Skaven Marines

As you can see I have been painting some Skaven Space Marines. Following the "success" of my trial I have been working on these and have managed to get the first batch finished. Or nearly finished, They await Varnish and some "tufts" put on the bases which with luck might make them look a bit tastier.

All painted in acrylics and pretty quickly. I used a base coat of "tin bitz" for the rusty armour speckled with a couple of light browns and two or three brown washes of varying shades to get in all the cracks and give it a dirty look. Then some boltgun and mithril silver very very quickly drydrushed on to some of the areas mostly where I thought there would be exposed edges likely to take a bash. The light Green is Scorpion green and a mix of scorpion green and white, while the dull red is scab red, which I use as a part skin tone and on the bolt gun grips.

I have had a lot of fun doing these while I was not going up the shed but for now I'll put them away until after "Cavalier" (2 weeks time) in the hopes that I can get some more bits and bobs for them at the show really cheap, either at the bring and buy or at one of the stalls. I did intend to visit a GW store next week and get the staff to sort me out an army list based so that I may focus my spending a bit at the show, but as it's half term next week I'll give that a miss as the place will be crawling with kids and I don't want the local kids to start one of these armies and flood the store with badly done versions..... well maybe once I get enough to actually play a game, and not just one squad, which it is at the moment.

I have started painting the 20mm "Road Kill" vehicle now, I settled on a "Baby blue" base coat which does look quite striking. It's not till you start painting sometimes that you actually think more about the model. During construction I was focused on sticking things on and seeing what it looked like. When you get to painting however you have to make a decision about the game world. You have to decide for example if the car was modified before painting or if it was painted then modified. On the face of it it does not seem a hard question but there are implications as to how you see the world and the people in the world. If the car is modified and then painted for example it implies that the modifications would also be painted and there fore that the people had the time and energy to worry about aesthetics. Or was it a standard car that they adapted to fit a new environment and world setting. Generally we think it will be the second option, but if the rules already come with a world setting you can't be totally sure until you have read them.

Talking of rules I have sent for "Outrider" but not received them yet. The reviews I could find (few that they were) suggest that movement is like in "Wings of war" where you lay a card and then move the vehicle. I can see this working as a mechanic very well. It would rely on basing the vehicles. All of this is speculation for the moment though but I am intrigued enough to want to know more.

I had a "Senior moment" while at work last night and remembered a project I bought everything for but never actually started. One of the club members (Graham) plays PBI (poor Bloody Infantry) by Peter Pig. About 2 years ago I bought enough 15mm figures to create a US army infantry company and then did nothing with them so they are still sitting in their packets. That being the case I might dig them out and actually get them started while I wait for the Cavalier trolley dash experience. It will all depend on how the mood grabs me in the next couple of days. I don't want to build scenery in the shed for until the snow has gone, yes a wimp I know I have been called worse and probably will be again before the week's out. Like most of us I do have a lead mountain and yet as I look at some of the boxes I am not inspired enough to do much about it heaven forbid. And while I think about eBaying my Flames of war stuff (also 15mm ww2) I do wonder how much I can salvage and use for PBI. The problem I have had with Flames of War is the two club members who did start forces left and I am now left with an  army I shall never use again, it's nicely painted so I should at least break even on eBay, although you can never tell, or I could sell it at Cavalier or Broadside.

Oh there is some news on Broadside by the way. The Council has completely changed how we are to cope with the parking this year. Last year we had to pre buy parking vouchers from them. This year we are to buy 4 hour tickets and display Broadside Badges in the car windscreens. It does raise the price from £2 to £3 for each vehicle, BUT we are not limited to how many car parking spaces we can have. Last year we had to limit it to two cars for each club and 2 for each trader. Which is awkward for clubs putting on games. (I'll talk about it at the club on Sunday).

Well that's today's news done, hope you found something interesting here. All the best Clint