Warhammer 40,000 – Rukkatrukk Squigbuggy
Let's finish the industrial vehicle theme with a Buggy, the Rukkatruck Squigbuggy, that will be de-orcified within this building review. The Squigbuggy was introduced along with a couple of other new orc vehicles on the Speed Freeks release.
The Squigbuggy isn't the first Ork vehicle that I convert, I did some work on the Battlewaggon and the Ork Bomba. I bought it last year, it was one of four vehicles not exclusive to the Speed Freeks kit back then (the Kustom Boost-blasta and Shokkjump Dragsta would only be available through the boxed set). With the latest price update it is now 40 EUR, like the other medium sized ork vehicles.
About painting…
Back then, in a grim and dark past, there was no such thing as washes on the market, and their counterparts, classic inks, were not as widespread as they are today. In the coming articles I will talk a little about the painting of figures in general and my personal preferences and experiences. A good start is my basic attitude towards this part of the hobby, or better yet, how it has changed over time. This will become clearer in the course of the further articles.
I returned to the hobby in 2001 when an old friend of mine met me in my american football club and I happened to see his models when we hung out one day. Since I was active in the hobby for a short time in my youth, it didn't seem strange to me and I thought, "Oh, that looks cool, but...what is it?". Because, the first time, I had seen the miniature hobby in a shop of the chain Welt der Spiele (Games Workshop stores didn't exist like sand at the sea at that time) and didn't know a single game system. Primarily the optical attraction had pulled me into the shop. The models covered the usual range from Fantasy to SciFi of different manufacturers.
In any case, over time I had had the desire to reach a level of painting that would approach a competition level. The internet was still in its childhood stages, but became a more and more important part of the hobby and in 2007 I had seen so many great models that were brought to life by their paintwork that I wanted the same.
BLOOD BOWL – Journey of the Maulers: Wanderleagues
As the third lineplayer paintwise doesn't offer anything new compared to the other two, I'll talk a bit about my Wanderleague system today, but more about that in a moment. I've tried a little something on Gorhuk the Smelly. On the one hand, I'm just starting to love the color scheme of keeping the clothes completely in black and the armor in yellow, on the other hand I wanted to do something new and tried painting the logo on the side of the helmet, just to see how it would look. That turned out pretty well so far and I think the other players will get the team logo painted onto the side of their helmets as well over the course of time.
BLOOD BOWL – Journey of the Maulers: Old Blood
The team's four Blitzers all have an individual history and when I looked through the old background snippets some time ago, I just realized how much character the most offensive part of the team had.
Borag Oldblood is the team's oldest player and by the way, the only remaining player of the original squad, long before the Maulers rose to fame for the first time. All other players have since been replaced by better ones, traded in favor of more lucrative contracts on the transfer market, or have simply died in the course of their careers.
BLOOD BOWL – Journey of the Maulers: From fan to player
In the background of the Maulers story, I mentioned that there was a tryout and those of you who have followed the Journey of the Maulers so far, will notice that the following two players are Rikoth and Rotfang. I always like to give the minis a small characterization which is kept open enough to expand it over time.
The two are the first real repaints and I'm pretty happy with the result. When I painted them, I was't quite sure yet with the color scheme. Although I had chosen my main colors, the overall picture of the figures can change quickly by simply painting them on different places. For the fans, that was't a big deal, because they do not need a consistent image, but since Blood Bowl is vagueky based on American Football, the recognition value lies in a somewhat uniformous look of the players clothing.
As you can tell by the colors, I've only added some slight variations.
BLOOD BOWL – Journey of the Maulers: The proper look
Chainsaws not only have a long-standing tradition at Blood Bowl, they are also a great excuse some conversions a try. Since I always wanted to field Ugroth Bolgrot once, but never liked the classic model, I built my own version. On the one hand, that had the advantage that I could use it, if I needed an inducement at any time and on the other hand I could test the new yellow color scheme for the first time. Of course, I had the crazy idea that he should wear a mask and the tabletopwelt.de user blackmail82 had just the right thing in his bitzbox. He sent it in the same stylish manner as he handles everything in the hobby.
BLOOD BOWL – Journey of the Maulers: Tryouts
Match reports are always a double-edged sword in Blood Bowl. They are wonderfully entertaining, but the documentation and smoothing can cost a normal worker like me a whole week of free evenings. For this reason I`ll have only a small summary this time, but full reports will surely come at some time in the future. So what happened next during the Journey of the Maulers? I had painted a small bunch of fans to practice the color scheme and to give the sideline a bit more flair. The Maulers themselves had a strong staffing problem because their squad did not have enough players to play a regular Blood Bowl game yet. Some of the models were still in the Sterilium bath to get strip them of the old paint. So what do you do in this case when you are in the Blood Bowl world? Right, you're having a tryout!
An old friend of mine, Ralf Brockhausen, against whom I have already played some wonderful games, is kind of a hobby hero to me. Nearly 20 years ago, when you could barely find something about Blood Bowl in German-language forums, he worked on a small hobby project on tabletopwelt.de, in which he built a team of Ogres, the Schildweg Butchers (they can be seen in the article on solo campaigns).
Meanwhile, he is rather playing Blood Bowl 7s, a smaller version of the game that has been around for years but is not that common. In this variant, there are only seven players in the team and no re-rolls, which makes it a very fast and chaotic game. For his developing Norse team, he had built a stadium that looked just so great that we simply had to play a game!
BLOOD BOWL – Journey of the Maulers: Team Logos
In my article, Blood Bowl: Solo Campaigns, I've talked about how the backstory of a team contributes significantly to the immersion in a solo campaign and that I'm actually following that method in the Journey of the Maulers series. For the fans I already did this, as each of them got a few lines of background. These are usually rather short as they serve as a basis for their character development and can be expanded both narratively and throughout the campaign.
Today, I lay the foundations for the background story of the Maulers as a whole and at the same time I deal with the logo of the team. Draw again a parallel to the real sport template of American Football, it is noticeable that many teams are recognizable by a certain symbol, similar to the heraldry of a knight's house.
I should warn you - today's post does not contain any miniatures, just a few scribbles that have sprung from my twisted, creative vein. But if you like a bit of story about Blood Bowl teams, you can sit back and enjoy the first real chapter of the Maulers' journey ...
BLOOD BOWL – Journey of the Maulers: Fink da Fixer
Since I rebuild the Maulers with a narrative approach and would also try to follow that in play, I've of course taken a look at the new rules and discovered the section for (in)famous coaching staff. The nice thing about the section is that the new staff are not optional but official rules, which means that I can use models for the staff at any time, as long as I have something to represent them.
Fink da Fixer is a perfect example of the twisted trickery and cleverness of a Goblin. For a staggering 50,000 gold pieces, Fink brings the equivalent of three coaching assistants to the team and a re-roll for failed bribes on fouls. Also, if you get caught in the act and are argueing with the referee, you can keep your player on the field at a 5+ already. He is available to all Ogre, Orc, Goblin and Underworld teams.
Having played a couple of games with my Underworld team, the Skycastle Titans, I've gotten a taste for fouling and intend to use Fink more often when I reach the next step of building the Maulers up again. However, until then Fink will take over command of the fan club of da Kneebreakaz.
Outlook 2019 – The hobbywhip for the boss
While Dennis summarized 2018 in his annual review quite smoothly, I‘ll take a look into the glass orb for 2019 and do what a true hobbyist can do best: make plans and try to do everythin possible that they turn out differently! Accordingly my main point on the list of good intentions for the new year is to stick to my plan!
First of all, there is a warband for Age of Sigmar: Skirmish, of which I have already finished two models and where the progress on the rest is nearing completion.
Afterwards I‘ll take on Dreadball for a while, as Mantic Games was so kind to provide us wit the second edition starter box, as well as two more new PVC teams. Hobbywise there will be more stuff in this department as well, because of course I want to have at least the teams of the starter box painted - and that from both editions, the first and the second.
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