My Skaven Screaming Bell

Following my recent fall into wargames depravity with the collection of a Skaven Warhammer army, I found myself in an odd position, having birthday money to spend and just happening to be in the same road as the Maidstone Games Workshop. It is all rather a sad blur (as are several large chunks of my life) but when I got home I found my self to be the owner of a Skaven 'Screaming Bell'. This is a large war engine that mounts a demonic bell - when the bell rings, tolled as it is by a Rat Ogre, it discharges magical nastiness upon the enemy; well most of the time. It has a bad habit it seems of exploding or turning on its owner!

The model was quite straight forward to put together although despite being plastic some of the many pointy bits are bloody sharp. Nor was it too bad to paint as the serious level of detail, such as deep wood grain, makes things much easier to highlight. The model was to be painted in block colours and washed in Army Painter dip, my usual technique, but the detail screamed highlights. There are actually two highlight colours over the base wood colour, two over the base stone colour and two for the bell. Other areas, such as the plague filled smoke emminating from the bell and the two censers, are just one highlight.

Strangely, the real problem was adding the dip and then the varnish. The dip took almost two hours to apply as there are just so many areas to cover. Being made of timber baulks each piece has four sides and all is woven together with some very tricky to reach bits indeed. My main concern was the dip drying out in places and forming tide marks on areas as I worked around the detail. I had to mentally break the model down into defined areas starting with the bell as this was fairly central and divided the model. I then worked down one side of the carriage, taking care to get between all of the various struts, and the wheels. I then had to get to the inner areas of that side which was a pain. After completeing the second side of the carriage I could work on the Rat Ogre at the back and then work my way along the decking areas. So many times I came across pooled areas of dip between various struts that were on the point of turning into toffee, that almost dried out stage that can realy mess you up if missed. This is what happens when you have to do inner and outer areas of course, and you have to put on a lot of dip to let it do its thing and then take off the excess. This also meant that the model took a long time to fully dry out.

The varnishing was just as bad as the dip application, you really ned to make sure that every surface had been given a good coat of the varnish otherwise you are left with some really obvious patches! This was another two hour stint but rather than toffee like blobs I had to deal with those irritating varnish air bubbles! Back and forth picking up excess varnish before it dried out to much...sigh. I gave this a full day to dry out and I have to say I am pleased with the result, no major patches, no missed bits, no blobbing....and I think the bell itself has come out really well, has that metal look I have had difficulty with before. Highlights before adding dip really does help give the model extra depth and takes so little time.

This model gets its first game on Tuesday against Phil's Beastmen army. We each have 2000 points and if the bell doesn't blow itself up, and me along with it, it might not be such a one sided affair as I fear....hell, we might even win! I have given myself a little extra edge, just in case. I made it myself because you never know, the Great Horned One may be watching! It might also serve to distract Phil too....I will accept any edge that I can get :)

Warhammer - the STD of wargaming....

I started proper wargaming at the age of eleven, having previously spent many a happy hour alone in my room with my toys wargaming in all but name. I am now forty seven and the bug has never died, if anything it grew and became all consuming, having other people to wargame with! I have had many a casual dalliance with various periods over the years, flitting between one thing and another as the interest arose and passion became inflamed...then casting that aside as the new love of my wargaming life appeared on the scene......is it me or is this post getting a tad saucy? Well, can't be helped, I am a man of great passion after all and I make no apology for it.

Anyway, as you know I have recently been involved in that 'Wargame Nasty', Warhammer, something that I have showed no previous interest in at all...good, wholesome, clean living boy that I am. I have sneered derisively at the mere thought of such a game and considered those that did play to be in the foetid pit of wargame debauchery, not a little odd and a tad...well...wargame perverted; there, I have said it. But now..........

I collected a small Skaven army, nothing too involved, I could give it up anytime I wanted of course. I read the army book, did a bit a maths and with my proper wargame mind calculated a point based army that was well rounded and militarily sensible and even plausible...apart from the magic spells options. It all got a bit runny after that.

Then I played my first game...actually, it was a bit worse than that...if I am truly honest dear reader. I actually fielded an unpainted army.......I know, I am sorry! I didn't mean for it to go as far as that, I really didn't you must believe me! ..... I played a warhammer game with an unpainted army that I owned and as if that was not terrible enough.......I enjoyed it. I'm sorry, I need to stop for a moment.........










OK. so I played my first game. I won. But more than that I found myself getting to like that simple way the game worked, the way one could build an army without the restrictions and the oppressive Victorian social values...even the strange magic element where you can blow up an enemy with a weird spell...or make it melt...or change sides....and that a game only lasted  for six simple turns and could have an actual result at the end of it......it wasn't complicated....the armies were fun, my Skaven have a very good chance of blowing themselves up at the drop of a hat and I liked it all the more. I arranged to play a second game at the next club meeting and I found myself looking forward to it.....

I played a second game with the unpainted army and already I had a very good understanding of the rules and could even run sections of it. I made movement trays for my large Clanrat units...I even offered to help touch up and re base a friends 15mm ancient army in return for some old Skaven models and it was then that it hit me; I was lost with little hope of a safe return. The true depth of my condition was brought home to me at this years SELWG, I actively encouraged my good, good friend to buy a warhammer army book and the beginnings of an Ogre Kingdom army.

As the title of this post states, Warhammer is the STD of wargaming.....its all just simple fun until you realise you have become infected, and then you get the urge to pass it on......

Skaven Rat Ogres

Oh, dear reader. I have wandered from the one true path and muddied my feet in the evil, stinky pond that is Warhammer :(

No, I do not know how it has happened. I was minding my own business one sunny afternoon without a care in the world when BAM!
'What the hell was that'? I said.  
You are now the proud owner of some warhammer figures, said a disembodied voice from the middle distance.
'Bloody hell', I said, 'how did that happen?'
All rather too quickly....Mr Fantasy Boy!
Nooooooooooooooooo, I cried.....but it was true. I was now a Fantasy Head....oh the shame.....and I had been so careful too; always washed my hands after talking to a warhammer player and everything.

It seems that I now play Skaven, a warhammer race of rat people....lots of violent psychosis
and cute twitchy noses. Annoyingly, this army is made up of lots of small fairly weak rat people so you need loads of the bloody things to make an army.....and me with all those nice Maori War figures just screaming to be painted too. But, given the club open day is approaching, I wanted to have a few to use in a display. I have now painted up a unit of Skaven Rat Ogres, mutant, bio-engineered, giant, junkie rat things. I used my usual methods, block painting with a judicious coat of Strong Tone Army Painter; although some areas of the figures depicting fur were given highlights prior to the application of the dip.

I think they have come out really well given fantasy is really not in my comfort zone at all. Once again the dip has been key, it created good shading, depth to the main colours and actually worked really well on the areas I had highlighted with dry brushing. I love the effect the dip has given to the are of bandages/tape on some of the figures. The main colour is GW Komando Khaki simply blocked in, the dip has done the rest. I am not quite so concerned about painting the smaller rat things now, it seems my technique will work well on them too.