When was the last timeGames Workshopreleased aWarhammer 40Ksculpt that really wowed you? I’ll tell you, it was theKroot Rampager, specifically the one balanced on a single front paw. Wow. But since then, there hasn’t been anything to get excited about on the 40K front. Hence I’m building my own weirdos.
Age of Sigmar, on the other hand, has been smashing it out of the park.Ushoranquickly became my favourite Mortarch with his grisly delusions of grandeur. Callis, Toll, and their Saviours of Cinderfell are ripped straight out ofMordheim. The Darkoath weren’t all hits, but the Darkoath Chieftain on Warsteed and Hounds of Chaos were great. Then we gotSkaventide.
The new Skaven are excellent across the board (apart from, in my humble opinion, the Rat Ogors). It even managed to make the Stormcast cool, especially with the trident-toting Prosecutors. However, I don’t play Age of Sigmar. I’ve got nothing against it, but my friends aren’t interested and the lore doesn’t give me the same opportunities for sculpting as the weirdness of a grimdark far future.
If you’ve got any recommendations for weird AoS lore that I can base armies off, or strange conversions that might tickle my inspiration, please let me know.
What Is The RatMech?
RatMech is a niche movement within the Adeptus Mechanicus players in 40K. Groups of players convert regular Adeptus Mechanicus units out of Skaven ratmen. Many players have longed for sci-fi rats for decades, and this is the closest they’ll get. However, that’s not quite right for me.
My Dark Mechanicus are living robots, accursed creatures of rotting flesh fused to robotic bodies. Oh, right, that just describes the regular, ‘good’ Mechanicus. But it doesn’t describe their models. Mine are imbued with the spirit of Nurgle, under the leadership of an Archmagos with plenty of hubris and no remorse. As such, I wanted to use the cool new Skaven sculpts to create some messed-up horrors of the Warp.
How To Convert Skaven Into The Dark Mechanicus
My initial idea came from seeing the Arch-Warlock, whose equipment perfectly matches that of a Cybernetica Datasmith – perfect to accompany my existing Kastelan Robots, who are made from Skaven Stormfiends.
While I was at it, I settled on another character. The horrid hunchback Master Moulder becomes a Tech-Priest with minimal conversion needed. A servo-arm, a Mechanicus-branded axe, and the armoured legs from an actual Tech-Priest went a long way, and I opted for a head from the Human Nobility Blood Bowl team. I’m not 100 percent convinced it works, but we’ll see how it looks when painted before making the final call.
Then I looked at the Brood Terror. The most exciting of the new releases, I dry-fitted the push-fit parts together and set to work with my hobby saw. Arms, legs, and head were removed, leaving a torso ripe for mechanical intervention and an enormous gap on its front.
I originally intended the Brood Terror to be another Kastelan, but it’s far too large. So I settled on another Sydonian Dragoon, like the one I converted from a Warhammer 30K Thanatar Siege Automata a few weeks back. A classic Dreadnought leg fixed my first problem, and a Rat Ogor arm fixed the second. The right arm-hole was filled with the Thanatar’s mechanical hip joint and topped with a mining laser from the Genestealer Cult Goliath. A couple of Mechanicus bits to cover up gaps or flat panels finished the job. Apart from that gaping hole where the head used to be.
Instead of searching for something in my bitz box – and having already used a Knight Armiger head on my last Dragoon, I didn’t want to repeat the same thing – I broke out the Green Stuff. And, instead of following in the footsteps of Papa Nurgle again, I reached out to another god.
Tzeentch answered, my friends, and struck me with a bout of vile inspiration. After using tin foil and hot glue to fill the majority of the cavity, I then superglued ball bearings onto the foil and surrounded them with Green Stuff. Using small sausages and soft tools, I carefully blended two dozen eyelids to give the effect of an all-seeing abomination.
Use plenty of Vaseline on your hands and tools to stop the Green Stuff from sticking to anything other than the model and itself.
I’m really happy with the result. The eyes look great, and a decent paint job and gloss varnish will really sell the effect. And so, I have three new units for my Dark Mechanicus based on the great Skaven models Games Workshop is producing. Now I’ve just got to work out how to corrupt the Stormcast with a 41st millennium twist.
