Veskit, Skaven assassin

 Back to Mordheim again. At the back of the Mordheim manual is a list of special characters. One of them is Veskit the Executioner, a Skaven assassin. Veskit's story is that, after being horribly mangled on a mission, the scientist/wizards of Clan Skyre put him back together again. Of course, in doing so they made him into a monster.

I recently bought the body of an old metal arco-flagellant on a whim, partly because it was cheap and partly because I thought I could turn it into some kind of undead monstrosity. Looking at the rules for Veskit, it occurred to me that the half-machine, half-scrawny human body of the arco-flagellant could become the basis for a conversion of Veskit.

First, I cut the old head off and replaced it with the head of a Skaven leader I'd acquired ages ago. The Skaven head had a crest, which rather unbalanced the model and had to go. Because the original body was very hunched, it would need to be pitched up on a slope, so to make it more "open" and visible. To do that, I mounted it on a sloped bit of "wood" left over from a terrain kit.

The right arm came from a plastic gutter runner and fitted really well. The shoulder ball of the left arm came from a chaos marine's backpack vent. It had a nice shape and was suitably ornamental. The lower arm was a piece of resin rod with a hinge joint at the end. I've no idea what this was originally, but it looked right. 

The big claws were from some bits that my friend James gave me - maybe from a replacement Necron model. I positioned it so that the claws were resting on the wooden slope. It made the model a bit stronger and looked as if he was about to charge, like a sprinter at the blocks. Veskit got a tail from a piece of resin, probably from the same not-Necron parts. I don't know where the little shoulder pad came from - I found it in the bits box and it looked right.

Because Skaven have big feet, I sculpted over the dinky human feet with green stuff. I also gave him some more fur around his scraggy neck and covered the Imperial symbol on his loincloth. I bulked out the back of Veskit's outfit, so that the tail looked more, er, natural going up there. 

To paint this charming fellow, I used the raw flesh method I've used before - red undercoat with purple washes. The rest was fairly simple. I decided not to make the metal look too tarnished, so it would be easier to see what was what on his body. I added a Mantic skull and a rat from the Frostgrave female wizards set to his base.

All ready to slay his enemies and steal their cheese!