Stormcast Blood Bowl team update: lucky thirteen

Thanks to a burst of recent productivity, I’ve just added six more painted players to my custom Stormcast Eternals Blood Bowl team.

Since my first simple kitbashing project over a year ago — converting an Averon Stormsire model into a Blood Bowl player — the idea has spiralled into slowly creating a team of Stormcast players. The last time I wrote a specific update on this team, I was up to enough models for a Sevens team although only 4 actually painted.

That was in February this year and, as mentioned in a few painting table updates since, I’ve carried on converting more and more players. Thanks to the aforementioned burst of recent activity, I now have 13 of them painted up to a tabletop standard, with another three converted ready for painting.

With a full playable team, it seemed a good time to do a full round-up of what has become a fun project. Strap in, this will be a long one…

Why do this?

Because it’s fun. After the Stormsire conversion last year, I realised a load of the Stormcast sculpts are actually really dynamic and, with weapons removed, could often work pretty nicely as Blood Bowl players looking to brawl.

… and what am I hoping to achieve?

I had no goal in mind with that first kitbash, other than trying some new techniques and thinking it could be cool. As I did a couple more, the itch to create a full team’s worth did take hold and I’m now basically there. Will I stop at 16 when I finished the three yet-to-be-painted minis? Probably not.

Does it work for Blood Bowl?

I currently have no desire or intention to try creating custom rules for this team. Once I thought about making a full team, the idea has always been to proxy them for a Human team.

The one problem I do have is which position to make each miniature and how to make that clear to my opponents. I’m still not 100% convinced of my choices, but I’ve grouped the models roughly by position as I run through them below. I’ve no doubt some will change (for example, my lightning-lasso’d Liberator had been marked as a lineman during kitbashing but now done, I see him as a blitzer).

So here goes…

The team

Proxying as a human team, I’ve got a few positions to play with: Catcher, Thrower, Blitzer, Lineman and Halfling.

Lineman (0–16)

Creating a team like this based pretty much entirely on rule-of-cool when choosing models doesn’t go super well with then labelling a bunch of them as boring old linemen, but I’ve pushed myself to flesh out five of them as such.

Gardus Steel Soul, lineman

One of a few named-character models in this team, Gardus nonetheless feels like a lineman. Usual sword and hammer removed, he’s instead smashing his fist into the turf and creating a nice little crater to intimidate the opposition.

Knight Incantor, lineman

One I’ve worked on most recently (and am still tidying up). This model is from the old ‘Getting Started with Age of Sigmar’ magazine-format starter.

I got really happy with how I’d painted this one, glowing-magic-in-hand-casting-OSL and all. Then I had the bright idea of using some snippets of wire to create a crackling lightning effect in his hand. Then I got the bright idea to add Vallejo transparent water effect gel to create a ball of magic around those crackles. Then I snipped the wire shorter and kept changing my mind on how to paint the ‘ball’ and it’s gone a little off the rails for now.

This was a super-cheap ebay find that came already caked in paint so I’m still impressed he turned out this well — I even had to find two replacement fingers for that magic-summoning hand, which now get a bit lost.

Push-fit Vindictor, lineman

It’s that model handed out in the Warhammer shops as a the first-one’s-free demo for new hobbyists (until 4th edition AoS: now it’s a Liberator I believe). Some time last year I bought the Stormcast half of Dominion on ebay and it came with a bunch of extras, including about 6 of these push-fit Vindictors and a couple of Knight Arcanums [Arcana?] (see below).

1st ed. Liberator, lineman

Along with the Vindictor above, this was my only other conscious nod to having some standard linemen, when I thought I needed to pad out my team and before I realised there were so many other cool models I could use. As a result, it’s a paint job I haven’t spent much time on, which shows.

Lord-Ordinator Vorrus Starstrike, lineman(?)

One of three unpainted minis so far. I saw Vorrus as a blitzer when deciding to do the (minimal) conversion of removing his hammers but with 16 minis all converted now, I’ve temporarily marked him for a lineman. Depending on how the paint scheme goes, I’ll probably swap him back with the ‘lightning’ Liberator below — which was originally intended as a lineman but looked too cool once painted.

Thrower (0–2)

Knight Judicator, thrower

As a big fan of the simple 3rd edition Blood Bowl human thrower in my first go-round with Games Workshop in the nineties, getting a similar pose for this Stormcast team was a nice bonus. Another one made more attainable via the partworks magazines, the Knight Judicator with gryph hounds had most of the pose already done for me: one planted foot, another stretched forward as he leans back to launch an arrow. Well, swap out that massive bow for a football and we’re largely there.

Getting that left arm to work was pretty tricky though. There’s no left-handed ball holder model that I’ve seen to use as a donor, while the Knight Judicator arm obviously angles back into the body for knocking the arrow. Instead, I managed to pull together some bits from the bits box and hopefully create the look of him just drawing that throwing arm back.

The original model is also resting his leading leg up on a bit of ruined masonry which seemed a bit too large to exist on even a Blood Bowl pitch. Thankfully, a purchase of a 3D-printed Amazons proxy Blood Bowl team last year had also oddly come with a misprinted Dark Elf, where the arms kind of withered to shards. With nothing better to use it for, the elf got to be squashed under a hefty Stormcast boot to complete the pose.

Dhoraz Giant-Fell, thrower

Even in the time it’s taking me to write this post, I’m reconsidering some positions and thinking perhaps that Vorrus model above would work better as a thrower if I swapped over this hand-with-ball from Dhoraz.

Nonetheless, in the meantime Dhoraz Giant-Fell has laid down his great hammer to instead play as a thrower. This is one of a few models where the real paucity of open hands to make use of in kitbashing has become upsettingly apparent to me. Ideally his free hand would be open like the Judicator above, to look a bit more natural. That said, this looks a bit more fight-y, so perhaps he’d work as a lineman instead.

Catcher (0–4)

Catchers. The light-footed speed merchants of a Blood Bowl team. Again, the models for the 3rd edition human catcher (and the most recent version too) are a really cool pose, evolved over 20-odd years. I haven’t quite managed to replicate it with a Stormcast conversion for now, but I still think I’ve managed a few good-uns.

Yndrasta the Celestial Spear, catcher

Normally it would be prohibitively expensive to convert Yndrasta for anything other than her intended use but, again, I stumbled across an ebay bargain: where someone crazy enough to attempt kitbashing with not just one but two Yndrasta models had thought better of it and decided to sell the bits along with some other Stormcast models.

One of the minis was missing quite a lot, but the second was still standing astride its ruined staircase with a heavy gold undercoat and even heavier wash of something like Reikland Fleshshade or Agrax Earthshade clogging up many of the details (which you can still see on the lower left leg and scrolls above).

I managed to cut Yndrasta away from the stairs, eventually keeping the step her raised foot is on and a little of the wall behind as they were too integral to the model and I didn’t want to risk it. Rather than attempting to strip the paint, I went with painting over the top (I could always try the paint stripper approach later if that didn’t go well) and overall I’m happy enough with this one. There are a few details that still need tidying like those remaining clogs of shade paint, but as a tabletop miniature it looks good.

Averon Stormsire, catcher(?)

Another one I’m not so sure on choice of position for so, lacking a firm opinion the fact he’s standing on the ball — perhaps celebrating a touchdown — means he’s a catcher for now even though he doesn’t exactly look the most mobile. Possible lineman-in-waiting, maybe a blitzer or even a star player proxy.

This was my very first kitbash since returning to the hobby and I’m still pleased with it. The ball is the weak point of the composition, both because it’s painted badly but mostly because I messed up and put some flowers right in front of it which spoils the overall effect.

Knight Arcanum, catcher (✕2)

I documented my kitbashing of a first Knight Arcanum catcher and rolled quite quickly into another one with more detail having built some confidence. The second one was much more risky, with re-angled feet and head, but both changes turned out well, particularly the head I think. Removing the huge armoured guard from behind the head also opened the model up a lot to help with the idea of a runner.

Blitzer (0–4)

Like many people I’m sure, I love the general idea of a blitzer: a player who’s pretty mobile; can carry the ball but also smash it into someone’s face. Stormcast Eternals seem made for this position.

Vindictor, blitzer

After Averon Stormsire, this was either the second or third model I kitbashed and one where I did a little more than just chop hammers away from hands. And hey look, I’ve contradicted my claim not to know an open left hand as I used one here! Now that I’ve remembered, I think this is from one of the Imperial Nobility models.

The Vindictor is the cool one launching forward with its spear, so I swapped out the right hand for a human player hand with knuckle-duster, while the left arm from an Imperial Nobility player got a ball added in hand too. This took quite a bit of effort to get looking anywhere near realistic but I love the end result, even if the ball is out of scale (as the ball tokens tend to be compared to the sculpted ones).

4th edition Liberator, blitzer

One of my most recently finished miniatures and my first attempt at lightning, I’m really happy with some aspects of this one. Mainly said lightning effect and the OSL I managed to add on the legs. I’m less happy with the OSL on the ball and the hand holding the lightning ‘lasso’ but have decided to leave those for a while until I’ve got a better idea of how to improve them.

Vanquisher, blitzer

I really love the sculpts for the Vanquishers and was sure they’d be a good source for conversions. This is one where I had a clear idea of the end state I was aiming for but quickly realised how difficult I had made life for myself.

Again, with the ball token models being a bit large, fitting one between two hands held close in to the body was a nightmare. After much repeated cutting and repositioning though, I finally got the ball and both hands into a vaguely respectable position to look like he might be just gathering the ball into himself for a run.

Neave Blacktalon, blitzer

Yet another ebay find. The older solo Neave Blacktalon model is really cool and in that running posture had high potential. As shown in the photo, this one’s furthest away from being done: it’s built but not primed and the head has been kept separate for painting when I get round to it.

I’ve somehow ended up with three copies of this model, so using one for Blood Bowl was an easy choice.

Ogre

The unsolved problem: Human teams in Blood Bowl really need an ogre.

Which Stormcast model to proxy as an ogre though?

At the moment I have one more unpainted conversion to go and for practical terms am considering whether to treat it as an Ogre: 

Aventis Firestrike, Magister of Hammerhal on foot, ogre(???)

Clearly he doesn’t look much like an ogre, so I’m just going on scale here.

He’s a big boy even as far as Stormcast Eternals go and then is standing up on a bit of ruin too. Set alongside my old Morg ’n’ Thorg as well as the new standard ogre, they’re roughly equivalent in height.

That aside, he has no ogre-like qualities and I know the cognitive dissonance of using the ‘Magister of Hammerhal’ with rules like Bone Head is likely to be too much. So I’ve talked myself out of this one already and I’ll save him for a positional or as a star player.

Other options?

A quick play on minicompare has given me a few options to try:

Use an ogre, silly!

I could of course just use an actual ogre but I’m keen to have something more Stormcast-y if I can. If I get hold of another ogre model, I could try adding some Stormcast bits and make up a fun backstory.

Ogor Mawtribes Tyrant?

What the Blood Bowl ogres lack is clear size differential to the Stormcast Eternals, as shown above. With Stormcast being so much bigger than a standard Blood Bowl player, they need something bigger again to give that clear visual clue as to its role in the team. Hailing from Destruction rather than Order, I wonder whether the Ogor Mawtribes Tyrant might act as a decent base for what would have to be a seriously involved kitbash. Not one to undertake lightly…

Annihilator?

Of Stormcast minis, I’m going to struggle to get the differentiation. Annihilators get me closest in terms of bulk and presence, but I don’t think they stand out enough from the rest.

Gryph-charger?

Animals feel like they should be a good option but there’s again nothing quite in that sweet spot of scale, being just bigger than a Stormcast Eternal. Gryph hounds are too small and as far as I can tell, the gryph-chargers from the Stormstrike Chariot are the next smallest. They’re the right kind of height but obviously quite long.

3D printing?

Lastly, an avenue I haven’t yet investigated is whether I could get a 3D print to do the job. Maybe someone out there has already had this idea and offers an ogre-scale Stormcast proxy. Maybe I could get a normal Stormcast model/proxy printed at a slightly larger scale.

And breath…

Oof! That was a lot, so if anybody has got this far I applaud you. I’m mostly documenting this stuff for my own sake.

Naming the team

Now that I have enough players to actually play a game though, they need a name. Being Blood Bowl, it should ideally be punny.

So far I’ve got a couple of contenders.

In the real world I support Newcastle United Football Club, so a play on that as a team name appeals. I had a human team named New-hassle United when playing around with sample rosters a while ago and, given the colour scheme I’ve used mostly aligns with the Hallowed Knights stormhost, I’ve come up with:

New-Hallowed U-Knighted.

OK, it’s a mouthful and I almost certainly won’t use it

Playing more generally on Stormcast Eternals and going for a far simpler Blood Bowl-related pun, my next option is:

The Score-Fast Eternals.

I could contract it to the Scorefast Eternals to make it a bit less by-the-numbers, or even something more abstract but phonetically similar, like Skorrfast Eternals, to imply there might be a stormkeep called Skorrfast or something that just happens to sound like ‘score fast’.

Naming things is hard.

I’ll leave that as a problem for another day I think, and disappear into some more research on what in the world I could use as my ogre. Suggestions on a postcard.