With this guy, it's finally time to close the drawn-out project of Nurgle Star Players for Bloodbowl (WIP post HERE). After Tolly Glocklinger, Guffle Pusmaw and Bulla Shardhorn I have Bilerot Vomitflesh, a hardy citizen of the Empire turned into a mighty Nurgle Bloater.
He's rather simple on the pitch (just a strong, reliable guy, no gimmicks) and the painting was also simple - just following the same color scheme as earlier with the Putrid Punters. I really like how his pose turned out - he looks really sporty, not just a WFB warrior with weapons clipped off - so the final effect is still quite pleasing to me.
After their first won match in this new season, the Putrid Punters went to a bar to celebrate their unexpected victory. Unfortunately, the Nurgle table (current regulations require bars to separate it from the rest of the interior) was already taken by a single bloater. Not knowing the current scene very well, the Punters didn’t recognize the star Bilerot Vomitsflesh and got into an argument, demanding him to move away as if he was just another random chump. Bilerot, a bit insecure about being the least known Nurgle star, became extra angry - a fierce fight ensued. After the dust settled, amongst the rubbles of the bar, with no winner in sight, both parties were forced to pay for the damages and help with the repairs. The whole experience allowed the Punters to weirdly bond with Bilerot - they cleared up the misunderstandings and praised each other’s hardiness in the brawl. In the end, the star left his agent’s scrying number, telling them to give him a call if they want to play Blood Bowl one day together.
Neglected for a long time, the Nurgle Star Players (WIP post HERE) are back - this time, after vaguely human Tolly Glocklinger and Guffle Pusmaw, it's time for a crazy mutated Pestigor, Bulla Shardhorn. He's the one that comes with half of the possible mutation upgrades, being just a step from turning into a spawn.
When I was doing my standard Pestigors I dismissed the one sculpt provided in the official GW box and converted ones designed for an unaligned Chaos Team. When it came to Bulla, though, it was just perfect, with two alternative heads, lots of horns, and an uncommon pose. I crammed both heads there, added some extra arms, spikes, and quite a lot of branches - doubling as Nurgle-themed horns. The final effect is messy and difficult to read, but I think it fits this particular player.
Bulla Shardhorn, as probably the best known Pestigor in the Blood Bowl business gets invited often to hold speeches, training courses and coaching sessions for other players. Not many stars enjoy doing this, but Bulla really hates it - but the things we do for fame, right? Every time he tries to find another beastman to "translate" his incoherent ramblings. The "assistant" can improvise whatever they want and Bulla will still get praised for his "unique and chaotic" wisdom. Last time it was Mu'mulgor who was helping the star and he did so well, Bulla decided to help his team, the Putrid Punters, at a discount one time. They will use it surely!
After my favorite Tolly Glocklinger, it was time to slowly go through the rest of the kitbashed Nurgle Star Players - and today it's Guffle's turn.
Just as with the rest of this set of stars, Guffle's color scheme matches my Putrid Punters team - with nice yellowish flesh, dark/black armor and green clothes. He can be induced only by Nurgle teams, so there's really no need to consider any alternatives.
One thing special on this one was his Monstrous Mouth of course - a great focal point and a chance to paint some nicely disgusting details. When I finished painting him, feeling as if he's lacking something, I decided to once again try doing some slime strands out of UHU glue - last time I used it on zombie spider's guts, 2 years ago. I struggle a bit with this technique, but it still adds some special quality to this most famous of the Nurgle stars.
Now I only have to find some use for him on the pitch! He may be an exceptional catcher, but there are no good throwers on a Nurgle team! Other than the chaos-affiliated thrower star Lewdgrim Whiparm, I am left only with my rather unlucky rotter Ted as the agile one...
Atypical for a Nurgle Player, the agility-based playstyle of Guffle Pusmaw secured him a spot amongst one of the best-known stars of contemporary Blood Bowl. With fame like that, he was well over the budget of disoriented and disorganized Putrid Punters. That was until one of the Bloaters, Globbmax, managed to reach one of his clouded memories and remembered that he helped the previous coach depositing some of their money in a bank - before the last warp-displacement - and now, decades later, with all the accumulated interest, it was a small fortune. After a small meeting, they decided to indeed induce Guffle himself in their next match - if not to use his talents, then at least use some of his reputation to raise their own status and maybe even rise as something more than a gimmick team in the eyes of the fans and sponsors.
First post since moving back to Poland, after five years in Germany! Thankfully I prepared a small backlog to secure regular postings here during this chaotic period.
Regardless, it's time for the Nurgle Star Players for Blood Bowl - I converted/kitbashed 4 of them some time ago (you can see the WIPs HERE) and now they are getting painted. I did good Tolly first because I really liked how he turned out and because I wanted to use him in the game as soon as possible! He is a rather cheap Star Player with a 'Ball and Chain' skill, allowing him to really smash around his opponents around (with some extra randomness involved). The use of such weapons is disallowed, so one has to add some bribes for the referees to his cost to really get the most out of him.
The color scheme was chosen to fit my Putrid Punters team - so yellowish flesh, dark/black armor, and green clothes, with all the extra slime and blood that comes with Nurgle. I could exercise the last part here a little more because of Tolly's choice of the chain for his weapon.
Tolly’s story as a circus strongman and a musician turned into a Blood Bowl star is well known in the current Blood Bowl world. Even Putrid Punters remember the powerful player from before their last warp-jump. They always thought of him fondly because of his background - back in their early days, ‘Blood Bowl and circuses’ was a well-known phrase describing the folk’s important needs! Now, when the rematch with the Dreadspear Dragons was drawing near, the Punters’ coach started thinking about employing Tolly for a match or two, hoping the star could be interested in listening to the tales about ancient circuses and arenas (besides the usual monetary encouragement of course).
Also, trying to create something for the little competition on Carpe Noctem, I sculpted a Santa hat for him, so he can be jolly and jingle his bells around, fitting with the current season.
The core team of the Putrid Punters may be finished, but my work on Blood Bowl Nurgle is far from over!
I want to make a whole range of staff miniatures, upgrades, inducements and markers for them - and I started with the Star Players - special characters known in the Blood Bowl lore, famous celebrities from that universe, that can be employed for a match for a fee. 4 of them are strictly Nurgle-based and I decided to sculpt the whole set of them. Each time I was referring to the official illustrations from GW publications - and it was actually interesting, trying to sculpt something from an image.
Now to focus on each of them separately.
First is Guffle Pusmaw - he was included in one of the first supplements for the 2016 edition of the game, so I treat him as the most famous Nurgle player. As you can see, he got blessed with a giant, toothy maw on his belly, which makes it easier for him to catch and hold on to balls - he's actually the only player in the whole game with the 'Monstrous Mouth' skill (yet). Nurgle teams are bad at passing, but I still wanted to have him.
I built him from leftover Putrid Blightkings legs and torso, with BB Bloater arms. He has only Strength 3, unlike a Strength 4 Bloater, so I wanted to make at least his legs more scrawny, but in the process, I made him overly high. Oh well, it's not like Chaos cares about proportions!
As a comparison, HERE is his picture from the Spike! magazine.
The second one is an ex-circus Player, Tolly Glocklinger. This one is special for having a 'Ball and Chain' skill (think night goblin fanatics) - which he naturally interprets, in a Nurgly fashion, more like 'Bell and Intestine'. He sports also whopping Strength 7 (normal humans have 3 and big guys like ogres and minotaurs have 5) - so to represent it all I wanted to make him really fat and thick. I based my conversion on a Bloater miniature - I didn't use them in the core team, but they are still pretty amazing models. The bell was taken from the Putrid Blightkings and mounted on a brass wire, covered later with Greenstuff.
As a comparison, HERE is his picture from the Spike! magazine.
Next, the Pestigor Star Player, Bulla Shardhorn. The concept for this one is 'almost a chaos spawn' - with 'Two Heads', 'Extra Arms', 'Disturbing Presence', 'Foul Appearance', 'Horns' and even a 'Stab' for good measure. Now, while the Pestigor from the GW box was way too unique and monopose for me to use it in the team, this was the perfect use for it. I glued both options of head here (merging them with some greenstuffed flesh), added extra arms from Plaguebearers and Ghouls, and covered him with branches from the Dryads kit - I wanted him to be a twisted, shaky and gnarled plaything of Chaos - and seeing how difficult it is to read what is even happening here, I think he works quite well.
As a comparison, HERE is his picture from the Spike! magazine.
The last one is arguably the least spectacular, but also probably the most useful, Bilerot Vomitflesh. He is basically just a Bloater with extra strength, making him kind off like a Nurgle ogre of sorts. I based him on the second Bloater model and besides changing his head, pose and adding a shirt over his chest (to get him to look like the official depiction) I made his arms and neck extra bulky, to represent his extraordinary strength.
As a comparison, HERE is his picture from the Spike! magazine.
Shortly after the Assassins come the Star Players - the last part of the Dreadspear Dragons Blood Bowl team - for now, at least. I have some inducements planned for the evil elves, but first I would like to actually finish the Nurgle team.
The dragons may be a relatively fresh team, but they do employ star players from time to time. One of them is Roxanna Darknail, a big druichii star. She took a liking to the team’s pet dragon - and while she didn’t want to participate in the wreck that was the previous iteration of the group, she is eager to help now that the things are better.
The other one is much less known, but very important for the Dragons - Torles the Unlucky, the last living member of the previous team, still donning the old armor. Although talented and skilled, he couldn’t completely avoid the mismanagement of the past - and kept getting injured on the pitch, collecting more and more injuries. Because of budget cuts - and because people wanted to see him - he was forced to play, no matter his health. Not that he complained - he was skilled enough to be useful and passionate about the sport. Then he would get injured again, starting the whole cycle anew. Soon, he made a whole career out of it - showing up on various pitches - to score against all odds and get injured spectacularly. Commentators still argue if he’s really unlucky or actually very lucky - compared to other elves in his position, he gets mangled more often, while actually not dying in the process!
First one is Roxanna Darknail, an official and completely non-converted miniature from Forge World. She was a tough one - the most important part of her are her hair, the thing I often most struggle with. I tried to make them special with the white braids and some purple highlights, but I will leave it to you to decide if it worked well enough. Besides that, painting her was similar to the other Witch Elves.
And the second one, a 'star player' built by me, created to commemorate a particularly unlucky Dark Elf lineman that my wife had in her BB video game campaign. I kitbashed him out of various bits, greenstuff and other random objects that were laying around my workshop - you can see the WIP version HERE. Painting him was nice enough, but the most interesting part was easily the cast on his leg - I painted various signatures there, from his team-mates to famous Blood Bowl personas from the game lore.
I even came up with some stats for him:
Star Player 'Torles the Unlucky'
MV:6 ST:2 AG:3 AV:9
Skills: Loner, Stand Firm, Sprint, Tackle, Juggernaut, Horns (Wheelchair Momentum)
Cost: 120 000
Usable by Dark Elf and Elven Union teams.
