat, but even then, it still looks good. I rather like the "zebra" paint scheme on the cannon balls.


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## Masked Jackal (Dec 16, 2009)

Excellent glowing effects! Nice job!


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Wonderful work elmir! The OSL is really nice and I am sure that you will sort out the lead rats hands nicely. I look forward to more of you Rats as I have a Skaven army waiting in the wings and I am always looking for inspiration.


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## greenee22 (May 12, 2011)

a very good way to see if your paintjob is any good is looking at it through a mirror.
this is just a tip, I'm not implieing that there could be any improvement of any kind that looks certainly awesome!


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## CLT40k (Jun 18, 2010)

Nice work... I'm also a huge fan of the quickshade... It really is the only way to crank out large units... And I like the effect it gives... 

One of the things I've been messing about with is going back and drybrushing over the matte finish with the base color... Ie, for your rats above going back over the tunic with whatever color was it's base... I'm finding its a cool way to get a little more pop from the quickshade


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## khrone forever (Dec 13, 2010)

nice work, +rep for the lighting

could someone show me where there is a tut for this lighting cos whenever i try it, it fails

thanks


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Hello again. Time for another update.

I'm getting nearer to the finished state of my first 20 clanrats. It's the first unit, so it's still a little slow to finish (mainly because I keep making small adjustments untill I'm happy with the result). 

The actual paint jobs on the clanrats are finished and I'm happy enough with them now though, so here are a few shots of some clanrats:





























The bases still need some extra love. They'll be given static grass and the next batch of the clanrats will have patches of broken tiles on them (like the earlier shown poison wind mortar). 

I'm still not sure about the movement tray I'll make for these guys. I'm thinking a 5 wide, 7 deep setup. I'm not entirely sure because I don't know if that's a good setup for clanrats or slaves (8th edition seems to have brought several infantry changes with them). So feel free to give any tactical wisdom about the army as well... :grin:


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

I prefer steadfast to hordes so my units of 40 set up as 5 wide and 8 deep, with enough of these units on the board it is easy to use each to protect each others flank


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## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

Your painting is quite good, keep up the good work. Would love to see how you handle some characters.


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Nice work on these guys elmir! Moving through them fairly quickly as well which is important for horde armies. I agree with Ratvan on the size of the infantry blocks, 40+ is the way to go.


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## arumichic (May 14, 2011)

You should take more close up pictures.  I can't see all the lovely detail on them.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

arumichic said:


> You should take more close up pictures.  I can't see all the lovely detail on them.


Yeah, when I get around to doing the propper pictures tomorow (hopefully, all the chemicals and PVA etc will be hardened by then), I'll try to include a few more close up shots. 

Mind you, they aren't super-duper detailled in the end. This is speedpainting in it's most raw form really. I finished a unit of 35 clanrats in less then a week, including GS sculpts on their bases, assembly, 3 different types of balast on the bases... I'm aiming for a decent looking table top standard, but speed is definatly the defining factor. 

The army is 6 basic colours, and then letting the quickshade do the rest of the work. Only a few touchups happen after the quickshade, like the rehighlighting of the weapons (because the rust pigments aren't really applied in a subtle way) and the eyes (since that is always the focal point of any viewer). It's amazing how shoddy the rest of the mini can be if it has an interesting face to watch. :laugh:


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Seems like I was able to take a few zoom in pictures of the originals for now that weren't terribly grainy. 



















Enjoy!


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## arumichic (May 14, 2011)

Yeah, I was assuming this was more of a speedpaint than anything, still got a lot of good detail and highlighting into it, considering the speedpaint. I really like the glowing eye effect with them, knowing how small they actually are. (I help Drannith speedpaint his Skaven).
One little thing I notice is that the teeth look really white compared to their "shabby" clothes and rusty swords. I know they're your models, but it just pops a bit too much for me. Anywho, still great!~


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Sooo,

The first big unit has been finished. It's a 35 strong clanrat unit armed with spears. I had a go at taking a few decent pictures, but getting the focus spot on when you are dealing with such guargantuan units is always tricky. So I opted for a few closeups of individual models while they are in the unit, as well as a full unit shot that is kinda in focus... Although the lighting shifted a bit as I was turning the camera (as you can tell somewhat). 


















































































That's one down! Only like 4 more to go... :russianroulette:


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## Saulot (May 25, 2011)

Very nice work! I love the different details of the bases! I think it broke up the monotony of the models quite well!


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Yeah, breaking the otherwise dull color scheme is the reason why I did the bases as they are. 

Skaven colours tend to be "boring" colours to begin with. Besides bright green for warpstone, there shouldn't really be any bright colours in their palette imo. Bright yellows, blues, purples or other vibrant colours that draw the eye just don't go well in that army. 

The aim was to go for a dull palette (greys, browns, muted greens, rusty metallics), but to bring some life into it with variation and the odd speck of bright green (eyes and warpstone basically). It should turn out ok when there is an whole army deployed. For now, I think the unit is visually appealing enough and the "output / time invested" ratio is reasonable enough to paint a horde of 200+ minis.


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## Saulot (May 25, 2011)

elmir said:


> For now, I think the unit is visually appealing enough and the "output / time invested" ratio is reasonable enough to paint a horde of 200+ minis.


I feel you, fellow horde painter! hehehe
I'll keep an eye out for more!


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Very consistent and tidy rank-and-file there. The dull palette makes the eyes glow even more by contrast.

I know you were going for a quick approach to the massed hordes; however, I confess some disappointment that the warpstone lump in the front rank is not as high-concept as the mortar rounds.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

You are right. 

That one is coming out of the ranks and under the airbrush when I do the glow effects of the next weapon team. The first one was just a try-out. I'm now gathering a group of models that will need the glow effect, and I'll make sure to toss this one in that batch as well. I'll probably end up having to redo the warpstone, but that's nothing major. :wink:


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Very nice work elmir! I agree with Saulot on the bases. They are very nice!


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Time for another update on the speedy stuff. Had a bit of a setback with my varnish going white (probably because I overplied it in some areas) on a few models. These ones did come out ok though, but still need some work on the bases and stuff. 

Some piccies:





































I opted for a reversed flame on this guy, and I think I'll be taking this route for all the warpstone fire in the force. It came out alright, as this is the first test model for it. Some modest OLS around the bannerpole on his back as well. 

Next up, is the ratogre. Again, some OLS around the chunk of warpstone in his shoulder.



















This one still needs some highlighting on the metal bits as soon as the varnish has settled on it. Both models still need static grass on the bases as well (I don't even go near models with static grass anymore untill the varnish has cured at least 24 hours: lesson learned the hard way in the past...  )

Enjoy


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Very nice looking models elmir! Loving the OSL!


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

The flame effect is very good.


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## Dusty's Corner (Aug 25, 2008)

Nice work, some really nice models there. The effects are cool, well done!


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

It's been a while since I actually finished something... :s

But that's more because I have been working on 2 things at once for this army. My piece de resistance of this army will be a clanrat unit of 45 rats with shields who'll be pushing a grey seer on a screaming bell. That'll make for a 10 wide unit with 6 ranks that will be unbreakable. Should be good on the field hopefully.

So, besides painting the rats to actually push the bell, I have been working on the bell as well... The bell got finished (although I may still do a second coat of dullcoat, some of the shine from the quickshade still hasn't been removed completely). So I took it out for a few pictures. Again, being such a massive model, regular macro mode on the camera doesn't seem to cut it anymore. I'm having to rely on manual settings, and that's always tricksy... At least to get good focus on the entire model. :no:














































I was actually quite pleased with how this turned out. It should be quite a nice unit when it's surrounded by a ton of rats... :biggrin:

Enjoy!


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

The cast off light form the runes is very interesting.

Not sure how much is down to the manual settings: however, the metal and wood look too similar.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

It's funny you should mention that. I usually start from a basecoat of desert yellow on all my "wood parts" on the clanrats. I tried a different colour as a base this time round however (a mix of mid-brown and light grey).

It did come out very similar to the metal (after aplication of rust pigments and the quickshade). I chose not to correct it though, as I was happy enough with the contrast between the bright green and the rest of the model. I used the desert yellow on the ropes this time. Using desert yellow as a bas would provide a lot more contrast between the wood and the metal. 

So it's not only the picture that causes the low contrast between wood and the metal slabs on there... I went a different route for the wood on this model to make sure that the warpstone effects and the balefire would be the "eye drawer" on this model. Hell... I even tried to keep the grey seer himself rather low profile compared to the warpstone stuff. 

I'm going to try and get a few better pictures of the model tomorow though. I'm not entirely pleased with these (or any of the larger scale models/units for that matter). More experiments with the camera will be in order... but at least it's a form of update.


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## arumichic (May 14, 2011)

I love the way you do the OSL stuff for the runes and stuff. Though I think that the two spots on both sides of the bell are wayyy too glowing compared to how smooth you have everything else glowing. It seems like there's 2 spots staring at you. >.<
Other than that, looks great. Keep up the great work!


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## IanC (Sep 3, 2010)

Nice rats! +rep

Funny thing, the folks at my local GW think I should play Skaven, since I have 3 pet rats :grin:


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## Wolf Fang (May 25, 2007)

Looking good man. Any chance I might've seen that army at the Grand Belgian Open a couple of weeks ago?


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Not a chance. These miniatures were purchased not a month ago. I put a list up of what I plan to collect. It includes very minimal amounts of gear/magic item upgrades so I have an idea of how much I have to finish. 

So far, the screaming bell, the 80 clanrats and 2 weaponteams are nearing completion. Next up will be 120 slaves. Although I plan to use the gnoblar slaves to flesh the units out (while converting the clanrats with armor to carry whips and other pokeing devices). They are unavailable on some webstores though because of the impending ogre kingdom release...


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Ok, so nothing has changed about the model (although I will try to bring down the glow effect on the two bell warpstone shards to the sides, those are a bit overdone). But I did manage to get a bit sharper pictures using a slightly different light setup and lower ISO settings on the camera. The white balance had to be changed a bit though, and as you can tell from the shadows, light positioning changed.




























Any expert photographers, feel free to help me towards better pictures of my models. I'm still quite new to photography in general. 

These are two more that I did with slight overlighting by decreasing the shutter speed:


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Hello folks, 

time for a rather big update. It's been one month since I first purchased my Island of Blood set to get back into fantasy, and I thought it was time to show what I managed to complete in exactly 1 month's time. 

So I took a few shots of minor additions, like the packmaster to accompany the ratogres: 










And, slightly more work, was the second regiment of clanrats. These guys will be pushing the screaming bell. The unit consists of 45 clanrats with hand weapon and shield, deployed with the bell in a 10 wide, 6 deep formation. 




























I also found the time to make custom movement trays out of 2mm thick plasticard and some strips of balsa wood as you can see. I also made some for my first regiment.The first regiment was also spruced up a bit with another banner and by adding some glow effects to the musician. Seeing the second regiment, I thought it could do with a bit more "warpstone green".










It's starting to look rather good when deployed as an entire army, there seems to be good consistency within the regiments, and the bright green is there to "distract" from the basic paintjob of the hordes of dull ratmen. So far, it works imo. 




























Next up are 2 warplighting cannons and my first block of slaves. The warplighting cannons should be fun with lots of glow effects, but the slaves might turn out to be a bit "boring" because they don't have banners or anything flashy. I plan on using some gnoblar fighters as slaves however. Hopefully, that'll bring a bit more life to the regiments.


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Nice looking force so far elmir! nice, quick, and effective work.s


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## aboytervigon (Jul 6, 2010)

Are you going to get a Hellpit?


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## InkedDnA (Jul 8, 2011)

Great work elmir. Your paint skills are truely awesome, and I definitely dig the OSL you do. Sick work


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## aboytervigon (Jul 6, 2010)

Also can you do a tutorial on that source lighting, I would like a way to make my Liche priest for my new tomb kings army have glowing eyes.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

There isn't much of a tutorial to be made about it. It's just sprayed on there using my airbrush with a very fine 0.2mm needle. 

The awesome thing is that it requires almost no effort. It just takes some time to get used to the airbrush dual action trigger... Then just spray a bit paint on it, the airbrush only picks out the raised parts if you have the correct angle. 

The hellpit abomination isn't on my to do list in the near future sadly. I'm working towards a set 2k point list. That usually helps me to stay focused on an army in the long run...

And thanks for the kind words folks, it's actually quite fun to see an army come together so quickly


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## InkedDnA (Jul 8, 2011)

aboytervigon said:


> Also can you do a tutorial on that source lighting, I would like a way to make my Liche priest for my new tomb kings army have glowing eyes.


What I do for source lighting is thin whatever color I'm using and paint whatever areas would be hit by the source of the light. Then gradually blending it eventually ending up with the brightest on the highest points. It works great if you have patience


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## aboytervigon (Jul 6, 2010)

Right, this word patience; Is not in my vast vocabulary or repertoire of painting techniques.


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## InkedDnA (Jul 8, 2011)

I like your style. I lack it as well. But i hear it works wonders in all sorts of situations


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Then you'll have to invest a couple hundred dollars in a good airbrush. As the saying goes:

Cheap, fast, good: pick 2. 

:so_happy:


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## aboytervigon (Jul 6, 2010)

Money is also not in my repertoire, or my piggy bank.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

The green works; it makes the plain browns look like framing instead of laziness.:wink:


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel (May 23, 2010)

WOW elmir, you have done a great job on your skaven, That green OSL is very effective on you army and looks wonderful. Its like a moth to the flame, draws you in for the slaughter =)

+ Rep Sir


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## KjellThorngaard (Oct 4, 2010)

Very nice work on these. I tired to paint a rat army once, but got overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. rep to you for the great work!


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## Hammer49 (Feb 12, 2011)

Fantastic work. Great colour scheme!


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

And I'm already working on the other expansions: I'm currently doing the 2 warplightning cannons. The frame and cannon of one of them is done. All that remains now, is to to finish the crew. I took a few pictures of how the cannon turned out however for your viewing pleasure:





































And a few close-up shots of the cannon itself:



















This has been slightly over 3 hours of work, including cleaning, assembly, priming and painting. I reckon I can get the crew done in well under 2 hours of well, so it's still decently fast. I'm happy with how it's turning out, that's the most important thing though.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

The OSL is, as previously, very good.

I personally prefer the long low frame for cannons; however that is the only thing I do not like about your cannons.


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Second what Dave said. Love the OSL as always, but the smaller profile, in my opinion, looks better for the cannons.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

I thought the cheesiest setup for LoS determination would be best (see what I did thar!?) :grin:


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

elmir said:


> I thought the *cheesiest* setup for LoS determination would be best (see what I did thar!?) :grin:


Did you make a bad play on words?


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## InkedDnA (Jul 8, 2011)

Well played elmir......well played

Lookin good


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Hey folks. 

Sadly, I haven't really been able to get a lot of painting done on my rats lately... mainly because I have been a bit preoccupied by moving house.

BUT! I did find a lovely new place in wich a single room will be dedicated to my hobby. Today, I set out to get a bit of a "mini studio" setup going and I bought myself a brand new camera to play around with it and test it. Sadly, the lens I was planning to use for miniature photography wasn't in stock (prime lenses are getting out of fashion it seems), but that didn't stop me from using my kitlens.

Anyway, I bought 2 500Watt lightbulbs and a 90x90x90 cm lightbox popup tent. Here's a few shots of the setup:



















The idea is to get a nice, even soft light within the box, allowing me to take snapshots at 100 ISO, with f-stops of 8 (or higher) and still have decent exposure time. So far, the results are pretty good. I forgot to buy a whitebalance card though... so the gimp had to assist me a bit to correct WB afterwards, but nothing too major.

Anyway, the shots it yielded are:




























And the now finished WLC:



















I'm going to check if I can get these into the gallery for higher picture quality then image tags. I'm quite happy with these first results... It'll probably require more experimenting to get the pictures just right. 

Oh and yes! I did not iron the white background cloth yet. Sadly, I couldn't iron it at my new place yet. :grin:

Enjoy!


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## Saulot (May 25, 2011)

Fantastic set-up, man! The resulting pictures are beautiful!


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Here's a few updates:

Like I said, I wasn't quite able to finish a lot this month due to moving house. But I did manage to finish these two little things:

My warlock engineer from the IoB set. This one is standard, but the next one is a conversion and will feature a doomrocket conversion as a backpack!




























And the first conversion of the army is also a fact. Minor conversion work, but quite essential to larger games: the battle standard bearer. The standard itself came from the doomwheel and the base is made up of greenstuff. This means he can actually stand inside a regiment! Also, it really does make him nice and visible. I tried tying him in with the screaming bell stone-work...




























Enjoy!

PS: I opted for the black background on these shots to see how it would affect the white balance... Lemme know what you prefer: black or white background!


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Awesome looking stuff man! As always the OSL is fantastic And the banner bearer conversion is really cool.

As to the background, I think that the black one works much better to show the contrast of the models is much better.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Superb light effects.

The banner bearer is a very clever idea; even if it does open him up to every LoS attack on the table. The only thing that seems off is having a back banner as well as the angles do not look right.


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## IanC (Sep 3, 2010)

This PLog is making me want to do Skaven.


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel (May 23, 2010)

Awhhh man, I wanted to give you some more Rep but I have to spread the love first.

Your Rats are great and Im jealous of your new photo setup.


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## arumichic (May 14, 2011)

Looking great as always! 
And the black background seems to be better.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Hey folks

Small update on this project. It's not exactly the latest thing I have been doing, but I never really got around to take any pictures of it... mainly because it's a bit of a "dull" update. 

It'll be part of my skavenslave units. I bought a few boxes of gnoblars a while back, to flesh out my slaves. I wasn't going to buy 300+ clanrats just to get 150 slaves (the way GW advertises them), so these will have to be the next best thing. I will add extra skaven models in this unit (as soon as maelstrom gets around to actually shipping my order...) 

But I took a few shots of the first 12 of them. This is a really speedy paintjob btw, so no stellar work:





































Oh, and there are these pics from my table blog as well, that mesh in with this army:




























I know I already showed these before, but they do deserve a spot in my skaven blog as well, mainly because the terrain will be made for their "home-town advantage" :grin:

Enjoy!


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## IanC (Sep 3, 2010)

Im thinking of using a mix of Gnobblars, Goblins, and humans for my slaves (with a few Skaven at the back urging them on). Doesn't help that i want to run a rather large unit of 50....


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Same deal here. I'm thinking of using these gnoblars along with a regular clanrat box.

The clanrats without any armor will be painted to be slaves, the ones that do have armor, will have a few basic conversions to turn their handweapons into whips. I just need to find a good thickness of metal wire to do this. That way, they get to be the "overseers" of the old slave workshops. 

Should be doable, so you'd only have 10 overseers per 50 or so slaves. Sound like an ok number to me.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Two little tidbits I finished today. It still needs a coat of dullcote, but I'm out right now...

It's 2 craters made by warpstone meteors. Again, it's for my skaven themed board, and I'll be adding it to that blog as well...



















So the warpstone infested terrain is starting to grow in size! These were completely scratchbuild however. The craters were bases around some polystereen core, covered in brick morter and some pebbles were added for more randomness. The warpstone chunks are cut from compressed polystereen and covered in 2 coats of PVA mixed with dark angels green... to get that cleaner, glossy finish (as opposed to the grainy surface of cut polystereen). 

Hope you like it!


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

The warpstone scenery is looking top notch elmir! I also like the use of a different race to portray the skavenslaves. adds a bit of character and uniqueness to the army. Well done sir.


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## bunkertube (Sep 19, 2011)

Really digging the rats mate.

especially the green glowing thing you've got going on there.


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel (May 23, 2010)

Ohhh, nice looking warpstone! Especially like how you made the rocks under the trees into warpstone, nice twist. As for the gnoblars, any chance on doing the eyes?


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

The gnoblar eyes are done with a speck of scorpian green... Although I cannot fault you for not noticing them, the contrast with the green skin is very low right now. I might go over them in red or in white. Not sure yet.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

I've just gone through your plog from start to finish, and am thouroghly impressed. The green really pops out of the pictures, especially in the larger pack units. The war machines are stunning as well. Kudos on the lighting set up as well. Great work all round.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Hey folks.

It's time to reveal a couple of my speedpaint trade secrets here. At least for the clanrats. I'll be taking some basic WIP pictures during the weekend while I work on some more skavenslaves. I hope to have a regiment up and running by the end of sunday, and I'll be updating this blog as I'm waiting for washes and paint to dry. In a way, it can work as a "how to speedpaint" if you ever plan on using the quickshade method. 

I could be even faster, but I don't have a hairdryer since I moved to my new place, so I'm no longer able to cheat in that department. It does allow me time to take some picks and do a "in promptu" tutorial on how I finish rats. 

*First shot*: How I clip my miniatures off their sprues. I leave a bit of the sprue on their feet to be able to hold onto while I paint. I don't feel like sticking them all on bluetack individually, so I use this method. Really easy to airbrush too btw. 










The are cleaned with an exacto knife and then primed with my airbrush primer. Any white primer will do really. I just use my airbrush because I can, and because it's more cost effective...

The weapons are given some primer too, although I only primer the skintones. The blades don't even get a primer, because the metallics will be give a black coat anyway before application and I use my black primer applied by hand for that.

shot 2: A coat of strongly diluted brown sand/Arena Marron from the vallejo model colour range is applied with my airbrush. It's only slightly thicker then a wash, and it flows away in the recesses, leaving a very light skin surface. That's my highlighting basically.










And a closeupshot where you can see the "pseudo" highlight created by the thinness of the paint. You don't even have to have an airbrush for this step. I just find it quicker to aply it. An airbrush is not necesary to get these results! The only thing I use it for that really does get a big increase in quality over handapplication, is the OSL. 










Next update will follow rather quickly I hope. If it doesn, it means I'm making good progress.


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## Flerden (Aug 17, 2008)

I love your Rats, they are very well painted, and the glow effect on the Warp stones are amazing.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Ok, so...

To continue the painting, all I really do, is aply basecolours to the models. First of all I do the robes in vallejo model colour's sky grey. This is a very light colour, but then again... that's needed because the quickshade will darken it quite a bit. 



















Next up, is a coat of russian Uniform WWII from Vallejo model colour. This is only applied to clanrats or socially higher ranked skaven (such as slave overseers).










Some boltgun metal is then applied to all the metal bits:



















Details like rags, bandages, belts, pouches, etc are picked out in flat brown. Any darker brown can do for this. It basically creates some definition in the model. The furr bits are picked out with a very diluted (more washlike) version of this brown. 










The boltgun metal bits are then given a mix of vallejo "earth and oxide brown" pigment and water. This is applied liberally onto the metals to make them look really rusted.



















Some damage to the skin is patched up and some details were picked out with bleached bone, like the teeth and claws.



















Up untill this point, the miniatures look like they have been painted by a 4 year old. Just basecolours and those aren't even applied within the lines all the time. But this is where the magic of quickshade happens. I aply the quickshade medium tone (strong tone) by hand and put the models away so the quickshade can cure overnight.



















They'll look like shiny, but decent miniatures by tomorow! Just have faith that the quickshade will do it's job... 

I haven't done the 7 overseers yet, but that's only because I still have to run down to the DIY shop to pick up some metal wire. If I had, I would have turned out 20 models within a weekend. I woke up at 9 am, it's now 5 pm and I have even been distracted a lot because they are doing a photoshoot for the TV show temptation island right across my appartment.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be on my balcony. If I'm lucky, I can post a few pictures of that as well soon... :victory:


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

The holder in the last picture looks like cheese!

Good explanation of your speed technique.


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## IanC (Sep 3, 2010)

What are those holders?


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Just a block of compressed polystyrene with a nail run through to create a gap. 

Always handy to have that lying around if you are in the habbit of painting stuff before assembly too (I know a buddy of mine paints stuff like arms after he bluetacs them on a toothpick and just jabs that in a polysterene block.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Time for another small update.

I finished my first warpfire thrower. It's been painted with pretty heavy front OSL as if it were shooting a burst of flames.





































See you soon for more updates.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Very stylish.


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Once again I am severely impressed with your OSL. Do you use glazes, drybrusing, or airbrush to achieve it?


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Thanks for the compliments! 

I have another update: The first of the skavenslave blocks has been finished. I finally got around to purchasing some steel wire yesterday, wich allowed me to finish the "overseers" in this unit. They have the ghettowhips (and it's an excuse to use armoured clanrats in the slaveblocks to flesh them out a bit). 










And a wip of a slight conversion I have been working on: a warlock engineer to carry around the doomrocket.



















Should be kind of fun to paint this one up. 

Enjoy!


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Midge913 said:


> Once again I am severely impressed with your OSL. Do you use glazes, drybrusing, or airbrush to achieve it?


I used my airbrush for the OSL. Just thinned down scorpian green sprayed on there in a single direction. Then, after the green has been applied, the quickshade is applied to cover the entire model. That way, only the raised area's have the green light, and it looks convincing enough to my liking.


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## Imp Blackheart (Nov 29, 2010)

i love your army, i have seen alot of skaven armys. encluding from some of the 'Evy metal staff and you are pretty much the first that i have seen emphasize of the glow of warp stone. its exactly how i have always imagined it while reading the Felix and Gorterk novels ( since skaven is predominate through out the whole series) and even the merienburg novels. i like how you went with green eyes instead of the normal reds, gives me the impression that they spent a few hours sniffing up a storm on the stuff! great army and great pics! thanks for sharing mate +Rep and kuddos!


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

I got around to taking some army wide shots with the extra additions. Just shot out of hand without any good lighting setup, but the shots are ok and give a good army overview as a whole.





































Enjoy!


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel (May 23, 2010)

AWESOME Elmir, truly awesome man! Great army shot as well.


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

They look fantastic on the table bud!!!! The glow of the warpstone across the whole army almost seems like it bathes the table in fel light. Very cool looking group.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

A piece of purest green.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Thanks guys, that was the look I was aiming for with this army. :grin:


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## KjellThorngaard (Oct 4, 2010)

Great looking army. I finally tried OSL after seeing your minis, and while mine has a ways to go to look as good as yours, you did inspire me to try something new, so thanks! Keep up the work, it is inspiring to see an army come together and have such a coherant theme. It loks like an army, not just a collection of minis.

Nice work on the scenery elements as well. I have always felt that a well painted army deserves some cool scenery to complement it.


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## troybuckle (Nov 24, 2010)

what PSI do you set your airbrush on when doing the OSL?


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Erm, no idea what PSI it is, but it's 2 bar pressure on my compressor.


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## troybuckle (Nov 24, 2010)

elmir said:


> Erm, no idea what PSI it is, but it's 2 bar pressure on my compressor.


That would be about 29 PSI


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## IanC (Sep 3, 2010)

Looking good!

I hope the mortar is assigned to the Grey Seers unit 

LOS tricks abound :grin:


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

I had a bit of a painting spree today. I actually managed to finish 4 extra ratogres to beef up my small pack of 2 to a more "in game useable" 6. I had them assembled already, so I just went for it to see if I can finish them before this evening. 

Here are the results:

The whole regiment



















And some shots of individual ratogres









































































Enjoy!


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

I love the lumps of warpstone embedded in the flesh man. Nice touch!


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## troybuckle (Nov 24, 2010)

Looking good, I epically the primary tones of your models.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

I agree with Midge; the warpstone is amazing.

I have only two niggles:
(i) the brick areas on the bases are very regular so they look like a small square of brick instead of the overgrown pavement I assume you were seeking;
(ii) the steampunk part of my soul has more evidence that a mechano-Skaven army would be a great project.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Thread-o-mancy!

Been working on the skaven a bit more after a smallish break in painting (mainly because my photography was taking up that much time).

Anyway, I continued with my doomwheel: 




























So there is that...


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

... and some more work on the slaves. I only finished the gnoblars to flesh those units out for the second schoolbus formation block:










The slaves belonging to the actual skavenrace will be primed soon. I found a way to make the slaves units bigger using skavenmodels though.

The armoured clanrats look somewhat odd in a slaveregiment, so I decided to convert their weapons units simple metal wire to create whips. They are supposed to be the "overseers" of the slave units and whip them forward:










I did this because slaves are needed to a much higher degree then clanrats and if you are going to be making the regiments by only using the unarmoured clanrats, it'll end up costing you one of your kidneys....

Anyway!

The army is starting to shape up nicely, so I took the liberty of making a snapshot of my miniature display cabinet in my living room. With the greyknights and the skaven starting to come together, the display cabinet is coming together nicely for my personal "armies on parade" in the living room:










More updates soon (hopefully  )


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Welcome back!!!! Things are looking wonderful as usual mate.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Good to see you back.

The warpstone glow is great, as always.

I can see your idea with the overseers; however the braiding of the wire appears a touch irregular to me. I thin it would look better with a tighter, even coil.


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel (May 23, 2010)

NICE! 

Welcome back Elmir, glad to see your Rats back in action!

That display cabinet looks pretty sweet mate.

Looking forward to seeing those overseers finished.

Regards,
DoE


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## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

Hey both of these look really good. 

Though there is something about the warpstone glow that doesn't look right to me. It reads more like verdigris to me than osl.

I think the attenuation of the contrast in the glow areas isn't high enough. I think that makes then glow look sort of flat. I think it should look more Anisotropic.

Also the glow looks like it is the same intensity regardless of how far from the warpstone gem it is. When I would expect the lighting to be dimmer and the color more transparent the further from the gem it gets.

I really like your attention to detail. The wheel looks great. And the limit palette on the gnoblars is striking and effective.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Thanks guys.

There is definatly room for improvement on these things. It's more of a speedpainting excersize then anything else. 

You are right about the coils Dave, they were fairly regular when making them, untill I started bending them to represent the whip cracking.... It all kinda went screwy after I did that... 

The OSL on the sides of the doomwheel will probably get some touch-ups... The doomwheel is still WIP after all (second driver and the little rats inside the wheels still need to be added too, so I might clean up the OSL around the coils a bit more.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

elmir said:


> You are right about the coils Dave, they were fairly regular when making them, untill I started bending them to represent the whip cracking.... It all kinda went screwy after I did that...


It might help if you used a thin wire bent to the right shape as a former and wound the lash around it instead of bending the coils.


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## Meldon (Dec 21, 2010)

Your rats look amazing! My rats don´t look nearly as good. I will have to try harder I see


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## .Bragg. (Mar 7, 2012)

New boy here, loving your models; less is certainly more!
Keep it up! I'll be watching you from my nurgle invested hole


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## Skari (Dec 20, 2011)

I like the subtle source lighting on that wheel. Looking good!


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

So, here we are, about 2 weeks later and the unit of gnoblars is now fleshed out with the actual skavenslave models. All in all, it's now a massive 50 models strong!

I also finished the custom steel movement tray, so the models are magnetised to them for ease of transport and gaming. k:



















And a WIP shot of the sheetmetal movement tray:










As you can see, it's quite tricky to get it completely straight after cutting sheetsteel, but I managed to get it more flat then it was in this picture. 

I'll have to make another 5x10 movement tray after I added 10 more slaves to the "smaller" unit of 40, wich is on the left hand side in this shot:










Next up should be the second doomwheel and a second warpfirethrower. Then, my 2000p sample army (wich I'll add to this plog soon) will be complete. It's still 3 months to this army's "birthday", and I'll be aiming to have over 300 models in it by then! :shok:


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## Josh101 (Dec 16, 2011)

That is super painting, have some rep:biggrin:


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Hey folks,

This isn't so much a painting update, more of a goal I'm trying to make to keep focussed on this project. It's the 2000p armylist that I'm working towards. 

Feel free to comment on it however if you notice something wrong with the list itself however. 

*Lords:*

Grey seer on screaming bell with scroll of power and skalm: 500p

*Heroes:
*

Battle standard bearer with shield 72p

Warlock engineer: lvl2 with warp energy condensor and dispel scroll 145p

Warlock engineer with doomrocket 45p

*Core units:*

45 clanrats with shields and full command and warpfire thrower 292.5p
(these will be pushing the screaming bell in a 10 x 6 horde formation)

35 clanrats with shields, spears and full command and warpfire thrower 265p
(bunker for BSB)

50 slaves 100p
(5 wide, 10 deep formation)

50 slaves 100p


*Rare units:*

2 warplightning cannons 180p

2 doomwheels 300p

_________________________________________________________________
1999.5p

So I'm going for a more skryre themed force here. Again, feel free to comment or give any tips, because I have yet to actually play with all these rats :biggrin:


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Just a quicky update:

I finished the doomrocket wielding warlock engineer. Small, but very usefull addition to the swarm of rats... 




























Untill next time!


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

More excellent cast light.

I know warpstone fire is odd and would have smoke; however the brand in his hand appears a little too dark.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

I rehighlighted the tips of the fire with grey/green to tone down the black fire a bit. 

I also just finished my second doomwheel for the army in 4 days time!

Here it is:




























And a shot of the twins:










Sorry about the quick pictures and poor lighting, I just used daylight as I'm neck deep in grading papers right now, so I didn't feel like breaking out the entire studio for these shots. 

I will once the 2000 points is fully done however!


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## Saulot (May 25, 2011)

Hey man! I haven't check your plog in a while.. and boy did it floor me just now!! Amazing quality and speed in your painting! And I love seeing the progression with your OSL technique. The Doomrocket Engineer looks absolutely great! (It reminded me of a Zack Snyder movie, I don't really know why! LOL)


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Nearly done except the 10 slaves (the quickshade is drying on those right now). 

I'll get the studio out to take a few good pictures soon, but in the meantime, I took a picture of the army as it stands right now inside my steel carry case:










That's just under 200 models right now, and I'll be assembling the rest of the infantry over the next week. I hate assembly and cleaning, so once that chore is done, the army should see another major expansion in the next 3 months. 

See you soon for more updates!


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## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

That is a very nicely painted collection elmir, can't wait to see some battle reports with pictures


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## ThumperHS (Sep 24, 2011)

That's a fantastic looking army:good:

Skaven is another army of mine in the wings begging for paint. The number of models is daunting though.

Have some +rep for the fantastic look and not being daunted by those numbers.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Well, as I said, I took a few shots of the army as it stands right now, solidly over 2k points:





































Next up, another block of 50 slaves! :russianroulette:

See you next time!


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## Josh101 (Dec 16, 2011)

WOW, that is one beast of an army!


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Thanks man, it's finally starting to come together! It took a while to get there, but it's actually quite satisfying to see an army of this size progres as fast as it does.


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## khrone forever (Dec 13, 2010)

is that the {insert company name here} cathedral in the background? 

awsome army dude, i though painting empire troops was going to be bad......i was proven wrong

khrone


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

That cathedral was made by combining a couple sets from the pegasus gothic building line. I'll be adding a few more of these (albeit way smaller then this behemoth) to my board during the summer holidays probably...


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## cirs85 (Nov 9, 2011)

Can you put a quick tut up on how you did your sheet metal movement trays and how you magnetized your rats, thanks.

The army is shaping up very nicely.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

For the sheetmetal movements trays, I just went to my local DIY to pick up some 0.6mm thick sheets. You don't want them to be too flimsy, but also not too thick, because they'll be a nightmare to cut.

I then measured the needed size of the movement tray (keeping a few milimeters spare per model) and gave each edge a 3mm overreach. I picked up some plastic square rods at my local hobbytrain merchant to make the sides. They are easily cut to the right size and then glued on with superglue and some PVA around the edges. Sand is then applied to the sides and the whole thing gets painted. 

The tricky thing is cutting the sheetmetal. I used my dremel for that using a diamond coated steel cutting disc. You could use those orangy type curtting discs, but sparks will be flying everywhere and you'll constantly break them. It may be worth checking if you DIY can cut them to the right size however... should be easier and you won't need a dremel for it. 

As for the bases, they just have 1 or 2 rare earth magnets glued on them (first some superglue, then a big blob of PVA to cement them down). I believe I used 5mm diameter ones with 2mm thickness. That doesn't make them actually touch the sheetmetal, but the bond is more then enough. In fact, I have 1 regement that has the magnets touching the movement tray, and getting the troops off it is actually borderline annoying because the bond is so strong.

*EDIT* I'll try and make a few WIP shots when I do my next movement tray...


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## Scythes (Dec 30, 2011)

Your army is looking great elmir, I so want to start a Skaven army but I have too many 40k projects right now. Maybe by the time I get back to ths states. Anyway, keep up the good work and keep those models churning out, excellent stuff. 

+rep for a great army.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

My wallet wept... and my pants got soiled when this little thing arrived at my doorstep:





































The base still needs some love ofcourse, and I'll be taking my sweet time for this centrepiece... The goal is WHFB monster for next years "lage landen schilderwedstrijd" wich I sadly couldn't attend this year, despite making the the first round in store... 

PS: What a b*tch to clean!! I've already spend ages removing flash and mouldlines, and I'm still not done with it...


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

Flipping awesome!!!! I love that model! I will be adding it to my own horde if it ever gets off the ground, but for now I am looking forward to seeing what you do with it.


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel (May 23, 2010)

Beautiful looking model Elmir and I most say, thats a wonderful looking army you have there. Def a force to be proud of.

Keep up the great work and I look forward to seeing this new piece finished.

Regards,
DoE


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

You wallet wept when it arrived, or was still weeping from when you pressed confirm purchase?


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

So, started the first stages of this beast... I don't really have the steadiest of hands right now for some reason, so I'm reverting to mostly airbrushing and doing base layers... 

Made a few WIP shots to show the way I build up layers with my airbrush for smooth gradients. This work starts at the primer: black with a zenital white coat:



















Skin: Started with a thin coat of burnt umber, then highlighted with model air "sand brown" and shaded with model air "olive drab" to also give it an unhealthy green tone. 

This is then washed with a mix of sepia and green wash. Finally, some more highlights with sand brown and sand brown with some white added to it.



















Next up is the warpstone green. Done with a first layer of sick green, then scorpion green and finally some pure white highlights on the stones themselves.



















And then finally, some green ink (oldskewl ink, the really vibrant kind) was used on the warpstone parts to make them more vivid. Pictures are taken in the lightbox:














































Hope you like it!


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

The warpstone glow is excellent.

I can see you are using a very simple palette to keep focus on the warpstone; however, I feel it would pop more with slightly greater variation in hue. If you want to keep the skin-tone low contrast you could change the colour of the stone so it contrasts more with the rat.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Oh yeah, Only the skin and warpstone is done so far. The stone has only cought some of the spray in this case. Same for the rats crawling under it and the base.


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## Red Corsairs (Jun 8, 2008)

As always, great paint job. As Dave said, the glow is superb. I can't wait to see this one finished.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Small update on this project: I felt like using my airbrush and weathering pigments again, so I decided to put in a bit more work on the verminlord's base.

I'll have to redo the glow from the warpstone tainted sewer again, but that's no biggy... I'll have to redo that anyway once I do more work on his staff...

Enjoy!


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

More WIP:

Some changes to the skintone. Mainly added the new agraxx earthshade wash to the skin to bring out the texture and musculature a bit. I prefer using the airbrush to get a feel for the zenithal highlight and then add in further brushwork for highlights, using the more traditional methods.

Most progress is made on the staff and the warpstone parts. I used more washes on the green warpstone and rehighlighted it with the airbrush for the blades and rehighlighted by hand for the warpstone "chunks" in the staff and skin. They are now highlighted all the way to pure white to get a nice "popping" effect compared to the skin and cloth. 




























The cloth is done by starting with model colour dark sea grey, then GW agrax earthshade for shading, followed by adding more highlights with model colour dark sea grey and some game colour stonewall grey for the final highlight. A ton of lahmian medium is used to get smooth paint transitions.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Very glowy.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

More detailwork done, and the green glue mix has been added to the base. It doesn't show that well on the photo, but it does have some nice little airbubbles in it, wich makes it look suitably hazardeous 




























You'll also notice his "healthy looking" side is a lot brighter then the damaged side with all the warpstone chunks. This isn't a camera artifact, It's done deliberatly to try to get more dramatic lighting in the paintjob...

See you next time!


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Finished! You can click the pictures for some zooming if you want on these.


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## Diatribe1974 (Jul 15, 2010)

Love the Vermin Lord. Looks great! +Rep


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

When I think of them this is what I see!!

+ rep


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

I can't believe I missed this update! The vermin lord looks beautiful. I was slightly concerned in the early stages that it would not have enough contrast, but the greens and greys add that excellently. Well done buddy.


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## Malochai (May 27, 2012)

Seen this over on CN in the Golden Bat? Looks absolutely brilliant; if mine turns out anything like that I'll be happy k:


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