CMDante's Blood Bowl Log

[CMDante]

The Reikland Reavers

My first log post on these forums so firstly, hello. Any of you who frequent Dakka or Warseer may know me and have seen some of my work, this log included, however I am posting it here also in an effort to contribute to the OG community.

For a long time now I have been purely painting miniatures for pleasure, some commissions and competitions, however, recently I have been tempted back into gaming by the new Blood Bowl star player sculpts.

Having been a long time fan of the NFL and having played and coached american football in Scotland up to division 1 A level (the highest it goes in the UK since the demise of the Claymores), Blood Bowl would seem an obvious choice of game for me. However, I have always hated the miniatures for the game and so have never played it. The new star players though are some of GW's best work of late and have really inspired me.

Therefore, I have decided to create my own Reikland Reavers team from scratch with the exception of the new Zug and Oberwald models. The rest of the team will be converted using mainly the new GW empire plastics (greatswords and flagellants in particular).

So onto the pics.

First on the table is the new Mighty Zug, a fantastic one piece figure with bags of character and plenty of nice large surfaces to practice blending on.

The one thing that bugged me about the figure (and much of the new Empire plastic range) is the lack of proper eyes. The hollow sockets just weren't going to cut it for me as I'm a big believer in eyes being the focal point of any figure. Without them the face loses it's visual draw and the figure in general lacks punch.

So first things first, I set to making some modifications by adding an eye and some thumb nails, keeping things simple this time!



With that done, I took my can of Skull White primer and set about undercoating. Big mistake....

Skull White primer must hate me because every time I have used it, the finish ends up crazed and porous, not conducive to smooth blending.

I therefore spent over an hour recovering the model using milliput washes to fill much of the porous dimples on the surface of the model before finally applying paint:

These pics are the last I have taken but more work has been done since.



And a super close up to show some of the blends that get a bit lost in the pics:


The dark blue armour areas aren't finished yet in the pics, they have since received some final highlights up to white etc. I have also finished the arms and am currently working on the trousers.

I hope to finish him within the next 2 days so hopefully some finished pics will appear shortly. Then it's onto Griff.

Cheers,

Dante

[maelzch]

very nice!

(side note, one of your links to a pic just shows a url)

Cheers,
Maelzch

[fatolaf]

however I am posting it here also in an effort to contribute to the OG community.

And that is much appreciated Dante, great start so far, look forward to seeing the progress...

[CMDante]

Finished at last!











Really fun model to paint and pretty pleased with how he has turned out. In particular I am pleased with the boots, knee pads and skin and hair on the arms. The pics aren't the greatest as a lot of transitions get lost and the shine doesn't help but you can get the general idea. :D

The base is nothing amazing but it does the job... for now at least.

Next up is Griff Oberwald.

Cheers,

Dante

[maelzch]

very nice! The painting looks really realistic, well, as realistic as an american football playing ogre can look!

Looking forward to seeing Griff 

[fatolaf]

Great start to the team sir....

[Veldemere]

Really great work, that player has so much 'character', I am really looking forward to more, the subtle use of GS to just provide the details to create the 'points de vie' is great!

[CMDante]

Thanks guys!

Dug out a Blood Bowl ogre I had bought a while back today and decided to start tidying him up so I can use him in the team too.




I remember why I disliked the figure before - the arms, so decided to do some pinning for a little repositioning.

The original set of arms are the ones where he's punching himself in the jaw and one arm hugging air, not very appropriate hence the new pose.

The head is just a stand in though I do quite like it. I am considering doing 2 heads, the one that came with the mini originally, and a converted version of the mock up head, sans moustache.

Also cleaned Griff up today so he should be ready for priming tomorrow.

Cheers,

Dante

[fatolaf]

I have that old ogre figure, I prefer your version, keep up the good work sir..

[Veldemere]

Good work  , the right arm still looks a little like it should be throttling a gnoblar, or maybe a goblin in a refs top! Keep it up mate.

[CMDante]

Decided to have a crack at sculpting the Reikland Reavers eagle logo while I had the putty out today since the back plate was just crying out for something.







And the two options for heads. Personally I prefer the way the plastic head looks on him at the moment, much more aggressive and just brings a bit more dynamic to the figure.

Still work to do on both but pleased with how he is progressing.

Once the GS has set I'll get a properly mocked up pic later.

Cheers,

Dante

[fatolaf]

Fab eagle, and I like the new head the best...

[CMDante]

As promised, todays fully mocked up pics:









I quite like how the new head and arm position have turned out. Still need to add some more to the left shoulder and fill the join gaps a little more in both arms. Also need to attach the head and fill the gaps around the neck and figure out how I'm going to attach the shoulderpads (pinned or not).

More tomorrow!

Cheers,

Dante

[Veldemere]

That is some fantastic sculpting on the eagle, well done. Agree that the new head looks better. This really is some great work, I was going to say that it makes me want to give up, but actually I am trying to take inspiration from it and will up my game!

Can't wait for more!

[fatolaf]

Yep he's looking good fella, keep up the stirling work..

[CMDante]

Cheera fellas.

@ Veldemere - Glad to have inspired, really looking forward to see what you come up with next!

After speaking with a friend, he made the great suggestion of bringing a little humour back into the model, afterall, Blood Bowl is renowned for its humour.

After pondering this for a bit, I planned originally to add a small mouse on his shoulder, a bit like in the movie Green Mile, where the massive Michael Clarke Duncan has a pet mouse. I liked the idea of a small pet accompanying the beast at all times and it also fit with the new GW ogre trend of a pet (gnoblar) accompanying it's master everywhere.

A root around in my bits box turned up some small rat figures but nothing that really fit with what I was aiming for. Finally, I came across the empire powder monkey from the handgunners sprue while looking for some inspiration, immediately it struck me that this was the pet of choice! It fit perfectly as a gnoblar-esque companion and also adds plenty of humour.

A quick bit of converting to remove the keg arm (replaced with a gnoblar arm) and one of the tails and he was good to go!









I really like the posing of the little critter, it seems to fit so well, almost as if he is swinging his fists, encouraging his larger companion to do the same!

Now he is pretty much ready for paint!

Thoughts on the new addition?

Cheers,

Dante

[fatolaf]

love him, great stuff....

[CMDante]

Bought some armatures the other day from Hasslefree Miniatures (28mm), turns out 28mm is a little smaller than I was expecting for scale but I guess once you cover them in GS they will come up to GW type scale (probably heroic 30mm) quite quickly:



Cheers,

Dante

[maelzch]

lovely GS work, the  eagle logo is great!

[CMDante]

Back to work this week so progress has been slower, however, managed to make some progress on Griff today. Head and body are pretty much done, just some little bits and pieces like the toecaps, trousers, reflections still needing done/tidied up.

The metallics and reflections look better in full size pics if you zoom in. For some reason the pics kill some of the transition in the scaled down version but they look good IRL.






Really happy with how he is turning out. I have been experimenting some new techniques with the metallics and I think they are some of my best metals yet.

More soon.

Cheers,

Dante

[CMDante]

Also, my greatswords arrived this week so I set about mocking up a lineman for the team during a break from painting Griff. Unfortunately the figures wont work out of the box due to being much shorter than both Griff and Zug (understandably for Zug maybe but they really looked tiny compared to Griff). Hence the reason for cutting their legs and lengthening them at the knees.

This isn't too big a problem since I was going to be reposing some of the legs anyway. The gaps will also be filled nicely with kneepads, adding to the blood bowl look.



I also got some W&N acrylic flow improver this week. The value of this stuff really cannot be measured. It makes painting fine details such as eyes etc, where paint normally dries out to quickly on the brush due to being in such small amounts, so much easier and more enjoyable!



Finally, a close up of Griffs face to show the detail a little better!



I plan to do some more on him tonight and hopefully finish him tomorrow.

Cheers,

Dante

[maelzch]

outstanding!

[fatolaf]

Excellent work Dante...