As promised I’ve been working on more Blood Bowl orcs over the weekend and now have a couple of additional linemen ready to join the ranks.
Not only that but I’ve also painted up a couple of goblins (you knew I’d sneak some of the little gits in somewhere right?). At some stage I plan to add a troll who can then throw these smaller team-mates around the pitch, although that won’t be happening for a while as the troll is proving to be a real nightmare to assemble. It’s a large and, for plastic, relatively heavy miniature with all of its weight resting on a fairly slim ankle and as a result it keeps breaking and falling over. I think my next move will be to pin it, surely a first for a plastic model; either way he won’t be joining the team for a little while yet. In the meantime these goblins will just have to run around under their own steam.
The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted that the second goblin had a headswap with one of the old Night Goblin fanatics. I do have a full team of goblins tucked under the desk so at some stage I’ll get around to painting them as well, whenever the battle against the backlog allows me.
Convert or Die 
November 23rd, 2020 at 11:41 am
Lovely work as always and I do love the Goblins. Intrigued by the Troll and the need to pin it. Will be interested to see that one in due course. No rush!
November 24th, 2020 at 7:42 pm
Thanks mate š Well, sooner or later (probably later…) I’ll get a whole goblin team painted up. As for the troll, having a bit of a moan about him has at least inspired me to actually get on with it and pin his ankle. Say this for plastic miniatures, it’s an easier job drilling and pinning than it is with metal! It’s left him with a slightly more leaned back pose than he used to have but nothing too awful, and it fits with his general stance. You can see what he’s meant to look like here. Note that everything rests on that surprising small ankle… https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Blood-Bowl-Troll
November 24th, 2020 at 8:10 pm
That troll is some figure.
November 24th, 2020 at 8:52 pm
Isn’t he just! I’ll admit I both love him and hate him š
November 23rd, 2020 at 12:39 pm
Nice work! The head swap has worked really well, also I’m amazed you got a plastic model to snap!
November 24th, 2020 at 7:46 pm
Thank you! For clarification, the head I used came from one of the old fanatics, which had separate heads, so it was nothing too fancy. That said I did once manage a headswap on one of the standard night goblins, managed to keep and reuse both the head and the body too. It was bloody tricky though, apart from giving me something to boast about I’m not sure it was worth the effort – definitely not something I’m in a rush to repeat!
November 25th, 2020 at 6:53 pm
It may of been easy but it works nice, I’ve seen (and done) plenty of head swaps where it just does not work, looks somehow odd etc. But this one seems to look perfect so well done!
And yer the other one you mention sound rather tricky!
November 23rd, 2020 at 9:24 pm
Very nice- love the goblins.
Cheers,
Pete.
November 24th, 2020 at 7:47 pm
Cheers – you can’t beat a few crazy gobbos!
November 23rd, 2020 at 11:13 pm
Is that the ‘pitching Troll’? Yea, the ankle was a paint the butt. I bought that damned thing and sold it almost immediately. I modded the arm a bit, but no matter what it still didn’t look right. I’ll likely sell off the one from the season 2 box as well. Or carve him up or basing materials! ;P
I’m glad you got one of your Night Gobbos painted up before me, as I took the idea from you originally. I’ve got a whole team of the Underworld Goblins assembled with the Night Goblin heads, and you were right that they work great!
Looking really good, and can’t wait to see more!
November 24th, 2020 at 12:36 am
Oh yea, forgot to ask “What sort of rust effect are you doing on the shoulder pads?”. I can see it more clearly on pic 4. I’m not sure if that’s something new you’re doing, but it looks great!
November 25th, 2020 at 4:44 pm
Cheers! It’s my usual rust effect, so working over a base coat of boltgun metal washed with agrax earthshade I sponge on rhinox hide, then mournfang brown, then skrag brown then fire dragon bright, using a bit less each time so what’s below stays visible. Then sponge on a bit of stormhost silver along the edges for chips. Oh and I’ve also been sponging rhinox and mournfang onto the non-metal areas here and there for a bit of mud splatter. It’s a dirty game after all!
November 25th, 2020 at 8:55 pm
Ah, it’s the sponge effect that I’m noticing. I guess a sponge is the only way you’re really going to get that dotted look of rust. Really nice work, and I should definitely give it a go. I tried sponges on Necromunda terrain, and now I’m not even sure where those sponges went to! Thanks so much for the tip!
November 25th, 2020 at 4:35 pm
Thanks mate! Yup, it’s the pitching troll. Can’t blame you for flogging yours, it’s a cracking model when it holds together but what were they thinking with that ankle?! Do you have any pictures of your modified version? I should have a look back through your archive. Just thinking that I’d rather convert my second one (from the new boxset too), probably using bits from the AoS trolls, but I could use some inspiration. Chopping it up for basing sounds very tempting at times though…
That whole team of modified goblins sounds awesome, I’m really pleased the idea worked. Of course I need to see what they look like painted now…Ā
November 25th, 2020 at 8:50 pm
Took me a bit, but looks like I have some pics of the Troll in the post: https://doubledowndice.wordpress.com/2017/07/13/miniatures-haul-4/
Mainly I felt like the covered face was ridiculous, and as mentioned in the post, I enjoy the cartoonish look of the Willy Trolls. But even after trying the conversion, it just looked weird at some angles.
Yea, I’d like to see the Underworld team painted up too, but they are probably way down in the queue. I kinda liked the idea of the team, but have basically failed miserably with them every time. There are more fun teams to play, so I’ll likely tackle those first. I’m hoping I can make some headway this week (holiday over here), and have more to show soon.
November 25th, 2020 at 9:34 pm
Thanks for that. For some reason I can’t comment on your post, probably just my phone being weird and I can’t get to the computer right now, but I’ll have to comment on it here instead.
“Itās interesting all the little tricks that experienced Blood Bowl players use…Might be a good post someday”. Did you ever write that post? I’d certainly read it, I hadn’t worked out about differentiating between stunned and KO’d players by which way up they’re lying for example, that’s a great idea.
I like the way you changed the pose on that troll, and by opening it up you can see the face a lot more as well, which leaves it open to a headswap from one of the rockguts as well. Definitely food for thought there. I do like the official Blood Bowl troll (apart from the ankle of course) but I can’t abide duplicates and it struck me as a terribly frustrating and difficult model to convert so I’ll try to make a challenge of it! I’ll have a second ogre as well once the new box arrives but the new one will probably end up being recruited into my Necromunda ogryn gang.
I’ll just have to be patient waiting for the Underworlds team – although do keep in mind that painted miniatures perform better, that might be why they’re not doing so well for you on the pitch currently š Enjoy your break, I’ll keep an eye out for your next team.
November 27th, 2020 at 6:06 am
Haha, Ive played Underworld on Fumbbl, not unpainted. Coincidentally, I did read something that says Underworld is better with the new rules/team change. So who knows?
I actually didnāt get around to writing that article. I think in my next post Iāll be showing something I did along those lines though.
Yea, Iām pretty sure I wasnāt the first to try that conversion on the Troll, but it did seem natural. Iāll be curious to see what you end up doing. The sculpts are pretty good on both trolls that GW released, but Iām not crazy about either pose. I really wish they would have just given us a new troll with closed fists or something. Oh well.
I think WordPress turns off comments on older posts, maybe thatās a default setting or something.
November 27th, 2020 at 7:14 pm
That’s interesting (WordPress preventing comments on old posts) I’ll have to look into it and see if mine is the same, and if so if I can switch it off.
Got my new Blood Bowl box today so I’ve had another look at the troll on the sprue, I’ve got a few ideas but I’ll need to have a proper play around with it and see what I can come up with.
What did you make of the BB teaser GW showed the other day by the way? Looks very undead to me, with that skeletal hand and bit of bone sticking up in the background, the armour looks very decorative and the shoulderpad reminds me of the mummies from the shambling undead team so I’m thinking Tomb Kings myself.
November 28th, 2020 at 7:10 pm
Awesome, being in the states, I think itās going to be awhile before I get mine. Kinda wished I had ordered off Amazon now, wouldāve been cheaper and faster apparently. Though I guess I wouldāve missed out on the promo dugouts.
Did you order the Necro team too? They look really cool.
The BB teaser is most likely the Undead Star Player, heās a Dwarf. āSkrull Halfheightā. I already converted one up, but probably wonāt look as good as the official one. Unless there is a significant change in the rules though, Star Players donāt come into play hardly at all. They are still fun pieces to do, but then you might be stuck with a mini you never use.
November 28th, 2020 at 11:26 pm
Ah, good point – I didn’t think of Star Players, I was assuming new team (although I think it’s a safe assumption that they’ll be on their way too – hopefully one per quarter like in previous years). Is Skrull Halfheight the undead dwarf on the pogo-stick or am I thinking of someone else? I know what you mean about Star Players, they’re a bit like special characters in Necromunda, they add a bit of character by putting in a celebrity appearance now and again but it’s not really their story, the game is all about your characters and the way in which they develop. As I’m much more interested in painting/modelling/converting though they’re fun little projects to do. I have a pipe dream that someday I’ll convert up every character for Necromunda. It’d take me about a million years mind so it’ll probably never happen but a man can dream.
Yes, I picked up the new team, I couldn’t resist them, they look very cool and silly. I’ve already swiped the sack-covered head from one of the zombies and used it on a Cawdor ganger, and I’m sorely tempted to use the “brains” head from the flesh golem for a silly Goliath conversion. Not sure when I’ll paint them but so far I’m going with “the Up-Town Ghouls” as a team name. š
December 4th, 2020 at 6:59 pm
Well, I just read that Star Players will probably be used more in the new season. So thatās kind of cool. Yea, they are fun to create and paint. I would love to have more time to do all of them, but I also want to start playing again, so I need to focus.
You got your stars a little crossed there. ;). Skrull is just an undead Dwarf. Iām not sure what his skills are at the moment. The pogoer is an Undead Goblin, which is pretty cool. I already made a custom one of him and it was fun. There are definitely a few stars of mine, I would love to see painted up.
Unfortunately GW seems to be extremely slow at getting the US orders out. I finally got a notice today, and it isnāt the boxed set.
I wouldnāt have preordered from them, but there were rumors of low stock and I didnāt want to get Ebay gouged again.
December 5th, 2020 at 12:39 pm
Ha! “Stars crossed” got a proper out-loud laugh from me. š I’m with you, I like the idea of converting up all the Star Players, much in the same way as I like the idea of converting every Necromunda special character, but I’ve only got one lifetime and one pair of hands so maybe I shouldn’t bite off more than I can chew.
Aye, I heard there was likely to be low stock on the boxset too, so also went for a pre-order ASAP. As it turns out sitting there with my finger hovering over the “buy now” button waiting for it to go on sale wasn’t really necessary.
Seems like things are the opposite way round here, I’ve found that pre-ordering from GW gets me whatever I ordered fairly quickly and efficiently but 3rd-party suppliers are very slow. I ordered the new Orlocks and their book from Element (who used to be one of the best places to get miniatures in the UK) a month and a half ago and I’m really regretting it, they’ve been saying “Next week, we promise, this time we mean it!” for a long time now… It’s a shame, they used to be really good. If I’d spent a couple of quid more and gone straight to GW I’d have received it long ago.
Wonder what’s going on with GW at the moment though, I keep seeing that they’re having issues sending out stock internationally (US, Australia and Japan all seem to be suffering big delays) and now they’ve put the Death Guard order back because they’re having supply issues. Presumably Covid is affecting their supply chain and I’m worried Brexit will just make things worse, hopefully we won’t see too many boxes of miniatures stuck in a flooded lorry park in Kent.
December 5th, 2020 at 7:09 pm
Yea, I think COVID has caused a lot supply issues. So hopefully once we’re hopefully out of this someday hopefully, shipping stuff will be back to normal. I did hear that the problem in the US, seems to be more on our end, than the UK. So not sure who really to blame. I’ll grumble either way, until the boxed set finally arrives (hopefully). I guess I have a copy of White Dwarf and a box of Necromunda coming, but that seems small potatoes to the boxed set. Just gotta have some patience!
Yea, when I heard about the preorder scarcity and with COVID making things unpredictable, I was also wringing my hands and hovering over the order button like a vulture! It’s kind of weird, because the time/day they gave for orders was Local time. Being hours and hours from UK time, I was even more worried that everything would be gone. But yep, no worries there. A few items sold out later on, but I think most people with a heads up, probably got what they wanted.
I just didn’t want a replay of the Skaven dice, or worse, the Lizardmen dice. That one caught me totally off-guard, as I thought we were past that stage. So all in all, I should be getting stuff, and I was able to order. Probably just need more patience! š
December 8th, 2020 at 7:31 am
Back to normal you say? I guess we should pencil those deliveries in for 2027 then! š
Aye, I was sure it would be gone in minutes. I didn’t expect it to be quite as bad as Indomitus, it was on sale here for about 7 minutes and the website kept crashing throughout. I was ready waiting that time too and still missed out (got it through made to order though). Same thing with the Necron Christmas box, except it went even quicker. I added mine to the basket less than a minute after it went on sale and still got a message saying I wasn’t fast enough. Crazy. With it I found a guy on eBay who was selling it cheaper (by a Ā£ or so) than GW had been – not sure what was going on there, that’s not how gouging is supposed to work but I’m not looking an opportunity like that in the mouth!
Are you one of those guys that collects dice then? Never quite got that side of things myself, not a criticism of course, I collect boxes of miniatures that I claim I’m going to paint “someday” so who am I to judge? š Looks like there’s Skaven dice out at the weekend, although I hear they’re different to the last set?
December 8th, 2020 at 6:27 pm
Blood Bowl 2016 had a similar thing, with site crashing, etc. I think most people got the boxed set, but the Winter board and some other smaller things got snatched up by scalpers.
On the plus side, GW emailed me yesterday that my boxed set will be on its way. Better very late, than never, right?!
Dice? Yep, I do like them. Not sure if itās nostalgia from my early intro to RPGs or what, but I have nearly all the BB dice. The old ones are much easier to read on the table, but I like the looks of a lot of the new ones. If only they could make them more readable. Lack of contrast in colors and more intricate images seem to be the main issues.
Iām away from home right now, so I havenāt had a chance to check the images of the new dice against the originals. The Dwarfs look close, maybe close enough for me. The 2016 Dwarf dice, were some of the coolest ones they released though.
November 25th, 2020 at 8:31 am
Excellent š
November 25th, 2020 at 4:09 pm
Cheers! š
November 26th, 2020 at 6:04 am
These are all great looking additions to your Ork team! I like the poses and demeanor of the Orks but those goblins steal the show. They certainly look as if they think they’re tough š
November 26th, 2020 at 7:07 am
Thanks mate š Yeah, those gobbos think they’re really tough, and no-one has shown them their error… yet…
November 26th, 2020 at 9:02 pm
Hm. You are in fact making me want to dig out my Orc team and finally finish them off. I guess that’s a small enough project with an actual endpoint to it, so it’s actually something acheivable!
November 27th, 2020 at 6:55 pm
Go on – you can do it! It really is the nice thing about skirmish sized games, getting a project done is wonderfully achievable and you get that lovely hit of satisfaction for another project in the bag, without spending years of your life over it.