Arriving suspiciously close to the time of year when I like to pad out the number of models in the “painted” column of my records with some easy wins so that it doesn’t look so pitifully small next to the “bought” column, we have three little grot scuttlings from Silver Tower.
I’ve had a bit of a tempestuous relationship with these models – first I loved them, then I grew to hate them, then I neglected them for years and now they’re done. I didn’t put myself through too much effort here in the end, but I’m happy enough with them now they’re finished.
It’s been a while since I painted any Blood Bowl teams but I still had the green paint out from Orktober and my Snotlings are well overdue for completion. First of all I rattled through these three little chaps, the specialists of the team.
Next a pair of pump wagons. Are those allowed on the pitch? Ref? Ref!?!
A couple of tokens (which I always find incredibly difficult to photograph)…
…and a couple of markers.
And the team is done!
Of course this just reminds me that there are plenty of other Blood Bowl players for other teams that I still need to get to. More tales of sporting achievement lie ahead then!
Lurking in the shadows of the lanky, evil Kruelboys are packs of nasty little hobgoblins (or Hobgrots as Games Workshop insists they should be known – or for that matter Hobnobs as I keep misreading them. And now I want a biscuit). As is so often the way of things I painted a few of these back in 2021 and planned to tackle more soon, then did precisely zip with them until now.
Nasty little so-and-so’s aren’t they, but they do look nicely vicious mob-handed.
Alas, these little grots are only worth one point each so despite the fact that they were a bit of a faff to paint they don’t really add a great deal to my overall score. At present I’m on 33 points (so exactly half of the score of my rival IRO who’s latest ramshackle creation leaves him on a tidy 66). Still the clutter of unpainted grots on my desk was bugging me to say the least and getting them finished was something I really wanted to achieve this month, using the contest to motivate me to actually finish the damn things. With them out of the way I’ll be turning my attention back to the heap of part-painted orcs I’ve got sitting around as I strive to even the score with less than half of the month left to go.
Last time we were on the Blood Bowl pitch I was working on my Goblin team. Now we’re back with the little green gits to paint up the final three (for now). These rascals come from the Forge World Killer Kontraptions set which I treated myself to a while back. First of all we have the rambunctious Ooligan…
… then the Pogoer (who’s head has been swapped for one from the Night Goblins)…
…and lastly the Doom Diver.
Add them to the various other Goblins I’ve painted lately and there’s a whole new team ready to go!
I reckon I’ve done pretty well with Blood Bowl over the last couple of month but, as regular readers will no doubt have guessed already, there’s still plenty more still to do.
Right, I know what you’re thinking. Another Blood Bowl team Wudugast? Another greenskin team? I mean, fair enough, paint more teams, Blood Bowl is cool, but you do know there’s more to the game than just green guys right? You’ve already got an Orc team, and a Black Orc team, and then there’s those Snotlings that you should be finishing – do you need to start a Goblin team as well?
Well here’s my excuses. The thing is, I actually have quite a few Goblins already. I painted six of the runty little gits for my Black Orcs and another four for my normal Orcs, which means I have almost enough to field a team already. They wouldn’t be a very good team but still…
Back when I started my original Orc team I bought myself a set of Goblins, partly to assist the Orcs and partly because I thought at some point I’d like to paint the whole set and have a Goblin team as well. Of course it’s taken me a while to get around to it, but here we are at last. I also have a troll who I might as well get my moneys’ worth out of now that I’ve finally got around to painting him.
As well as the ordinary Goblin Linemen and their Trained Trolls there are six other positions on a Goblin team. These tricky, sneaky, cheaty little so-and-so’s are where a lot of the strengths (such as they are) of a Goblin team lie, or so I’m told anyway. The art of playing Goblins, it has often been repeated to me, is to drag the opposition down to your level and beat them with experience. A while ago, when I was putting in an order with Forge World, I talked myself into buying models for three of these positions; the ‘Ooligan, Pogoer and Doom Diver. Anyway, that left me with three positions to fill; the Fanatic, Loony and Bomma. I already have a few Fanatics around so I grabbed one I’d already painted and press-ganged him into the team.
Anyway, enough of models I’ve already painted – lets look at some new stuff! My next step was to dig around in the bits box and kitbash myself a Bomma with a suitability volatile-looking fungal bomb.
I didn’t really need more Goblin Linemen but I had a couple of them sitting around so I painted them up anyway.
Lastly I turned my attention to the (chainsaw wielding) Loony. I experimented a couple of times with making my own but nothing really looked right. As I was struggling with this however I stumbled upon Slugkap Kipplecrac, a limited edition model from a company called Geek Salad. He was perfect for the job so how could I possibly resist? Better yet, the model I received turned out to be number 007. Those who survive his chainsaw rampages will undoubtedly be shaken, but not stirred.
The name’s Kipplecrac, Slugkap Kipplecrac!
With these done I’m well on my way to having the Goblin team up and running, especially as I can borrow things like tokens and markers from the Orcs (I’m already borrowing half their players after all!). All being well I should get the final lads finished soon.
Time for some more Blood Bowl players as I make a blatant attempt to pad out the number of models I’ve painted this month with lots of tiny Snotlings, using a mix of new plastics and a few of the old metal models I’ve had sitting about.
Want to see a group shot of the whole collection so far? Of course you do!
I’ve always had a soft spot for Snotlings (oh all right, I have a soft spot for greenskins of all descriptions but I am particularly fond of the little snots). Needless to say I’ve got loads of them kicking around so expect to see this infestation grow and grow!
Why yes, I did paint a stone troll and name him Rock Bottom. Don’t judge me, you’d have done the same thing if you’d thought of it!
Once again this is a model which has lurked in the pile of shame for some time, and now comes stomping forth at long last as I continue my efforts to work my way through the backlog. Somewhere I have a couple more of these trolls, expect to see them… someday.
Right you horrible lot! Did you over-indulge at Christmas? Good!
As it happens I’ve been a busy boy. With the end of the year looming I decided to finish off my Black Orc Blood Bowl team (minus the troll – for crying out loud will you stop going on and on about that bloody troll!). The team had reached the stage where although there were still several models to paint they were all fairy small, nothing I couldn’t handle before we reach 2022 right?
First things first we have the three remaining goblins that complete the squad of players able to take to the pitch. Let’s take a look at them.
This one seems to think he’s a bit tough. Let’s see how well that holds up when a chaos warrior is thundering down towards him…
I do like this lad’s headgear, very stylish indeed sir!
Gathered together with their mates from a couple of weeks ago, we have the goblin half of the team (joining the Orc half which I painted – appropriately – back in Orctober).
Of course we need a full-team group shot but that will have to wait because we have a few other things to look at first. Each team comes with a couple of coin-shaped counters with the team logo stamped on them.
And then we have a couple of balls. Again each team comes with balls in the style of the team. Do you want to see a goblin playing with his balls? You do? Well ok then…
A clever thing about a lot of the recent Blood Bowl teams is the way that each miniature can be built in one of two very distinct ways. Two sprues of models therefore give you two sets of pairs of models. In the first Orc team I painted you ended up with two sets of “clones”, each Orc was the same as their partner, until I set about converting with gusto of course! With this team there was no need to do that, and in my book that’s a very good thing. Much as I enjoy converting models it should be something that you do because you want to do it, not because you feel you have to just to end up with an aesthetically pleasing collection. Anyway, just for interest here’s all the pairs of models from the Black Orc team. Despite the name of this blog I can’t recall doing anything in the way of converting with these.
And there we have it, the Black Orc team is ready to roll. Want to see a group shot? Of course you do!
I’ve still got plenty more Blood Bowl to tackle in 2022 of course. There’s that half-painted elf team, my long-neglected humans and various undead monsters all clamouring for attention. And that troll of course but the less said about him the better!
Time to revisit the Blood Bowl pitch as I keep chipping away at the Black Orc team I started in October. Last time we saw them I’d painted all 6 of the orcs which just left the goblins waiting for attention. Since then I’ve been working away at painting up the more nimble and diminutive side of the team and managed to complete first one…
…then another…
…and finally a third.
I also went for the easy win of getting these two markers painted up as well.
All in all the team is coming together nicely now so I’ll aim to finish it by that ever elusive date known only as “soon”.
Time for another of Games Workshop’s newer releases, and this time it’s the turn of the Hobgoblins, or as they have now been rebranded “Hobgrots”. For a while I mistakenly believed they were called “Hobgobs” and then, when I was texting a mate about them, noticed that my phone was autocorrecting them to Hobnobs – and that’s what they’ve been called round my house ever since. Although since painting them I’ve started referring to them as “fiddly little bastards” instead…
Much like the Kruelboy Gutrippas I decided to paint these in a slightly different style to that I’ve used for orcs and goblins in the past and as a result the learning curve proved quite steep. Still, now that they’re actually done I’m happy with them, I’ll aim to tackle a few more soon.
Convert or Die 