There is no 'i' in 'team'. There is a 'bloodthirsty bunch of maniacs', though.

This is probably some sort of record. 22 years ago I bought a Dark Elf bloodbowl team. And then I thought I'd lost them. And then I found them again!

Today I finished painting them. That's a hell of a wait in the lead pile. Anyone out there beat 22 years between buying and painting some miniatures?

Without further ado, here they are:

I have a couple of games scheduled this week - one against a professional rugby player! - and so it seems likely they'll get a run out.

So here are the heavy hitters, the two Witch Elves and the Star Player, Harkon Heartripper:

The positional chaps, two Blitzers and - probably the most important player the way I play DE - the thrower:

And finally the blackbone, the linesmen.

For anyone that's interested, the uniforms were done with my 'ghostly' recipe; black primer, blast of grey primer for pre-highlight, then white drybrush and a green ink wash. Fast and effective; white highlights give a luminous quality and some silver and red gems help break up the green. The skin was a simple blue-tinged affair. The bases were done the same as the Human and Orc teams. 

The team name will be either the Pitfiend Stilettos or the Niflheim Ravens; I am currently torn. Any suggestions in the comments below would be appreciated.

I have one more team to pick up and then I'll've covered the four main playstyles I'm interested in.

Expect match reports to drop next week.

Space Hulk Part I

This was my other purchase on ebay.

I dug out my old Space Hulk the other week and realised that the plastic terminators had gone missing somewhere along the line. This isn't a disaster as the plastic terminators are, frankly, a bit rubbish.

So a quick scout around shows that 1990 vintage metal terminators are available for very little. So a quick splurge and...

10 terminators for £20 - which, incidentally, is nearly how much the naff plastic ones go for. Madness. 

It seemed like a good opportunity to crack out the airbrush as I could basecoat and highlight in one go. 

Then it was time to start the detail. I decided that the only modern style painting I wanted to do on them was the lighting claw, so a bit of wet blending was called for:

Daylight colour check:

A quick highlight and then on to freehand markings in the old Rogue Trader style. I wanted to go for a soviet style as the Terminators and Dreadnaughts have always put me in mind of tanks; and as a massive T-34 fan, what else can you do?

So here are the two squads looking pristine as if they've just stepped off the dropship. Up next will be the chips, scoring and oilstains to make them look like they've been dumped out on a drifting Space Hulk for a couple of years. The graffiti - a mainstay of the Space Marines I grew up with back in the late 80s - will be in white, just like the stuff you used to see on soviet tanks. I haven't decided whether to do it in the Cyrillic alphabet or not yet. 

Oldhammer

Continuing my Dragon Rampant work, I've dug out some the oldest bits of the Lead Pile. After all, no greenskin horde is complete without some insane goblins.

Fabulous old Kev Adams sculpts; just marvellous fun to paint. 

I've also started to put together the crew for the warmachine:

And some proper old school hobgoblins. I want to vary the skin tones in my force to make them a little less uniform, so I'll mix and match the bright green I've worked up for the goblins, this uruk-flesh Hobgoblin colour and the dark green I developed for my Blood Bowl team. 

I'll get some proper photos when I can base them. Next up, I've got some Mantic orcs to try.

The Boyz

Well, got a bit of time - this time in front of Pale Rider - to finish the orc Bloobowl team. I just need a name now - any suggestions in the comments would be gratefully appreciated.




The Throwers

The defence

The Big Boyz

A little break, I think, before I do the Human Team.

Watching Paint Dry

The Bloodbowl test pieces are more or less done. 

I need to check in daylight to see if the light blue accent works and if the stripes on the trousers are bright enough but as a scheme this seems to work. 

Not sure about the bright green accent here. The other alternative was sky blue which would certainly make the figure pop but would possibly overwhelm the face. What do we think?

I'm generally happy with the detail work including checks and chipped armour for that proper Orky feel. 

There is a certain chunky charm to these old school plastics. They have a lot of character - mainly as I think the sculptors focused on the face as they knew detail would be soft elsewhere. I've enjoyed painting them a lot

Next question is - finish the Lion Rampant retinues or paint the Orc Team while the iron is hot? Your thoughts, as always, would be appreciated. 

In Training

So in preparation for the new season, it looks like a couple of teams are getting themselves dressed. 

These are test pieces for colour schemes. Here we see Mrs West's as yet unnamed Orc team: 

The Black Orc blocker has a nice dark skin tone to help them stand out from their smaller teammates. The red sets this off well, but I've yet to decide on the accent colours. I'm waiting to see how the various washes and glazes dry before I decide. 

The bog standard lineman in the classic red Orc livery. I'm intending to keep the skin tones quite muted but will brighten up  the red to try and capture that Old School Eavy Metal look. Again, trim and accent yet to be decided although I'm quite temped to go with the classic black and white check. 

Here's the human test, working with the reliable blue and yellow combo with rich brown accents. 

Not only is it nice to get back to painting but painting this oldhammery goodness brings the happy memories flooding back.