WIP: Skaventide Stormcast & Skaven

Today, we’re lifting the lid on the new Skaventide Box. We were lucky enough to get our hands on it early, and Garfy has already been busy assembling and painting the first Stormcast Eternals. In this post, you’ll get a first glimpse of what’s inside and what you can look forward to in the coming weeks.

Garfy’s Stormcast Eternals plans

Usually, when it comes to painting armies, I will only build one unit and then paint that to completion before assembling the next unit. For the Stormcast half of Skaventide, I thought I’d try a more efficient approach and assemble the entire Stormhost in a single go. These models are all push-fit and use less parts than standard Stormcast kits, this meant I could assemble them pretty quickly. Once assembled I super glued some Aquarium rocks and gravel to the bases and then used wood glue to glue sand to the bases.

I undercoated the entire force with Chaos Black spray and then using an airbrush I base coated everyone (bar the Memorians) with Grey Knights Steel, which is a lovely blue silver colour. I left all the shields, capes and wings unglued and undercoated them white. The shields were then airbrushed with Retributor Gold. The next step was making a 50:50 mix of Tyran Blue and Contrast Medium and applying that all over the armour. Then I lightly dry brushed all the models’ armour with Runefang Steel. Then carefully, I panel lined all the areas where the armour butts together or overlaps with thin lines of Leviadon Blue.

I took a quick break from painting to make some movement trays. Since painting Tomb Kings of Khemri, I’m a bit obsessed with having the models all neatly ranked up. With the new coherency rules of 1/2 an inch (2″ for skirmishers like the Prosecutors) I thought they’d look cool in a tighter group. Be on the look out for post from me in the near future where I share the download link, so you can print your own Stormcast movement trays. Once the movement trays were done, I wanted to paint all the bases. I normally do the bases last, whilst Stahly does the bases first. Stahly’s approach makes more sense because dry brushing the bases last can leave paint on your models feet where you don’t want it.

I was never going to batch paint the entire Stormcast Eternals army, once the bases and armour was completed on everyone, it was time to switch to regular unit batch painting. I eased myself in gently with five Liberators and painted those to completion.

Stahly’s Skaventide plans (yes-yes)

Unfortunately, my preview copy of Skaventide didn’t arrive in time. I had planned to release the big review and unboxing today, but it will have to be postponed until next week. I have been following the teasers for the new Age of Sigmar edition closely, and I stayed up half the night for the Skaventide box reveal!

If you’ve been following Tale of Painters for a while, you’ll know that I’m a big Skaven fan, yes-yes. After the release of Island of Blood, I had a considerable Warhammer Fantasy army, which I have since sold. Since then, I’ve been flirting with Skaven again and again and have painted a Blitz Bowl team and a Warhammer Underworlds warband, click here. The new models are the perfect opportunity to raise a new force.

To start with, I’ll paint enough models for a Warcry warband and hopefully expand them into a Spearhead over time. The new game mode sounds really cool, and I’m looking forward to exploring the Jade & Fire book. Small scale games are perfect for me.

For my new Skaven collection, I’ve come up with a new colour scheme. It will lean more towards the Eshin clan, with grey-blue rags and dark fur, which I plan to implement using a Slapchop / Slapchop+ technique. There will also be tutorials for this on Tale of Painters, so stay tuned, but first, I need to actually receive the box!

On Tale of Painters, you’ll find more from Garfy’s Stormcast Eternals and Stahly’s Skaven in the coming days and weeks, including painting guides and, of course, our detailed review, so make sure to check back regularly! Feel free to share your plans for the box, and leave a comment or reaction below.