Last Chance for Christmas Shipping

It's still not snowing outside the White Dwarf tower, despite my many offerings to the snow gods over the last few weeks. Fortunately Rob Vink was on hand to offer up a collection of snowy Skaven miniatures, including the towering might of the Screaming Bell.

Rob has used two main colours on his Screaming Bell - brown and green. All of the wood, the ropes and the muscular Rat Ogre working the bell have a very brown tone to them, while the stonework and the warpstone have a sickly green tint. The warpstone chunks emanate a thick white smoke, which ties the model nicely to the snowy base. A red cowl around the shoulders of the Grey Seer makes him stand out from the rest of the piece and provides a focal point to the miniature.

Rob has made good use of spare parts from his Vampire Counts bits box to make his Hell Pit Abomination even more gory than usual. If you look at it from behind (not a pleasant experience) you'll see that it's leaving a trail of body parts behind it. Rob imagined that the wheel in the back of it's body was actually tearing the Abomination apart from the inside out, leaving a river of half-digested, blood-soaked body parts in its wake.

Rob has two kinds of snow on the bases of his models as he's changed the way he makes it over the years. The thicker, clumpier snow that you can see on the Warlord's base is made from a mix of PVA glue, the old Skull White paint and baking powder. Rob stopped using this method however, because he noticed that over time the snow took on a yellowish tone and no one (not even the Skaven) wants to stand in yellow snow... Now Rob makes his snow using a mix of Modelling Snow, Water Effect and PVA Glue. It takes more time, but he says the effect is worth the effort.

There are quite a few conversions dotted throughout Rob's collection. His Gutter Runners are made from Clanrat models with capes fashioned from spare banners. Rob cut the banners to shape and then bent them to fit over the backs of the Skaven models. He also built a unit diorama that features several Clanrats swarming over a Corpse Cart, stealing anything they can find that's of use. After much deliberation they stole the wheels and are now carrying them off to use on their next war machine. If you look closely at the Giant Rat unit you can see that the Packmasters are playing flutes taken from the Empire State troop box - an homage to the Pied Piper of Tilea, perhaps? Rob has also finished work on his latest scenery piece for his collection too - a Wyrding Well made from the base of Deathknell Watch.