Hello hello hello!! After a long summer of very little posting, I am officially back in business!! There has been so much going on in the world of Nerd and especially table-top hobby that I simply don't know where to begin!
Heh, ok, get my head together... I should start from the newest big project! A very good place to start... that's how the song goes, right? :)
So, recently, I found an amazing deal on Ebay! One half of the Island of Blood box set! (for those of you who don't know what this is, check out Games Workshop.com, under 'Warhammer' and under 'Island of Blood'... or go HERE) I am now the proud owner of the almost 800pts set of IoB Skaven :) Recently, on Dakka, I've been following a number of project threads about people creating their own 40k Skaven, using the rules for Orks, Tyranids, Guardsmen, even Eldar! It's my turn to get in on the action! :D
To that end, I've begun to search for the bits and pieces that come together to create a fully-modified, fully-converted 40k army! For this army, that has no basis in the 40k universe whatsoever, I decided to work from the ground up... Use what I know about Skaven, and what I know about 40k, to create a fully fledged race, complete with their own technologies, customs, and social structures, that are completely different from any other race's.
On that note, I was about... eehhh... 60% successful? Keeping in mind that they are no where near planned, let alone completed :) My biggest problem (and eventually most of the 40% originality fail) was really describing the Skaen's social structure, the society that created this race of raiding pirates... and then it happened! On the Games-Workshop website, they posted a series of videos of the gentlemen in charge of writing the background for the newly-revamped Dark Eldar, talking about that background! As if this wasn't wonderful enough (I would kill to be one of these guys, they're pretty much rock stars in my book!) the final video (so far) put into words incredibly eloquently exactly what I had been trying to capture! And so, without further adue, the video, edited to show only the bits I want! (just ignore the watermark, I'm cheap and don't like to pay for stuff :P)
Just replace every instance that they say 'Kabal' with 'Clan', 'Archon' with 'Warlord', 'Vect' with 'The Council of Nine' and the three sub-groups (Wytches, Incubis, and Humunculus) with the Classic Clans of the Skaven (Moulder, Skyre, Pestilens, and Eshin)
I'm sorry, I recognize that that sentence probably made very little to no sense... however! The point still stands! I especially wanted to focus on the gang-type aspect of the Skaven, the mafia like organization. From the outside, they may look like an insane rabble of crazy ratmen, but every Skaven instinctively knows his place in the grand scheme of things, depending on what Clan he belongs to and where that Clan is in the great dance.
I also wanted to get a distinct look that was largely reminiscent of the Skaven of the Fantasy universe, with lots of very subtle Asian influences... specifically Japanese. To this end, I decided to steal a page from Magic the Gathering and call this new race of rat men Nezumi. I still haven't decided if Nezumi (meaning rat or mouse in traditional japanese) will be the name of the race as a whole, or of my specific Clan... but what the hell :)
And now... the fun part... conversions! I wanted these Rat men to have a look and feel distinctly unique from the other races of 40k. To this end, i started to think about creating their tech :) On Dakka, not sure who's log it was in, I saw a helicopter type deal created from the Doomwheel:
And I knew I had to steal the idea! But I wanted to create something unique... something that no other race had. (at least not exactly)... then it hit me! I imagine the Skaven home world as being about half gigantic, sprawling hive world, and half endless marshland, with everywhere being dark, dreary, dank and often soggy... And so, the Skaven main mode of transport was born!
Drawn by yours truly :)
Obviously the proportions would be a little different, but the main concept is here! The Giant Propeller in the back would provide the forward thrust, made of one half of the doom wheel, wheel. The cockpit, directly attached to the doomwheel propeller, would come from the inside of the doomwheel, and would have the craft's main cannon. The biggest build would be the pontoons on the side... these would provide the stability, warpstone set into the bottoms would provide the hovering lift when on solid ground, and the tops would be used for troop transport... all in all a very mobile, cut down craft, capable of flying a squad into combat, and quickly fleeing with the loot.
As for the rest of the tech... I'm still working on the weapon specifics. Obviously, all of their weapons will be powered by warpstone, but it's the look that I'm really striving for. On both the Doomwheel an on this wonderful model (that I now own :) )
The trick seems to be Warpstone, combined with a two-prong sorta deal... still working on the specifics of this! Heh, and how to turn it into a gun... there also seem to be a great many tubes on all their advanced weapons... as I said, still working on the specifics, but that's the general idea! Here are the weapons (from third party manufacturer...) that I'm considering basing the conversions on...
Obviously I'd find ways to work tubing and warpstone into anything that I made, but these are the one I'd be likely to start with as a conversion!
Wow, my spelling is starting to deteriorate... maybe I should just end this here :) That's most of what I have to share thus far... I still have some specifics of how to make the whole army feel more Japanese Yakuza and more Skaven in general, as well as what rules I'll be using to represent these guys... but that shall wait for another day!!
Speaking of another day... can anyone say Adeptus Soriatus? Heh or desert Sand Worm Riders? (of Chaos?) No worries, all will be explained!!
