Ever since the skaven first emerged from their burrows to assail the surface-dwellers above, they have always been renowned for their technological ingenuity. Brad Glover has taken this notion to the extreme with a frankly astonishing skaven army that has been heavily kitbashed and converted into something that is truly inspiring:
Greetings fellow hobbyists! My name is Brad Glover and I’m here today to talk about my crazy skaven army that won Best Army at the Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament Heat 3 a few weeks ago. I was so incredibly thrilled to win this award and all the reactions to the army I spent the last six months working hard on have been great.
I chose to put this force together because I was looking for a new army to play in Warhammer Age of Sigmar, as I’d been working on Warhammer 40,000 for a while and wanted something different. I chose skaven because they have always been one of my favourite armies – I just love all the mad technology and the explosive nature of the army! Every force that I work on has a theme (mostly just mashing two different races together, to be honest), so I thought I’d convert all the Kharadron Overlord airships into skaven war machines, as I always wanted to use those kits for something – there’s so much potential for converting them. I also love exaggerated forms of technology and these work especially well for the skaven.
I began by making an army list based around having as many war machines and large skaven models as possible. Then I just had to work out which ship would work best to convert for each unit and how to incorporate as much of the original model as possible, so it would be easily identified. I did my best to have each ship just clipping some scenery too, as this allowed me to avoid using flying stands and lent itself to some dynamic basing ideas too.
Next up, I bought everything! I tend to find it easier, when converting, to improvise the specifics once I have the kits in front of me, rather than making a detailed plan. But after the army was built, I felt it was lacking something – something that would make the foot soldiers and crews stand out more, as they looked a bit bland and lost next to all the crazy war machines. Then I finally came to the conclusion that they needed... fancy feathered hats! The perfect way to demonstrate that they’re a higher class of rat seeking the finer things in the Mortal Realms!
Finally, I needed to paint the army. I knew I was going to use a royal blue as my main colour quite early on, as I find it lends itself quite well to skaven. Combined with my personalised freehand patterns and a bit of shiny gold, it didn’t take too long before they were done! I thought royal blue would work the best for my army as I always associate the colour with wealth, high class and decadence. Something that fits perfectly with the theme of the army I had in mind.
I then took the army to Warhammer Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament Heat 3, and it was great to receive all of the positive feedback that I got from my opponents there.
The feeling of winning Best Army at such a large event was indescribable, just knowing that all my hard work had finally paid off. I really wasn’t expecting to win (my money was on a beautiful Daughters of Khaine army that I had seen on the tables), and I actually had to look around at the screen when my name was called, just to make sure I’d heard it right! This award has given me a great drive to push forward with my armies and shows that if you work hard you will be rewarded for your efforts.
The games at Heat 3 were all fantastic, and against great and fun opponents. Most of their reactions to my army were confusion, to begin with, but luckily that confusion turned to joy for the most part. It can be quite daunting playing against a fully converted army, not knowing what any of it is when you first cast your eyes over it. But once you take a second to view each unit individually, it’s easy to tell what’s what. So once my opponents knew what they were playing against, there were no problems. I got many compliments over the weekend regarding my army and it was so great talking to other like-minded hobbyists.
By far, my favourite part of the painting process on each miniature was the freehand. I always see it as the reward for painting the rest of the model as it has to be done last. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed painting every part of every miniature in the army, but there’s just something about the freehand that’s just so easy and relaxing, that just adds such a new dynamic to the force as a whole. And I never got bored of painting the feathered hats, despite how many there were!
Thank you for taking the time to read all about my army – it’s my favourite out of all the forces I’ve put together so far. If you want to see more, I’ll be posting more progress on Twitter (@Brad__Glover) and Instagram (@BradGloverGram), and I dare say I’ll be showing up at more events in the future.
Thanks, Brad! We can’t wait to see what other mad projects Brad comes up with in the future! If you’ve got a suitably impressive collection you’d like us to showcase, remember to show us some photos in the comments on the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Facebook page.