Blood Bowl : Brutal Deluxe, Orc Team

They're finished! I actually managed to get them painted before BOYL 2015 with the hope of getting some OldBowl in, but amongst all the other games I failed to get a single scrap in. But it did focus my time to get them to a completed stage, they've been languishing half-finished for an age. You may notice that there are still two spaces on the display board, these are for two future Black Orc blockers, so I guess this is still an unfinished project..😞

The team have been through a few different colour schemes for their kit, it started off as cream and brown, but I needed it to stand out more from my traditional Orc skin colour, so I eventually ended up with a blue and yellow scheme. I think the blue maybe a bit "baby blue" but I'm not changing it now. You can also see extensive rust too on the armour, I was hoping this would contrast nicely with the Orc's skin colour. Hopefully it's been successful. 

Here's the full squad:

The Brutal Deluxe team in all it's glory. It even had a display board made for them using an old picture frame, sand, static grass, brown paint and some gloss varnish for the muddy areas.

The star player/ player coach / all round awesome Blood Bowl Orc player. 

The big troll, the only "oldhammer" miniature in the team (and the first I painted for the team). Love this model.

 

The big guy, troll. I found an extra head in my bitz bix so thought, hey why not have a two headed troll; twice as stupid!

The all important Blitzers, including chainsaw and unibike rider.

The two Black Orc Blockers, still waiting to get the block skill

This Orc thinks he can play a bit.. But he still likes a scrap, aided by his snotling spotter.

Just your standard Orc linemen, ready to fight and try and leave a rusty mark on their opponents.

The Goblin Wizard and his two cheerleaders

The 4 goblin catchers and a couple of snotlings 

The additional stuff; 3 refills, turnmarker and a Dwarven

3rd Edition + Heroquest : BOYL 2016 plans

With the fun of the recent BOYL 2015 still fresh in my mind; I've begun to think what I can do for next year. As this was my second year attending, I now realise just how quickly it comes around and how I need to start making my plans now... I didn't organise a game this year (the year before I GM'ed the scenario; The Shadows of Rensburg, which was a great success), instead I joined in two great games organised by others, namely the Trouble with Kludo, a fantastic 3rd edition scenario and the amazing 40k Deathrace. So what shall I run next year?

Well having an event like this really focuses my hobby planning and allows me to think up wild ideas  based upon games I've always wanted to, often from my childhood. So I'm thinking of something which I've tentatively named The Crypts of Stoke Hall (Stoke Hall being the venue, hosted by the Ansells, where Foundry is and BOYL happens). I'm thinking of combining my two favourite games; 3rd Edition WFB and Heroquest.

So the idea at the moment is that four players will start above ground with their own warbands of any race. Using The Lost and the Damned as a guide a 200 point RoC warband would allow for a champion, 4 rewards and 4 rolls on the retinue table. Other races can just choose whatever of 200 points from Warhammer Armies or straight from the rule book (I may increase this after some play testing). Each player will have a slightly different objective, depending upon their race and the what the warband consists of, but ultimately they are seeking treasure from the underground crypts of Stoke Hall and I as GM will be controlling creatures to stop them,  in a narrative format. There will be 4 different entry points (trapdoors etc) but all above ground happenings will be using a skirmish format of 3rd Edition. When warbands find their point of entry to the underground the rule set will switch to an adapted Heroquest format which combines 3rd edition stat lines for the adventurers and the dungeon creatures (some clever GMing will be be needed here as only some of the warband will be allowed to enter - I have some ideas and will keep these to myself for now).

So that's an outline. That provides me with a framework to plan the game, but more importantly to collect and paint the appropriate miniatures and scenery! I've already decided that the underground baddies  will be a host of undead (plus others) with some appropriate npc's based on 80's GW , (ie Kev Adam's gobbos) with some Ansell references too. And last night I started making my first dungeon tile from extruded polystyrene:

And rummaged through my bitzboxes to find a load of dungeon based bits to add:

I already have some undead models to use (both oop GW and Mantic) and have begun to collect a few more, including the LotR Army of the Dead figures.

Here's the scenery which will be used above ground:

And I'm thinking of modelling the front of Stoke Hall / The Foundry gates as part of it too:

http://www.wargamesfoundry.com


So with so many ideas and things now to do, you can see why it may be a good idea to get my shit together so soon after the last BOYL has just finished!

Any ideas, suggestions or thoughts on all this would be much appreciated at this early stage, before I really get going.

BOYL 2015 report: The Trouble with Kludo and 40k Deathrace

I was very fortunate to be involved with two great games over the Oldhammer Weekend, and there was so much more going on, in fact I didn't even get a game of Bloodbowl in (despite painting late on the Thursday night trying to get the Orc team completed!)

So on Saturday i played a great narrative game of 3rd edition WFB where my Nurgle legions played together for the first time, including my Great Unclean One. Here's some photos:

 

It was a great scenario written by Garth http://warhammerforadults.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1 where my forces had to defend some portal stones from a combined invasion force of Slann and Halfings. Even though my forces were spread quite thinly my Beastmen and Ogres managed to hold up a large chunk of the invading forces whilst my Chaos Dwarf mortar caused carnage to some of the more fearsome units, including 4 wounds on a treeman. Basically I was amazed at how well my Chaos forces fared in holding up the enemy, Nurgle makes them tough (and of course the 3rd edition rules can make for protracted combats).

My game on the Sunday was the much anticipated Deathrace 40k, arranged by captain crooks who had journed all the way from Oz and I got to play with my (unfortunately unfinished) Freeway Fighter recreation). So much excitement as the cars lined up and the game itself lived up to the expectations with a great, slick and fun game with a beautiful range of vehicles on display. I didn't witness the end as I had to leave after my car (which was winning at the time!) got plasma cannoned whilst about to jump a ramp.. I felt even more like a kid during this game...:

I was so engrossed in my games that I didn't take any photos of the other amazing events that were happening, but I'm sure you can get your fix from the other blogs of the attendees. 

So finally a massive thank you to the foundry for hosting so well, with the venue, hospitality and catering excellent as always; a huge thank you to those who organised the games and to those peeps who played with, what I call, a wonderful oldhammer attitude. 

Fighting Fantasy : Freeway Fighter pt.2

Let's go back.... Getting ready for the 40k Deathrace at BOYL 2015, I'm pretty much done with the re-construction of the Fighting Fantasy:Freeway Fighter Chevy '57 Bel Air, based on the illustration by Jim Burns:

I've added milliput (easy to sand), greenstuff (easy to model) to help create the shape, plastic straws for the vents, golf tees for the lights, plasticard and orc spear heads for the scythes / bumpers / guns, a plastic cap for the turret, some thick wire for the rim of the turret and the spoiler and some computer bits for the raised engine.

I'm really happy with my choice of models to accompany the car - both of these are from Heresy's "Gang"  line of miniatures. I contemplated giving both characters some 80's hair (as in the illustration) and equip the female character with a flail, but decided against any more converting. The male character fits perfectly inside the gun turret of the car, but I will obviously paint him separately.

With regards to the car, there is still more sanding and smoothing of the surfaces in an attempt to get that perfect finish as seen on the illustration, but I'm starting to realise how difficult it is going to be to achieve, so don't be surprised if the car looks a little more weathered, tattered, used and old when it comes to the finish!

I've been rubbing charcoal into the sculpted areas, the residue then sits in any crevices and I can continue to sand to get a smooth finish. I'm using a very fine sandpaper, some water and a chamois leather too. Hopefully you've noticed details like the bullet holes along the side panel of the car?

I'll be using a sprayed white primer, followed by several fine coats of Tamiya Clear red sprayed on. I am tempted to do some NMM on the chrome, but instead I ordered some Bare Metal Foil. However this has still not arrived, so I will investigate using some very thin aluminium foil (from a kit kat) and apply with some tacky pva... Watch this space....

Fighting Fantasy: Freeway Fighter (Converting to 40k) Pt.1

This is where I'm up to in my attempt to recreate the car from the cover of Freeway Fighter from the Fighting Fantasy series:

 

To get to this stage, I first deconstructed the original car (a 1:43 Chevy Bel Air convertible) from this:

To this:

Using a power drill to remove the rivets which held the body to the under carriage. I then removed all the plastic parts, including the chrome accessories so that I could strip the paint from the original die cast car using Dettol. 

Once I had the basic chassis to work with I then started added the bitz, my favourite bit! I like finding (and collecting) things that I may be able to use and have a sizeable bag of bitz horded away for just this sort of futuristic project. 

•  the spiked additions to the headlights are the tips of wooden golf tees, with some carving on them
• the longer spikes on the bumper are whittled down plastic skeleton standard bearer poles
• the raised turret is a lid from a small plastic pot with a bendy straw for the large pipe
• the front, raised engine is from a computer circuit board (I like the wires as is, but will probably remove them in favour of a bendy straw to match the original illustration 
• the guns mounted in the bonnet are some small plastic piping and the smaller guns (which are hidden in this picture - but mounted in the front bumper) are snipped from the end of the metal pipe from a precision plastic cement dispenser.
• the additional roofing is made from 3 layers of balsa wood and will be reinforced with a layer of milliput (I'm unsure how I will get this super smooth yet..)

Oh and here's my new toy, a circular cutter. Just because I'm a geek who loves new modelling tools (I'll probably never use it again!) but it was great for cutting circles out of my balsa and plastic lid.

For comparison purposes and maybe to refresh your memory, here's the original illustration by Jim Burns, an image much loved from my childhood and re-awakened with the release of Mad Max and my preparations for BOYL 2015's DeathRace 40k:

So next I will be finishing the roof with some milliput and constructing the lower front bumper with some plasticard/greenstuff. I'll likely be greenstuffing some of the additional details too. I've found a couple of old plastic Orc spear tips which will serve for the scythes and I'll have to think about how to imagine and then create the rear of the car. 

Eventually I'll be sanding the whole thing down and then undercoating white before applying spray coats of Tamiya Clear Red. I hope. I've also ordered some Bare Metal Foil for re-doing the chrome areas (I think this will be easier and look better than NMM chrome painting) but this is all a new experimental experience for me so thankfully the internet has introduced me to the new world of die cast modelling and all their tricks, tips and techniques.

Any advice or suggestions from more experienced modellers would be much appreciated..

Oldhammer BOYL 2015 Preparations

I can attend! It may mean a very early start and a long drive on Saturday 1st August up to the Foundry, Nottingham from Hampshire, but I know it will be worth it. Last year's BOYL was excellent.

I won't be running any games this year as it's all been a bit too last minute and there seems to be so much going on already, but I've earmarked what I would like to be involved with and how that correlates with my hobby ideas (and time) over the coming weeks. Here's the full list of events from the Oldhammer forums, that are running over the weekend. First up for me:

1. Deathrace 40k.

I'm slowly and tentatively being seduced by 40k (cautiously, because I've got enough projects on the go at the moment and I don't want to be distracted). I've always wanted to do some Dark Future stuff, converting Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars by adding guns, steel plating, spikes etc and the BOYL 2015 thread by Captain Crooks can provide me with the opportunity but with the bonus of working in an easier to manage 28mm scale... And of course I've just seen the Mad Max movie. And I love the Fighting Fantasy book Freeway Fighter, so why not combine them all....

This is the visual inspiration, the cover illustration of Freeway Fighter by Jim Burns:

And these are the models I'm going to use to make it happen. A diecast 1:43 Chevy '57 Bel Air Convertible:

The scale may be a bit big, but I was concerned that going smaller would just make the car look tiddly amongst it's competitors... It's taken me some time to source the correct car and decide upon the appropriate scale, but this seems the best fit and only cost me £6 off ebay, I'm now researching and considering how best to convert this into the above image; more to follow.

In terms of the characters shown in the illustration I've purchased the following gangers from Heresy that will need only a small amount of converting (or I may just keep them as is if I run out of time and imagine that the car has new owners):

2. Oldhammer Blood Bowl.

Over the years I've owned lots of Blood Bowl teams and painted quite a few commissions too. My current Orc team has been a WIP for absolutely ages and this will give me the inclination to finish the team and play with them at BOYL. The Oldbowl games are being run by Chico at oldhammeronabudget.blogspot.co.uk and here's the roster I'll probably be taking:

Thrower	5	3	3	8	Sure Hands
Blitzer	6	3	3	9	Block
Blitzer	6	3	3	9	Block
Black Orc	4	4	2	9
Black Orc	4	4	2	9
Lineman	5	3	3	9
Troll	4	5	1	9	Loner; Always Hungry; Mighty Blow; Really Stupid; Regeneration; Throw Team-Mate
Blitzer	6	3	3	9	Block
Blitzer	6	3	3	9	Block
Lineman	5	3	3	9
Lineman	5	3	3	9

So I've already got the thrower and two linemen painted (amongst other stuff not to be used on this roster) and last night I finished off the four Orc Blitzers (it's about time I showed some actual painted models); using my usual Orc skin recipe:

And WIP; here are the wizard and his two cheerleaders:

The two Black Orc Blockers:

A couple of Goblins (who I doubt will make this roster)

A two headed Troll: 

A Star Player/ Coach:

And the re-roll turn counters:

I'll keep you updated with my progress on both projects - I like the focus I now have with an imminent deadline and that joy of being given a pass to attend BOYL 2015!