Squeak!

"Kill the Man-things! Yes yes!"

I now have Skaven. 

I'd been noodling around, kicking tires on the Next Project, now that Quar are winding down, and contemplating Skaven (I was also contemplating 3d printed NSFW Tau and Slaneesh cultists for Xenos Rampant. Maybe later). I've always liked Skaven, even when I didn't care for the rest of the Warhammer scene. They were unique, and always seemed kind of fun. Then seeing what Brett did with Warhammer meeting Midgard last fall put the germ of the idea in my noggin, where it festered.

Scott had bought a couple of Age of Sigmar boxes (the Skaventide set and the Skaven Spearhead box) on blow-out (AoS means "Always on Shelf") to help his local game store and said "Hey you want some Skaven?" So I am now in possession of a ridiculous pile of plastic now. It has been a long time since I've encountered any GW plastics (the High Elves from the Warhammer Fantasy 4th edition starter set back in 1992) and these sprues of clanrats just seem unnecessarily complex to me. Why can't the two body halves be beside each other on the sprue? Granted, the poses are incredibly dynamic, but there's almost too much complexity. I can see why folks in the Warhammer sphere paint on the sprue before assembling.

Being used to Gripping Beast and Wargames Atlantic plastics with just torso and choice of arms  and heads so you can have some variety in how the weapons are positioned, the GW plastics are very fixed. You can only assemble most figure in just one way. With three figures on the clanrat sprue you have the option to make one carrying a banner and the other two musicians, or you can just assemble them as regular sword carriers.

That's it. There isn't any room for conversion work or different weapons.

Drummer 

Fellow on the right can also be swinging a bell I think

Note normal rats at his feet

Of course I made the mistake to assemble the Grey Seer from the Skaven Spearhead box first. Hoo-boy! that was frustrating. No locating pins or slots. Figure assembly as jazz. Parts just kinda sliding around until you kinda felt a vibe.

His staff is supposed to be more upright. But damn me if I could figure that out, and get his head somewhere near where a head should be. 

But I got things to sort of line up in what looks like it makes sense. Maybe.

I'm told the Grey Seer from the Skaventide box will be better. I hope so.

But each sprue of clanrats will give me 2 1/2 units for Midgard, and between the two boxes I've got 3 sprues. So 7 units plus a few extras to fill bases beside the Rat Ogres or artillery.

The Rat Ogres in the Spearhead box are very steam punky with cannons or drills where hands should be, but in the other box at least there is the option to just give the poor tortured beasts choppy implants.

They do look rather tortured and maddened. I feel rather sorry for them.

No wonder he's angry

I'll make each one a unit on it's own and fill the base with swarms of giant rats.

With these 10 Skaven, I think I've now tripled the number of painted Games Workshop figures in my collection.