NAF Championship 2016 1st Prize

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spubbbba
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NAF Championship 2016 1st Prize

Post by spubbbba »

I've been commissioned by the NAF to paint up a team to be awarded to the winner of the 2016 GT again.

As before there are only 2 stipulations:
  • *No tier 2/3 teams; gobbos, flings, vamps and ogres.
    *Avoid anything I'd done before; Lizardmen, High Elves, Norse/Dwarfs, Khemri also Undead but they were done by Nazgob.
This still left me with a pretty diverse selection of teams to pick from. Last year I was struggling to come up with a good concept and so put a poll up, however time was a bit of an issue and I ended up ignoring entirely. Looking at it again, Slann were the top choice and they are 1 of the 3 "NAF Approved" teams I have yet to do (the others being Ogres and Vamps).

I have long been planning to do a Slann team and steadily acquiring bits, with the GT months away and having no other commissions this was a perfect opportunity to create a truly unique team.

My main concern with this team is that GW haven’t made any Slann models in decades much less an “official” team. So I wanted to ensure that the 3 positionals were easy to differentiate. I decided to go with the idea of making them different species, nothing as drastic as Lizardmen, but there would be obvious physical differences between the linemen, catchers and blitzers. I would also have to ensure that there are a lot of uniform and physical similarities to tie them all together.

For the linemen I chose Plaguebearers as they had a solid and static pose that I thought suited linemen. These guys were more toad than frog, so the warts were kept, but I do need to finish covering up all the gaping wounds in their bodies.

In addition their heads were ideal starting points for the conversion and some even had gill like ears. I drilled holes in their heads and filled the cavity with eyes from the chaos spawn, their single eye was replaced with a nose from genestealers. Their faces need quite a lot of greenstuff work too.

I added loin cloths from Ork nobz, choosing a similar style for them as these would be another difference between the players. The last thing added was kroot shoulder pads.

I was pretty happy with these players and started work on gluing them together, filling gaps and sculpting details. But when I started looking at the catchers I was concerned that the AV8 players looked a little bare, only being equipped with shoulder pads and loin cloths. The catchers would have the same amount of armour aside from having just a single shoulder pad.

Luckily having been gaming for 25+ years does have its advantages and I looked out my old 3rd edition copy of Warhammer Armies and turned to the Slann section. They did have elite choices named jaguar, eagle and crocodile warriors with armour and decorations made from skins or feathers. I did consider going down this route as these quite nicely fit the positions but wanted something closer to traditional blood bowl armour. However not too samey such as the armour shown in the 2nd edition blood bowl star players book.

The picture of the normal Slann warrior had some very interesting looking armour and I thought that had a lot of potential. The linemen got a chestplate from the tomb kings skeletons, this helped to hide the rather flat bellies I had given them after filling in the wounds the plaguebearers were modelled with. I also added knee pads from 5th edition humans and am considering adding some elbow pads.

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Re: NAF Championship 2016 1st Prize

Post by HairyPete77 »

I really don't like these. The teeth, pustules and boils, together with the long spindly fingers are putting me off the most; there is too much plaguebearer coming through.

Not that I'd ever be in with a chance of getting my hands on them anyway! I know that you'll do a good job on them but they don't do it for me at the moment.

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Re: NAF Championship 2016 1st Prize

Post by Pedda »

I agree with Pete, but I look forward to see more.
I'm sure they will turn out great

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Re: NAF Championship 2016 1st Prize

Post by Pipey »

I like them. Look forward to seeing the whole team.

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Re: NAF Championship 2016 1st Prize

Post by Joemanji »

Awesome, really looking forward to seeing how these pan out. Always good to see something different, and lack of distinction between positionals has always been a huge problem for Slann.

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Re: NAF Championship 2016 1st Prize

Post by RoterSternHochdahl »

I don't own a Slann team yet.

Finally a good reason to win NAFC :D

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Re: NAF Championship 2016 1st Prize

Post by spubbbba »

HairyPete77 wrote:I really don't like these. The teeth, pustules and boils, together with the long spindly fingers are putting me off the most; there is too much plaguebearer coming through.

Not that I'd ever be in with a chance of getting my hands on them anyway! I know that you'll do a good job on them but they don't do it for me at the moment.
I went by the WHFB 3rd edition style of Slann and they all have sharp teeth, it's a difficult balancing act as I don't want them to just look like frog-men.
Below is the pic I have drawn the most inspiration from, the linemen get the stomach plate and I am adding forearm and thigh plates along with a helm to the blitzers..

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The idea is that the linemen will be more toad-like so have warty skin. Do you think it is just too many bumps on the skin or that they shouldn't have any at all? It wouldn't be that hard to remove them from the models but that might leave them a little smooth.

I am working on elbow pads as well, that might help break up the arms a bit.


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Re: NAF Championship 2016 1st Prize

Post by Merrick »

I thought it was going to be a Nurgle team until I read the actual post.

In regards to the divided opinion on the models, there have been times when I've seen models in their early stages of conversion without any added final details or paint on them, and thought they were a bit 'meh'. I'm sure once these have been finished to the usual high standard, they'll look the part.

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Re: NAF Championship 2016 1st Prize

Post by spubbbba »

Merrick wrote:I thought it was going to be a Nurgle team until I read the actual post.
That is a risk considering they will be green. I still need to fill in all the smaller wounds and may well take off some of the larger lumps.

Anyway, the Blitzers are coming along nicely now and hopefully they will help differ from the linemen and get away from the Nurgley theme.

The blitzers are more aggressive and dynamic, they have an odd role in the team with some unique starting skills and a plethora of development options thanks to general, agility and strength access on normal rolls. So 2 of them are in a running pose and the other 2 in more of a marking pose, ready to use diving tackle on some unfortunate catcher.

Bloodletters were well suited to this, being sleaker than the plaguebearers but also suggesting a wiry strength. I bought a cannon of khorne as i wanted the Herald for a star slann and that came with 2 normal bloodletters and these gave me a lot more options when it came to poses as well as right hands not holding swords.

They got loin cloths from dark eldar as they are a little more vicious than the other players. Since their shoulders were larger I switched shoulder pads to those from chaos marauders. Their heads were the same as the linemen but I chose those with mouths open bearing their sharp teeth. I did consider replacing their back crest with a spine but thought this looked good and vicious I could paint it red for blitzers too. Besides both the stars I am working on already had this crest.

As with the linemen the Blitzers needed more armour to represent their AV8 compared to the catchers. So I added thigh armour and forearm plates to the blitzers taken from 2nd edition dark elves. I have since found better and larger forearm guards so am in the process of replacing those. The catchers may get a the smaller ones on a single arm. I am also in the process of adding helmets to these guys from greenstuff complete with topknot in homage to the BB 2nd edition slann illustration.

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Re: NAF Championship 2016 1st Prize

Post by HairyPete77 »

The recesses that indicate decay are worse than the warty bumps. As Merrick says they do look like Nurgle. The mouth and teeth are too vicious.

I like the armour plates and loin clothes and other customisation that you're doing and wish I had the talent to do the same.

I know it is early days and painting and final finish will make a big difference, but as they stand this concept and the base models aren't to my taste. As others have said though it is to their's and I look forward to seeing them at the end.

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Re: NAF Championship 2016 1st Prize

Post by spubbbba »

HairyPete77 wrote:The recesses that indicate decay are worse than the warty bumps.
Ah, well those will be going all the decayed recesses will be filled in. I just haven't got round to the serious greenstuff work yet, it is the most laborious part so I've been putting it off.

I do have a test lino that I will be using for experimenting with colour schemes and cut all the warts off 1 side of him.

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I have been doing some more work on the Blitzers, this guy has a greenstuff helmet inspired by the 2nd edition BB and 3rd edition WHFB Slann. It still needs an edge added above his eyes and the topknot glued onto the top. I also switched the forearm guards to those a little bigger.

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The catchers are made from kroot warriors, they were originally going to have genestealer heads but those were a bit large. Instead I gave them heads the same heads as the rest of the team but went with open mouths if with less sharp teeth. The arms are from ghouls as they have open hands and eldar loin cloths since they are a bit more softer and slimmer than the others cloths.
When looking at the 2nd edition BB Slann I noticed they have ruff around their necks and thought they would be ideal for the catcher as these were not armour as such but did add some clothing.
The kroot have rather disappointingly static legs that will need quite a bit of work to make them fit into a catcher style.
I'm debating what shoulder pads to give them, possibly using the same style as the linos or the fantasy wight pads they have in the pic.

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Re: NAF Championship 2016 1st Prize

Post by rolo »

I do like those catchers' poses, even though the second one seems to have developed alligator arms! (Understandable for a Blood Bowl player!)

I like your green stuff work, and think the players will end up looking a lot more "froggy" once the gaps are filled and they're painted. Any way to make the feet bigger though?

Looking forward to seeing the end product! Although sadly I don't think I'll be flying to the NAF Champs. And just possibly might not win them even if I did! ;)

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Re: NAF Championship 2016 1st Prize

Post by spubbbba »

I’ve finalised the poses of the catchers now. It was a balancing act to give them a feeling of speed, movement and fragility whilst still keeping the models practical for use on the tabletop. The good thing about plastic models is that they are pretty robust so have a better chance of surving being dropped or knocked over. But I still wanted to avoid them being unstable or getting caught up with other players when used in game.

2 catchers have been modelled jumping in the air to catch or intercept and the remaining 2 are in running poses. I decided to give them just a single shoulder pad, again a different style from the other players. This did necessitate removing the edge of the decoration around their necks. The main aim was to give them enough armour and clothing to add the team strip but also make them clearly less well armoured than the other positions. I did add the forearm guards I had originally used with the blitzers as it seemed a shame to waste these.

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With the normal players all built now comes the lengthy and difficult part of greenstuff work. I have a lot of gaps to fill and some sculpting to do, most notably their faces. I am not sure about using the genestealer noses as these look a bit piggy in some cases, I may need to look elsewhere for parts of sculpt this by hand. I’m trying to make them close to the original slann that had some characteristics of frogs but were not just anthropomorphic frog-men.

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Work has been started on the “Froxigor” as well. I gave him a prehensile tail from a dragon ogre, a loin cloth from ork nobz and added the same bulgy eyes that the rest of the team sport. I am unsure which shoulder pads to go with yet; the chaos knights on his right or the ork flash gitz on his left side. I’m also considering adding a knee pad as well.

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Re: NAF Championship 2016 1st Prize

Post by dfunkateer »

Great work as always spubbbbbbba. It's good to see an original version of a team.

Any ideas what colours you're going to paint them?

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Re: NAF Championship 2016 1st Prize

Post by shaniepoo »

Im sorry but I may have to copy this idea and do my own slann team at some point (only because I kow Iwon't be winning this one).

I like the team and the Froxigor... AWESOME!

I think the hard part when converting this kind of team is making sure they don't look to 'lizardy'. I think once the green stuff is done they will look great. I especially like the catchers.

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