My first adventure with bitz: Skaven warband

So in the past I have always used Reaper minis and because they are sculpted as entire miniatures and I only buy ones that I like I have never done any conversions. Well I decided I wanted a skaven band so I ordered a box of night runners and started planning. The box arrived and I dug out the pieces and started getting ideas in my head. Finally after a morning of hacking, carving, and gluing I have one figure together. No one ever told me how addicting these bitz can be. One skaven down 12 to go for the starting band. Oh yeah then I have to paint em don't I?... what?... and add bases? Maybe I should just go back to my (pre-assembled & non converted) Reaper minis.

Hehe yeah it's a lot of work - but that's the fun of it! You love your models so much more and besides there's very little change your opponent have the exact same model as you

Hail Fellow Reaper Guy! The Path of Plastics IS a Perilous Journey. I've got MUCHO trays of yet-to-be-assembled GW parts that speak to me of strange & unique minis to be made; admittedly I'm a Strange Old Dude, but the possibilities of thingys you can make from those LOVELY GW pieces is ONLY limited by your imagination.
The various parts ALSO add a degree of flexibility to traditional metal minis with swaps of hands, weapons, etc. giving a broader scope to their possibilities.
My advice would be: TURN BACK WHILE YOU CAN & SAVE YOURSELF! Barring that, have FUN with all the cool stuff you can make.

Well two more skaven have been created bringing me up to 3. Of course my heros are getting all the attention I doubt I will spend this amount of time doing conversions on henchies.

On a slight tangent I was thinking of turning my nightrunners into snipers by getting weapons expert and then giving them hunting rifles. does anyone think that is too strange to have skaven with hunting rifles. Of course then I need to somehow find some rifles to put into skaven hands. anyone know where I can find some rifles that I can use to make this conversion? Preferably that don't cost too much.

Actually, a friend of mine loves saving up for a hunting rifle for one of his Nightrunners. He's mad as a fish though!

Still, makes for a cool model. I would suggest going to one of the bits retailers for an Empire handgun or hunting rifle. Battlewagon Bits at The Warstore is good by all accounts but I have no actual experience with them as I am in the UK. I have used Bits and Kits and Bitz Box over here though.

Skaven with Hunting Rifles sound appropriate. They DO have Jazzails in WHFB afterall,which would give you the mini if you don't feel like converting. It also fits with their sneaky nature & the Assassin thingy. NOW, if only you only could wrangle a Ratling Gun...

Hmmm Warplock Hunting Rifle...

No i don't think it's weird, it IS weapons expert after all - a skill designed to make stuff like rats use things like hunting rifles
I'm making me a blunderbuss wielding rat at the moment

I really like the idea of a warpstone hunting rifle!

Too many cool ideas and too little pics in this thread! I hope to see some of your conversions here soon robertrunner!

In order to not bring the wrath of tom upon me for not having pictures. I have thrown my conversions onto a couple rocks to act as temporary bases until I can get proper ones put together. I have taken pictures and here they are. Not the best quality as far as lighting and focus but I figure they should be adequate for WIP.

My assassin adept will have weeping blades. I liked the idea of him leaping off a wall or log or rock or something if you have ideas about what to do for the base of this let me know.



Second a black skaven with fighting claws leaping over a wall.


Finally my other black skaven with fighting claws climbing either a rope or pole I haven't decided which. Not sure how I should do this. Any ideas??? I was thinking I could do a rope with a few coils on the ground obviously no top which may seem odd moving around the board. So maybe a pole metal or wood might make more sense because it could be free standing without defying gravity.


PLEASE feedback and ideas on all of these guys particularly bases ideas. By the way: question on bases should I use 25mm bases instead of the 20mm supplied with the skaven??

Are you kidding? These pics are great! Thanks for the upload robertrunner.

I think the "ninja" sakven sliding down the rope is excellent! (can't believe you were going to keep that from us )

I don't see a problem with the rope "defying gravity". It's just that the building where it is attached happens to not be visible.

Here's an example of a Wood Elf waywatcher I converted (I made a little group of 5, but I won't reveal them until much later on TBMB ). Here again, only the tree's truncs are represented, but I think these guys suggest that they are in fact standing in a wood... only that we have to imagine the top of the trees.




I think having a sliding Skaven is a really nice idea and pretty unique. I would definitely try it.


[EDIT]:

1) you should use the 20mm bases

2) How about making a thin strip of house facade, with a beam/window frame on top, where the rope is attached? Then the skaven would look like coming down from that beam/window, and sliding along the facade. Might be worth considering.

Those are goimg to be SO COOL! You've got an excellent sense of motion; VERY NICE!
As to the bases: CRAZY BASES are my thing. For the Leaping Skaven [top photo] I'd go for either a pillar of broken stones/bricks or a stack of crates leaning precariously forward. The brick/stone thing could be sculpted out of miliput/plumber's epoxy with a weighted core of washers. Resin crates stacked leaning forward would do nicely for the secon, but weight the base [washers again] to keep it from tipping forward.

For the bottom Rat Guy, I can't see how a rope would work as a gaming piece, but a burned vertical beam [the last remnants of a buiding] might look REALLY cool. Again weight the base.

Your ideas are so good, I volunteer to make you a couple of bases for the Rat Things. PM me if you're interested.

ADDENDUM: after sleeping on it...kind of AND reading Tom's post. The Rat on a Rope idea might be done if you made the rope out of floral wire with a coil on the ground for added support. It would have a Magical Arabian Nights feel to it.

wow i love those conversions! The one leaping with the fighting claws is the best from a traditional standpoint, but if done right the rope climber will be absolutely unique!

How about making him sliding down a lamp post of street sign (the giant sprue has a nice sign with a skeleton on it). He would look as though he just leaped off a building and is sliding down the pole.

Hmm skaven pole dancers... maybe not...

really nice posing guy, superb!

Awesome conversions, there is always the Mordheim lamp post from the extra bits although a Skaven dancing on a pole is a little bit disturbing.

Your leaping skaven would look great jumping over another mini, foot in face style, might not be practical for playing though.

psi51 wrote:

Your leaping skaven would look great jumping over another mini, foot in face style, might not be practical for playing though.

I LOVE that!
For a gaming piece may be you could substitute a Statue as a diving platform.

Hehe make it jump over a snotling? Shouldn't do much difference on the size then

When I read your first post I didn't expect too much from this thread, but you are definitely going for it! Wonderful ideas! Very cinematic and well done.
Looking forward to how it all turns out.

Thank you all for the kind words. I have been working with the rope guy a little more and have found that string covered in superglue actually becomes very strong almost like plastic and has almost no bend. I'm still not sure exactly how it will look without the top anchored to anything but it is workable. The other problem I am starting to encounter as I plan the bases is keeping them short enough. Particularly with the rope climber they would look nice being pretty tall but I really want to keep them under 2 inches so I can put them in buildings. As for jumping off of another mini like a snotling I love the idea. Unfortunately unlike probably most of you I do not have lots of spare minis just lying around in fact I have no extra minis that are not accounted for by some warband except for this box of skaven. So I will have to go with either a wall or pillar or some other sculptable terrain feature. I did complete one more skaven last night. a lowly henchie with a club not as exciting as the others I have him peering around a corner (pictures in a day or two). Again thanks all for the kind words and please continue to send ideas it helps me tremendously. Finally Von Kurst I am glad I did not disappoint you too much and made this thread at least mildly interesting to you.

You could make him (the rope guy) look like he's floating or jumping down/up to attack by putting him on a clear plastic rod like GWS mounts their flying models.

Actually without the rope he looks like he's about to drop kick some fool

A long over due update of the skaven. Haven't been able to find time to work on these guys. Never did get pictures of the one I mentioned in my previous post. I did finally make some bases and one new member to the party. There are two others assembled but missing bases so no pictures of them yet.

Very Cool poses! The guy on the rope is my favorite.

Very nice stuff. I like the movement that these figs convey. Looks great and the Skaven are a great band to put this much into. Will they be painted any time soon?

Gub

Nicely done. I do like the rope guy in particular. The prehensile tail is a great touch as well.

WARP STONE POWERED RAT LOONIES FROM HELL! You've got four of the MOST dynamically posed minis I've seen. The one with the two swords is my personal favorite, although the ARE all extremely well done. I picture the Rat on a Rope climbing to the top & disappearing. VERY COOL STUFF.
Now get painting.

GREAT ! I think your rope idea will bring a lot of new "ninjas" (any kind of race, except dwarves? ) conversions next months, it's a very cool realization