Skaven

My Mordheim Skaven Warband. The Skaven never really caught my attention ... that was until I got into the Mordheim background. After reading up on the Skaven I immediately went about putting together a small Warband using a mix of the Skaven from the Mordheim Box and the Advanced HeroQuest box. As you may know the AHQ Skaven are a little bigger than the new plastic Skaven, but I feel this adds to the over all appearance of the Warband the different sized troops giving it a more random rag-tag and very Skaven look. Since it was first created my warband it has been through several campaigns and I have expanded it further with various troop types.

1> The Clawleader, with weeping blade, shield and the tail fighting skill. Put together using parts from the Night Runner sprue you get in the Mordheim Box and a spare shield boss.

2> My Skaven Warlock is converted from a plastic Skaven. I used the body with the hooded garment and extended it over the arms using green stuff to create sleeves. The staff is Skaven spear with the head removed and replaced with a Skaven icon from the standards and musicians sprue, I then fixed a piece of gravel in to the hole in the icon to represent the warpstone and topped it off with a plastic skull. I used the head with a bandaged over eye and painted the remaining eye like warpstone, which helps give the impression that using the warpstone based magic of the horned rat has affected him through out the years. He also has a book and scroll from the Mordheim accessory's sprue to further the impression that he is a magic user.

3> The Assassins. The one on the right is built entirely from the Night Runner sprue you get in the Mordheim Box, I chose what I though were the most assassin-y type pieces. The one on the left is converted from one of the plastic Skaven from Advanced HeroQuest, I carefully removed both hands and replaced them with hands from the Night Runner sprue, I also gave him a tail weapon using the head of a morning star from the Skeleton sprue.

4> Banner Waver and Musician nothing much to write home about here, pretty standard assembly, the banner is a trimmed down plastic Chaos Marauder standard and the musician has an Ork knife strapped to his back.

5> Clanrats, the one on the right is a mix of parts from the Night Runner and Clanrat sprues with a Kroot pistol added to his back to represent a warplock pistol. The one in the center is another converted AHQ Skaven. I carefully cut away the shield hand and replaced it with a dagger-holding hand from the Night Runner Sprue and replaced the broken weapon tip with part of a trimmed down Ork knife. Finally the Skaven on the right is armed with a flail from the Chaos Marauder sprue.

6> Clanrat with shield and spear, nothing to report here, the shield is a Chaos Marauder shield.

7> More more Clanrats, 2 AHQ Skaven with their hands/weapons replaced and one made with a mix of parts from the Clanrat and Night Runner sprues.

8 & 8a> The Ratling Gun. Yes in our campaigns we have House Rules for Ratling guns [Strength 4 Range 15” -1 Saves. Requires two Warriors to fire. Move or Fire. Fires D6 shots per turn, any shots that miss on a 1 roll on the Black Power Misfire Table] one of my favorite models from the Skaven range, the only change I made here was to add a sight from an Ork gun.

9 & 9a> The Ratogre: after a few games with my Skaven warband I decided I needed a Rat Ogre. It wasn't long before some new Skaven Models started coming out so I went to the my local store and picked up a rat ogre. It wasn't until I got it home that I decided it didn't look the way I wanted. It had a weird pointy stabby in place of the right hand and I discovered it had been packaged with a left arm that didn't fit on the body. So I went about converting the model, I removed the stabby thing from the right arm and replaced it with a chainmail covered 'Iron Fist' from the original Boneripper model. I then attached some chain from an old coco-clock to the shackle on the left arm and re-sculpted the left shoulder to take misfitting arm in a position to make look like it pulling at the chain. Finally I filed off the 'bionic' eye and sculpted a piece of cloth over it. The skull on the base is from a Spacewolf character.

10> The Packmaster. Classic old model no conversion done here but I am very pleased with the paint job.

11> Giant Rats. (From left to right): a metal Giant Rat, a re-based Warhammer Quest Rat with the tail repositioned and a Rat from the HeroQuest bookcase.

12> More Giant Rats.(From left to right): a plastic rat from the Skaven regiment, a re-based WHQ Rat and a metal Giant Rat.

13> yet more Giant Rats (From left to right): a WHQ Rat with added spikes, a mutated metal Giant Rat and another rat from the Skaven regiment.

I still have a lot more Skaven that aren't finished yet including a converted Vermin Lord, lots of AHQ Skaven, more clanrats and some plague monks. I also have a second-hand heavily damaged Doomwheel that I'm planning to do something with (I've been looking at other people's Rat Tank conversions).
When this warband first started out it I has the idea of it being entirely plastic, but that all changed when I bought the Rat Ogre. Now of course we have plastic Rat Ogres which I bought a box of a little while back, so I'm thinking of starting a whole new warband using nothing but plastic models as a bit of a challenge.
Other plans include more Rat Ogre conversions and a Clan Skyre Warband with lots of mechanical monsters.