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skaven

Tournaments

FoodBowl 2017

Posted on November 6, 2017

FoodBowl 2017! This is a great event for a great cause! 4 player Blood Bowl, 1,250 gold teams and it brings together the two disparate groups of Blood Bowl players in the Vancouver area, so we get to meet some new people. 🙂 Obviously, I brought Skaven which I thought were a good top pick — they have some great speed (since the current event rules nerf elves a bit, possibly the best speed) and great bashiness with the star players.

I sat down at a table with a gentleman I didn’t know, named Kristian, and then two others I did know followed suit – James and Pat. James has a hate on for me after he mercilessly killed my rat ogre in a previous season. You read that right, I don’t understand it either. 😛 Pat is good fellow to sit next to.

This game was characterized by Kristian scoring TD after TD with Skitter-skitter Stab-stab, a special character gutter runner. He scored 3 TDs, which is absolutely ridiculous in a game with 28 players and 3 other people dedicated to ensuring you don’t get to do what you want to do.

Near the end of the game, Pat had a choice between stopping me scoring or stopping Kristian scoring, and he chose to stop K because he knew that K would be vying for a top-TDs-scored prize with a start like his. Because of this I managed to get a TD, bringing me second place in this game! And then because of the final score calculation, I got 10 points (7 for second, 3 for 3 casualties) where Kristian also got 10 (10 for first). 🙂 This was a nice game. 🙂

We went for sushi after. Our game was about an hour over time, and sushi didn’t help.

Here are some photos.

Go forward my ratties!

Lined up again after a TD by SS-SS.

ECLIPSE!!! There was also a goblin fanatic on the table at this point which had been placed in James’ lines. James had maneuvered it away from him, but the fantatic got turned into a goblin as well, allowing the next person to simply move it 6 easy squares back to killing James.

I don’t know what’s going on this photo, but I like showing how crazy the center of the board gets in this game.

Game 2 I sat down at a table next to Rowland, Greg and Pat, all players I play regularly. In hindsight I should have sought out one of the 4 players I never played, but we were rushing a lot after sushi so it wasn’t a great moment of decision making. I also took fewer photos this game.

This was almost a no-score game. There was a sprinkler, making pick-up and throwing and catching harder. The ball was spiked, making pick-up dangerous. There was also a ball clone, meaning there were 3 balls on the table at one point. My valient gutter runner grabbed the ball, dodged tackle zones across the board…only to find he was holding the clone. It was here as well that Greg rolled quad-skulls, which is always something you can count on winning with.

My two ball and chain characters moved up and deftly avoided hitting an enemy who had set up in a perfect cage, and then one ball/chain hit the other. >.>

I spent most of the first half with only 3 players on the pitch, so it was a little boring, but I made do. When the half finally came around I tossed on another 4 and got to play again! I grabbed the ball again, ran it across the field and avoided getting hit a bunch…and found he was holding the wrong ball.

My injury pile.

Moments after the first photo was taken, another model got added to the pile.

Gutter runner cage!

I’d like to say that this story ended with me scoring and winning the game, fans cheering for the Cheddar City Alchemists in their brilliant pink uniforms. Alas, I did not. My ball was across the field. Instead, Rowland dropped a bomb on his ball, knocking it loose and allowing Pat to pick it up and score with it. >.<

I hope I can make time to play this event again next year, because it’s just amazing!

Work-in-progress

Blood Bowl – Glart in progress

Posted on November 5, 2017

This model is so fucking rad.

Some of the FW Blood Bowl models are hit or miss, so I’m super stoked to be able to support their continued creation of Blood Bowl content by buying Glart, my little Fatty McRatty!

Since I received him on the Friday before the tournament, I basically had 2 days to finish him. Add that I had family obligations on Saturday, subtract that I was sick on Friday, and I basically had just 1 day.

My skaven are all the same basic recipe, so it was nice to apply that here and have it work quickly and effectively. A quick 3 layer highlight, a quick 3-4 layer wash and glaze and he’s done! Here’s a mid-stage photo — I don’t have any finished photos yet because I scrambled to get him done and out the door before the event! I’ll be writing about the event very shortly, have a few photos and stories from it!

Work-in-progress

Blood Bowl – The Replacement

Posted on November 3, 2017

It got weird.

I’m playing in FoodBowl this weekend. It was a great event last year, with some great custom made boards and some fun rules for charity. This year the organizer got rid of the “only 2 Stars” rules, so the field was open for craziness. You’ve already seen my Fezglitch and my Kreek. I ordered Glart at the end of September, knowing he’d be here before the event on November 5th.

On October 27th, a mere 8 days before the event, I gave up hope that Glart would arrive before FoodBowl and started a Stormfiend conversion. I didn’t even have an idea of what rules to use with it, I just knew that if I had a Stormfiend, I’d have something. I quickly secured a model and scrounged my bitz box for something to use as hands, because I didn’t want to use the Stormfiend guns and it had to be a conversion, otherwise it was just a Stormfiend on a tiny little base.

Enter: ancient Old One Eye claws.

When I worked at Park Royal GW I got part of a Tyranid army and I think it included an Old One Eye. I didn’t want to do the special character, so I put scything talons on the model and bitzed the claws. Here we are, like 15 years later and the claws are getting used. This is why we hoard bitz! And my wife keeps calling me a hoarder…

My team has a little bit of size creep…my three rat ogre models.

I took a bunch of photos, because I was thinking about it. First off, the shaded basecoat. It’s a pretty standard recipe for me at this point — Zamesi Desert mixed up with Dheneb Stone, Runefang Steel, Emperors Children mixed up with White, Steel Legion mixed up with Dheneb Stone. This is a super fast 3 layers, all that’s important is to stay within the lines and get a quick highlight up. If If go outside the lines in a big way, it’s hard to fix with just washes/glazes, but some messiness can be fixed.

The next layer is also pretty quick. Sepia in most of the recesses of the skin and claws, and the “leather” items. Drakenhof Blue shade over the metal.

Some changes of lighting can be attributed to a different time of day I was taking the photo, but I think this layer included Nuln Oil over the metal to darken it down in places. I mixed red glaze and blue wash to make a purple and painted that onto the lower sections of all of the skin tones, and under things. I like the purple as an “under” shadow colour.

This is the start of the glazing of the claws. They are going red, and you can see the start of that here! I also did another layer of the purple over the skin to darken that more. The purple wash went over the pink cloth as well.

Two more layers of red over the claws.

He’s pretty close to done at this point (November 3rd) which is great so I can have another model to play with in the tournament.

And then Glart shows up in the mail. 2 days before the event. >.>

You’ll see photos of him here shortly, because I am absolutely going to paint him before Sunday!!

Work-in-progress

Blood Bowl – Skaven – Kreek progress

Posted on October 17, 2017

Here’s a nice side-by-side to show you how my interpretation of Wappel’s shaded basecoat goes:

The top photo is much to light, on purpose. It’s the same recipe as for this other Skaveny article I did a while back.

Skin is GW Zamesi Desert, mixed and highlighted up with GW Dheneb Stone
Base is Steel Legion Drab, mixed and highlighted up with GW Dheneb Stone
Chains are just Runefang Steel.

Then I let him sit on my desk for a while, because…well, just because the timing didn’t work out well.

In the second photo:

The base is GW Seraphim Sepia, pulled from the edges to the center, and deeper into the cracks of the cork layers. Then GW Drakenhof Nightshade in a thin layer underneath the model (as a shadow) and within the deepest cracks of the cork.
The chain I did a lazy wash of the Drakenhof and Nuln and some drybrushing with Runefang, but not in the order and I want to go back in with the Runefang.
The wraps are Sepia’d, then drybrushed up with Dheneb Stone
The loincloth is PP Cygnus Yellow, Sepia’d. I painted over the Steel Legion Drab I had here, as I want my Star Players to have the yellow compared to the pink on the regular team.

The skin is more complicated. I started with a layer of Sepia, wiping away the excess with a finger from the highest points on the model. Then I mixed GW Bloodletter (glaze) and Drakenhof 2:1 to make a semi-purple wash. I painted this in thin layers along the bottom of each “semi circle” in his muscles, and in the areas of shadow in his armpits and on his left side where the arm and his side are close to each other. I did this twice, and then finished with a thin layer of just the Drakenhof in the very deepest recesses. I did a quick drybrush with Dheneb Stone over the tips of the fur.

This is still just a work-in-progress post because I got pulled away by a baby, but he’s pretty close!

Work-in-progress

Blood Bowl – Skaven – Kreek the Verminator

Posted on October 11, 2017

Again, with Foodbowl coming up, I need more Skaven Star Players. I set out to find a conversion for Kreek, the Verminator. There are an awful lot of Rat Ogre models in the world, and 90% of them are not my cup of tea. Most of them look like they were sculpted in the 80s, which is not an aesthetic I like.

The good ones are: the 2 Island of Blood models, the Screaming Bell model, and the Stormfiend models. I’m already using one of the IoB models, the one that would be most appropriate for Kreek since his concept art in the book looks a little cybernetic. I didn’t want to use the other IoB ogre, just because I’m stubborn that way. I set out to find either the Bell ogre or 1 Stormfiend, because I didn’t want to buy a $80 box just for this model. A friend ended up selling me the Bell ogre, which is great because it’s a great model, but part of me think the Stormfiend would have been a better conversion (despite initially thinking the Bell ogre was better).

I turned his head forward so he’s looking at his target, and put a ball on the end of the chain, and put the cork into his hand where the full model is gripping the Screaming Bell cart. This rat ogre has a Ball and Chain on the field, so he’s going to join my power lineup to beat the crap out of my opponents in Foodbowl!

Featured Images

Blood Bowl – Skaven – Fezglitch

Posted on October 8, 2017

When I was last playing Skaven, I decided I wanted to make the Star Player Fezglitch in case I got enough inducements. He’s a Plaguemonk with Ball and Chain and Festering Prescence and just seems awesome. With Foodbowl coming up next month, and the Commissioner dropping the restriction of only allowing 2 Star Players, Fezglitch is one of 3 who will be joining my Skaven team this year!

He was pretty simple —

Zamesi Desert skin, mixed up with Dheneb Stone. Sepia a couple times to bring it down, then Zamesi up again
The cloak was P3 Cygnus Yellow, mixed with GW White Scar up and then Sepia’d done and wiped away in places. I used GW Waywatcher Green in the folds and along certain lines to make it look a little more gross.
Warpstone Green and the Waywatcher Green in the crystal and fire for a plaguey fire thing. Not my finest work.

I wanted yellow rats to look different from my regular pink team, but I think the yellow doesn’t look great. The skin is yellow enough, so it’s not a big contrast from the skin, despite me trying to make it more contrasty. And my fire regularly sucks, so my plague fire sucks more.

Featured Images

Skaven – All done!

Posted on April 18, 2017

Because of the vague mysteries of scheduled posting, I appear to have done a lot of progress on this team in a short span of days. Truthfully, I did that work a week ago and then spent a week on the campaign app, and then a day ago got upstairs to take some photos. 😛

Super happy with how this rat ogre turned out. Particularly as I’m painting some more Concord right now, and the more I paint them the more I wish I hadn’t decided to try a white colour scheme, why not, it couldn’t be that hard. baaaaaaaaah. Give me nice clean colours, well rounded muscles and a clear set of focal points any day!

And lastly, here’s the whole team!

Those of you with advanced counting and memory skills will note that there are only 15 models in this photo, but Blood Bowl teams go up to 16. The box set doesn’t have enough linerats in it to fill out as many as you need for a full team. And I didn’t want to buy a second box just for 3 models, particularly since I got these sculpts done. And then, there’s the “issue” with skaven, which is that you’re very unlikely to not lose a model every single game.

My team has been on life-support this entire season. I was down to 10 actual members on the team at one point mid-season, and have slowly built my way back up to a mostly full roster. Then I lost two more linerats. >.>

They look so good with the pink and green and blue-ish silver! And I’m stoked they’re finally done!

Work-in-progress

Blood Bowl – Skaven Rat Ogre and Thrower

Posted on April 14, 2017

This was a super productive night! I made dinner (plus lunches for a few days), watched a movie with my wife, did some work on my top-secret coding project and got a bunch of shading done on these guys!

Once again I tried one of the Secret Weapon washes, and once again I was disappointed. I was only planning to use a little, but the dropped bottle had clogged and ended up spewing Red Black all over my palette. At which point I figured I’d use it, since it was there. But it again left a glossy sheen over my model. >.< Luckily it was an early step after basecoating, so there will be lots more pigments to go over it.

Really happy with the big guy! It’s a really nice model, with nice big muscles to shade and good composition for my colour choices. He’s going to look super awesome on the table! I want to drop some green onto his base to keep it in line with the rest of the team, but the more I paint it the more I think it just looks great as-is.

My defensive thrower is looking less awesome, but still pretty good. I think he needs a nice black rim on his base…

Work-in-progress

Blood Bowl – Skaven Rat Ogre and Thrower

Posted on April 5, 2017

I finally made enough in-game money to buy my rat ogre!!!!

This is a big deal. I’ve had about 16 games this season, and I’ve been saving up to buy him since the first one.

I bought one a large number of games ago, but he died 3 turns into his career. Like dead, apothecary, re-roll to dead. I’ve been living from paycheque to paycheque since that day, having many dead rats and needing to buy basic linerats to keep the team going. I’ve rolled twice on Expensive Mistakes and lost 50k to it. I almost played a game where I got 800k in inducements. >.<

But finally, my last game I got my break. I rolled a 3 for cash, won the game and had +2 FAME. I took the chance and re-rolled the treasury and it came up 6!

So now I have to paint the guy. And also this thrower, who is also a big deal.

One guide I read recommended an offensive and a defensive thrower. The off. thrower has all the good throwing skills – accurate, extra hand, +ag, etc. The def. thrower you give him block first skill. You put him on the table because you want a model with Pass and Sure Hands so you can get all the defensive touchdowns.

I almost forgot to put paint on the thrower, but managed to get some colours on him from the remnants of the base coat I used on the rat ogre. These are the last models in the team that don’t have any paint on them, (although not the last models to be finished — lots in a “half done” stage) so it’ll be nice to have a “fully painted” team. Hopefully I can keep this painting up into the next month to finish the team off. 😛

Featured Images Photography

Blood Bowl – Skavens!

Posted on March 18, 2017

I committed to myself and my club that I would paint at least one model before I played again.

I scheduled a game for Wednesday. Then ran out of time to paint a model.

Mid-Wednesday, my game got cancelled because of various reasons, and I was unable to find a new one. Some might say it was a sign. So I painted two models today to stave off the wrath of Nuffle!

The nice thing about these models is that they are mostly done before I get to them right now. The first steps are super simple, but care needs to be taken with the shading which is where I’ve been stuck for a few weeks (months). With these, I’ve finished my Gutter Runners and got the first of my linerats done.

Photography

I’m still playing with this stuff. With the Orlocks I used my 25mm lense, but it has a much longer focus range than some other lenses I have. The macro lens I used in the previous Gutter Runner post is a little to close to keep my ego intact – plenty of people adhere to the “2 foot rule” when it comes to models, and the more I paint and photograph, the happier I am with keeping people (and the lens) a little further away to minimize the effect of brush strokes and tide marks, etc.

With the photos here, I used a 20mm lens which gets a lot closer physically, but is notably further away focally. I cropped the photos down a lot to bring them as close as they look above, which works due to the quality of the sensor in my camera.

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