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With the start of American football season, I find myself getting distracted from my Catachan IG army by a desire to play Blood Bowl. IMHO, next to Space Hulk, Blood Bowl is the finest game Games Workshop has made. It's a travesty, though, how lousy most of the sculpts for the teams are compared to the work that GW is putting out these days. The new human team is one of the major exceptions, with great models that show that the sculptors actually looked at what football players look like in motion. Unfortunately, the human team is not cheap - nor are any of the other teams. Consequently, when I decided to make my best friend a Skaven team for his birthday, I quickly looked to kitbashing a team from existing WHFB and WH40K plastics. While there's a lot to complain about the now fairly old Skaven clanrat plastics, they're cheap and plentiful and with a little GS, makes for a very viable team. I used GS to make the pads as well as the Thrower's hand and football. On the two Gutter Runners, I used extra Wood Elf cloaks and sculpted over some detail from where I ground off the quivers.

First up is the Thrower:



Next are the two Blitzers:



Then the two Gutter Runners:



And finally, the first three of five total Linemen.



(Sorry for the poor pic of the Linemen - they're not terribly exciting anyway).

As my friend's a big New York Giants fan, they'll be painted up with their armor and uniforms in NYG colors. I've got plans for an Ork team based on the conversions Fechik's done here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/246207.page#815375. I'm also working on converting up a bunch of Catachans with Kroot Shoulder Pads and Cadian helmets to be a Human team. And last but not least, I'm working on collecting the bitz necessary to put together a kitbashed Wood Elf team (something I've never actually played before). Gah - not to mention the thoughts I've been having about how to put together a reasonable-looking Dwarf team...man, I may never get back to my Catachans....

o_o so cool!

Looking very sweet. You gonna kitbash/greenstuff some rat ogres?

MeanGreenStompa wrote:Looking very sweet. You gonna kitbash/greenstuff some rat ogres?

I don't have plans to at this point. My friend's team doesn't have one and he's not that impressed with them. I really want to make up a Skaven team for myself, as well (they're my favorite team to play), but I want to wait until the new Skaven Clan Rats are out in a few months to use as a basis for my new Skaven team. I may convert a Rat Ogre for my own team, then, but as much as I love plastics, I'm a big fan of the new Boneripper model and think if I were to use a Rat Ogre on a team, I would use him as the basis for it.

DBM: You still up in Salinas area? There are several BB players down here in SLO county.

Ozymandias wrote:DBM: You still up in Salinas area? There are several BB players down here in SLO county.

Little bit further north up in Gilroy, but still pretty close. Are they in SLO proper or scattered around? I know there's a bunch of BB players up in San Jose as well. I'm working on getting my next door neighbor into it - like me, he's a dad with small kids and not a whole lot of extra time to get out and play much. I'm hoping this can be a gateway game to get him into 40k or Fantasy (muhahahaha...<rubs hands together> ).

I'm stalled a little on the Skaven team for right now - I need to pick up 3 1/2 sets of arms for my linemen, then I should be able to finish off the modeling on them. So, instead, I broke into my AoBR Orks to start on my Orc team. Initially, I was just going to do up some straight conversions like Felchik did, but as I got working on them, I realized that giving them some extra armor plates would do them nicely. Then I added stripes to a couple of the helmets. Once I did a couple stripes, I realized that the detail could give a really cohesive look to the team. So, I tried one out on a shoulder pad. I was surprised at how good it looked and how it could really bring the look of a team together - consequently, it will be a modeling theme with the team. So far, I've got 4 Black Orc Blockers and 4 Blitzers. I've got a Thrower and 2 Linemen to go.

Black Orc Blockers:



Blitzers:



While the Orcland Raiders have long been an established team in the Blood Bowl fluff, they're never portrayed in the colors of the real Oakland Raiders. That's my goal with these guys. Black armor with metal or gray trim and gray stripes. And, of course, being near the Bay Area, I'd be remiss if I didn't make a team for the Forty-Niners...which is where my thoughts on a Dwarf team are - paint them up in red, gold, and white and call them the Shorty-Miners.

Orcs look great! A friend down here did something similar with Skeletons, giving them shoulder pads and helmets.

Gilroy, that's right! Some players are in SLO proper but we're scattered all around from Lompoc up to my new home in Paso Robles.

Excellent conversions from the AOBR orks, these look like they were designed for the job, great work.

Thanks much for the compliments - I'm actually pretty surprised at how well the Orcs are turning out. They're winding up better than I originally expected. Just goes to show how versatile the AoBR Orks really are!

Hey, Ozy - I was trolling through some old Blood Bowl-related posts on Dakka and saw you had posted some pics of your Wood Elf team - do you still have those around? The links were no longer coming up.

I finished off the Orc team today - 2 Linemen and a Thrower. First are the Linemen. Nothing fancy, but just trying to continue the theme of that stripe on the armor (though with the brightness of the pic, it's a little harder to make out on the guy on the right).



And then the Thrower. I'd initially planned on doing him up as Felchik had, using the AoBR Big Shoota boy for my Thrower and GSing a pointing hand and a hand with the ball. As I'd mentioned earlier, though, I really like the new BB Human Thrower and wanted to try to emulate his throwing pose a little. While the GS work isn't fantastic on the hands, I'm pretty happy with how the laces on the ball turned out.



Gonna let the glue and GS on these guys dry, then prime them up for painting.

While I have all the parts I need to build a Human team next, I'm really itchy to figure out how to kitbash an updated Wood Elf team. I'm thinking Wood Elf Glade Guard legs, cloaks, and heads, and Eldar Guardian torsos - maybe differentiate between some of the positions by using some Guardian torsos and some Dire Avenger torsos. For the Wardancer, since I really only need 1 or 2 per team, I'm thinking of using Dark Eldar Wyches or maybe some Eldar Harlequins...alternately, I'm also looking at trying to find some cheap Eldar Swooping Hawks for team members as they've got such a great sense of movement. Any thoughts?

I know that this isn't the most exciting update in the world, but this is a milestone for me. I got out of the hobby about four years ago - almost completely. Got rid of all my models, all my books, all my White Dwarfs (14 years worth!), and all my paints. I kept a couple items as keepsakes, but got rid of 99% of my collection. A couple years ago, I got the itch again. Since then, I've tried starting a couple different armies, but I've never completed anything. In fact, I never got past assembling and converting the models. Other than spray paint to prime models, I haven't even had paint for models since 2005.

But I'm getting inspired to complete something. And I figured that starting off small with a Blood Bowl team is the best way to go to actually complete a project. So, this weekend, I went out a bought a bunch of new paints, and today on my lunchbreak, I sat down to start painting. I'm really looking forward to getting into painting my Orks, but the game store near me is out of Thraka Green, so I'm waiting until it comes in before I start on them. But they had lots of shades of brown, so I figured I'd start on the Skaven. I know a picture of some drybrushed Skaven isn't terribly exciting - but for me, this is the first time I've picked up a paintbrush in probably 5 years.



This is just the drybrushing. I've got a lot more to do. Next I'm going to paint up the noses and ears, teeth and claws, then do a wash. Then I'll start in on their armor and pads. I figure I'll do highlights on everything at the same time after I get the base layers down.

Nice enough start.
Good luck getting sucked back into the painting aspect of the hobby.

Those Skaven look good, especially for not painting for 5 years. You'll enjoy the new washes and the foundation paints, soooo much better than what we had 5 years ago.

You can see my wood elfs in my gallery. I think the original thread linked to my flickr account and I've since deleted those images and moved them here. I did something similar using old Wardancers to replace the BB wardancer models and I added Ork shoulder pads to my Treeman to Blood Bowlify him.

This looks awesome.

Thanks for the words of encouragement, guys - it's appreciated. And thanks for directing me to your Wood Elves, Ozy - very nice!

Day 2 of painting the Skaven Team went much better than I expected. I haven't always chosen hobbies that are kind to my hands (rock climbing, Japanese drumming), so I was pleasantly surprised to find that my hands were pretty steady as I painted (steadier than I remember them being the last time I painted a few years ago!) Consequently, blocking out the colors went more easily than I anticipated. Today I used some Dwarf Flesh to highlight the hands, feet, noses, ears, and tails, then painted some Ogryn Flesh Wash over it. I then painted up the pads, then moved on to straps, claws, and teeth. They're not amazing, and I still have a ways to go, but I'm pretty happy with them so far. Unfortunately, I'm hampered by a lack of Chaos Black and Skull White. At my FLGS, not only do they not have any Chaos Black or Skull White, but they are also out of black and white acrylics in all their other paint lines...anyway, I've got some on order that should be coming later this week.



I really liked the shine on the wet blue paint as I painted up the shoulder pads, so I'm thinking that when I get to the end, I'm going to put a coat of gloss over the pads. I think while I wait for the black and white to come in, I'll touch up some of the flesh tones and highlight up where I did the Ogryn Wash. Progress, progress, progress!

I wouldn't think to use blue on Skaven but it looks really good!

Thanks! While the NY Giants do have a red and white uniform, for both it and their blue and gray uniform, they wear blue helmets with a red stripe. I decided that I wanted to use that blue with a red stripe theme on the paint job. The right shoulder pad will have the player's number in white and the left shoulder pad, elbow pad, and knee pad will all have a red stripe down the middle.

Being a former Skaven player in WHFB, I never thought of using blue either, but as I got to looking at how the ultramarine blue would go with bleached bone and red accents, I decided that the color scheme just might work.

I got the paints that I ordered yesterday and was able to do some more work on the Blood Bowl teams today. With the Skaven, I painted up the black areas, went over with boltgun metal, and touched up a couple other places (such as the football). Went over everything with Devlan Mud, and then did highlights with Bleached Bone, Dwarf Flesh, and Ultramarine Blue. The Orcs, which I had primed white, received a coat of Badab Black, ala LBursley, while I waited for the Devlan Mud wash on the Skaven to dry. At this point, the Skaven are nearly done. I need to add the red stripes and other red details (such as eyes), white stripes to the football, shoulderpad numbers, and a few other minor details.



Now, I've just got to get the last few bits so I can finish modeling up the remaining four Skaven lineman. After I finish up the Skaven, then it's on to blocking the colors on the Orcs. I'm excited to get going on the Thraka Green wash!

Is the coat of badab black over white to see the detail for painting?

Ozymandias wrote:Is the coat of badab black over white to see the detail for painting?

Exactly - I saw LBursley use the technique in his tutorial for painting Space Wolves and thought - hey, do it that way and it's just a matter of staying in the lines! In the past, I've pretty much always primed black, but after seeing how the Ork skintones came out on Holycrusader's Orks (http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/212358.page - bottom of the page) turned out, I've been itching to try his wash method.

Thats a genius idea - the thing I dislike about priming white is that the details are often hard to see, and you sometimes end up having to paint black lines on between colours (something I'm pretty crap at), but with a black wash you get the best of both - I'll definitely be trying that one in the future!

Great models btw, Blood Bowl for the win!

I finished up the details on the Skaven today, adding red stripes, numbers, eyes, jewelry, and final detailing on the ball. I need to get some static grass to base them, then I'll seal them up and add a layer of gloss on their pads. I also picked up a box of Night Runners over the weekend, so now I can finish up the last 4 members of the team. First up is the thrower:







Then we have #2 and #3, Stormvermin Blitzers:



#4 and #5 are Gutter Runners:



And #6, #7, and #8 are Linemen:



I also was able to get three washes of Thraka Green on my Orc team. Holy smokes! Can I tell you just how much I love this Thraka Green stuff? Man, why would you want to paint Orc flesh any other way? Primed white with a few layers of this stuff - I'm not gonna do anything else to their skin. I'm loving this skintone!



Oh yeah, and what the hell was I thinking only making 11 Orcs? It's not like they're an expensive team or anything! I'd be crazy to not start a team with 12 men on the roster! I need to model up 1 more Lineman, I think.

Little bit more progress today. I finished modeling the last 4 Skaven linemen and got into blocking out the colors on the Orcs. No pictures, though, as it's not terribly exciting.

I'm heading out to NYC to visit the recipient of the Skaven team on November 6, so I have two weeks to finish the teams. I'm actually hoping that I can complete a total of 4 teams to take with me to NYC, but I'll really have to push on the final two teams if I want to get them done in time. I've decided to go with a Lizardman team and an Elf team to round out the four. I've got the Saurus, Skinks, and even a Kroxigor for the Lizard team, but I want to pick up some Temple Guard heads and accessories to deck out the team. For the Elves, I'm going to be converting Eldar for these models and picked up a box of Guardians today for my linemen. I'm planning on using Dire Avengers as the base models for the throwers and new Swooping Hawks as the Catchers, but I still need to pick those models up.

I'd hoped to get these pics posted yesterday, but just ran out of time. I've gotten more colors on the Orcs - they're looking pretty rough, but I'm just blocking out the colors now. Come Monday, I'll get the black on them, run a couple washes and start details and touch-ups.



These are the four remaining Skaven linemen I needed to assemble. I wasn't terribly excited about them when I first put them together, but frankly, seeing them primed, I'm more pleased with them than I had been before. The third from the left I felt looked particularly "lineman"-ish.



Sorry about the blur on the Skinks here. I accidentally focused on the back row instead of the front - my depth of view with that setting wasn't very good. I'm using Kroot shoulder pads on these guys and have added GS chest plates. I made some GS rope to hold on the chest plates and added some feathers and other minor decorations. For the Sauruses, I'm getting a bunch of Cold One Rider heads which are more ornate than the standard Saurus heads (I wanted to get Temple Guard heads, but they were more expensive than I wanted to pay for them) along with a bunch of shoulder pads from the Saurus sprues. Hopefully, these will be here on Monday so I can get to modeling them up.



Finally, I modeled up my first of my Elf linemen. I plan on building the Elf team in such a way that I can use them either as Wood Elves or Pro Elves. While, in general, using Eldar Guardians for the base model looks really nice and appropriate to Blood Bowl (with appropriate tech stuff cut/filed off), the biggest problem is the left hand which typically holds the barrel of the shuriken catapult. The right hands aren't a problem as they're already in a fist from holding the pistol grip, so I can just cut the gun off and use the fist as is. But the standard Guardian left hands are pretty useless. Enter the left hands from the heavy weapon Guardians. They're perfect for Blood Bowl. But they only come two to a box. Thus, you can see my solution below.

Great stuff!

How many teams are you making!?

I'm hoping I can get 4 done before I leave for NYC. I'd like to be able to leave my friend with 2 teams, that way he can teach other folks to play. And with 4 teams total, we can cycle through them over the course of the week as we play.

That said, I'm not completely confident that I'll be able to finish the Elf and Lizardmen teams before I leave - at the very least, though, I'll be going with the Orc and Skaven teams completed and the Elf and Lizardmen teams assembled.

Looking great as always and very inspirational, but now you have made me wonder what a yellow base colour would look like with all that thrakka green on top of it

Okay, I've got a little dilemma - I've finished with the first coat of black on the Orcs and I'm ready to start with another layer of washes/highlights/details - except for one thing: I don't think I have enough black on the model.

These guys are supposed to be painted up in Oakland Raiders colors - black, gray (silver), and white. Their tunics are white, their pants are gray, and their armor will be black with silver. Simple right? Okay, but there's all these straps and belts. What color are straps and belts in WHFB usually? Brown, right? But there's now so much brown that it's not just an accent color, it's a predominant color on the model. So, my next thought is, "Okay, well, I'll just paint the straps and belts black. Leather can be black. Leather is often black."

Here's my dilemma - how do I differentiate the black metal armor from the black leather straps and belts? Any ideas on techniques, highlights, etc. that I can use to show that they're both black - but they're different materials?

Death By Monkeys wrote:Here's my dilemma - how do I differentiate the black metal armor from the black leather straps and belts? Any ideas on techniques, highlights, etc. that I can use to show that they're both black - but they're different materials?

You could basecoat the metal parts with bolt gun and then wash with devlan mud and another wash from the gw wash line, I recommend ogryn flesh for dark almost black metal with hint of red brown visible. This leaves a metallic sheen showing on the metal parts. Then if you paint the leather with black as usual you have two different kinds of black on your fig and it is visible which is which.

There could be two other ways of controlling it:

1) through its shine: have the armour be shinier, by using a gloss finish on it. have the straps be matt.
2) color of the Black. Not all Black is created equal. you can base the armour on a blue-black, and the leather on a brown-back.

Piousman

Piousman wrote:1) through its shine: have the armour be shinier, by using a gloss finish on it. have the straps be matt.
2) color of the Black. Not all Black is created equal. you can base the armour on a blue-black, and the leather on a brown-back.

I've already got plans to use gloss finish on the metal plates, but I'm not sure that's enough. And the only problem I have with different tints of black is that part of the reason I'm doing this is to reduce my color palette and I'm not sure if using blue-black/brown-black would really serve that purpose. It's a good idea, though, and maybe what I need to also look at is what shade of gray I'm highlighting up to.

Metsuri wrote:You could basecoat the metal parts with bolt gun and then wash with devlan mud and another wash from the gw wash line, I recommend ogryn flesh for dark almost black metal with hint of red brown visible. This leaves a metallic sheen showing on the metal parts. Then if you paint the leather with black as usual you have two different kinds of black on your fig and it is visible which is which.

Hm. I wonder how that would differ from drybrushing the metal parts with boltgun metal and leaving the leather alone.