BLOOD BOWL – Journey of the Maulers: Tutorial

Two more recycled Warhammer figures made it into the fan block. While I mostly repositioned parts on the other models, this time I modified one of the Orcs with a few parts that were still in my bits box. As I like to use Blackorc elbow pads on other models as shoulder armor, I still had some armored gloves left over and gave the former standard bearer a metal mitten. Although I put him in the crowd of fans, the model actually represents one of the former players, travelling with them while the team rebuilds.

BLOOD BOWL – Journey of the Maulers: Wannabes

More old Warhammer miniatures have gotten a stylish makeover and are now loyal fans of the Maulers. It is easy to see what effect the restauration of an old figure can have. I remember quite well that I didn't finish the musician's drums at the time because I felt burned out after more than twenty orcs in a row.

BLOOD BOWL – Journey of the Maulers: Fans

In the introduction, I talked about giving the team a new paintjob. As explained the team color should not be red, because I had already painted the Gouged Eyes in their classic look and after quality had suffered from a rushed attempt, I couldn't get satisfied with blue anymore either. Yellow was a color I had never really tried before. Although I had other color combinations in mind, for me personally, yellow was simply the color that united the cheekyness of the orcs best within the community - hard but clever, clever but hard. For the color to work, it must be seen in the right places and needs very hard accents on the edges.

But I didn't know that at that time and I wanted to test the color on a different model instead on a member of the team right away. Since I am a big friend of strenghtening the immersion of the setting, it was clear to me that I wanted to have a small bleacher with fans. Since Orcs do not have to pay too much attention to a consistent style, it was a good opportunity to test different styles of yellow. Now the only question was which models I should use for the fans. Around the same time, I had stopped playing Warhammer Fantasy Battles, as the amount of miniatures needed was enormous and I had to lower the standard here as well, should I ever want to see the horde completely painted.

Well, what can I say, in my Warhammer army that plan had failed, but I had kind of grown attached to the models and so it seemed appropriate to give them new life by practicing yellow as a color on them and at the same time give them better painted quality. No sooner said than done. I grabbed two old Orcs from a regiment, snipped off their weapons, repositioned their arms as if they were just involved in a fight and painted them anew. In general, Blood Bowl not only persiflates the sport but also its fans, so a bunch of hooting, belligerent hooligans would look well on the sideline of the field.

From lousy foot soldiers to die-hard Blood Bowl fans …