Duelling Paintbrushes 2: Day 20: The Rat Tank.

Day Twenty already. Only ten days to go. And the long awaited rat tank, for which you have waited long is here!

The justly proud warlock engineers of Clan Skitterklaw pose with their crazed creation. Crazily.

Enemie's-eye-view...

The mighty warp stone reactor. Design has changed a bit because I rediscovered my IG tank bits bag...

Even the loathsome rat men and their vile kin must have headlights.

The business end...

As you can see, the 1/35 Vicker Light Tank Mk. VI is almost exactly the same size as a chariot base. it's a touch wider, and the reactor makes it slightly longer, but it's not far off.

Wither Clan Skitterclaw now? Well, yesterday I aquired some fishing bobbers for my fiendish doom flayer plans... and there's still the warplightning cannon (although current thinking calls for a large order from an online bits supplier which might delay it until after DP2 ends). And there's still the screaming bell and 20 clanrats. I might not get the WLC done due to lack of parts, but I'm sure I'll think of something to put in which takes up it's points. More rat ogres or something.

Duelling Paintbrushes: COMPLETED.

Day 13, and as predicted, Clan Skitterklaw is now utterly complete - bases and all. Here's the proof:

Clan Skitterklaw - all 1000 points of it.

Painted and based, Warlord Skveek Skitterklaw

He's also painted and based from the other side. Amazing!

Next time you here someone bitching about how long it takes to get an army table ready, point them this way, eh?

And I've started the next instalment of the clan. Which looks like this (roughly speaking - I'm tempted to reconfigure it to get some Jezzails in somehow.)

Lords (440pts)

• Grey Seer (440pts)
  Skaven Spells of Ruin, The Screaming Bell (200pts)

Heroes (110pts)

• Warlock Engineer (45pts)
  Doomrocket (30pts)
• Warlock Engineer (65pts)
  Brass Orb (50pts)

Core (245pts)

• Clanrats (90pts)
  • 20x Clanrats (90pts)
    20x Shield (10pts)
• Clanrats (155pts)
  Doom-flayer (55pts)
  • 20x Clanrats (100pts)
    20x Shield (10pts), 20x Spear (10pts)

Special (60pts)

• Gutter Runners (60pts)
  5x Gutter Runners (60pts), Two hand weapons

Rare (150pts)

• Doomwheel (150pts)

• 
  
  

Of that, I've painted the five gutter runners (the old plastic ones - Greg had some for some reason and donated them to the cause)

They run in gutters, and go squeak.

And of course, the Rat Tank/Doom Wheel has been started. The Vulcan kit is an odd combination of simple and fiddly. Some parts are very simple, but others are annoyingly fiddly. If I was making this as a model, that'd be awesome, but as a wargames piece, it can grate a bit. The springs for the suspension especially. Each one has a single brass wire, four tiny coil springs of two sizes, and two plastic flange-y-things. I got sick of all the springs and built them with just the two outer springs rather than the two inner smaller ones with the bigger ones outside them. I also lost a brass wire, and some springs, so one suspension arm is typical skaven bodge work. Okay, possable suspension is pretty cool, but the tank model is not heavy enough to actually activate the stuff, and it sits wonky anyway. Sigh.

Here's a pic anyway.

Duelling Paintbrushes 2: The Rat Tank

I collected my winnings from the melbourne cup sweep today, a princly $32! So i went to the gw site to see what is out there for skaven. Not that i would ever buy from there, the prices are insane. Anyway, nothing much caught my eye, so i started thinking about scratchbuilding warplightning cannons. Then i found this. The 1st Ratzwr Division. And that sort of settled it.
I will buy a cheap light tank kit, and make a rat tank. It will either be used as a warp lightning cannon or a second doom wheel (i already have one doom wheel kit in the benite payment horde). I plan to make the pilgrimage tothe melbourne hobby shops this weekend. It is possible that scratch bashing a skaven tank will slow me down and prevent the completion of 2500 points in a month. But come on! Skaven tank! Plus my opponents might feel better about my insane painting speed if i slow down a little..
Anyway, watch out for future rat tank developments right here!