BloodBowl Board

OK, over to the young man:

"Erm, well.  It's taken me a long time but I'm proud to say it's almost finished. I've just got to paint some stuff and add grass and finishing touches.  I've stuck all the sticking stuff on and left it dry overnight and now spray painted it black.  It was sprayed unevenly to add texture later on."

OK there you have it.

Start 'em young.

We've had a big discussion about too much screen based activities, (kids, not me).

As part of the new regime the kids are now looking at books and games again which is excellent!

My youngest has started making a BloodBowl pitch and has asked me to put it up on this blog.  (The older lad has shown some interest...)

Anyway - here's the planning, marking out and sticking of "tile spacers".

(I'll keep you posted).

Rocket Bowl Orcs - Finished and Shelved.

Rocket Bowl was great fun this weekend - a HUGE thank you to Pug for making all the effort to make it a brilliant success.

The Orcs were finished enough to play by Saturday morning - but it was a no sleeper again!

Savage Orc Linemen

Black Orc Blockers

Ork Blitzers

The Troll

I even managed to make a display thing for the "Gorky Park Rangers"

Pity I only won one though but my favorite part was the Black Orc dodging on a six to take out the ball carrier to force a draw!

Rocket Bowl Orcs - Wednesday

There's two nights to go before I've gotta finish this team.

I've decided to paint them like ranks instead of Linos, Blitzers etc. That's gotta save time!

The green is pretty important I think so I want to get that done before doing armour and red(ish) colouring.

Oh, I'm doing a troll as well BTW.

Rocket Bowl Orcs

I don't know why I put myself through this.  I'm playing Orcs at the weekend at Rocket Bowl III.
I've already got a perfectly playable Orc Bloodbowl team but I decided ages ago that I wanted a new Orc team.  (Perhaps I should've started ages ago).

I know why, I love painting that's why!

Here's the start of the Orc Linemen.  The team colours are going to be red(ish) which will clash nicely with the green skin.  I'll be making the Orc skin quite bright, (subject to time constraints).

Today is Tuesday.  This means I've got to finish the Linos off tomorrow and start/finish the Black Orc Blockers if I'm staying on schedule to finish for an early night on Friday.

Orc Team for Rocketbowl 3

Well although I'm at the NEC all day, I've at least primed the team and the glue is drying on the dugouts.

Posted on the move. TGM

The Lady Vamp.

A quick update here. The latest vampire in the Bloodbowl team that uses nuns as thralls...



Location : 14-36 Danetre Dr, Daventry, Northamptonshire NN11 4,
Posted on the move. TGM

It's been awhile - sorry!

I've been offline for sometime.  The computer broke, I've moved into a house that's been totally rewired and had lots to decorate.  I've had to do DIY.  These hands are not meant for DIY...

The only painting that has gone on is the walls and ceiling not gonks.  In fact the box clearly marked "The Gonk Machine - Open first, do not lose" mysteriously went missing for quite some time...

I have a vampire and an undead team on the bench as well as these Black Scorpion gonks which will make up my very own human team in the up and coming Vault Ball II Bloodbowl competition here in Daventry.

It must be summer - check the deckchair style background.

I know: a white undercoat! What's the world coming to?

The Immortals - Additional

Here's a quick snap of the two very basic conversions I've done to two of the Heresey figures in The Immortals team.

They were simple but I think, once painted, will be very effective.  The "Skaven" tail will be painted in bone colours to represent the Prehensile Tail that this gonk has earned.

The Immortals - Revisited

The local games club has a great following of Bloodbowl.  The league at the moment has four divisions of six teams each.
(Check it out HERE)
Next up, on the bench is The Immortals.  This team has been playing for some time and has managed to stay in Division One by the skin of its teeth.  Each season is a rollercoaster of a journey for their coach GamesVaultSteve.
This incarnation of the undead team is mostly made up of Rolljordan gonks with a couple of pieces of Heresey gonks thrown in.
I'd just about stuck and pinned the team just in time for its debut match this season which was a big defeat.  (Curse of the unpainted team? - We'll see!)

Now they're on the bench.  I've added a tail on one of them to show it's "Prehensile Tail" skill and chopped off a human head and added a skeleton head.
At the moment they are all drying after I've added the sand on their bases.

Historical Gonks Are History

At last! Finished these fine figures for a fine person.  Hopefully they will look more historical than "fantasy" as that was the brief.
I really had to think about the colours for these and was very tempted to add a more adventurous colour scheme but went with a lot of natural browns and greens. The shading on the cloaks was done with a mix of the base tones that were blended whilst "wet" using my favorite: Vallejo "Glaze Medium".

No outlandish or unnatural colours here.  However, the next project is another Bloodbowl Team...

Historical Gonks

I'll be moving house soon so I've got some bits to finish including the historical figures; an Undead Bloodbowl team; three Warmachine characters, (one on a horse) and a vampire!  I think after this lot and moving I will have to concentrate on doing a few things for myself!
I've got my own Orc Bloodbowl team to paint; the remaining playing boards; a few hundred Romans as well as my Bloodbowl team, (TBA) for Rocket Bowl III in October.  After that there's about a zillion other bits that I would like to crack on with.
In the meantime, the Historicals are coming along nicely.

Pirate Bay VIII

The edges of this board will, (at some point), match up with three others to make a 4' x 4' area so I've used the two colours of "static grass" I'll be using later.
The grass shown in the pictures is real overkill as I want to leave it on overnight before shaking off the excess.  I've said it before: less is more, so there's going to be a load of the earth/sand showing through later.

I've also added "water" to the painted sea area.  I'm convince that this is just some kind of expensive PVA but it does work but takes an age to dry.  (There is probably 3-4mm of water effect there).

Once this lot finally dries and I've shaken off the surplus grass I'll add some finished pictures.

Pirate Bay VII

Water, IMO, (as the kids say), is really tricky to get right.  I resign myself to the fact that I will never get it right so do my best.  This is a fantasy gaming board not a study in real life.

For my representation of the sea I used about five or six greens and blues with a glaze and water to mix it all up. I have highlighted the wave, ("Oh, that's he's dropped a bit of plaster onto the board!"), with light grey and white.
I've added a touch of white onto the beach and around the base of the ladder in the sea for froth.

Pirate Bay VI

The dock's wooden decking were much too light and woody.  As I'll be playing "undead" pirates I wanted to make the wood darker. At the same time I've added some staining and "ageing" with the occasional wash and grey highlight.
I also didn't want a universal brown so I've painted some planks a different colour and used a variety of washes and highlights to individual planks.
The metal grilles/trapdoors were painted in chainmail given several different washes and then had some "weathering powder" added for a slightly rusty look.
On the land, I've painted the paving stones in black, grey and lighter grey.  I've also highlighted the earth with some Ochre, (cough), and the sandier areas have got Bleached Bone highlights.
Next up: The sea!

Pirate Bay V

At last, I can do some painting.  First on is a general covering of "Brown" this is going all over the area I want grass.
Next up is some Ochre, (sounds more like a cough than a colour), for the more sandy bits. Lastly good old black for the rockier edges.(I think I used the wrong black here but it'll all work out in the end I'm sure.

Testing The Blog

Does this post to Facebook and or Twitter? If not, why not?
I may need a grown up...

Pirate Bay IV

Next, my favorite cocktail: PVA glue and sand.  Love it.
I've used cheap "craft" PVA and fish tank sand. (I get through a lot of these and it all adds up).

I've made sure the sea is locked onto this board only by extending the beach.

 

After the sand has been poured liberally over and shaken off, (onto the dining table again - I'm sure those scratches will come out), I get to watch it dry whilst picking the sand/glue mix off my hands - very therapeutic.

Pirate Bay III

Now the fun part.  It's time to get messy!
After gluing thicker lolly sticks onto the harbour wall ModRoc or it's cheaper equivalent is squished and shaped into the edges of the polystyrene - I don't want cliffs but slopes. I've also inserted some home-cast paving stones for steps.
I did put a cloth down and still managed to get plastery water all over the dining room table.  (It'll never notice).
Again, boringly, this has to dry.  The plaster will take two days to thoroughly dry out.

Notice the plaster in the sea?

Pirate Bay II

I  knew them lolly sticks I bought on ebay would come in useful!

With the stolen polystyrene and the lolly sticks painfully cut up and stuck down in a kind of laminate flooring way, (this is as far as my DIY skills go), I can get the general shape of the board.

I used a couple of pre made trapdoors bought from my good friend Steve of The Games Vault to add a bit of a feature to the dock. (Note the cheap PVA - it was a pound!).  The whole lot needed to dry and in the process one or two of the "decking" lolly sticks raised up and had to be replaced. (Real cheap wood).

Pirate Bay I

In between painting bits for other people I occasionally get to do something for me.  Sometimes the light is bad and I need to work on something larger.

The local gaming club: Daventry Vaulters seems to have gone pirate crazy with the release of the 28mm skirmish game from Black Scorpion: Cutlass!

I only thought it right to jump on the band wagon and make a 1/4 over a 4' x 4'. 
Why a quarter? Well, my time is precious and if I do a complete table I can still play other games without being trapped on an island.  (This took some thinking).
So, whilst I was lying in bed not sleeping I came up with a plan of only having sea on one corner. After nicking a bit of polystyrene from the father-in-laws new fridge freezer, (had to sneak this in the car and back from London without the wife seeing!) and a quick trip to the DIY shop I started:

                     
                     

I had originally made the sea defences symmetrical but realised, (luckily before the glue set), that if I did this the sea would leak onto the next 2' x 2' board.  I only wanted to make a corner of an island not the whole thing.

Pug's Gonks

Pug is a superb artist. 
He has a passion for Bloodbowl.
I am in awe of his genius!

He is running a Bloodbowl Tournament: Rocket Bowl III in October. Look HERE for information.

But, (possibley), even more exciting is this:

Pug has sculpted a whole team of these little critters and Impact! has produced them in metal for the world to buy! I think this is astounding.  Well done Pug.
This is the first gonk out and can be bought from Impact!

Historical Figures Continued

Well, I've been on holiday; my local gaming shop is closing but here we are continuing with the historical figures. (Life's a roller coaster).

I've painted the metal and started a selective wash.  (This means I pick out certain areas to wash in different shades; eg. the skin gets Flesh Wash and the bronze armour gets a Sepia Wash).
This process helps me work out the detail and which bits to highlight.

The Daventry Vaulters

The Daventry Vaulters, the gaming club that has grown and flourished because of The Games Vault will continue and I'm sure grow in strength and numbers.

They'll be a new venue from June 23rd, it will be the Daventry Town Football Club.Check the website for further information.

The Gonk Machine will still be active and will continue to provide tips, advice, scenery and gonks for use within the club and beyond!

(I'm planning a Piratey thing at the moment...)

The Games Vault

Sad news whilst away...The Games Vault in Daventry will be closing it's doors on 11th June. 
It's been a great addition to Daventry and the gaming community and The Gonk Machine would not be here today if it wasn't for Steve and Kerry.

We, (The Gonk Machine and me), would like to wish Steve, Kerry and family all the very best in whatever new adventure is next!

Historical on holiday.

Currently enjoying some time with the family but that's not stopped me doing a bit of painting.

I've added some metal and eyes to some of the historical gonks. If I can I will try and post some pictures. (if I can still get a signal)

Location : 165 Ridgeway Dr, Bromley, Greater London BR1 5,
Posted on the move. TGM

Slow progress.

I must be getting old!

It seems to be taking longer and longer to recover from shows.  Lack of sleep has been making my eyes itch.

The historical figures have been added to.  I've done the flesh parts now. (This may not seem a lot but there's, maybe three coats of flesh paint over the black).
Flesh colours should be built up otherwise the texture can get a bit lumpy. 

Next up, I'm doing the metallic bits.

Missing the paint.

I'm away until Monday and am getting withdrawal symptoms from the lack of paint licking.

Location : Chieveley, Newbury, West Berkshire,
Posted on the move. TGM

Historical Figures and Life

Have had a week of happenings so have not been able to do what I wanted to do with the latest gonks.

They have have some progress.  I've done the base skin colours and although you cannot see this I have been studying historical clothing.  (Mmm, pretty interesting research really but it does sound like watching wood warp).

Have "mentally" decided the clothing colours for most of the figures but cannot decide on the Greek/Roman gonk.  (Obvious choice would be to have a red crest and kilt but I'm thinking maybe black....)
Suggestions on a postcard, (failing that a post/comment could be good).

Historical Gonks.

I think that these are to be used in an RPG game but am not totally sure.  (If I find out more, I'll let you know).

Anyway, although these figures had already been assembled and primed I still had to remove some of the green stuff/blue tac/mozzerella like plastic stuff from the bases to reveal the bottom of cloaks and feet.  (It wasn't too bad but I had to do it).  Afterwards I "PVAd" some sand onto the base, (leaving the rocks showing on the couple that had rocks on).
Then, in true Gonk Machine style I gave them all a thin coat of black.  This makes a great base colour but also flattens out the sometimes grainy texture of spray paint. 

What's Next?

With the landing of the new tabletop game Cutlass! at The Games Vault I've had to do a bit of a double shuffle in the Black Book.

So, instead of doing two Warmachine figures I'll be doing these seven historic role playing type gonks:

I'll be back on track then.  (I think...)

The Frog Team 17

Well it's been a long time coming - this team of Slann players has been on the holding shelf for longer than I care to remember - sorry Stewart!

But after a big push on the Line Frogs and bases; I am very pleased and proud to present The Daventry Croakers:

If the weather becomes brighter I'll take some better shots.

The Frog Team 16

The Gonk Machine has been doing its thing.  It's almost out of control!
While the sun was setting I took this quick snap of "The Judge" who's the team coach and ex player. He's just waiting now for his base to be done properly.

After I've done all eight Line Frogs, I will be doing a mass basing action.  For that I'll be needing these:

I prepared the bunches of "reeds" earlier by gluing them in the middle.  Now that they're well and truly dry I've cut them in half with my mate Stan and then trimmed them off into reed sized bunches. 

The Frog Team 15

On with the Line Frogs then.  After the green, I've added a cream colour and then washed this with Sepia Wash to try and give some depth and definition to the underbelly.  At the moment the loin cloth looks the same colour as the belly. (Strange that.  It is). The belly will be made much lighter later on. (Once the rest of the gonk is dry).

The Frog Team 14

The Gonk Machine has started to smoke.  Here's the Kroxigor that it's produced overnight. All ready for his base.

What's next?  A whole load of Line Frogs that's what.

The Frog Team 13

I think the curse of the yellow frogs is now over!  They're all ready for the basing to be complete which I'll do altogether as a team to get the same colours throughout.

Next up I've turned the crank up on the Gonk Machine to tackle the Big Guy.

The NAF Cup Challenge Recipe

OK.  For this recipe you'll need the following ingredients:

• 2 Cups of My Coffee
• 7 Vallejo Paints
• 2 Vallejo Varnishes, (Gloss and Satin)
• 1 Pot of Clean H20
• 1 Bright Lamp, (A really rubbish one that burns my head will suffice)
• 2 Sticky Pad Things
• 1 Gonk Machine

Prepartion Time: Three Hours.

Add the above ingredients into the mix and stir continually. 

Get up early, take photograph and present before mattwhile goes to his competition!

The NAF Cup Challenge

A quick change from frogs but still bloodbowl related.

Today is the NAF World Championships at Warhammer World where several of the "Daventry Vaulters" from The Games Vault will be playing.

Several weeks ago I had been asked to completely strip and repaint a couple of NAF trophies for top player: mattwhile.

Well, with the strict order of The Black Book the trophies would have been done by next season, (August/Septemberish) without a doubt.  I thought that I would break the rules, (again) to try and finish the trophies in time for today's big event.

Of course I had forgotton that it was #1 son's rugby presentation dinner which I had to attend.  Several pints and two roast beef dinners later and suddenly it's one in the morning!

I had made a start and this was the state of play:

The Frog Team 12

Back again for another session. Thia time I've spent an evening gluing bundles of dried grass together - all will be revealed later...

 Also, the yellow frogs have been given another go.  I've decided to have a pair with black splodges and a pair without.  They're both going to be nice and bright I hope.

These are the ones that were stripped back to bare metal last week.