goldbaek's blog: minis, painting and other ff-related stuff

[goldbaek]

Me, myself and I...

Some 20 years ago, waaaaaay back in the 1990s, I began playing Blood Bowl. I got myself the starter set, the DeathZone supplement and a handful of the 3rd edition teams; Chaos Dwarves, Dark Elves, Dwarves, Halflings and Undead. A friend of mine got the Chaos, Norse and Wood Elves teams and then we were ready to play!

We also tried to paint the minis but both of us really wanted to play the game in stead of spending time painting the teams. And therefore our painting skills were kept to a minimum - to say the least...

Unfortunately, when we finished our education a couple of years later, there wasn't much time for playing Blood Bowl and although I did play a few matches during the following years, I really didn't get back into the hobby until fall / winter 2012 - some 15-17 years later.
One day in november '12 I discovered the Army Painter's Quick Dip and thought to myself: "Hmmm, if I can paint my old Blood Bowl teams to a table top standard using this technique, maybe I'll start playing the game again...". So I ordered the three different Dips, some paints and brushes and started painting an old 3rd edition Lineorc I had lying around. When I was finished he looked spectacular (compared to my old standards) and then I was hooked on the hobby again!

This is my blog of everything and anything that has to do with fantasy football (primarily Blood Bowl), minis, painting, tourneys etc. I'll be posting pics of my teams, match reviews and so on - please feel free to comment on anything you feel like.

Cya soon,
Kim // NAF: goldbaek (19221)

[sann0638]

Starting with the waterbowl?

[goldbaek]

Starting with the waterbowl?

Challenge accepted!

Waterbowl Weekender 9

As a member of the Danish BB community you'll have to be living under a rock in order NOT to hear about Waterbowl. Lots of Danish coaches attend this tourney and as I didn't want to pass on the opportunity to participate I quickly signed up as well.

I knew that this tourney would field a lot of great coaches so I quickly decided to bring my A-game (or something like that) - the Undead. When reading the rules and learning that Secret Weapons would also count as CAS I then decided to build my team around mr. Deadly - Hack Enslash himself. I also decided to give MB to a Wight thinking that 3 MBs plus a Chainsaw should be enough to give me 3-4 CAS per game and give me a chance of winning the 'Most Deadly' trophy.

The 'Deathstars' roster looked something like this: 2 Mummies (1*Block / 1*Guard), 2 Wights (1*MB), 4 Ghouls (2*Block / 1*Wrestle), 3 Zombies, Hack Enslash, 2 RRs, 2 FF.

So I packed my bag and headed for Stockport.

Game 1: Sizzler / Dark Elves / TD: 1-2 / CAS: 2-2
Not much to say about this game, really... Andy only rolled one '1' during the first half which made it very difficult for me to contain his players. In the second half I had the chance to sack his ball carrier in turn 16 but my Wrestle Ghoul failed a 3+ Dodge (hate them 2/1 rolls!) and the game was lost.

Game 2: Jimjimany / Chaos / TD: 1-2 / CAS: 5-2
Not much to say about this game either... Jim is a great coach and way better than me. He controlled the game and even though I managed to send 5 of his players to the CAS box the game was never really close.

Game 3: Mawph / Chaos Pact / TD: 1-0 / CAS: 4-2
In the first half, John's Minotaur didn't really want to perform. He spent a lot of time on the ground trying to get up and when the Ogre decided to just stand around and pick his nose instead of playing Blood Bowl I wasted no time sacking the Dark Elf ball carrier and score the decisive TD. In the second half I opted to secure the win instead of trying to go for the kill and it all came down to the Minotaur's inability to pick up, dodge and hand off the ball. A solid win for the Deathstars.

Then there was curry at the nearby Indian place. After a handful of hours with great food and likewise company, I decided to go to bed and get ready for day 2 - karaoke bars just ain't my thang...

Game 4: hana_666 / Orcs / TD: 2-1 / CAS: 4-3
I hate playing Orcs. It's as simple as that. They can Dodge. They can score OTTs. They have lots of strong players. And they have high armour. First half was a bit of a mess but luckily the dice didn't favor one of us over the other. I received the ball and even though Hannah pulled out some great moves to trap my Ghoul on the sideline, fortunately (for me, at least) the crowd decided to throw the ball back into her end zone. Another Ghoul then made a semi-heroic move (3+ Dodge, two 2+ GFIs and a 3+ Pick Up) to score a TD. In turn 7 I really felt I had the Orcs under control but made a stupid block with a Ghoul that sent himself to the ground and made it a bit easier for the ball carrying Blitzer to score in turn 8. Stupid, stupid Ghoul... In turn 9, Hannahs Troll rolled a '1' on the Really Stupid roll and I then decided to use this opportunity to swarm her ball carrier and go for the kill. I managed to put the lone Gobbo in the CAS box (and remove the threat of the OTT), turn over the ball and win the game 2-1.

Game 5: SpecialOne / Lizardmen / TD: 1-1 / CAS: 2-1
So now I faced one of my Danish co-travellers, Steen. We've played quite a few matches against each other and I'm generally quite comfortable playing against the Lizzies - as opposed to playing against Orcs for example. I received the kick off and in my first turn I decided to Blitz a Block Saurus with Hack Enslash, sending the Saurus to the KO box. One of the other Saurus immediately wanted revenge but ended up as a CAS himself! Hack ended up in the KO box and was therefore removed from the game but losing 2 Saurus in each of our first turns left Steen very disillusioned. At this point I was feeling pretty confident that I would grind the half down for a 1-0 lead, but then I made a crucial mistake... Steens Krox was lying on the ground and somehow I misread where he was lying. I positioned the ball carrying Ghoul in the wrong square, leaving him wide open for a Blitzing Saurus. The two following turns both ended with failed Dodges (I rolled 2, 1, 1, 1) and then Steen could easily score to end the half. I needed to pull off something spectacular to avoid a loss and decided to go all in and swarm the ball carrier (just like in my previous match vs. Hannah). It payed off and I was able to steal the ball. Looking at the turn markers and both our KO boxes I then decided to settle for a draw. It was a good game in which I made a very costly mistake that easily could have given Steen the win.

Game 6: dalfort / Dwarves / TD: 1-1 / CAS: 1-1
At this point I was third in the overall CAS competition needing 2 CAS more than the leader (who also was scheduled to play Dwarves in the last round). As all of you probably know, Dwarves are notorious very difficult to CAS, which was also going to be the case in this match. I received the kick off and tried to lure Barries Dwarves to one side of the field. The I tried to lure them to the other side. And back to the first side again. I was never really able to create a hole for my Ghouls to swarm through and thus ended up with a somewhat heroic move from my ball carrying Block Ghoul: 1 dice Blitz (against a Blitzer), followed by a 3+ Dodge (away from a Longbeard), ending with one or two (can't remember exactly how many) GFIs into the end zone. In the second half the Sweltering Heat was replaced by some Pouring Rain and as my Reserves and KO boxes were filling up with players I did have one chance to stop his grind: I'm not sure why but instead of moving his ball carrier forward, he decided to move him back to the LOS giving my Wight a chance to stop him. Although I did manage to get the ball on the ground I had too few players on the field to pose a serious threat and Barrie eventually scored in turn 16. I had enough players to try a OTT but on a 3 dice Block one of the Mummies decided to end the game by putting a Longbeard on the ground. Nonetheless this was a very good game that we both enjoyed very much.

The complete results are not in yet but I accomplished my goal of 3 CAS per game and I think I ended either 2nd or 3rd overall in the 'Most Deadly' competition - just 3 CAS behind the winner (another dane, Lasse, with 21 CAS to his name). Not bad at all (even though my MB Wight didn't record one single CAS during the six games...).

All in all I really enjoyed the tourney and I'm definately coming back for the 10th anniversary next year! Thanks to Alex and Jim for a great tourney, to my 6 opponents for some well played matches and the rest of the guys (and grrrls) for lots of laughs.

EDIT:
I actually finished 21st overall and 4th in the 'Most Deadly' competition.
The results can be found here: http://www.thenaf.net/2014/02/waterbowl-2014-results/

[goldbaek]

My ever-growing stash of unpainted minis...

Last year my collection of unpainted minis just grew and grew and grew and with 50 or 60 new minis from the Star Bowl fundraiser just around the corner I really needed to begin painting in a more scheduled way. So I decided to make each month a new project - to paint 1 team each month sounded like a good plan.

January
My project for January was to be my newly acquired Slann team from Gaspez. During that month I managed to paint 8 linos, 4 catchers and 1 blitzer leaving me with 3 unpainted blitzers and 1 unassembled Krox plus 8 small reroll counters and 1 coach. Not too bad since I primarily use linos and catchers when playing froggies.


February
Then came February and I decided to paint some old school GW 3ed Chaos minis that had been hiding in my stash for quite some time. I quickly painted 3 Warriors and Lord Borak (I know it's blasphemy to use him as an ordinary CW but it all comes down to money) and 1 of the beasties. Then I was informed that the "GW minis only"-rule for The XI. Dungeonbowl in Germany was abandoned...
I was planning on using my Undeads for this tourney but now we were free to use minis from any company so I decided to bring my 'Zons instead. I've played loads of Undead and Chaos Dwarfs and wanted to try something different - plus I really like the theme of my 'Zons so I put the Chaos team aside in order to complete the "Maneating Maniacs". I managed to finish them just in time for the tourney (held on the 15th and 16th March) - except for a turn counter which I've only just received - and finished with a 2/1/3 record at the Dungeonbowl.
Oh, and by the way: My 'Zons was one of the 10 teams nominated for the 'Best Painted' award. Not too bad for a team painted using The Army Painter's Quick Shade technique...


March
For this month I decided to complete the Chaos team that I began working on last month. Unfortunately, due to many unforseen circumstances I've only managed to paint 1 more beastie. Three more are in progress and another four needs to be primed. As I'm writing this there are still 5 days left of this month and my goal is to paint as many beastmen as possible before 1st April.

To be continued...

[Aino]

Nice read!
Can we get some close-ups of the amazons ?

W

[goldbaek]

Nice read!
Can we get some close-ups of the amazons ?

W

Absolutely!

I still need to finish three minis: Score, Turn and a Wizard but just click on the pics below to see larger versions of these ones.

[goldbaek]

My ever-growing stash of unpainted minis... Pt. 2.

So... The month of March came and went. As written in an earlier post, I didn't manage to paint all of my Chaos minis but considering the fact that I'd probably only play a very limited number of matches with them it's okay.

And instead we move on to...

April

For a long time I've wanted to build a Necro team using minis from different companies (as the GW one is, well... awful) and so last year I started off by purchasing the two Frankenstein-themed Flesh Golems from Vortice. Awesome minis btw. As for the other positionals I've been very indecisive about what minis to use... Currently I've got Ghouls from Heresy, Zombies from Meiko, Wights from Privateer and Reaper plus Werewolves from ZN and Reaper. I have no idea whatsoever what the team will look like in the end but at least now I've begun painting some of the minis

As I currently don't have all the minis required for the team, this project will not be limited to the month of April. I really want to make something special and therefore I have set no time limit. I'd love to bring them to Eur'Open in November but if that's not possible then that's okay.

And now for some pics! Please note that these were taken using the camera's blitz due to poor lightning so the minis aren't that bright in real life.

First up is one of the Flesh Golems - I'd like to call this one "Adam" (viewers of 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' will know why):



And then there's Frank (for obvious reasons!):



To be continued...

[goldbaek]

More Necro and some Khemri...

So... The hours turned into days, the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months without any real progress being made. Real life events simply caught up with me and I haven't been as productive as I would have liked to.

I have, however, been painting some minis for my Necromantic team but even though the models were quite nice they really didn't fit my vision - whatever that is. So I've only made slow progress with that team. However, I have managed to paint one of the Wights so along with the two Flesh Golems I now have 3 painted models for my Necros. Woo-hoo! The model itself is a Ghost from the Reaper Bones collection:



As you may or may not have noticed, Willy Miniatures have been re-vamping their Egyptian Undead line over the last few months - and I really like the look of the Anubis Throwers and Horus Blitzers. In fact, I like them so much that I've begun work on a Khemri team - my first one, that is. I'm really sick and tired of all the Khemri color schemes using blue and gold/yellow so I'm going to do something different. Not quite sure yet what it's going to be, but it's gonna be different.

I'm not really into the idea of using mummies as Tomb Guardians and one day when using the Interweb, I stumbled across a Stone Golem from the Reaper Bones collection. It's quite large (big guy sized) but it's different, quite cool and - let's face it - inexpensive. So I purchased a few of them (three to be exact, so I still need one more) along with some paved dungeon bases from Tiny Worlds and painted them up. It's a very simple color scheme but I think it's quite effective and it looks pretty cool, so I'm very happy with it. It's a bit difficult to see in the picture but their eyes are bright green which makes them look very magical.



To be continued...

[sann0638]

I like those golems - never seen ones painted that way before, good stuff!

[goldbaek]

Things are still moving along quite nicely with my custom Necro team, but more on that some other day. Today I just want to show you the first finished model for my 2nd edition (Wood) Elves.

The color scheme is based on an old picture from White Dwarf (#13 - see below) and I think it's turned out pretty good so far. Enjoy!

[jonno]

Nice! So that's done with Dip?

[goldbaek]

Nice! So that's done with Dip?

Thanks! But nope. No dipping has been used on this model. All green and red colors have been applied using several layers of Green or Red Ink from Army Painter. The rest of the colors are btw also from AP as well as the Inks used to create shading.

[goldbaek]

I'm still busy working on the 2ed Elves but I've also managed to find the time to finish the fourth Tomb Guardian. The rest of the models for my Khemri team will probably arrive in 2-3 weeks but at least now I've painted a third of the entire team. So here they are in all their glory:



And then I simply had to paint one of the Jawflings from the Star Bowl fundraiser - they are just so cool Once finished, they'll primarily be used as Skinks on a Lizardman team. But that's a long way into the future...



And finally a size comparision pic to show you just how big the TG really is... Scale size creep much?!

[Aino]

I really like the 2nd ed elf!

W

[Wirelizard]

Like the use of the Bones figure, especially the Tomb Guardian/Stone Golem. I've been eyeing up the Bones line (and the Bones II expansion that's due end of this year) and there's quite a lot of good stuff for BB there already and a lot more coming when Bones II lands!

Are your Tomb Guardians on a 25mm or 30mm base?