So to kick off we have the start of a project that I hope will be a long running endeavour on this blog. I recently started a Skaven army to take part in my local gaming groups Path to Glory campaign. This is a bit of a love affair of mine, since Skaven were actually my first ever WH Fantasy army many years ago when I was still at school. That old Army Book is still one of my favourite GW publications to this day. To rekindle some of that lost love I started this force, and I intend for it to be a labour of that same love. Most of the models in it will be converted and unique in some way, those that aren’t will still have attention lavished upon them in the form of my best painting.
The army is so far focused on Clan Skryre of the Skaven, and for those that dont know Skryre are the technological *cough*’Masters’ of the Skaven clans. They are inventors and engineers, with no small amount of arcane and forbidden knowledge - and like all Skaven, an intense Warpstone addiction, and complete lack of compassion for their fellows. In my mind the characters in this army are a mixture of Dr Frankenstein, The Red Skull from Marvel comics, and any of the villains from the Mad Max films. In a post apocalyptic nightmare they use arcane knowledge and sorcerous lightning to power their terrible engines of destruction, slaughtering their foes and their underlings alike.
Pictured above is the leader of the whole force, my Arch-Warlock Vigritch Stonebiter of Clan Zatrapp. He is made from the plastic Grey Seer on foot, and the goad stick from the plastic pack-master. On his face is an elongated gas mask taken from Forge Worlds Death Korps of Krieg cavalry, and the rest of his head is from the plastic Skaven Warlord on foot.
Fluff time!
Clan Zatrapp is one of the smaller Clans Skryre boasting only a small handful of Engine Covens, but despite its size has recently amassed great wealth and power. Ruled over by the Arch-Warlock Vigritch Stonebiter, Clan Zatrapp’s warren-city and fume filled laboratories are situated in the Mountains of Muspelzharr in the Realm of Metal. The mountains, rich in rare and precious metals, have provided a bountiful supply of raw materials for Vigritch’s experiments and have ensured continuous trade, bringing wealth from Blight City. This wealth is not without cost however and the mountains are home to others. Spindrik, greatest of the Spiderling Kings, leads a horde of greenskins that will attack anything else in reach, while to the south a Kharadron trading post is the staging ground for a Duradin alliance between the Overlords and the Ironweld. Castle-Zatrapp sits high on the slopes of one of the greatest peaks of Muspelzharr, known of the Blasted Mountain, and there uses all manner of weathervanes and lightning rods to collect the power of the thunderstorms attracted by the metal rich mountain range. Deep within the mountain itself lies the main body of the city, and deeper still are the mine shafts that are the source of much of Vigritch’s success.