Warp-Orange Clanrats and the Eternal Fight Against the Deadline
Painting plans vs reality
Sometimes a hobby plan sounds perfect in our heads, right up until the clock reminds us that painting tiny rats actually takes time. This week Michał set himself a very specific goal: finish the third unit of Clanrats in a warp-orange scheme.
And honestly? It already looks like a really fun direction for the army.
The bad news was simple: the deadline was not happening. As Michał put it, he just wasn’t going to make it for the next day. A familiar story in this hobby.
But this is also where we had to remind ourselves of an important truth: a few unfinished models are not the end of the world. Especially when they are not even really “grey” anymore.
Not grey, thank you very much
Michał immediately defended the honor of the unit — and rightly so. These Clanrats were already primed and drybrushed, so calling them grey would have been unfair. That stage where a unit is clearly in progress somehow feels much better than a box-fresh pile of plastic, even if it still doesn’t count as finished.
We totally get the self-imposed pressure, though. Sometimes the goal is less about what anyone else expects, and more about proving to ourselves that yes, this time we will get the unit done on schedule.
And sometimes… we won’t. But the goal was still a good one.
Then came the list
As if the painting queue wasn’t enough, Michał also stumbled onto what he described as a wonderful list. You know the kind: the list that is exciting enough to make you want to build the whole thing immediately, and terrifying enough to make you question your life choices a few seconds later.
The rough inventory check went like this:
- Thanquol is already owned, but still unassembled
- 6 Ratlings
- 15 Stormfiends after correcting the count
And that was the moment where reality hit again.
The Stormfiend wall
Painting Skaven can be incredibly rewarding, but it can also be exhausting in a very specific way. There are so many textures, so many weird details, so many little bits of metal, flesh, fur, tubes, warpstone and general rat-tech nonsense to work through.
Michał mentioned that painting 6 Stormfiends took two weeks and completely drained him. So the idea of pushing toward a list with 15 of them suddenly stopped being just cool and started sounding like a serious long-term campaign.
Which, to be fair, is one of the most Skaven things imaginable: a glorious plan that is technically possible, but maybe not survivable.
Our favorite kind of hobby moment
What we liked most in this exchange is how recognizable it is:
- a bold color scheme idea
- a deadline that slips away
- a unit that is definitely not grey anymore
- a list that looks amazing on paper
- and the immediate realization that collecting and painting it is a whole different challenge
That’s basically the hobby in one evening.
We’re really curious how the warp-orange Clanrats will look once the whole unit is together, because this kind of strong accent color can give a Skaven army a lot of character. And even if the deadline was missed, progress is progress — especially when the rats are already moving beyond primer and drybrush.
As for the mega-list with Thanquol, Ratlings and a mountain of Stormfiends: we respect it, we fear it, and we absolutely understand why it inspired both excitement and exhaustion at the same time.
Final thought
Sometimes the biggest victory is not finishing everything on time. Sometimes it’s just getting another unit moving, finding a color scheme that clicks, and being honest about what kind of project will actually stay fun.
And if a few rats hit the table not fully finished? That’s still better than letting the whole swarm stay in the pile.