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NAF Championship 2015 1st Prize

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 2:04 pm
by spubbbba
I’ve been asked to paint up the first prize for the NAF GT 2015. Although that is still 10 months away I have at least 4 teams to I’d like to complete before then, so thought it’s best to begin planning now. Once I have the idea and colour scheme fixed I can usually get through a team in a couple of months. I’ve added a poll to get some feedback on the ideas below, though please note I may well change my mind if I get better ideas between now and May 2015.

The one restriction is that the team should not be tier 2 or 3, that rules out; Ogres, Halfings, Goblins, Vampires and Underworld. I’d like to avoid repeating the prize from previous years so would not use High Elves (2014), Norse/Dwarfs (2013) or Khemri (2012) in addition Nazgob did an excellent Undead team in 2011 so I’d rule them out as well.
Finally there are some teams I’ve either done twice already, am working on at the moment or just don’t have any ideas for. These are Dark Elves, Nurgle, Orcs and Chaos Dwarfs and possibly Lizardmen, but more on them later.

That still leaves a good selection of teams.

Wood and Pro Elves – I do have some concepts for these but having done High elves last year I think a team with a different playstyle would be better. Maybe we shouldn’t have pointy ears twice in a row.

Chaos – The previous team I’d done was Slaanesh themed for Mr Stick using a lot of classic model. That leaves plenty of scope for chaos undivided, khorne or tzeentch themed teams. I am rather partial to the juggernaut riders as the basis for khorne chaos warriors and could incorporate elements of bloodletters into the beastmen. I even have an old bloodthirster to use as the basis for a minotaur.
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Slann –I’ve been half working on a team for while and even have most of the bits. However they would require a lot of modelling work and I’d be worried about not finishing them in time. Plus I’d quite like to do them for myself as something truly unique.
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Amazon – The team I did for Kalimar was one of my favourites and would be hard to top. Whilst working on them I did come up with a female elf concept that I thought could be used as amazon, human or pro elf. If I made 4 blitzers, 2 throwers, 4 catchers, 8 linewomen and an Ogre/Bertha for the humans/zons I could do all 3 teams with only 19 models.
I’m not sure how popular multi-use teams would be, as long as the linewomen, throwers, blitzers and catchers are clearly distinct then there shouldn’t be an issue on the pitch. But it risks compromising too much and using effort to make them all those 3 teams that could be spent making a team of one of those look top notch.
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Human – This was one of my first commissions and used the 5th edition models with no conversions aside from crests on the blitzers. I have another set of those great models and a full 2nd edition team so could easily do a simple paint job. Other possibilities are using the new tempestus scion plastics to make a team or combining the blood angel chestplates with marauder legs to make a greek style team.
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Chaos Pact- With all the variety in this team they do have lots of options, but the team I did for Jimjimany is one of my favourites. The Minotaur and Troll have some of my best painting, the marauders turned out really well and I had been planning that giant chaos warrior for years. The colour scheme was simple and effective too so I’d struggle to top them. In addition Pact aren’t that popular in tournaments or leagues.

Necromantic – I’d already used up good ideas i had for ghouls, golems and wolves on Phil 78’s undead/necro team. There are some nice 3rd party versions of these but nothing that really grabs me. They are a bit too similar to Undead as well.

Skaven – This was another early team I did for Pigstar and as they used the standard GW 3rd edition models, I have a lot of potential to do something different from them. I had been planning a team and bought the newest clanrats and stormvermin, I’d even gone as far as creating a test blitzer and thrower. I was struggling with how to do gutters but saw a great team here that used ghoul bodies for all positions, making them all twisted and corrupt. I’d not want this for the entire of the team but do like the hunched running pose on gutters. Skaven also have 5 mostly unique stars and I have models or ideas for all of these. As an added advantage Skaven are a popular tournament and league choice so the winner would be more likely to get use out of them.
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I have done this last team twice already but do have ideas for them.

Lizardmen–I have been planning a 3rd lizardman team using some of the newer GW plastics. I was very happy with how the saurus and hemlock I did for Purplegoo turned out but thought I could do better with the skinks, slibli and Krox. I was never a fan of the normal GW plastic skinks, but the new terradon riders are in great poses and have come with armour that would suit Bloodbowl. I had also seen some cool conversions of the normal skinks by Don-vito using ghoul arms to get round the dreaded “weaponsnipitis”. The carnasaur riders are ideal for a slibli and hemlock to really stand out and I already have them. For the krox i like the Gorebeast from the chaos chariot, it would need some repositioning and greenstuff work to lizard it up a bit, but I like that it is armoured and in a gorilla style pose. This team would likely have been the front runner but I’ve been contacted about doing a lizardman team for someone in time for the Eurobowl (Nov 2015). I’m not sure if I’ll have scope to do that or if i should commit myself 18 months ahead, I need to give an answer by the end of July.

At the moment I’m favouring Chaos, Humans and Skaven as the front runners. Lizardmen would be added to that if I don’t end up doing them for the Eurobowl.

Re: NAF Championship 2015 1st Prize

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 2:54 pm
by lunchmoney
Goblins. There's so much variety and fun to be had with Goblins.

Re: NAF Championship 2015 1st Prize

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 3:04 pm
by Glowworm
As goblins are not an option ( Lunchmoney......read the 1st post!!) I voted Skaven, although this is about as close as I will get to them 8)

Re: NAF Championship 2015 1st Prize

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 3:22 pm
by Garrick
I prefer metal figures to such an extent that all of my Blood Bowl figures are metal including 12 full teams, numerous star players and support staff.

I really like both the 2nd and 5th Ed GW Human teams but already have a 27 strong squad based on the 2nd Ed team.

Consequently I have voted Human and would love you to do the 5th Ed ones.

Re: NAF Championship 2015 1st Prize

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 3:31 pm
by lunchmoney
glowworm wrote:As goblins are not an option ( Lunchmoney......read the 1st post!!) I voted Skaven, although this is about as close as I will get to them 8)
I did. And I still vote for Goblins. Why the discrimination against less power teams? ;)

Re: NAF Championship 2015 1st Prize

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 4:56 pm
by Darkson
Skaven, even though I'd never use them at a tournament when I win! ( :lol: :lol: :lol: )

Re: NAF Championship 2015 1st Prize

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 5:09 pm
by spubbbba
lunchmoney wrote:
glowworm wrote:As goblins are not an option ( Lunchmoney......read the 1st post!!) I voted Skaven, although this is about as close as I will get to them 8)
I did. And I still vote for Goblins. Why the discrimination against less power teams? ;)
I can see the logic of that, if you’re good enough to win the NAF championship then maybe it’s time for a real challenge.

But considering they give me free reign (aside from the joke teams) I don’t think that’s too onerous a restriction. Besides I’ve just finished a Gaspez circus goblin team and am about to start on the Willy Imperial Halflings, so were that restriction lifted the only change would be Ogres and Vamps being options.

Re: NAF Championship 2015 1st Prize

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 5:16 pm
by Glowworm
Vamps would be awesome, but then again all your work is!

Re: NAF Championship 2015 1st Prize

Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 6:54 am
by kithor2002
Voted for Amazons

Re: NAF Championship 2015 1st Prize

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 9:42 pm
by reroll
Humans - the imperial guard one above is a great concept IMO.

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 11:01 pm
by connexion
Humans, greek style. That or the Khornate Chaos.

Re: NAF Championship 2015 1st Prize

Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 7:48 am
by TheDoc
Went Humans. I think a good human team would look great.

Re: NAF Championship 2015 1st Prize

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2015 6:59 pm
by spubbbba
Thanks to everyone who voted in the poll.

I did make a start on both Skaven and Slann but couldn't get the concept quite right for either. With May rapidly approaching I had to make a decision so ended up going for Lizardmen as I had most of the parts already.

So apologies to most of those who voted, I did want to do a team that would be desirable to the maximum number of coaches. Lizardmen are a very competitive team in resurrection tabletop tournaments as well as leagues. So hopefully the winner will be able to get use out of them or can easily sell them to buy other teams or attend tournaments.

One of the earliest teams I made was Lizardmen for Purplegoo, I was even able to use them at the GT and ended up with a respectable 4/1/1 record. I was happy with the design of that team so they will be the basis for this one, but do think I can improve on them.

I had recently got my hands on some very nice skink models that I think would be perfect for Bloodbowl as they were in almost the exact pose I’d want them to be. Those skinks are from the Terradons and their poses are ideal to look like they crouched down and ready to dash forward. They needed virtually no conversion, just a repositioning of their arm or hand swap.
I also acquired the priest bodies from the stegadon which had loin cloths and some added jewellery, they were in rather static poses but I like them being a little more clothed than the standard ones. Their poses suit skinks who are in the open, either marking opposing players or in space looking to exploit holes in opposing defences. Thanks to some bits sites having sales I had managed to get my hands on a bunch of other parts that would allow me to make 3 other interestingly posed skinks. They are in running poses, dashing forward to take on the other team or escape nasty MB tackle players.

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I already had a good design for the Saurus that I had used before so see little reason to change it. Their poses will end up being very similar but I don’t think I’ll be able to easily alter them.
Much as I like those saurus I do hate to repeat myself, so have already changed the style of loincloths from using the cleaner dire avenger ones to a more brutal dark eldar warrior source. I am also debating if I should drop the chunkier orc shoulder pads. The pads I used before were in reference to the illustration from the cyanide game as I really like the sketch of a saurus. Below is a pic with some alternatives from the normal lizardmen and orc.

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The Kroxigor was the biggest change, I wanted something quite different and imposing and really liked the design of the Gorebeast. The gorillaesque pose made him look strong and brutal, but fast enough to warrant his MA6. The beast’s skin was more tough and leathery like a rhino rather than scaly, but that would be easy to rectify by adding greenstuff scales on his back. Most of the skin was covered with armour and that would greatly reduce the amount of time needed to sculpt it. I had some added help as my bits hoarding paid off once again, a spare set of dragon ogre legs was an ideal source of not only the prehensile tail he lacked but also some back spines complete with scales.

His armour did have some chaos stars that would need to be cut off or filled in, but that was simple enough.



The previous 2 lizardmen teams I’d done were red for the GW models and realistic green for the Sacros. Whilst blue is the most common colour for lizardmen I do really like painting it.

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I always like to do star players that best represent the team. For Lizardmen this is definitely Slibli and Hemlock since they are a saurus and skink. I could have done the others but they were all slaan, human or an ogre so didn’t really fit in. Luckily I had 2 ideal models in the shape of the Carnasour riders. They just needed their weapons removed and a small adjustment to flatten their feet out. I am considering giving Hemlock some shoulder pads as well. To make them stand out further 30mm bases might be useful and should not have the overlap issue the 40mm ones do.

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Re: NAF Championship 2015 1st Prize

Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 2:44 pm
by sann0638
Good stuff, agree with the 30mm base, I like these. What size based will the krox have though? Looks mahoosive!

Re: NAF Championship 2015 1st Prize

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 5:16 pm
by spubbbba
I've finished all the Saurus now so the team is mostly done.

Batch 1
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Batch 2
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Also completed the first star Hemlock.
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The Krox will be on a 40mm base and does extend over it a bit. That should be ok as the rest of the team is 25mm aside from the stars on 30mm.