BLOOD BOWL!

I've finished rather a few Blood Bowl teams over the time that I've had this blog now. Most of them my own, and a commission that I did for a friend as I liked the challenge. So lets start at the beginning. 'Orcwind' are the first Blood Bowl team that I played and painted when I was getting back into the hobby. I made some silly choices with the team positions at first, but they allowed me to get some practice in both the game and painting. Plus I made a cool logo for them.

So, you can see I have all four 3rd Edition Goblins lined up ( would I ever use four?). Behind them 4 Blockers being the Black Orcs, then the red based Blitzers, Linemen (grey). Token Thrower, chap I converted from the plastic Orc with a chainsaw. At the back a Troll, an original Ripper model.

Next was my Chaos Dwarfs, these I used to be my originally painted Chaos Dwarfs that I did when I was 15ish, plus 2 new painted ones. You can tell the early painting due to the flames on the legs like a bad heavy metal band. Added some 3rd edition Hobgoblins, and then did a Chaos Dwarf conversion with a boar and made another out of Milliput. The Minotaur, which I've yet to use, as they are a bit of a liability. 

I called this lot, Chopper Pots, due to the mine they get their money from. You can also see another conversion of a Chaos Dwarf with a 'Blunderbuss' as a star player. Then in the back, their coach Dark Dwarf Lord Va'Durr (Heresy Miniatures).

Next are Goblins, they have had a mix of names. At the moment I've called them 'Lucky 4 Sum', though I expect that might change depending on my mood or futher inspiration.

These are all 2nd edition Goblins, painted in 3 main colours. Red for 'Lava', Green for 'Forest', then Blue for the 'Sea'. I figured different types would come together to play. The other positions are from 3rd Edition models and a Warhammer Doom Diver. They also have some Goblin Cheerleaders who have their nipples out. Then its the 1999 Chaos Troll, along with Ripper you'd have seen in the Orc team. He doesn't care who he plays for, as long as they pay.

You can also see the Orc coach in this photo, though he heads up both the Goblin and Orc teams. He's a busy Orc.

After this is, the team I painted for a friend are Space Frogs or as GW calls them, Slann. Now this seemed like a great idea at first, but these are resin. Some of the most awful resin I've ever experienced. These where won at a auction, but apparently not the first time, I think four other people gave up with the idea of painting them. While I persisted, it was a arse. The resin wouldn't hold the paint, even after cleaning and soaking, so I had to be extra careful until they where varnished. Assembly was a bit troublesome too, lots of parts had to be re-worked to get them to fit. The heads being the most difficult. But they got finished in all their multi-coloured glory. Unfortunately I don't think my camera did the colours justice.

They are painted in colours similar to rain forest tree frogs, so bold bright colours to warn of poison. Along with random dark patterns on the skin like below.

These two are probably linemen.

I painted these up as Blitzers due to the increased armour, and gave them red and orange tones.

 2 more line men

Catchers/Runners. 

When I finished those I decided to make a start on my Dark Elves, these are the oldest team I own, making it 30 years now. But with changes to the rules, they are missing some players, so I've added some Witch Elves, an Assassin, and touched up the paint work on the team. Which I think needs doing again.

I'm currently using these the most at the moment, hence the paint needing some TLC.

After these it was the ones everyone loves and hates, the hardest team in Blood Bowl (to play and win) the Halfings and their Treemen Friends. I've got a mix of the 2nd edition (smallest) and 3rd edition models, which I've done in what I consider fondant colours to match the team name, 'Fondant Fancies'. Plus 2 of the first release Treemen, or which one I was fortunate to acquire with the 'limited' arm-sculpt. The chap in the helmet has this arm set which was only out for a while as the original  mold broke, after which they went with a 2 shoulder pad version.

Made another team logo for them!

This is the Treeman with the 'limited' arms.

This is the other sculpt that was also used for Warhammer Fantasy Battles, know as Tree-beard.

 I liked them so much I decided to draw him too!

These were the last Halflings I painted, which was for a challenge to paint with only 3 colours. Those behind the models. 

Finished with grass and mud. 

I did 4 Halflings, but the chap on the right had a extra colour for his belt and 'satchel' of loafs.

All stand together.

With their Treemen friends.

Note the team logo on the Treeman shoulder pad.

Finally we have the extras, Star players, Cheerleaders, Coaches, turn markers of tied up dwarfs, and Bloodwiser Wench.

Old Dwarf, New Age

Bloodbowl as many of you know is back, but its bigger (liberality, 32mm bases) and very well evolved since those heady days of the 80's when I was first playing. But just like me, I have a number of 'old' Bloodbowl teams. Most of which were incomplete within the new rules, but I have been fortunate enough to acquire replacements. The only thing that I wasn't happy about after creating my boar centaurs for the Chaos Dwarfs, was trying to find a suitable replacement for Mad Eye, the Chaos Dwarf Star player. Once again, Milliput has come to my rescue. I've got hold of a Chaos Dwarf with the right look, in that he dates from the same time. This one is the loader from the Bazooka team, it has a wooden shaft which will work for a simple Blunderbuss.

This is the initial creation, as you can see I've found a cone of a suitable size. Its from the 2nd Edition Bloodbowl so I've added a fuse. That is also the basics of the 'half' ball on the knife.

 After a bit of drying I moved onto mounting and adding the 'ball'.

 There is a bit of a gap from the mounting, but I'm happy with the position now.

 Filled in the gaps and added a little shape to the edge of the barrel to show as reinforcement. I've also modified the fuse a bit more, with some extra area to were it is located.

 He's looking very nice now, onto painting.
 

 The finished little Chaos Dwarf, ready to 'KAPOW' balls into the end-zone.

Bigger, Stronger, Better...

After my initial build of the Chaos Dwarf from a boar, I'm rather liking how it looks. But I realised that I don't have any more spare miniatures to modifiy, and these little guys are hard to get hold of. So it got me thinking, after sculpting trials, maybe I could build a miniature of my own. After all, I have Milliput, tools, and a bit of wire. So I have a look on Google for some ideas of a female Chaos Dwarf and get to work.

 I started with a wire frame, in a sort of rectangle, with 4 wires sticking out at each end for the legs. No Torso yet, as I figured it would be easier to add that later.

 The basic Milliput frame is added and fixed to the back to make it easier to hand. And a 2 pence coins for scale. I used a spare make-up sponge, as a soft prop for the sculpt.

 Once it has set for 24 hours, I moved on to giving it a bit of mass. Trying to ensure that the model remains balanced.

 The base came off, but it made it easier to get some of the shaping done with the files.

 Sponge is back, and the front legs and rear trotters are being worked on.

 Next I added the body with another wire frame, but I forgot to photo that. As you can see we have arms, head and the beginnings of a chest.

 This bit was difficult, as I didn't have any wire for making fingers. So I made a basic hand mitten shape and cut out the fingers for each, curling 1 round a tool to give it a grip. As you can see, I tried to shape in a six pack. Along with this I added fur.

 The face, well that all went terrible, I tried a number of tricks to get it right, but with the stickiness of the Milliput and my inexperience she just looked like some sort of shocked eyeless fish person.

So she got a helmet. 

 Then I started adding belts and harnesses.

 All while cleaning up the sculpt, we did at one point loose a finger.

 This was a nightmare to add back, as I lost the original, but I wasn't going to end up with a 3 fingered Dwarf. So after a number of attempts I got the little finger created and fixed in place.

Then she got painted, say hello to Beryl Bawl-Krucher.

 While do have some issues with this mini.

Over all she's rather pleasing, and you can still see the 6/4 pack.

I learn't a lot making this, and there are a number of things that I would do differently next time. Including sculpting the head as a separate piece in case of failures. Getting some thinner wire for the fingers and other bits would be a great idea, while not forgetting boars have 2 hove like toes.

Building New Old Miniatures

Now, due to the fact that I've got a bit of an obsession with old 80's miniatures that Games Workshop made, it can be hard to obtain something you want. Take for example Blood Bowl, something else that I have got back into in the last year. I can easily build a team for Blood Bowl get them painted and ready for a match, without being daunted by painting a massive army. But as I'm using all old models, the teams now are very different. Old Chaos Dwarfs had throwers, catchers and other such members in the team. The current rules it's just Chaos Dwarf Blockers, Hobgoblins, and Bull Centaurs. The most recent of which just looks really odd next to the old style Chaos Dwarfs, Hobgoblins are fine. But I needed to make the Bulls smaller, and more Boar Centaurs.
So, I had an extra Chaos Dwarf, and had acquired a plastic Citadel boar. After a little Google, started making plans, plans most cunning.

 First I started trimming out the plastic boar to ensure I got a nice clean fit.

 And then I cut off the Chaos Dwarfs feet, I wanted to leave as much as possible if it all went wrong.

 Well that's it, I'm committed now.

 Did a bit of lining up to check the size, then trimmed a bit more.

 Once I was happy I could look at getting it fixed.

No glue here, its all just a big ball of Milliput, including a bit in the back to add more weight. Next time I think I'd need to add something heavier to balance it out.

Started cleaning up the excess and smoothing it out were needed.

Then I added the armour details, in this case needed it to match the chain-mail that he already had. So I did the best I could with my current tools, a pointy stick.

The pointy stick worked rather well, I then added some armour to his new 'boar' bum and a little curly tail.

After some clean up work with a file and such, this is what I end up with, well once the paint was on. Not to shabby, and I got my first model built and converted in years.

Since this I have acquired some more tools, but all this work was done with about 5 tools that you can easily acquire. The Citadel Sculpting Tool Set, which I got second hand, but there are loads of alternatives. A sharp aluminium knife and an pointy tool, mine are from the Rolson tool set that gets used for lots of other things. Plus my old favourite Milliput, and a tub of Petroleum Jelly. The Petroleum Jelly you can use on your fingers and tools to help stop the Milliput sticking too much, or smooth out finger prints. Go easy, as to much will compromise the Milliput.

Next time, what do you do when you want 2 Boar Centaurs but no spare Dwarfs?