Blood Bowl – Nurgle Team Test Model TO DONE!

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I’ve been #paintingwarhammer in this Nurgle Blood Bowl Bloater and some of the turn markers. I’m currently in avoidance mode so I found something completely different to play around with which was marginally effective in keeping me productive.

I don’t normally do test models, but the original thought was these were something my youngest and I could paint together but I’m just not convinced that’s going to happen. Either way if I gave this a try I would have an idea of how to do it so I could share with him if he showed interest. Otherwise I;d just find somehting else for us to paint.

I’d been contemplating what to do and which bits would be which, typically it ended up far more complicated than the rough and rusty approach I’d had in my head originally. Saying that the dirty cream pants are a revelation thanks to my Dark Ochre art acrylic.

In particular the seat of the pants came out so well, although I’m less pleased with the lack of highlights on his back. But I’m planning to do a wide variety of skin colours, again to play around. Some will start with the same base but I may diverge in how I approach each rotting player.

The tar came out just as I’d hoped with the sickly bleached branches sticking out of the muck. I drybrushed the lower parts of the boots black [after painting all the highlights, must not do those again in future] then added some gloss varnish to keep the wet look and some blobs of the 3D gloss texture paint to complete the effect.

I did one of the markers Nurgle Green, some purple and strong tone washes helping to give that diseased look.

I had not noticed I’d caught the knuckle with the 3D paint, rather annoying. 

All the boils were yellow, with a gloss varnish and red and purple washes to make them painfully sore looking.

I struggled deciding on how to do the team badge but I just threw on the bone and dark ochre to help tie it in with his clothing.

I was really pleased with the end result, can’t wait to do the others, although I realise that I may have to switch around the colouring on the pants. I think if I stick to dirty cream pants some will end up with very little orange. So we’ll see what happens.

The plan is not to batch paint, or at least not in large numbers so I can try and get them to be subtly different, which is odd because on the box they look great doing them the same despite the diverse range of models. But I just want a random mix of shambling creatures.

I also cracked on with these counters, once again trying to get Ryza Rust to work for me.

Not sure how good they look and the BB logo and Nurgle symbol was falling back on the filthy cream, with a bit more green thrown in for different tones.

I then added Tamiya Clear Red  X-27 on all the fleshy bits. Liam has been dissing the use of gloss on models for a while now and I just can’t help myself  adding it, even to the detriment of the model.

I think it may well have been better with out, what do you think?

Anyway, I never expected to use the Great Big Minor Project Galactic Stamp of Approval. I don’t consider Major and Minor projects a thing but it makes sense to acknowledge a minor TO DONE! all things considered. So I get’s one.

Blood Bowl – Troll – basecoats

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I’ve started #paintingwarhammer my Blood Bowl Troll. It had been annoying me that this figure was just primed black. I needed to break it up so I could see where the Troll began and the uniform ended. As it is I haven’t decided on my Ork team, I was thinking black armour with rust and stains.

Having done a little black and rust on the Blood Bowl Ogre I thought it might be fun to carry that through on the Orc team. Anyway, the Troll was really about making a decision on skintone. Again, I’d seen an amazing Troll/Troggoth that I liked but forgot to bookmark it, I was sure I’d saved it to my phone but can’t find it. But I pulled the trigger and went with turquoise [yeah I know I must be obsessed]. I figures it’s something I was familiar with – aside from the nids I’d done the ‘Turqs’ in my Genestealer Cult army. But I also added a pale grey belly, which I think aligns with how trolls are being painted nowadays but it also is a challenge as that will eb new for me.

The stony plates on the back might end up like my nid carapace. Again, this was the element that I’d seen on another troll that impressed me so much but I can’t recall what it was… I’ll just have to wing it.

Anyway, I’m just glad I’ve got something else to look at on it and try and work out what is going where. However, I don’t think it’ll progress much further than this for a good while. I’m pretty sure I’ll just look at the Orks themselves – I’ll do all the skin on the Orks which then gives me the next step of the armour and clothing and then that should feed into the troll.

Blood Bowl – Troll Big Build – TO DONE!

Although I have a metal Blood Bowl troll that my friend Pete [he who got me into Blood Bowl in the first place] gave me, he’s really only going to fit with my old skool BB teams. If I want a Troll with my Ork team, as and when I paint them, then it has to be this gorgeous beast. And fittingly Pete was the one who gifted it to me for my birthday – he’s such an enabler.

Once again I end up feeling you get a lot for your money in this model. When in actual fact is I’d ordinarily balk at the cost of this thing but compared to some of the other single HQ units it’s comparatively good value.

Think he’ll be my Tyranid turquoise with a pale belly [similar to the existing Troll/Troggoth approach I suppose]. Way down on my list of things to do but it was something to keep me occupied while I felt I couldn’t do anything else…

And so I get my Big Build Big Galactic Stamp of Approval – yay!

Blood Bowl – Human Team Original Middenheim Marauders – Flocking Hell! – TO DONE! again…

Afternoon #warmongers and although I finished #paintingwarhammer #bloodbowl team. I did decide to add flock to the bases. I’d contemplated it, thought it’d lose the effort I’d already done in the brown bases and asked online after creating a test base. Ultimately I went for it and I’m so glad I did.

It’s like the verdigris weathering on my brassy bronze. As much as I love the metal effect [but hate doing it] and it looks great, as soon as you add the turquoise it just makes it better. It requires a leap of faith every time and adding flock was the same, particularly as I don’t use it on any other bases.

But it works so well with the red and black and although I had some mixed feelings about the team the flock has levelled them up. So much so I’ll probably do the elf team too, they could do with some love 💖

I did all these in a lunch break at work, there are only the coins still to do.

Turn and re-roll markers.

I feel perhaps I should have added a little more rust on the players, something I only decided to add to the ogre, but my Orc team will definitely have that as a feature so perhaps not. The rust is Ryza Rust, but thinned down as a wash – one way to get the effect of weathering powders without the powder and issues getting it to set.

These were the markers before flocking.

Which is nice but I spent so much time looking at the test piece below that I knew I would get so much more joy out of them flocked than left plain.

The test base, I really need to sort out all the balls as well.

So, a Big Build Basing Galactic Stamp of Approval. 

 And a Hobby Season Big Galactic Stamp of Approval, again because why not? I may not get as many models painted this year and it’s the best stamp yet so I want to get the best value I can out of it!

Blood Bowl – Human Team Original Middenheim Marauders – Ogre – TO DONE!

Afternoon #warmongers and I’ve finished #paintingwarhammer #bloodbowl Ogre. Since I started back in the hobby nine years ago I’ve had some improvement in my painting skill. I can clearly see the change from those first Tyranids to what I do now.

Despite certain elements being rougher they are better. My Dark Angels have progressed too, but as I’ve painted less understandably the improvement has been less noticeable. However, because I delayed doing them for so long maybe they are just being painted at the same level thanks to my Tyranid painting experience.

Anyway, thanks to expanding the variety of things I paint – Underwolrd’s warbands and Blood Bowl teams I have noticed I’ve ‘levelled-up’. Ylthari’s Guardians was a big step up and I think this is another one.

This is Bo, the ‘Box’, my Blood Bowl Ogre. When I painted his face I just thought of the ‘Face of Bo’ not that he looks like the Face of Bo but it just sprang to mind. However, Bo was too hard for him to spell and he can’t count so the Middenheim Marauders gave him the X identifier and couple dwith his name he got the Box nickname.

He’s sponsored by Orcidas, hence the three stripes on his paints, inverted on the other side [pictured above].

I think the rust stains sold it to me, just some extra tone to elevate it. That is I think the thing I need to hold onto the most. I try and add texture and underpainting to what I do, adding in additional tones on top will just enhance everything.

His face is definitely the part I’m most proud of – a departure for me, still far from perfect but for just an hour, or so, work I’m well chuffed.

I did try and tweak the pupil on the right, as we look at it. It’s better but still gozzy. I can also so some random red splodges on his team badge, I didn’t fix them as they almost look like it’s worn off, which fits the weathering. Teeth could have been a little less basic but nevermind.

Now to decide if I’m going to apply some flock. I may do my Elven team first as a grass pitch makes more sense for them. I also need to finish the balls, turn markers and coins.

Till then here’s my Big Galactic Stamp of Approval for being a good boy!

Blood Bowl – Human Team Original Middenheim Marauders – Ogre – facecoats

Afternoon #warmongers and I’m continuing #paintingwarhammer #bloodbowl Ogre. Having finished the white quartered highlights, silver buckles, black leather and Warplock Bronze gut plate it was time to go at the skin. I wanted him to echo the brown skin tones of the 2nd edition Oldheim Ogres team [shown further down]. So I highlighted all the previously shaded skin with Valejo Game Color Leather brown.

I had thought I’d add some tattoos/face-paint similar to these guys but ultimately didn’t.

All the leather straps are black, but the actual gut plate harness was Rhinox Hide, washed with Army Painter Dark Tone [black]. Various stippling took place on the highlights to add more texture/hide mistakes.

I added some extremely minimal highlights to the red [first stage highlights from my Red Planet Basing mix] just to add that definition between armour plates.

I also decided to paint his chest ‘rosette’ – white as it’s still in that quarter and I’d already sacrificed some white with the black armour plate. But I added red edging for a bit more contrast.

And boom – the face. I used Valejo Game Color Bronzed flesh for this but added a small amount of heavy red for the sides of the face, nose and temples.

The grooves in the lips were a little clumsy and the pupils on his eyes slightly off centre, but the right as we look at it took 5 or 6 goes, because my hands were shaking so much, to get this and when tabletop viewing it’s not as prominent.

Adding that red texture took this to a whole new level for me. Of course the brush strokes are pronounced and it’s far from perfect but it’s a level of detail I would not have used int he past and yet it’s made such a huge difference.

I tried a bit of stippling on his head for more texture, I could have gone with stubble but happy with this so I’ll leave it be. You can see some of the red highlights more clearly in this pic.

Nothing extra, just pics using my camera magnifying app to get macro-shots.

I may well try and fix that eye, get the rosette and all the leather and metallics done… oh and the base 😲 yes, usually the base is done first but this has still got to happen…

Blood Bowl – Human Team Original Middenheim Marauders – Ogre Basecoats

Afternoon #warmongers and I’m continuing #paintingwarhammer #bloodbowl Ogre. After a matt black prime and red oxide zenithal highlight I had some pretty decent coverage. Given the cold weather I did the full 2 minutes of shaking both spray cans and even kept them warm [by holding them in front of the tumble dryer vent as I shook them]. I then quartered the uniform with Valejo Game Color Stonewall Grey. It amazes me that I’ve used this paint as a base for almost every white I’ve ever done and teeth too. It’s spurted out of the dropper bottle numerous times but still feels like there’s half a bottle left, and after a decade too!

I’m still a little undecided on some elements. I had envisaged a roughly painted belly plate in team colours but it might be silver or bronze… Army Painter Strong Tone washes over everything – I have noticed a glossy finish to this batch, maybe it’s because I can never be bothered to shake the bottles. I also think I should be thinning them a bit more. They work much better with water to break down the surface tension and bleed into the crevices more.

A couple of nights on and I’ve done all the first Stonewall Grey highlights and all the Valejo Game Color Heavy Red [or Khorne Red] highlights. I then did Vermilion art acrylics for the next red highlights.

Now I think the other Marauders were done with VGC Bloody Red but I wanted to play around and I felt this colour might give me some more interesting results and I think it was justified in the end.

It’s such an odd paint, very thick but has quite an opaqueness when watered down, but that can easily become a glaze depending how you work the paint with the brush. But then a quick stipple and you get the signature hammered texture finish.

White highlights next and I may even add in some additional edge highlighting on the red, not to make it ‘pop’ you understand, but to add definition 😉

Blood Bowl – Human Team Original Middenheim Marauders – TO DONE!

The #Bloodbowl Middenheim Marauders are complete [#paintingwarhammer], nearly exactly 2 years since I finished building them! For those up on their Blood Bowl teams you will see I have gone old skool, not the black and white pattern of the current Marauders.

 Sport is littered with team or sporting code fractures, maybe these guys split off when the Marauders went more corporate?

I went with the traditional quartered red and white, this is in honour of one of my oldest friends who had Blood Bowl and it was the first GW game I ever played, despite owning miniatures for years before that.

He had 2nd edition and had his team painted in Middenheim colours, so it was only right to tip them the nod.

Additionally, the very miniatures I had at the time, mainly dwarves had shields quartered in red and white so this legacy really runs deep. 

I even used it as heraldry on my Assault on Black Reach Deathwing Terminators.

I tried to play around with their running shoes – clearly some of the players have their own branded footwear. They look a little incongruous, too bright for ‘fantasy’ football but it was for fun and although it looks odd I can live with it.

They’d have all been TOOO samey if they’d all been kitted out in black boots. I have one further thing to consider – adding static grass. I’ve never done it before and think it might work out nicely but I’m hesitant to do it given the bases look OK as they are.

I really struggled with the numbers. I tried the black numbers but the number shield halved in red and white just made it difficult to read.

So I filled it in yellow, taking the colour from the cutlasses of the Middenheim Marauders badge. I had thought the shoulder pads would remain black – the numbers were much smaller and much clearer contrasting solely against the white. The yellow might have undermined that but it’s consistent across the model.

My three simple conversions to add more variety – I particularly like Joe Mauler in the middle, named after England rugby player Joe Marler and One Eyed Jim [because there’s only one ‘i’ in Jim].

And here’s my Big Galactic Stamp of Approval for being a good boy!

Blood Bowl – Human Team Original Middenheim Marauders – Ogre Big Build – TO DONE!

Although trying to avoid buying new figures with the Middenheim Marauder almost complete I suddenly realised I could add an Ogre into the team for a bit more heft but more importantly some variety. I was also seduced by the ‘relative’ value of this guy.

He’s £12, which on it’s own could be viewed as expensive, but a Genestealer Locus is £17.50 and you get much less model for your buck and even less packaging [which might be a bad thing, I can’t tell]. 

He’s a pretty decent sized unit, only undermined a little bit because GW puts put so many big models nowadays. As I have a few of them, now he’s made he looks a little diminutive next to them. That said put him next to one of my metal 2nd Edition Ogres and he’s a beast – which does beg the question why I didn’t just use one of them in my team – they’re earmarked for their respective Chaos Teams

It’s also worth noticing the detail on his gut shield. I could not understand what was going one and as you can see from the picture above and the actual ‘Eavy Metal pack shots – that skull face is criminally overlooked. I might be taking a few more liberties with my colour scheme on such a big model – a few more metallics but we’ll see how it evolves.

And so I get my Big Build Big Galactic Stamp of Approval – yay!

Blood Bowl Nurgle Team – Big Build – TO DONE!

My youngest got Christmas fever. I’m not sure if it was due to his diagnosis at the end of 2018 or just now he’s 13 he’s aware that giving gifts is something he wants to do personally and not just me buy and gift them to family members on his behalf. Anyway, despite the family ridicule of my hobby he wanted to get me something and had shared with the wife he wanted to explore painting it with me. So I was then tasked by the wife to choose something that I could get that he would then pay for.

I wanted to choose something ideal for the novice and thought Nurgle because if it looks all messy then that’s the point! A Blood Bowl team also supplied a number of models, some of them pairs which I thought was great for me painting one and him painting another.

I made a little conversion on the Pestigors, snipped and rotated some of that branching spinal protrusion. What wwas furstrating was that I had a few metal Nurgle bits from a random ebay purchase – some tentacles and a belly. I had thought they could be used to help add more variety but forgot and then made them!

The only other issue was these came with slotta bases but don’t have slots! That required cutting an old plastic gift card into 2mm strips and gluing them in place.

This is a WiP test for the bases. I’m going to have them trudging through a tar-like swamp with glossy black 3D texture paint, which I still have to add. The stick thing is from the Beason [witches] broom I got ages ago. Hopefully it shouldn’t snap but they’ll be painted bleached and stained where the tar touches them.

So I get my Big Build Galactic Stamp of Approval.

Now usually I would do the basing first but the technique above needs to be done last [I’m OK with that]. So I got them undercoated black and then a zenithal Red Oxide highlight. Although looking at these pictures part of me feels I should just go duo-chrome, but first of all it’s red [not particularly Nurgley and my Middenheim Marauders are red too] and secondly how do I get my newb-painting son to achieve what is potentially possible from this starting point?

The plan is orange sponge-weathered armour plates, rusty trim, orange boots and gloves with filthy cream trousers and shirts. 

I’m also thinking of a mix of odd skins colours – sickly green, raw and bruised Caucasian, rotting greys and turquoise, maybe even a purple and pink? Can’t decide if that’s just going to confuse matters or if we just go off the Nurgle Rotters box at least he’ll have something to look at and emulate.

There’s no rush on these though, I’ve a hydraulic robot arm to help him build first, that he got for Christmas. It’s all on sprues and has an 87 page construction manual! At least him helping to build these with me gave him some experience when building the robot arm, although it’s a challeneg even for me so I’m currently doing most of the heavy lifting – hence why we need a robot arm!