“BB’ Queue”

Oh hello, it’s you! How have you been? Safe I hope, been busy? What have I been up to? Well work has been progressing on my “Imperial Nobility” Blood Bowl team, and despite what Luke (IRO) said in the comments last time, no plastic cannot be fun! I’m sorry I don’t know if it is the actual figures in question, as I haven’t exactly “warmed” to my team (it’s so much easier to paint figures that I actually like!), or the batch painting, something none but the very strangest of us like doing! Or the fact that I’m bloody “knackered” as the one dog is getting my up several times in the night to go out to the loo, and them getting me up at five (thank god I’m shielding again as I don’t know how I’ll cope with this when I’m back at work!!!). But you aren’t here to hear about my problems (even if this is called “Rantings”), so how have I got to where I am with these figures anyway?

Well when you saw them last they were undercoated in black, so first job was to drybrush all the armour and fancy gilded paraphernalia, so bronze and bright gold were used to drybrush here first heavy, second lighter. Next as they are called “Nobility” or “Nob’s” as I’ll call them from now on. I thought I’d go for a “noble” colour scheme, so painted all the pants, tunics, and the odd feather and badge surround (or half) in royal purple (this was a mistake on two fronts, as a) it didn’t cover the gold particularly well so needed several coats, and b) I discovered after that it was better to paint the inner parts of the pant “slashes” first (doh!). Anyway after this was done (before I discovered (b) by the way) these areas were highlighted with lupin. Lilac with highlights of lavender were then used on the exposed under pants (not what it sounds like!), other feathers, sashes, and bows. I’m not into the bows and such, in fact I’m very tempted to name my team “The Danny La’Rue All-Stars” (there’s one for the older reader’s amongst you!!). Leather next, and all these areas were first undercoated in chocolate brown, before highlights were added in leather brown, and the socks, number plates (round the back) and the scroll things some of them have on their breastplates, were done in coffee with cream highlights.

Time to add the flesh, and also a chance to try out my new “Vallejo game colour” paints that I received for Christmas, so taking, dwarf skin, dark fleshtone, pale flesh and confusingly my old “Miniature paints” pale flesh (which is much lighter) I began experimenting on an old “Pringles” lid mixing various concoctions of these together and painting the resultant colours onto the figures to give some variation to their faces/arms. After this I got out the “skin wash” and…well washed this over, so now they all looked basically the same! (doh!!!) Still you live and learn as they say. It did however appear to give an effect that will be really useful for a future project (more on this soon I hope). I added the eyes and the odd set of teeth in cream, and then after another round of mixing that also included European flesh (Miniature paints) and Indian Flesh (Colour party) I highlighted said fleshy bits.         

Obviously the next job was to add the hair, this was mainly of the facial variety (perhaps I should have saved these for Mo’vember?), so out came the chocolate brown again, and three were undercoated in this and then highlighted in chestnut, that in turn formed the undercoat on the next three with orange highlights, two more had dark grey with light grey highlights, and the final two had sand with highlights of lemon yellow (thankfully the others had either little, no hair or none visible). I then decided to add the odd detail here and there in silver to break up the monotony a little. I also added the numbers on their back plate, one to twelve, and I got moaned at by the youngest for making my ogre number seventeen (as apparently you can’t do that in “official” Bloodbowl), when he asked me why I’d done a number that high, I simply replied because it was an easy number to paint!

Turning to my “star player” Griff Oberwald, first up was his “Bird of indeterminate species” this had been undercoated chocolate brown already so I dry brushed it with some chestnut before doing the tail and outer wing feathers in coffee and cream, and his beak in sand. Then the ribbons on his various medals were added in bright red, shamrock and porcelain blue. I also added the laurel leaves around his helmet in deep bronze green highlighted with some olive.

After this there followed what I can only describe as a “sh*t” load of touching up! (Two days’ worth if I’m honest), before I could finally get a coat of Quickshade (strong-tone) onto them. I also knocked out two balls, a couple of two sided coin things (not sure what these are for yet), and a couple of score card tokens (I based these up on pennies to make them more stable) all done in colours to match the rest of my team. There are also a couple of referees that I can see I’ll end up painting at some point (but not this week!).

Anyway once the Quickshade was dry I painted the bases scenic brown then after heavily dry-brushing this with scenic green I then flocked them with some “pasture green” flock.

That brings my first (and main) entry for Dave Stone’s “Paint the stuff you already own challenge”* Just need to get Elvira done now, but first I have something else a little different (and smaller) to do….

So till next time, stay safe and Cheers Roger.

• https://wargamesculptorsblog.blogspot.com/2020/12/paint-what-you-got-challenge.html