Miniature Madness - Star Players Part 2

As promised here are some more of my Star Players:

Why is it all these Gobbos seem so happy in their work? Come to that why bother writing bomb on their bombs, I can't believe many of them can read it and anyone catching one thrown to them probably has a good idea what it is anyway and if they took the time to read it well..............

All right which smart ass threw the stick and shouted fetch?

He always appears to be grooving out to something only he can hear, maybe something by the Grateful Dead?

Okay he may not have made the cut for the CRP/ LRB 6 but ffs he's a ninja playing Blood Bowl, how cool is that!

Speaking of cool, as if two wardancers on the pitch isn't bad enough imagine three........no I thought you might not want to!

The idiot who served calamares as a half time snack was strangely never heard from again.......

Coming up in a few days big and small we love them all.

Miniature Madness -- Star Players Part 1

The second of my Miniature Madness posts and a selection of my Star Player Miniatures, some are the official BB ones and some not.

 You've got to admire someone so obviously happy in their work!

 Not sure why two heads is such an advantage, surely they could potentially lead to indecision. I used to be indecisive you know but now I'm not so sure.......

Helmut bringing a new meaning to 'making the cut'.

A hidden in very plain sight dagger, "Oh this? It's for clearing mud out from between the studs on my boots..."

 He daren't look up because the weight of his helmet will probably make him topple over, but the Prince can certainly play.

What can you say about Morg? Well if he's within earshot it'd better be complimentary or it could be the last thing you ever do say!

My Blunderbuss conversion from an old Chaos Dwarf Flamethrower type thing.

More in a couple of days......

Miniature Madness - Sideline Figures

Hi All,

I haven't been on here much recently as real life has got in the way a bit, however one of the things I'm working on at the moment has lead to me taking some pictures of some of the figures in my collection so I thought you might like to see them.  I'm splitting them down in to groups rather than one massive post and the first of these groups is sideline figures. So without further ado..............

A Cheerleader

Give me a B!

This High Elf Cheerleader was painted for my Wembelfy Stadium Dugout for my Insel Elfen team.  She is used as the reroll marker and no doubt helped persuade the panel who voted it Best Dugout at Dungeonbowl 2010!

An Apothecary

Was that three beetles or four?

This young apprentice apothecary is busy mixing up some sort of poultice; Wing of Bat, Eye of Newt, Testicles of Dog and a splash of Donkey Urine just how Griff Oberwald likes it!

Halfling Chef

Get yer 'ot dogs 'ere!

This is Jan Moleby, Halfling Master Chef to Littlepool Foodbowl Club who did the seemingly impossible and became Minden Blood Bowl League Champions in 2004!  He was a fun conversion and has often proved effective when tempting the opposition with a bowl of scouse!

Apothecary, Bloodweiser Babe or Cheerleader

You might just feel a little prick...

You may remember Axt showed his manic chainsaw wiedling gobbo that he made for Figure Exchange on this blog and this lady of the lamp was the figure I sent off to my chosen swap buddy.  I figured she could be used as either a Cheerleader, Bloodweiser Babe or Apothecary by the recipient; either way her presence in the dugout should help team morale but might well prove distracting!

Referee

Oi you! I saw that and I don't remember getting bribed yet!

 The classic referee figure, an essential in the old LRB for depicting where the refs focus was under the IGMEOY rule.  He doesn't look very happy but he has a firm grip on his 'persuader' hidden behind his back so he might see that foul by the Black Orc Blocker but on the other hand........

Wizard

Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire

 This fellow is one from my AD&D days but he has recently discovered a love of Blood Bowl!  More particularly he has discovered that he can be well paid for casting a single spell and indeed he will be well paid even if he doesn't decide to cast the spell, after all who is going to ask for their money back from a bloke who can hit you with a lightning bolt?

That's all for this post, hope you like them, I'll post the next installment in a couple of days.

My pile of insanity

As I'm off work (possibly forever), I've been going through my blood bowl collection.
Kinda for the "remember when" thing, but really, just to catalogue what I have and what I want.

   Its a big collection, as I have mentioned here in a recent article and its gotten bigger. I buy bb/ff figures a few times a month. Sometimes just a figure or two, sometimes a team. As its my only hobby (well, that's not exactly true, I have an AK I shot at the local range), my wife gives me no trouble over it, and in fact, she's a fine painter. But I find myself asking why I have all these figures.
   As of 4/4/13, the collection stands at 1357 blood bowl/fantasy football figures. as of this post (4/9/13), I have, due for delivery, a team from Gaspez Arts (rats), and four figures from Goblin Forge.
I paint every day, but the collection is only about half painted. I have a GW Human and GW Orc team on the painting desk, and they are almost done (another 2 days), and my wife is painting a Shadowforge evil elf female team.

   The problem is, it seems there are new teams/figures released every week, and I don't even collect sideline figures (no coaches, cheerleaders, etc), just players. I have over 40 big guys, about 160 Star Players, and a crazy number of secret weapons...
Dice? I have 50+ block dice (I had more, but I sold 30 GW block dice to a club in Canada).
And I have 12 pitches... Funny thing tho, I had to order a range ruler from Impact! last week because I seem to have lost mine. I can play the game without the ruler, but why should I?
   I could say I'm gonna stop buying bb/ff figures, but I like the hobby, I like teaching new people the game, and I'm happy I can loan teams to new people who join our club.
These days, teams are a lot of money, and if I can loan a noob a team, maybe he will enjoy the game enough to buy his team for the next league.
I think I will try to be more choosy with what I buy. I've already stopped buying female teams/figures, and I suppose I could cut down on big guys and stars.
I'll try, at any rate.
At least I'm not a drunk...

Snotlings? Really?

I made a chaos team, the Death Valley Destroyers, to play my best friend Rich.
I'm suffering with a broken back (in 2 places) and Rich came over to have a game and cheer me up, problem was, he bought his snotling team...
Now, what you think of as a ogre team with snotlings, and what rich is tinkering with, a snotling team, are very different animals.

The team, as it appeared in Citadel Journal, is 0-4 Trolls and Snotlings.
I don't remember how the roster entry is worded, but the snots have the ORIGINAL titchy rule, i.e. after placing the first 11 on the pitch, roll 1d6-1 EXTRA Snots.
That's potentially a lot of the little green buggers.
Now, I like "unofficial" rosters. I think, as long as they are balanced (I know, I know), the more the merrier.
That being said, this snotling team is tough. and no mistake.
I won't go through a play by play, because that's not the point of this blog post (and I lost), but I'll give you a few highlights.

I kicked to rich on the first turn.
He used 3 Trolls and 8 Snots. Then he rolled for the EXTRA snots and got a 6, so 5 more on the pitch for a total of 11. Even at ST 1, that's a lot of the little pains.
His Trolls didn't do much but stand around and pick their noses, but Rich threw a 3 die block against my mino and not only he went down, he got KO'd. You read that right!
He did'nt even attempt to cage up. and since he rolled pretty good for extra snots most of the game, he just flooded my backfield with the snots, so I was dodging a lot (and failing a lot).

The final result was 3-1 and it was'nt even close. Too many dodges, and there are rules for "pogo snots" that he did'nt use. That may have given him even more touchdowns.
It was a fun game, but I don't know about how the snot team would hold up in league play.
They break easy, but cost little.

Kick-Off to Da 40 MINERS!

Today I've finally finished the painting of the mini I'll be sending to the BIG HOUSE! Don't know what I'm talking about? Read on...

(The banner is a link to their web page)

If you're a fan of Blood Bowl, just Dwarfs (or Dwarfs in Blood Bowl), chances are you're not a stranger to DA 40 MINERS dwarf team.
(Well, if you're a regular in the North American BB tournament scene, you might even have already played against them!).


According to their (fantastic) website they've been around since 2004, and since that date they have collected many trophy's and prizes (check 'em on their web site front page), making them one of the most respected (and feared) Dwarf teams around the Old World.

The constantly growing numbers of team fans, has already forced the team owner - Xtreme -, to quite a few improvements on the BIG HOUSE - Da 40 Miners stadium (you can check those past improvements in the "Big House" section of the site).

Today with a new renovation already on the move, Da 40 MINERS and his owner are asking to all of us - the team fans, to Sell Out the Big House (read all about it here).
All you need to do is to pick up and paint one of your dwarfs as a 40 Miners fan and ship it, so it gets to the Big House before June 9th.

You can find all the details on the links above, and sign up for the task in either of the appropriate threads: Talk Fantasy Football (Here!), or in Zlurpee forums (Here!).

 Oh, and there are prizes for all who enter, so go in there and check it out for your self!

So, as I mentioned up there in the beginning, I've already finished up the painting my 40 Miners fan, but there's still plenty of time for you guys to paint yours and send them to Xtreme to help him out to Sell Out the Big House! It's gonna be HUGE so dont miss your chance to be a part of it!

So go ahead and Kick-Off to Da 40 MINERS!!!

And while at it, have fun!
A.

Edit: ...with all the talk, I've effectively forgot to post one of the things I really wanted to (must be getting old).
Aside from the dwarf mini I've painted and will be shipping to the Big House asap (and that wont be showing here just yet), I've decided to complete the painting of (yet) another Miners fan, that I started painting almost two years ago, but that never go to actually finish.
I suppose there wont ever be a more appropriate blog post to show it so here it is, 'Golden Toe Joe' biggest fan, the 40 Miners fan number #41, Kragg Gurnisson, a real dwarf miner!




Check out all the memorabilia he collects from his all time favourite dwarf team.
He even takes it with him when he goes to work!

If you look closely you can see a shiny jewel he just found deep within the mine.
Tough job, but well worth it, at least today!



 








Hope you like the small diorama!


PS: Couldn't end the post without one last and quick note to wish AbraxiS a TON of luck, whom by now should be travelling to the land of chocolates and (Swiss) army knives, after a new job.
Fingers crossed to wish you the best luck buddy!

Sandstorm Devils - Converted slann team

As many of you Blood Bowl fanatics know, one of the latest three races that the Blood Bowl Rules Committee (BBRC) endorsed were the Slann.
In the their (BBRC) fluff paragraph, they are described as "an ancient race of space travellers", where amongst their kind some "more energetic members enjoy travelling the realm and playing Blood Bowl".

With their skills (Leap and Very Long Legs on everyone of them), and this "ancient space travellers" kind of look in mind, I´ve decided to have a go at them using a box of GW kroot gifted to me a looooong time ago, for which I've (happily) never found any use before.

 

 The conversions for most players were very simple (clipping off the weapons, some repositioning of the arms and legs, and some green stuff to fill the gaps).

One of my major concerns was to be able to clearly separate all the positionals (Liners, Blitzers and Catchers), so I've kept the Liners fairly 'normal', while giving all the armour to the Blitzers, and the most acrobatic positions to the catchers.


To make sure they would 'stay in place', many of those with more dynamic poses needed to be pinned, and have a bit of wire inside their support leg, to make sure they wouldn't break if hit by and dice out of of control...




With the core of the team settled, I still had to find a suitable Big Guy (Kroxigor) for them, but since I wanted to keep the cost of the team low, and within the theme, I've nailed a cheap plastic Rat Ogre from evilbay, and sculpted his head from scratch, facsimileing their younger (and lighter) brothers heads.
The prehensile tail of the Rat Ogre was spot on, since the kroxigor also has one, so it saved me some work there!

An undercoat and a few splashes of ink later, they were ready to step into the pitch and have a few games in our local league, the NABBO League!
Oh and speaking of ink, besides the distinctive poses I've decided to also give them different coloured "barbed spines" (those sharp things on their heads), to make 'em easier to spot on the pitch, both for me and for whomever I'm play with.

 Here are some of the Liners, with their more 'normal' (jack of all trades) poses, and distinctive blue head tones...









The Blitzers get red/orange heads and a some armour to set them apart from their team mates...

 ... and the last contenders, the Catchers, get yellowish beaks and purple tones on the head spikes.








For the Big Guy, I felt it would be about right to give him the very same tones of the Blitzers, since he's supposed to be a 'strength' element in the team (a bit like the blitzers).

As a final touch I've built a "Turn" counter for the team: a banner inspired in Japanese crests, representing the distinctive the barbed spines in their heads.

 

Hope you like them!