Starting an All-Metal Skaven Army

What madness has gripped me? Somehow, against my better judgement, I’ve started piecing together a Skaven army composed primarily of the old metal models that I coveted in the pages of White Dwarf magazine as a young man. Such folly!

But, of course, this announcement comes with some caveats.

First of all, I’m building an army for Dragon Rampant, not Warhammer. DR requires fewer models and gives players quite a bit of leeway to customize their forces, so my Skaven horde needn’t be represented by 100+ figures.

The typical unit size in DR is 12 models, with elite or specialty units often represented by just 6 models. So to start out, I’m shooting for the following:

12 Stormvermin

12 Skaven Slaves

12 Clanrats

6 Plague Monks

6 Giant Rats

And an assortment of weapon teams and character models to fill out some additional smaller units.

So as you can see, I’m looking at maybe 50 models or so. And I should be able to use most of the old-school Skaven models I acquired and painted up a few years ago.

But why now? Well, the genesis of this particular idea came when I purchased a big ol’ box of random, mostly metal Middlehammer minis from a guy in Norway. If you know me, you know that I live for grab bags like this. I pulled out a few intact units, listed them for sale on a buy-sell, and made back the money I’d sunk into the purchase.

That left a random assortment of Middlehammer-era Skaven for me to ponder. I started idly painting them up a couple months ago, just as a palette cleanser between 40k units for my Death Guard army. I play plenty of skirmish games, so I can always find a use for a few evil ratmen fighters. Here are a few of the guys I’ve completed lately.

I gather that this fellow is a Black Skaven from Mordheim. He’ll fit in perfectly as a bodyguard for my warlord.

And this guy was sold as a Skaven Warlord, but to me he looks like another bodyguard type. That’s probably the most heavily armored Skaven figure I’ve ever seen!

And here’s the first of a few support weapons: the Warpfire Thrower! I’ve got a rattling gun ready for some paint, too.

I’ll end with a request. Building units in multiples of 6 and 12 has made it a little hard to track down individual models to fill out squads. If you have a few spare metal Plague Monks or Clanrats bouncing around in your bits box, I’d love to swap you something for them and add them to my army. Drop a comment and maybe you can help me out!