Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello all.

Much inspired by Death by Monkeys, I have been pulled to try to build my first Blood Bowl team as well.

Too many people exalting the virtues of BB. And the new PC game looks pretty amazing. Plus a huge league starting at one of my local FLGS on 11/23. Must resist... failing.... So here we are.

I don't have the Blood Bowl box set, so I wanted to put together the human and orc teams, so I can practice with my friends. For now the human team (really like the models) is on back-burner, since it is $60 for a team.... So I thought I would see what I can manage on my own with the Orcs.

Currently I have available the AoBR Orks, a bok of 16 Ork boys, my bits-box, and some plasticard. I wanted my orc team to look a little more like they are going to a football team, not just to a brawl (the "official" Orc models a a little... dated).

With a start last night, here is what I have so far (some models are just mocked-up, with blue tack):

Two Blitzers + a spare head


A lineman and a blitzer + a spare head


What do you guys think about the round shoulder-pads? Do they work on the model? Do they convey "footlball" a little better?
Of course, they will get some extra spikes and gubbinz. Personally, I think they really work on the blitzer... on the lineman they just look like SM sholderpads tacked on.

- Piousman

I think they look pretty neat.
For the SM shoulder-pads, you might just want to cut a zig-zag pattern into the rim, in order to change the look. That might work.

Otherwise, great job!

Looking very good, I'd leave the sm shoulderpads as they are, they do remind me of old school ork BB figs with them positioned like that.

I particularly like the bars across the front of the helmets - very nice! I'm planning to do that eventually when I put together a human team - I'd like to use wire, though, so I can do it a little more intricately and have it look like real football facemasks. Unfortunately, that means having to paint the face on the mini and then put the wire facemask on last. Seems awfully fiddly to me at this point. But what you have there is a great solution for Orcs!

Honestly the round shoulderpads made me think "football" before even reading this. But make sure to have different variations and shoulderpads, in order to make things more orky.

Thank you all for your feedback. The round shoulderpads are in to stay. At least for now
I will try to diferentiate them a bit. Definitely the Orc zig-zag on some of them. Maybe some checkers... Definitely spikes on the right one.

Otherwise... slow progress yesterday. The extra armour plates are really slowing me down. I am using (straight) plasticard and plastic cement. I try to give the plasticard some curvature before I put it on, but it is not really working out. Tonight I will try SuperGlue, see if that works better.

Any other thoughts/suggestions on the best way to armour the orcs are welcomed!


And now, the progress so far:


I managed to clean up and (very slightly) convert the first Black Orc. I twisted its fist to look like he is about to thump someone over the head.

Then of course, Orcs being Orcs, a Blitzer saw that, and thought that he is tought enough, he can punch someone too. The idea is that he Blitzer just finished an UpperCut punch.

And finally, the first Gobbo, inspired by so much team spirit, thinks he can play in the big leagues, and is showing off his guns. I personally think that the Goblin is moking the other too. But don't tell that to the Orcs.

Overall I am quite satisfied with the Black Orc and the Goblin. The Blitzer... well, it's missing something. I almost expect him to be giving the finger to someone.

- Piousman

looking good- keep on going!

Nice - I dig the Gobbo. I've thought about using the great new plastic 40k Gretchin for some gobbos on my team, but I'm so wary of their ineffectiveness I just can't spend the money to do it yet.

@ Death by Monkeys: As I understand it, Gobbos are a useful (and expendable) distraction you can send in the opponent back field, and to provide opportunistic assists.

Otherwise I agree. I would not have made Gobbos had I not already had the bitz (part of my Wolf riders).

- Piousman


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Feedback requested:

I have the following concept for a Lineman:



I am imagining him on the line of scrimmage, leaning forward on one hand, ready to pounce forward. Something like this:

[edit] had to change the image, since the previous one disappeared from my Gallery. Suspecting (c), I just linked to an image on the internet. [/edit]

Does this work? I LOVE the concept, but there is something that bothers me about pose. What do you think?

- Piousman

looks great so far

That lineman looks great. The face guards came out real nice too.

Great stance on that lineman! I love the pose!

I went to a hobby shop, and got some advice on my plasticard and glue. Apparently plastic cement has a shelf life. Who knew (sarcasm!)?
I mean I have bought my cement in 1996!

I also got some (renewed advice) on pre-bending plasticard using hot water. My previous attempts using fingers and hot water were unsuccessful in bending the card (though successful in burning said fingers).

So one evening later I have my second fully finished model (no blue-tack here), and I am quite happy with it (especially the hand-crafted shoulder spikes). Enjoy the 2nd finished Orc Lineman:



Also I have finished my first Goblin. I think it is a significant improvement over the previous variant (see above). I may still do some shoulderpads out of GS. Not sure though (don't mess with "good enough"!):


I have to say I am fairly happy with these models, and with the improvement to my technique. Especially adding trim, now it is a breeze (as seen on the Goblin's helmet).

- Piousman

That Gobbo and his helmet details are fantastic. Keep up the great work sir!

First off - don't forget to trim your mold lines!

Secondly and more directly to your last post - I think the Gobbo could stand to have some GS shoulder pads. Take a look back at the ones I did for my Skaven - I think those would be about right for him. All I did for those, really, was to take a little GS, roll it into a ball, and then squash it mostly flat. Then I'd push it onto the shoulder and nudge it a little here and there with a sculpting tool. It wasn't hard to get a decent look with it.

Looking good.

Aw mate, I wish I had some people to play BloodBowl with - it was my favourite game back in the day. None of my mates play it.

Albatross wrote:Looking good.

Aw mate, I wish I had some people to play BloodBowl with - it was my favourite game back in the day. None of my mates play it.

Then teach them! The rules are free from GW's website. You can download pitches from Lord of the Boards. And while there's no easy way to get the templates or dice, the throw-in and scatter templates are pretty easy to re-create, and for the dice, you just have to remember that all of the block dice results each have one side except for "Push Back" which has two sides. It's not so easy to re-create the pass template, but there's a chart floating around out there showing what type of pass you've got to make depending on how many squares across and how many squares up from your thrower the catcher is. Then just proxy some models with what you've got - that's how I taught my best friend! And you know how fun it is - once they play it once, they'll be hooked!

@ Death By Monkeys: Don't worry, I HATE mold lines. But to me everything has its place. First the joy of modeling (where the creative juices may-or-may-not flow). Then the TEDIUM of prepping the model for painting. Then the joy of painting. I put too much time in stages I and III to mess up on the clean-up.

I will try the shoulderpads on the second Goblin, to see how they come out. I am also thinking of finding some oversized armor shoulderpads, and using those (kind-of how the gobbos are depicted in the BB book, with equipment too large for them). But so far this one actually looks like a proper footballer, so a subtle approach will probably be used.

@ Albatross: I agree with DBM. I have not yet played BB. And I am trying to get one of my mates to try BB out (he has played only one miniatures game before: Space Hulk). Of course it helps that one of our FLGS will run a league in a few weeks. In case I luck-out.

- Piousman

Team's looking good. I particularly like the helmets!

Just goes to show with the current price of the metal BB models there isn't really any need to purchase them as with plastic it is very easy to model and convert

Thank you all for your feedback. This is what keeps me motivated (well, this and the fact that the concept is growing, and shaping up nicely).


@ unite all action: Thanks for the compliment. Unfortunately I don't know that I would call what I am doing "easy" (I always seem to take the harder approach). Especially as I am slowly descending the into the plasticard madness, anyway.
Certainly, it would not be very difficult, however, to get a decent looking team easily. Plus others (DBM, I am looking at you), have a way of doing thing quickly and elegantly. I take the brute force approach (so no "easy") Lots of rework.


And without further ado, here is the newest member of the team. A Blitzer:


Notice the changes to the shoulderpads. I really think this is coming along.

I am leaning more and more towards differentiating Blitzers and Linemen by they helmets (and to some extent, armour). The Linemen will either have no helmets, or will have simple ones (no bars or only one bar). The Blitzers will have fuller helmets (like this guy).

Let me know what you thing. Also let me know if you have other ideas!

- Petre

I want to thank everyone that has provided feedback so far. This is a great motivator!


The weekend saw some updates, including the first 30 minutes of Blood Bowl gaming. Wow, I am totally out of my depth! Anyway, to be able to get those 30 minutes in, I had to get at least another Black Orc Blocker, one more Goblin, and a Thrower. Without further ado:

Black Orc Blocker #2


I really like how he came out, and it was sort of by accident. I tried to lower his arm (I don't think ALL the Orcs should be punching up in the air, the way they are now in the AoBR set!), and it did not look good. As I was going for another one of the "swinging" Orcs, I noticed the dynamism of the pose, repositioned the head, and now he looks in the middle of a swing. Much better!


Lineman #3 and Goblin #2


Again I like the Gobbo. Am considering whether I should give him face bars too... Shoulderpads are in the future.
The Lineman is pretty basic. I have added a middle line to his right shoulderpads, with hand-crafted spikes (similar to the helmet-less Lineman #2 above).


Thrower (WIP) #1:


I posted two slightly different angles, as he looks different (in my mind). Sometime he looks ok, about to throw a rugby-style laterla pass. Other times he looks like he just picked up a giant rock. And I know, every time I look at the ball I think "peanuts"

Feedback? Thoughts?

I like the idea of giving the Blitzers helmets, but the lowly linemen get nothing. Sounds like a great way to differentiate the positions.

And I think the Gobbo definitely needs a bar across his helmet. Heck, maybe have it pierce his nose!

those are some great conversions! good work!

Thank everyone for they kind words and support! Your feedback is really what keeps me motivated to continue and improve.

Over the past week, there was some progress (note how the pictures are taken on my WIP Blood Bowl pitch - which costed me to date $5):

The three Blitzers:


I settled into having the "proppa" football shoulderpads for these guys, with various degrees of spikes. I find they look more like they have "proppa" equipment. They also have fuller football helmets (not just single-par (or no bar) helmets).
The middle blitzer is in a "line of scrimmage" pose. Depending on the angle he looks ok, or good.


The Linemen:


I have to say I am pretty happy with the first one from the left. His head (from Fatasy Orcs) came out as a reasonable faximile of a "vintage" football helmet.

The Goblins:


By popular demand they got GS shoulderpads. And the second Goblin got a face-bar.

The Thrower (#2):

Used the classic Shoota Boy, with GS finger. The open hand is from the Shoota Boys hands on the old Ork sprue
The other Thrower will be "Peanut-guy", with a proper GS ball (which is currently trying).

The Black Orc Blocker #3:


I wanted him to have some sort of a helmet, so I cut the top of a Black Orc Helmet I had and spliced it with the Nob's jaw. I like the results, though I think it needs a little GS to smooth the transition. I also repaired and bulked-up his armour plating where I removed bullets and other 40k accessories.


I have one more Blitzer and one Blorc to do, and I think I am set. Unless inspiration strikes again.

Let me know what you think.

- Piousman

On further thought, I am not sure I like the Blitzers as they are. I like the CONCEPT (better helmets, rounded shoulderpads with spikes).

But the three poses I have are... uninspiring. What do you guys think? transplant the helmets and the shoulderpads on some of the linemen, who have more "menacing" poses?

- Piousman

I think the pose on the blitzers are quite nice, actually. Keep going forward with it, I say!

Those look awesome

Heck, I mean, now that I've given my friend his Orc and Skaven teams, I'm back to the drawing board thinking on what to do for my own versions of those teams - you're definitely taking the next step forward and I'm liking where it's going. When I get to making my own Orcs, I'm looking to your team for inspiration!

Wow, almost 2 years have passed, huh?

Well, about 3 months after the last post there was an ugly incident in the local BB league which made me drop out of the Table Top scene for quite a while.

Earlier this year I decided to go to some of the regional Blood Bowl tournaments (Origins Cup, Kuunch Bowl, Chromatic Cup) so I took out the team again, and slapped some paint on it. That really started me up on TT again (I have been playing the online Cyanide version a lot meanwhile).

A Disclaimer: Like most things that I do, I seem to stop when I get to good enough. In other words the team looks pretty nice on the field, and a lot of the mistakes visible in these pictures are a lot harder to see. The rest is poor photography skills.


Anyway, for all those that followed, or that want to do Blood Bowl on a budget, here is how an Orc kitbashed team looks like with paint on it (all models are highlighted to the level of the blitzers, but I still cannot properly take pictures, it looks like):

Blitzers:



Black Orcs:



Lineorcs:



Thrower and Goblins:


Ungroth Bolgrot, Orc Chainsaw secret weapon:




Next on my bench is the Troll for this team, converted from the BfSP Troll (still working on it), and a new Necromantic team.

Thanks for looking.

- Piousman