Journey of the Maulers: A legendary pun

For quite some time I wasn't sure whether I should repaint this gentleman or not. This thrower was the first conversion for the Maulers and also the test mini for the colour scheme. I remember sacrificing the figure of a classic savage orc shaman on boar to get the hand that points away from him - a typical quarterback movement in American Football.

But in the end I'm glad I did it, even though I probably won't use the model in the team at all. It's a kind of homage to the beginning of the team and to the style I followed two decades ago. Also the team's name was born after I painted the model. Originally I wanted to call the team New Mork Giants, but I think puns have to have charm and changing the name of an NFL team is one way, but I don't think it fits into the Blood Bowl setting very often. With the Orcland Raiders, for example, it's more of an exception, because the Badlands are also called Orclands, so the name includes the background of its inhabitants. But you can find more about team names in my other article about that.

The same applies to puns for player names. If every name in the roster is a spoof of something or someone, the joke loses its touch. These types of puns only become meaningful when they stand out and even better when the real name is instantly recognizable but still different. Back then, I knew I would call one of my throwers Troi Orkman, based on the legendary quarterback Troi Aikman who had played for the Dallas Cowboys before.

Of course, as with almost everything, there is an exception for puns with player names. And it has actually already come to me by chance - with the Skycastle Titans I have changed usernames from real people through the whole roster or partially converted the real names into other languages. The latter is not only a convenient way for a team to find genuine names, they also sound credible and yet different from the originals. If you need a little support here, you should have a look at namepedia.org to see what a name in another language would sound like.

Troi Orkman

In the world of Blood Bowl there are only a few players who get old and there are almost less old orcs. Troi Orkman is one of those few legendary players who has ended his career as an active sportsman and is now living "da eazy life". Fans are always thrilled when he occasionally gets invited to a palaver with Jim and Bob on CabalVision and even today you can still find dung statues of him made ny fans in the Badlands.

Well, with this repaint, I have reached the point where I failed twenty years ago: there are still four players left who need a new coat of paint. What's your best way to motivate yourself to reach the goal line in a project like this? Let me know in the comments and stay with us as we take the final steps in this part of the Journey of the Maulers!

Greetings from the Chaosbunker

Dino