+ Reaching a fever pitch +
+ Blood Bowl fever +
Chaunterwick Unathletic, pictured above, saw the field for the first time in a long time at the last PCRC geekend, and they'll be handing the field to some up-and-coming stars, the ever-so-chic Argo Owlbears:
Work on these prancing dandies has been ticking along since the last inload. They've all now got their basic tunic colours in place and I've started picking out the mid-sized areas. I want to make sure that they're at least presentable for their first game, and getting the faces and bases up to scratch is the absolute best way I can think of to do that.
Painting a model is one thing, and painting a group quite another – especially when they're meant to be in some sort of uniform. Blood Bowl teams are made more complicated by the fact that the models are individuals who need to be picked out for the game – the other player should be able to identify who's who, because a particular skill can be critical.
This is doubly awkward for these elves, as their positions and roles aren't really clear from the poses and equipment in the way that (say) a trollslayer is distinct from a dwarf blocker, or a knight from a peasant. This popped up in my games with Chaunterwick Unathletic – I've added names to the base rims, but while that's great for colour and flavour, it's not always useful for positions! I think if I do something similar, I'll have the names on the back, and the position on the front.
Coming back to the chic Argo Owlbears, once they're completed, identification should be relatively easy, as they'll have numbers painted on (and potentially nameplates). At this stage, however, I have to rely on things like hair colour to pick out who's who. With that said, you'll spot little tufts on the bases. Partially these are to add some texture to the green astrogranite pitch, but you'll also spot some pink tufts. These add a flash of colour, and also denote positional players (throwers, catchers, blitzers and the like), just to make things a bit easier to parse for the other player.
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+ Puggy Baconbreath +
Renewed interest in Blood Bowl prompted this little spontaneous purchase:
I had the 1988 metal version of Puggy way back in primary school – a model that I don't think ever saw the Blood Bowl field, as the heavily-armoured halfling was busy fighting his way across an Advanced Heroquest board with my (very indulgent) older brother and his (equally patient) mates.
He was painted rather garishly in orange and deep blue, and I quite fancied indulging some fond memories in repainting him. He won't fit in any of my teams, as far as I'm aware (unless he moonlights as a standard halfling in Chaunterwick Unathletic), so I think he's just going to be a good old fashioned painting project.
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