I was very excited to hear of Blood Bowl’s planned re-release (all the specialist games in fact), it being amongst my favourite games of all time. When my local store announced they’d be running a league using current Competition Rule Set I excited signed up, figuring I could bash a team together from what I already had in my fantasy collection. When Age of Sigmar was released a year ago I jumped straight in and began to work on a new Beastman/Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch army. As with a lot of my bigger projects a lot of this is still in progress, I still plan to finish and post my Age of Sigmar stuff in future, but for now I had some raw material to build this team.
The majority of parts for the team come from the plastic Beastmen range and the Age of Sigmar starter box set. I’m not a huge fan of the Sigmarites or Khorne forces (the models are great but just not to my tastes) but I figured the box was worth it even if I just used everything for conversions.
The Chaos Warriors were built mostly from Retributor Sigmarites and Chaos Warrior bits. The plain Retributor shoulder pads are perfect for Blood Bowl players. I also like that these guys stand nice and tall and imposing on the pitch. There’s also a host of bits from other ranges that work well here. I did a LOT of dry fitting with all these conversions. Rather a lot of time went into making each model individual.
The Beastmen use the Gor and a few Bestigor parts, with some bits from the Khorne Bloodreavers. Most of the bits of armour and the shoulder pads come from the Undead range, specifically skeletons. Originally I had thought about making a whole range of models that I could swap out with different mutations that are available to Chaos Teams, or even magnetizing the options, but ultimately I felt it didn’t actually matter that much. I knew I’d pick up at least a couple of extra arms and an extra head at some point so I gave them to two of the models. Likewise, I gave claws to a couple of the Chaos Warriors, because they look bad-ass and frankly made modelling the arms easier.
My absolute favourite amongst the lot of them is number 10 (Scrufti’gor), the only one in a running pose. The pose and the fact he’s wearing goggles reminds me of X-Men’s Quicksilver. He also has an extra arm for some running double punch action.
Finally, there’s the centre-piece of the team, the Minotaur. I knew I’d have to field one and at first had no clue where to start (as I very much dislike the plastic Minotaurs). After a lot of pondering and dry fitting I figured I’d try the Khorgorath’s legs with a Skaven Stormfiend torso and Minotaur arms/head.
As you can see it took a lot of green stuff to put him together right. Some key points worth mentioning; the Khorgorath’s legs needed a lot cutting out of them to have them fit on a 40mm base. The tail (tentacle) and loin cloths are both from Stormfiends, as it the belt. The shoulder pads are left over from a Centurion conversion and fit him perfectly. The only other major bit is the head. I had at first tried the Flesh Hound head from the Age of Sigmar starter box, which worked surprisingly well, as even though I had some Minotaur heads I don’t like the large tusks jutting from the lower jaw. In the end though I took one of those heads and did some dental work, transplanting the upper row of teeth from another head to replace this one’s lower jaw. Obsessive I know, but I couldn’t help myself.
All the models can be seen in 360 degrees in the video.
So next up will be the painting. The team is named the Silver Tower Sentinels and is based off a team I’ve run a few times in the PC version of Blood Bowl. They are wholly dedicated to Tzeentch and I’ll be painting them in a bright blue scheme with white details. Not decided yet whether to give the Beastmen dark skin and white warpaint, or light skin and dark blue tattoos. I really want to lavish some attention on these and will post updated pics to this post when I finish them.
After the league is over I may even post a little report of how they fared.
With Blood Bowl being a brilliant excuse to collect a small group of really fun miniatures I’m planning on building a few more custom teams. At least one Elf type team, possibly Goblins, Undead and Lizardmen if I can source enough of the specific bits I want.
UPDATE: I’ve had to temporarily shelf the painting on this team, due to workload but for anyone interested here’s my number 1 player (Vik’lash “One Horn” the Destroyer) in his nearly finished state. I like the classic blue and white scheme and it’s very fitting for Tzeentch followers. Also, I’m going with the classic Goblin Green bases for these guys.
