This project has been trundling along in the background for a while, mostly because the sculptor of these wonderful 80s Citadel Bloodbowl Elves, Jes Goodwin, decided to sculpt a whole load of tiny studs on their outfits. It’s hard enough to paint them all red, I wonder how frustrating it was to sculpt them all with green stuff. At some point he must have regretted doing it as the range grew. However I’m thankful now, because it adds to the character of the team, even if it was a chore at the time.
I’ve long admired these sculpts, from when I was a kid, as for me they could not be more Elven; their sense of grace combined with prowess through the poses of the sculpts. There is a dynamic feel to the speed and agility of the catchers and yet the blitzers have enough intimidation in their coiled spring and clenched fist pose to do some damage. Then there’s their sense of superiority (we don’t need armour) and their slightly flamboyant and superfluous uniform; long boots, extravagant hairstyles, stockings with studs etc.
With this in mind I went for the most ridiculous and impractical colour scheme; white. Imagine all those grass, mud and blood stains. Who washes the kit? To keep a uniform look to the team, I decided that all the players should have the same blonde hair colour, as the
Romanian football team did in 1998 and added touches of red to the cool blues and whites.
The majority of the team are of course Jes Goodwin Elves from the Blood Bowl range, but so I didn’t have to reuse the same models, there’s also a couple of his wardancers in here too with some additions of loin cloths and subtraction of weapons.
As you can see, my phone struggled to capture the entire team, so here’s a few shots of groups of players.
Here’s one of those re-purposed wardancers, with weapon removed but sling retained!
The model on the right is a conversion I’ve had in mind for some time, I really wanted to capture the dynamic movement you’d expect in such a team sport as this, and I can imagine the Elves as acrobatic gymnasts working together to catch, intercept etc. Ps. One of my favourite models in the range is the kicker.
Another conversion here, this Elven coach on the left is for the Eternal Champions range, Elric Kingslayer. Just removed his weapon and made a trophy from a skull and some bits. Note, he even has studs on his sleeves.
Here’s the StarPlayer, Elril Sidewinder, a classic! I spent a little more time on him and decided that he should have a green hairstyle to set him apart from the team.
And finally a Treeman. I can’t even remember whether Elves/Wood Elves can hire a treeman but the model is so cool and I’ve wanted to own/paint one from whenever, that I don’t care. I went for an old wood feel in the paint job, for two reasons, one he looks old and wooden and two a pale, silver grey would tie him in to the uniform of the Elves. A few brown and green glazes were added and of course he retained the team colours on his helmet and shoulder pad.
Here you can see the small roots I added to his base.
And the two of them together, about to dodge and bludgeon respectively.
The approach to basing also helps unify a team and for these guys I decided upon a cracked earth base with tufts of static grass and a few white line markings on the pitch to provide the bloodbowl context and not just another battlefield base. A few birch seeds for leaves to finish.
Oh and I like the Elves style of play (and the contrast with my
Orc team) so I can now play a game against my kids with two painted teams at some point over the lockdown. Yay!
