Space Skaven! Spaven...errr skace?

[Firedrake Cordova]

Nice conversion and love the background.  

Edited March 21 by Firedrake Cordova

[Teetengee]

for the other planned jezzail bots, do you(anyone) think I should be making a spotter for each, or a unit of bots connected to the same controller?

[Firedrake Cordova]

Personally, I'd say a spotter per bot.

[Teetengee]

I've got some new kits in/coming in, which have some exciting opportunities, more to come there.

I'm gonna explore a few different weapon arm options on stormvermin and see what works best for more well armored skaven, (ash wastes armaments, sisters of battle (could be fun for a more scavenged or mercenary vibe)), but I've also been thinking about what do to for vehicles, particularly transports. I am liking the sort of retrofuture meets war of the worlds sci-fi energy the tech gives off (or at least that I hope it gives off), but I don't know if walkers make sense for transports. Ships of some kind seem like they might make sense for rats, just from a historical perspective, but it's not always easy to marry that to a land vessel. Meanwhile, some of the votann aesthetics are a match, but none of the vehicles speak to me, neither much the genestealer cults. Ork vehicles seem a little more promising, but are so resolutely orky that it becomes hard to deorkify them for these purposes. What sort of transports do you think would fit these vermin of mine.

[Teetengee]

Doubleposting, oops
This doesn't have much for questions, just thinking about stuff for skaven as a 40k faction/pulling from fantasy skaven for inspiration/parts.


I am thinking about is captured monsters/etc. I like to think that some of the abominable intelligences they used were captured and repurposed/enslaved, because it seems like the sort of thing the faction would do, looking at a robot and seeing just another creature to use. But this suggests that they also use beasts of burden of the more conventional sense. It would also fit in well with the clan moulder/hell pit abomination type stuff that fantasy skaven have, and might serve alongside some ork and drukhari units as a good starting point for that style of unit. I'm not sure they fit with the army I am working on (which is very much more skryre inspired), but I might lean into it as a change of pace at some point.

Some eshin elements I think I will include, which feels like a pretty easy port just adding in some sniper rifles to the poison/assassin energy. Maybe some interesting stealth tech, even stealth planes could be cool.

And clan pestilens definitely seems like an opportunity to make some fancy nurgle cultists and counts as nurgle vehicles, which is probably the easiest place to do some raw mechanics with all of this.

I'd love to hear if anyone else has thoughts for what units feel like they should exist in a space skaven army.

[Tallarn Commander]

These are some great ideas. Skaven really lend themselves well to kitbashes. An assassin sniper squad, perhaps with Kroot or kitbashes, would be a lot of fun. And, as you noted, the Necromunda Ash Wastes range would gel nicely with the Skaven aesthetic.

[Teetengee]

So, these still need some sculpting work (largely nails) but a clanrat overseer and a melta-gun stormvermin





One internet cookie to whoever guesses where the melta is from.

I'm still deciding on whether to modify the weapon a bit, but open to thoughts. Maybe drill some holes in the fuel area to give the impression of some of the skaven ball with hole things I've been trying to make a recurring motif. Though I could also fill the middle of the slots on the barrel to make it look like circular gaps rather than slots.

 

Edited Friday at 04:34 PM by Teetengee

[Firedrake Cordova]

That's a very effective conversion  

[Teetengee]

13 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

That's a very effective conversion  

A little update on that one:

 

 

 

I still need help deciding whether to leave it a melta or to fill the middle of the melta slots to leave it a tube with circular vents rather than horizontal slots. Also, should I drill out the holes??? Advice please




Additionally, I have these:
---
"This one is abnormal. It does not bang-crash against the cage."
"Yes-yes most observant, warlord. It appears to have retained some intelligence during the mutagen bath process. It withstood the pain without total loss of sanity. It can even speak!"
"You. Experiment RO291. Can you understand me? Will you fight-kill for your warlord?"
"Yes."

 

***
The words echoed in Kwizzit's mind as they flanked the unit of man-tanks. Thump-thump-thump-thump, muscles straining, legs pounding. Warpstone warmed them from the inside. Bigger than stormvermin. Bigger than the man-tanks. Big enough to crush, to kill, to survive. The two behind, stupid, little more than brutes. Nothing like Kwizzit's own mastery, mind as strengthened by the transformation as body. Useful, in their way.

"Kill. Kill!"

RO325 fired its bombard, the reverberating boom violently announcing their arrival, but not before the warpstone shell smashed open armor to show the man-meats inside. The three roared out of the brush, trees cracking under their weight, whole tons of flesh an unstoppable force as they descended upon the defenders. The click-whirr of Kwizzet's light ratling cannon was met by explosive rounds each tearing open meat and metal.
 

Only one man-tank made the mistake of trying to weather RO168's boiling warpflame before the three barreled through the wall, concrete exploding on impact. Huge claws and blades spun about, powered by more than muscle alone, sending limbs flying and heads to roll. Kwizzit screamed as scream-saws tore into their flesh, but with flesh to spare, they turned to the last few standing.

"We have killed hundreds of their kind today, brother! Bigger than ogryns, but without their scant intelligence. For the Emperor!"
"For the Emperor!"

The two man-tanks remaining had regrouped, having taken down the snarling RO168, even if he wasn't unsalvageable. Trusting RO325 to handle the left, Kwizzit caught the decorated one by its arm. "Unhand me, foul xenos, in the God-Emperor's name!"

"As you command, lordly one," Kwizzet bit down on its neck, the man-tank delayed by the realization Kwizzit knew the man-tongue. Wrenching, cracking, grinding, as Kwizzet tore the limb away. Kwizzet dropped the man-tank, rearing up as it reeled, "Corpse-thing!" hammering down with armored skull to crack open its helmet, "No-god!"

Man-meat squished through the air-holes, Kwizzet savoring the blood. They touched the buttons on the vox-talker built into their flesh. "Man-tanks. Killed-dead."
---

Kwizzet a.k.a. RO291

 

 

RO168

RO325

Any thoughts on the rat ogryns? do they need anything else?

 

Edited Saturday at 09:24 PM by Teetengee

[Firedrake Cordova]

Honestly, I think the meltagun is fine as-is  

[Xenith]

Awesome work, don't know if you've answered, but are you using necron rules? The reanimation rule could very easily be new reinforcements scurrying along! 

[Teetengee]

I have no idea what rules I'm using (eventually I'll probably write my own) as I haven't played since 8th ed and that only a single game, but necrons are definitely on the shortlist. I might take a couple armies to use in conjunction, as one employee suggested recently at a brick and mortar gw.

[Dr. Clock]

I'm gonna suggest Genestealer Cults list; they've always seemed closest to skaven in terms of niche / playstyle to me. Either that or Ratmechanicus?

 

Keep at it!

[Teetengee]

Ratmech and cheesestealer cults are also pretty common for 40k skaven. I've also considered either imperial agents, chaos, and guard. Hell, orks have some thematic elements as well.

 

Eldar and space marines are pretty much the only ones that don't have anything going for them.

 

For now I'm intentionally not settling on a given ruleset. Once I run low on inspiration I'll start figuring out what lists I have a start on and filling them out.

[Grotsmasha]

4 hours ago, Teetengee said:

... and cheesestealer cults ...

I hadn't yet heard this term, and I LOVE IT.

[Teetengee]

9 hours ago, Grotsmasha said:

I hadn't yet heard this term, and I LOVE IT.

I can't take credit for it, alas. It's a thing within some fb groups devoted to space skaven to identify ruleset. It really is fantastic though.

Edited 11 hours ago by Teetengee