Deadcember meets Blood Bowl - My V NAF World Cup team

 

This year I decided to play my very first Blood Bowl competition, so I needed a grand entrance. Meet La Maisontaal Manhunters, the shambling undead team I painted for the tournament.

The Shambling Undead is one of my favourite teams, not my first one I have to say. But from the oldhammer teams, this one attracted me a lot.

After the "special" VI edition of the Old World Army Challenge with lots of oldhammer blood bowl teams, I couldn't resist. I got a team of the old Gary Morley's gems and prepared it as my own world cup team.

However, the only problem I see with the old team is the lack of different sculpts, so I decided to convert several players to met the La Maisontaal theme.

The mummies go as they come. They're simply perfect in the original sculpts. It is the first time I made a complete nmm with a fantasy squad or regiment, so I mixed different kinds of metal to give them a proper varied look.

The wight blitzers have they're own custom sculpt but I chaged a bit one of them to reflect the mighty Mikeal Jacksen, the wight hero from the old lichemaster series.

It also help to differentiate from the tackle and the mighty blow (obviously the good Mikeal).

 For the ghouls I sculpted some iron knuckles and reposed a little bit the hands. With the different ghoulish skin colours and the modifications they have now a slightly varied looks and also help to reflect the two blocks and the strip ball abilities from the rooster.

The fodder got also some love, as any other member from the team. Some poor villagers from Frugelhofen made the bulk of the linemen, so I sculpted a beard on one of the zombies and give him the proper greasy and rotten look. Does he also count for a movember entry?

The other one is the linemen with extended clothes to look as one of the poor La Maisontaal monks, who was transferred in the winter market from the local Blood Bowl team to ours after the unlucky encounter with the forces of Heinrich Kemmler.

Lastly, I do not have a spare Gary's zombie to convert for a new linemen, and I do not want either to resculpt one of the repeated zombie linemen. So I decided to paint a skeleton and also give my roster a little and nasty trick.

Enters the fouling zombie and a cheerleader to make for a Fan Factor token.

That's it, the entire Blood Bowl team. 

Next entry before the VII OWAC starts, the world cup recap and the achievements.

Until then, Adrian's out.

Them filthy rodents are still coming for your souls

From the darkest shadows of the forest surrounding your village, in the deepest sewers in your street, came a sudden strike of daggers, claws and squeaking rabid teeth.

New Year, two orcs

 

 

It is not what I've only painted in the entire 2022 after my previous OWAC but it is what must be shown to the (small) world of people that ends up in this blog.

I enjoy a lot painting the old 3rd edition orcs. Or orcs in general, but mostly the awkward, mean looking sculpts of that era. Especially following my rule of not only green orcs.

ORC1 and Harboth's Orc archers are also pretty easy to paint and do not lack details compared to more modern sculpts. While their armour are much more simple, they have different kind of furs, clothes, pouches, quilts, etc.

I din't have much time by September-October but the easy-to-paint sculpts allowed me to pass these two beauties in the painting queue and accomplish another Orctober as it should be.

Now that I have a reasonable set of Harboth's orcs, minus the champion, I will try to get severeal of the other Kev Adam's sculpts so I have more variation and a complete collections of its amazing orc archers.

The entire regiment will be the mandatory 20 orcs needed for the army list and the Blood Bath at orc drift scenario.

Btw: I did a bit of cheating for Orctober, because, as you can see there are no pictures of the other side. And that's because I didnt paint their proper shields. 

I do not know where did I put my small supply of evil-looking or spiked round shields, but when I found I'll add them their final piece of equipment.

OWAC V June's rank & file month - the might of the Dragon Company

Rank & File Month

 Who need a dragon when you have an entire Dragon Company.

Ulther: We will be eternally in debt for your kind help and guiding our company in such a dangerous adventure.

Snow White: I accept your gratitude and there is no need to worry about the perils of our journey. I am very happy to help my friends, your brave companions… and abandon such a boring fest. You know, I love my husband but do not expect me not to run away after four days of such boring court fests.

Ulther: Well, lucky we were there during the fests when the news about the orc advance reached the castle. Without your assistance, we didn’t know this path to the valley and probably won't reach our friend Lord Kazador in time. 

...About your friends… we will avenge those seven brave engineers, my lady.

Snow White: Do not worry also for my friends, if I am also showing you this path is because maybe we need to reach fast and help king Kazador even more than my friends. Specially if they have deployed one of their… how to say, creative solutions. 

Remember that story when my stepmother tried to poison me?, my friends chased her along the valley and in the end a rock fell by accident over her... Let’s say that I knew very well our home deep in the forest and I do not remember having a trebuchet in the garden before I fell asleep.

 
Ulther: Do you think that they may have repelled the mighty and unglorious orc warlord Gorfang?

Snow White: I suspect more than you want to know. I hope there is still a mine shaft and not a giant crater instead when we arrive there.

...

King Kazador: We must start to retreat to our lines. We can barely resist their massive waves.

“Doc”: My lord, but if we retreat now we cannot bring with us the part of the treasure that has not been sealed in the lower levels.

King Kazador: And what exactly do you expect me to do in order to stop these filthy orcs? Bring a dragon to burn ‘em all??

[bang bang bang]

A dragon! A Dragon!

King Kazador: Well, Doc, that’s your dragon. Now let start loading that frigging gold and run away from this damned hill.

Ulther! My friend! Your help is more than welcomed! Now show those beasts how does a proper dwarf shieldwall work!

 
The last month requires a final bang before saying goodbye to the current edition of the OWAC. And this unit was the perfect candidate for such an honour.

Thanks to Mariano, this unit was my introduction to the oldhammer community. It has travelled (almost) all around the world before settling into my desk. Probably 5?Even more years ago? Unfortunately , they were still in their box, untouched, eager to be deployed.

Let’s finish the OWAC with a regiment of renown.

Besides of the legendary miniatures, the Dragon Company awesomeness allows me to completely break my previous painting scheme, like I did with the Jes Goodwin's eldar pirates from the last year.
I will probably follow this strategy in order to not getting burned during a challenge/painting schedule.

I got catch by The Lost and the Damned painting of the Dragon Company and tried to replicate the approach to the shieldwall heraldry, but with a not-so-small twist. Adding an patterns to their imperial dwarf tabards and armour styles too, so almost every dwarf is unique.

I loved the opportunity to paint checkers, halved patterns, etc. and bring out their armour. The repeated sculpts are not so easily recognisable and therefore not a problem at all in the final result.
So, less talk and show you the migh of:

Prince Ulther (dwarf hero) and 14x Dragon Company with full command (count as Iron Breakers) - 430 points

Yes, yes, the last month I was 100% legal and didn’t claim the slayer hero because I didn’t paint him in the leader month. But Ulther needed to be with his fellas, doesn’t he? I am not cheating, did I?

I am not totally proud of the banner because at this point I was running out of time as I needed to finish everything one week ago!!

Probably I will touch it again in the future. Improve the dragon and add several motifs.

At least I had spare time to bring to the ranks this little friend that was magically recovered when me and his proud seller thought it has been lost in the UK mail system. Two months later it pops up, returned to the sender! So I wanted it anyways and in time before the challenge ends.

Also, there is now Seven Dwarfs without Snow White. Another year, another great idea by Lissane in the comments that I NEEDED to include in the army. I had this civilian laying around and thought, spot on for the cause!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish the freehand on my dwarf warrior banner, a personal shame that I should finish when I improve the Dragon Company banner or else take the slayer oath!

And with those words, let’s see you in the recap.
Until then, Adrian’s out!

OWAC V May's slayed rank & file month

Rank & File Month

 

Instead of troubleshooting, we called the troublemaking department.

It is not a proper dwarf brawl until the orange angry naked guys appear.

 

Oli: Do you think that this is the right direction?

Plissken: I cn assure you that I already smell those orcs, we're near them.

Oli: We shouldn't have gotten into that fight with the giants, maybe the main orc army has reached the mine! Or they're fighting and overnumbering our lord Kazador retinue!

Plissken: tsssh, then we're now on an infiltration mission to save the presid.. I mean, the King.

...

Look. Orcs.

Oli:We must kill them silently before they make any nois..

 

AAAAIIiiieeeh! ORCS! ORCS!

ONE IS MINE!

*extremely loud drum noises* I'LL SMASH YOUR 'EAD!

BRING IT ON!

OOOOOORRRCsssssaaAAAAAARGH!!!

Plissken: Fine, probably all the valley knows we're here!

Snorri: Don't worry, they're just ahead! We've caught them by their backs! TROLLS! Plenty for FOR EVERYONE, GUYS! KILL 'EM ALL!

I imagine that most of the time the slayers are something like the Gutbuster brigade from Forgotten Realms. Tragical and suicidal warriors ruled by their death-oath, yet silly and unruly, as you can't really take too seriously a bunch of orange haired kamikazes.

This month updated comes with

Snorri and his troll slayers (x10 Slayers) - 141 points

I do not claim the points of the leader as Giant Slayer because I didn't paint it in the month leader, so basically he's just a cool dude.

 

As I said in the intro iirc, this special slayer came without the dragon head, but Drew's unused troll heads from my orc and goblin army came to the rescue and are a pretty good substitute.

To my surprise it fits the 20mm base with the troll head. So I am quite happy with the result.

The unit overall was pretty fun to paint, with lots of options for tatoos, body painting, details in the clothes, etc.

 

 

Berserk tatoo!

 

 

 Svend D. "Snake" Plissken, of the special slayer forces of Karak Azul

I liked the idea of different races or skins for my dwarfs but too often there's nothing but small tonal changes like in WoW, and few to none real cultural changes. This slayer came from the very south karaks of the Old World, even farther than Karak Azul.

Not only I played with skin variation but also changes in the tattoos. The southerner has a slightly more central african "dwarf-ish" tattoo than the others (sadly I didn't check my photographs because the half angry face in his belly is hardly seen in the lot).

Whereas the most pale skinned dwarf has a traditionally viking-looking tattoo and freckles.

Again, didn't check that I had no good picture of him, the guy with the spiked ball, with the macro lens as I had to make the photos on the go. I can blame my assistant for not pointing out the quality of some pictures during the session.

Always blame the assistant.

Now, for the last batch of miniatures and the recap!

Until next month

Adrian’s out.