How I did it: Blood Bowl Dwarf Team

- The only place success comes before work 

is in the dictionary.

Vince Lombardi

   Good morning fellow hobbyists,

   Today we will have a chat about Blood Bowl, "the greatest game in the world!" as Bob Bifford utterly claims. We are not talking about the video game of course (though it basically is, exactly we can say, the same ruleset) but the board game, which is, really, the greatest boardgame in the world in my opinion. I couldn't imagine, a few months ago, how vast and rooted this game was in our society. There are world, continental and national (where not regional) championships ruled by the NAF, an international, extremely precise, game system (or tradition), beyond the strict GW's ruling. The fact is that this game has survived, and has thrived, alone just with the help of the (global, and this is the exciting part) community. Wow. I would be part of this family, since I found the game outstanding and really challenging, so I started playing with one of the most ancient and important italian and european Blood Bowl Associations, the Predatori Firenze; learning new tactics and trying new teams, the last of which is one of the hardest to play, dwarves, my Skaldmàl Egillsons.

   Nevertheless this is a tutorial, so let's head straight on to the painting process!

   Firstly a brief introdution. In this tutorial we'll see in depth only the beards and gems (which are, for a dwarf, the most important things we can assume) because for red armour, gold and skin I re-used some of my older schemes. Following links to the related tutorials:

    Red Armour: Militarum Tempestus Scion

    Gold: same

    Skin: Stormcast Eternals Lord Aquilor

    Ball: Blood Bowl Human Team

    Leather: same

    Base: Stormcast Eternals Liberators, or you can check around the website, there are plenty of ways to make bases and using pigments on them.

    One thing is really important. In an attempt to simplify and speed the process up I came up with a different way of shading: after putting all the basecoat colors I used a single wash for the whole model, base included, Reikland Fleshade (50/50 with medium). I had in mind to try this technique since the assembly of the models, so I carefully chose the colors to be used to go well with that precise washing.

   Blonde Beard

   1. Basecoat with Zandri Dust.

   2. Wash with Reikland (it would be better to wash with Seraphim Sepia, but using Medium we can control Reikland. You can use Sepia if you prefer, I used Reikland to speed the process up as I said before).

   3. Layer with Zandri Dust.

   4. Highlight with Ushabti Bone.

    Black Beard

   1. Basecoat with Dark Reaper mixed with Black.

   2. Wash with Reikland Fleshade.

   3. Layer with Dark Reaper.

   4. Highlight very carefully with Dawnstone.

    Red Beard

   1. Basecoat with Jokaero Orange.

   2. Wash with Reikland.

   3. Layer with Jokaero Orange.

   4. Highlight with Jokaero Orange mixed with White.

   Brown Beard

   1. Basecoat with Dryad Bark.

   2. Wash with Reikland.

   3. Layer with Dryad Bark.

   4. Highlight with Steel Legion Drab, and Karak Stone.

    Velvet Gems

   

   1. Basecoat with Naggaroth Night. 

   2. Wash with Nuln Oil and Medium.

   3. Add a very diluted layer of Genestealer Purple to one side down of the gem as showed in the picture. You can put two layer of this, the second mixed with white covering less surface.

   4. Highlight with White Scars in the bottom and add two tiny dots on the opposite side.

   5. Cover with Ardcoat.

     In conclusion I am very happy of how they have turned out and after months of training now I am ready to test them in a big competition, our local MHBBL, basically one year-span league with a lot of great (and fun) players.

   All hail the Skaldmàl!

   Thanks for reading, have a good day!