Nobody likes the skaven

[GreenOne]

Okay, I\'m sure a lot of GW fans dig them as an army, cool concept and all...
but as a mini.. there not the most inspiring ones...
I\'m actually thinking about them now that I\'m almost done with my brits ( Finished this WE^^) and looking for ways to make them pop a bit, I did put a lot of work into the last job so I don\'t want them to be shoddy.. theyre gonna meet each other on the field after all, these guy play alot. But I look at them and they just breath \"Tabletop, brown and green and switch to something else.\"...

Theyre 8 Jezzails of the new model.

I\'m not desperate about them, just less inspired. Anyway for army color the guy said \"green\".. fits me... so basically, I do a nice fur job in brown ranges, a light tone for the skin part to contrast, the most clothes green with orange pickups ( complementary?). For the rest.. bleah... I know most of it will come as I paint them.. but I could use a few tips.
The weapons are supposed to look like what?
And the bases; How do I do Skaven themed bases? I don\'t want to just throw sand on them...

So, if any enthusiast wants to share a bit of inspiration, tha\'d be great.
Thanks

 

[Hoblit]

Jezzail\'s are an interesting model to paint. I don\'t know if you have them yet or not, but basically, they\'re two models on a cavalry base. One with the wepon and one with the shield.

First things. I like the idea for the green clothes, but being skaven, you really should make it a dirty or dark green, and the same with the orange.

Next for the shields, these should have a skaven symbol on them. (I\'m looking at the models on the
GW site here). Now you have a couple of options for the symbol. The symbol can either be painted green, to match the rest of the armies colours, or you could paint it copper and make it very rusted, thus bringing in the green for the army and the whole decaying vermin feel.

The weapons are not going to be shiny and new, but are probably going to be old and possibly a little rusted. The other thing for the weapons is to maybe paint them with a warpstone tinge, seeing as that is what they fire.

For the bases, well this is a little tricky. Skaven generally live in caves, So you could try doing them like that. Don\'t really have any suggestions there except you could possibly put small chunks of warpstone, small rats, rocks, that sort of thing.

Hope this helps.

(Edit - forgot about the bases)

 

[Dark Seraphim]

Of all the minis I like Skaven... the least

But anywho... your colour choices seem valid, but I don\'t see where the orange enters the picture... I would stick to green varriants that would mean dark yellow instead of orange...

As Hoblit said, weapons are rusty and old and not kept cleen at all. Warpstone is green of origin, shiny gemlike. It\'s what they shoot, eat and otherwise use in their contraptions.

Bases can be anything you like, from jungle to caves to grassy fields to cities. Very open catagory. But a really nice thing I would like to see, was some stalgnite caves, with little bridges and such. That would be nice!

Good luck, are these comission too ???

 

[Sand Rat]

Hmm, see I would do them in a non regulation/cannon color.

Green is nice but over done imo - I would push the limits with them and go with a dark color that would match the underground they live in - Purples. Use the green as a contrasting color for the straps/whatever.

 

[Dark Seraphim]

Originally posted by steelcult
Hmm, see I would do them in a non regulation/cannon color.

Green is nice but over done imo - I would push the limits with them and go with a dark color that would match the underground they live in - Purples. Use the green as a contrasting color for the straps/whatever.

Seconded...

 

[GreenOne]

Okay, that\'s a few nice tips.
I already going to do purple for some vampire and green is his choice.. but it\'s true it\'s overdone, for skaven in particular. Maybe I should use purple for pickups.. I\'ll think about it. Maybe I\'ll see what the guy thinks about purple.

@Seraph: Yeah theyre commisioned, well, for the rate there is no reason to shout it on the rooftops, anyway. I could not afford to paint that much otherwise, it covers the equipment, paint etc... and I don\'t need to buy minis. I know a group of player and I\'m their only painter, so I don\'t think I will run out of work so soon..

 

[Dark Seraphim]

Originally posted by GreenOne
Okay, that\'s a few nice tips.
I already going to do purple for some vampire and green is his choice.. but it\'s true it\'s overdone, for skaven in particular. Maybe I should use purple for pickups.. I\'ll think about it. Maybe I\'ll see what the guy thinks about purple.

@Seraph: Yeah theyre commisioned, well, for the rate there is no reason to shout it on the rooftops, anyway. I could not afford to paint that much otherwise, it covers the equipment, paint etc... and I don\'t need to buy minis. I know a group of player and I\'m their only painter, so I don\'t think I will run out of work so soon..

That is a pretty neat way to advance your skills

Sometimes I wish I would paint something that I myself would never think of doing...

Just came to think of it, I actually HAVE some skavens! My Warband for Mordheim rocked everyone when I worked at GW Copenhagen That time I actually liked them and as you can see from my Veskit conversion, I painted them in dark purple

duh? Ya think! I can\'t keep track of all the minis!

 

[GreenOne]

duh? Ya think! I can\'t keep track of all the minis!

I\'m looking foward to be able to say that too, but know I\'m at my 13th, so I remember all of them, and each of their respective mishaps

It is a wicked cool way to practice, in fact I see only good sides to it, exept that I don\'t own the result, which for me is of little importance, until I get really good anyway.
Theyre gonna serve their purpose very good where they\'re going.
When I can finally get down to do my own army ( Dwarfs.) im gonna do the hell of a job on them, but god knows when.

 

[demonherald]

It\'d be good to see some pics as you get them as I feel the Skaven look would suit your painting style very much..
Agree with the whole green overdone ..I quite like deep reds on skaven..

 

[GreenOne]

It\'d be good to see some pics as you get them as I feel the Skaven look would suit your painting style very much..

Prolly more than Brits anyway, I can be as dirty and gritty as I please with them
I\'ll post a few wip as I go and submit them once done, of course.

Theyre cleaned and primed, with the first rough layer of brown put on, maybe I\'ll throw a pic here tonight to see if they inspire anybody. I couldn\'t find any good picture on CMON and the presentation model is lame and badly shot.

 

[vincegamer]

Originally posted by steelcult
Hmm, see I would do them in a non regulation/cannon color.

Personally I\'d like to see a skaven army done in different colors. Rats come in all sorts of fur colors, but mainly Skaven are based on sewer rats which are nearly black mainly because they are so dirty.
It would be interesting to see a clean Skaven army.

 

[Dr Death]

Right, the Skaven, well what can one say, they\'re dirty dirty rats. Jezzails are quite interesting because they\'re from clan Skyre, one of the richer clans. You might want to try and draw a contrast between the firer who would likely be marginally better off than the \"gun prop\" slave.

Skaven are not quite as haphazard technically as orcs so i wouldnt go full out rusty, but as i said earlier, they arnt clean either so i would go with an oily look to the metal, tinged with green. Bronze and copper are quite widely used by the skaven because they\'re easier to forge than steel and also easier to aquire.

What i\'d love to see is an impression over the areas of skin that they\'re actually still covered in fur, but a lighter kind, like human body hair. Skaven models tend to have quite high definition between the fur and the flesh and it never struck me as particularly appropriote.

As for their bases go muddy kinda like a wet farmyard with straw bedding dragged along and lots of dark foetid puddles.

Dr Death

 

[hakoMike]

Nobody loves my beloved rats?!?

True, the style of painting is a little boringly consistant, but the conversion opportunities are so wonderful. Use anything you can scavenge (skavenge?) or combine things into wonky technology. I made a simple warp goo thrower and I really like UE Nagash\'s very cool Doom Wheel.

Think of all the 40k Ork conversions.... along those lines.

And I cringe to say that my Skaven are.... green.

 

[GreenOne]

@Hakomike: I knew youd turn up eventually^^

These are are mostly neat Ideas, some of them exceed from what I can do for now, GS for instance I only used for gapfiling so far, so no conversion yet.
Think I can go as far as some weathering on the metals, and practice gems on the warpstones.
Are warpstone clear or opaque gem, btw ?

Anyway, here is a pic of 2 of the little guys:

I\'m still not decided about the clothes color... down to dirty green or very deep purple...

 

[demonherald]

warpstone is generallydone as opaque...
try indicating some of the green on the areas around it to give the effect it is glowing slightly or seeping into the material it is mounted in this generally suits it well..

 

[hashmallum]

You should also paint their eyes with brown while you can still do it
I advise adding a tad of flow improver medium to your basecoat paints- this will give a smoother effect

 

[Infidel Castro]

Margo did the best Skaven piece I ever saw:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/70038

Also another runner type-piece:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/77747

I\'m sure she did another piece, a warlock type, but I\'m maybe getting confused. Take off the blinkers folks, they\'re as good as you paint them to be

 

[mickc22]

and their eyes are red mostly...

@GreenOne: If you are painting peoples armies, wouldn\'t it be a good idea to have the relevant army book for reference, ......just a thought

 

[GreenOne]

THank you all, I\'m almost inspired now
I agree that these are pretty much as good as skaven can get, Rev.

@Mick: I have a few armybooks ( Didn\'t buy them tho.) but havent found the skaven\'s yet.

So do I toss a coin for green or purple?

 

[hashmallum]

Dark Grey
Green is reserved for clan Pestilence
I\'ll write you a pm with soome hints laddie
I can see that you are doing very well now
Hope you get 3000 till the end of the month.
Me is countin\' on ya chap!