@Uther.the.unhinged : Thank you most kindly!
A ramshackle structure towered over the battlefield, borne aloft on something which looked like timber scaffolding on wheels pulled by hundreds of lowly ratmen. This mobile tower took the form of a compressed little patrol galley, without oars and aft hull. Instead of a sail it sported a large, triangular bronze plate adorned with a rat king encircled by a tattered laurel wreath.
A garish smattering of hide-bound kite shields encrusted its wooden flanks in tasteless fashion, as if the filthy rat folk had once seen human galleys sporting warriors’ shields hanging along their sides, and attempted to replicate the look based on hearsay and sloppy enthusiasm. The result was a tacky plastering of shields without pattern or order, a chaotic jumble that contrasted with the symmetrical pleasure bridge of the landborne vessel.
Upon this bridge, a depraved sorcerer reclined on a divan coated in untarnished silks, clad in a purple toga of the same exotic material. Not a single hole could be seen gnawed or torn in his luxurious fabrics, and likewise the sorcerer’s body was pristine, without malformed parts or scars. His physique was that of a tall athlete, still at his muscular prime yet bulked out with a generous coat of fat born from orgiastic indulgences and shameful feasting at opulent banquets.
The horned verminkin sorcerer paid no heed at all to the battlefield below him, for his entire attention was focused upon satiating his base desires in the most decadent ways imaginable. Serving slaves tended to his every need, fanning his tanned hide, refilling his silver goblet and attending to his fleshly needs by means of clawed hands performing a wicked massage with expert care.
In fact the entire ship contraption was obscene. A careful observer borne aloft on a winged steed would have been able to count twentytwo exposed phalli, crafted or natural, living flesh or dead trophies, and that number included the ship’s long ram. Bells clanged as the ramshackle construct shook and swayed high above the teeming, skittering battlelines, and occasionally coins, wine amphorae and other heaped treasures would spill over the railing and rain down to the ground with clatter and bangs.
The sorcerous rat master seemed oblivious to the mortal danger which he had placed himself in, whether from the acute risk of his crude, towering vehicle toppling over, or from foeman deeds. He emanated an arrogant and lusty self-confidence, laidback and carefree, nobly bred and spoiled rotten in his prime. His bearing was lordly yet was strangely bereft of any suspicious glances and paranoid arrangements to protect his back from assassination and treachery. Reclining there on the divan, spilling fine wine on his rich clothes while a slave girl busied herself at his rolled-up toga, the ratman seemed an incarnation of hubris and sin.
In fact, the horned party wizard commanded undying and absolute loyalty from the handful of heavily armoured guards that were strewn across his landship tower. These were placed on the aft deck and on little wooden platforms at starboard and port, hefting sharp polearms and beating a drum made from human skin. Their martial presence reinforced the impression of might, for armed violence is always the secret of power.
The pompous splendour and costly luxury on display was matched by crude trophies dangling from the mast. Two jawless ratman skulls were strung up under the horizontal beam, and the hanged corpse of a freshly slain and blinded southron dwarf in full wargear boasted of the far reach of the decadent warlord’s campaigns. This southern trophy was matched by an equally distant northern one, for one of the elusive frost elves of the frigid northron lands could be seen nailed to the aft of the pleasure ship, an exotic borean grotesque to match the equally strange highlander from the hot south.
Clearly, the ambitions of this sorcerous hedonist aimed to win similar noteworthy trophies from far western and far eastern lands in future wars for his baleful collection. For as his fleshly appetites were insatiable, so his hunger for power over others could not be quenched. His will to power was a cup without bottom, impossible to fill.
Time would tell if the orgiastic warlock of the middle sea would succeed in his savage quest, or whether he would meet a spectacular and grisly end to regale the songs of a thousand bards in a hundred lands for centuries to come.
And so the scratchbuilt and quicksculpted throne build for Eisenhans’ host of Skintaxmountain draws to a close after weeks of fervent sculpting, gluing, drilling and clipping. It is built to his instructions, as you probably cannot avoid noticing, with all manner of surprise features thrown in on top.
The end rush of working on it during the last two weeks or so was meticulously planned out in a long checklist of steps upon steps, and the project plans fortunately met no major hiccups, although minor corrections were required in many places when test-fitting together the components.
This was an immensely fun behemoth to build, and I realize now that it is completed that such a project to this standard for some commercial client would have amounted to easily over € 2’000 if one started to count working hours and assume that I’m cheap (which is the case). That is obviously of no matter. It’s always so fun and rewarding to help friends and brother out in the hobby! 
Ladies and gentlemen, for those of you who are brave enough to gaze upon this creation, may I present to you the pleasure ship of Bill Clintus and Monica Ratzynski in flagrante delicto! The future scourge of Swedish tournaments. It will be a magnetized component which @Eisenhans can mount atop various large Skaven contraptions, depending on his army list. Since he think the concept of Roman rats is silly, I made sure to make his rat throne extremely Roman, with the kite shields as a nod to the medieval Roman/Byzantine military.
With a weight of 306 grammes and a height of 18,5 centimetres, this better be securely magnetized and fitted with strong pins and other contraptions to lock it securely in place to the ramshackle constructs it will adorn in the future. Likewise, the contraptions and their bases ought to receive extra weight to counter any top-heavy tendences. In the first place it needs to survive its gangly position if its owner shall have any chance at all of claiming prizes in tournaments’ painting competitions. A broken model claims no glory. 
Large parts of the build needed to be basecoated before I glued parts together, because otherwise all manner of nooks and crannies may not have been reachable during Eisenhans’ painting later on. Ergo the messy look of the finished pictures.
At the end of this update you can find various instructions which I included for Eisenhans to follow during future assembly of loose ratmen after painting.
Cheers!
Planning the diorama with unglued pieces:
Planning out the shield positions for assembly, unglued. I documented which areas of which shields’ backsides needed sculpting (i.e. those in any way visible from any angle) to save on green stuff. Gluing shield pins to the hull was the last step before photography:
The plinth started out as a crow’s nest, but that idea was quickly scrapped because it drew attention away from the divan (notice how the triangular metal sail point like an arrow to the hedonist sorcerer). Instead it was given fascinus ornaments and other decorations, and its capital was very loosely based on Corinthian columns, but cloudy or wavy with no fine detail.
Note that drill holes were carefully matched between the plinth and the underside of the ship build. The right pins for the right holes were marked out by the number of bands penciled onto them. A fine marker pen was used frequently, and proved a great help for building it all to fit stuff together.
The aft sections of the ship. The platform’s rim was given egg-and-dagger decor:
A bored and lonely guardsman inspired by the ignoble example set by his boss. Note gladius and pteruges:
The Stormvermin guard force:
The Clanrat guard force. Note the clumsy gambeson cloth armour of the rightmost rat, with its bound-up sleeves and helmet made of rivetted-together metal bands; both features of Byzantine footsoldiers:
The northron trophy from distant battlefields is a Frost Elf. Fantasy Finnic Wood Elf. Given Eisenhans’ sense of humour, we might say that the knife-eared Elfling is stuck to the stinking posterior of the ship:
The southron trophy from distant battlefields is a Gavemite. Fantasy Ethiopian Dwarf. This incidentally makes Eisenhans the first owner of any such miniature in the world! Expect conversion tutorials and some miniature sculpt for casting to come in future years for this well-illustrated concept:
Bill Clintus and Monica Ratzynski with lowly feather slave, prior to assembly:
The ship prior to basecoating and assembly. Note the small symbols on the back of the mast, featuring the last human ruler of Avras quartered by four Vermin Hulks (you can find other Roman rat concept drawings here):
The finished build, land flagship of Classis Phallus Maximus Rattus Rattus! You can buy these metal amphorae here.
And finally the assembly instructions for the loose Skaven miniatures, to be glued in place once Eisenhans has painted them:
