Squaduary 2018 - The Pledge, 40k Skaven

After the success of last year's Squaduary, I'm entering again this year; with a vengeance!

For those who missed it, Squaduary is a community event where bloggers pledge to paint a squad in February with updates every week. The event is usually split across the 4 weeks; with one week for building, one for basecoats, detailing and basing respectively. It doesn't fit my style that well though as I suck at batching!

Like last year, the event is being run by Stepping Between Games (http://steppingbetweengames.com), so be sure to check them out for more info and to see how the month unfolds. Entry is open to everyone via social media, so you don't have to have a blog as such.

Last year I hit my goat of a completed 10 man squad, and this year I want to do even better. I was torn between a few different projects that I could potentially work on, as I really wanted to do something interesting and different.

Some miniatures I painted for last year's Squaduary

Handily, a few years ago I made a rather half-assed attempt at starting some 40k Skaven. At the time, I got hung up working out how to actually build the infantry. I was left with a box of Stormvermin, some Clanrats and a few fanciful ideas. This Christmas I was given  a box of Storm Fiends by my brother and I was again captivated by Skaven in an instant. With that, the project sprung back to life, and I set to work picking up the last few bits to make it a reality.

For this year's event, I'm pledging a unit of 10 Skaven equipped as Skitarii Vanguard. I'm also going to try to complete a Skaven Dominus to lead the force as a stretch goal if I can make good progress on the infantry. I think the rules for Adeptus Mechanicus will line up well with what I have envisioned for Skaven in the future; kind of tech-oriented with a lot of pyrotechnically impressive weapons!

More than the painting, I'm worried that I won't be able to build them fast enough, so I'm trying to keep the conversions fairly intuitive. This is going to be important for the force going forwards as well, as I need to be able to produce them quickly enough that it will actually be possible to complete more than one or two of them. They need to look plenty futuristic though, or the project will be a failure. It should be quite a demanding. 

I also have the Storm Fiends which I plan to use as Kastelan Robots with a bit of conversion as they are heavily armoured and about the right size. Maybe I'll be working on them for Monster March if Squaduary goes well!

...and I'm gonna do it all, in 4 weeks!