From ReillyOG: The Bright College Fyre Fiends make their debut as a full team! (Caprica, Lady Sarah's Star Yacht) (108 points)

Finally, weeks after these initial draft pics were revealed by Head Coach 'Right Stuff' of the Bright College Fyre Fiends, the rest of team is ready to step into the dungeon under his leadership! Lead by Captain Mighty 'Mo, an Ogre Runt-Punter fresh from the Maws Edge Mountains, the team has proven to be incredibly brutal in their approach to the game. Much to our delight!

In real world speak, I really enjoyed taking my time with this team and treating every single model like a full character and trying everything I could think off (bar nmm) to up the quality of the paintjob and it was an absolute delight. 

Captain Mighty 'Mo

This was also my first foray into major kit conversions with GW products with Mighty 'Mo who I converted from the lovely Ogor Tyrant model with some spare ogre arms and heads from the team box and I’m super happy with the final result. Had a lot of fun putting the arm on, imagining him throttling this snotling about to chuck him down a long corridor, for him to inevitably faceplant into a wall :-)

Close up of the Fyre Fiends at the start of a match

When it came to the rest of the team, the dwarves were an absolute hoot going to town on all their beards and really trying to nail the layered highlights to make them pop, and translating that same gradient to different beard colours. Unfortunately, I don't have close up photos of them all at the moment, but you'll see why in a moment.

Fyre Fiends at the beginning of the Promo Match

Yet another first for this team, this was my first time painting genuine forge world miniatures, and thus resin models. The forge world models in question were the 2 Bloodborn Marauder Linewomen from the Khorne Team Booster pack. They were also a lot of fun to paint, as it gave me the (unfortunately) rare opportunity to highlight more feminine features on a model, and a more muscular female model at that.

Overall, the team was tons of fun to take my time on, which was one of my major regrets from past blood bowl projects. Lots of learning in terms of painting skin and layered highlighting.

Last but not least, I am really chuffed to be able to claim that both this full team and its rival, Paul O'Gs Willoughby Shadow Walkers, are currently on display in our local GW store. After a fun few promotion games in the store showing off a painted copy of the Dungeonbowl box set, our teams now inhabit a shelf in one of the stores lovely display cabinets showing off their awesomeness to all who enter.

As for the planets credited to this entry, Caprica (doomed, ambush) worked quite well as due to the sheer beatdown this team has put onto all that face them, you are DOOMED to face them. Then using the wonderful female bloodborn marauders, I shall be boarding Lady Sarah's Star Yacht to take me to Istvaan V for an entry coming soon...

Overall this entry amounts to a neat point total:

2x Gnoblar: 10 Points

2x Bloodborn Marauder Linewomen: 14 Points

2x Ogre Runt-Punters: 14 points

5x Dwarves: 25 points

Team Icon: 5 points

Caprica: 20 points

Lady Sarah's Star Yacht: 20 points

Total: 108

Happy painting all!

Reilly O'G

Always good to see more Blood Bowl action, and it's great to see you stretching your painting abilities with this team. We'd love to see more up close photos when you can- congrats to both of you on your store display.

Reilly- label your post!

Barks

From PaulOG - Dungeon Bowl: Into the Shadows (80 points) (Glorantha)

Like several fellow Challengers, I am a Blood Bowl fan boy devotee tragic - have been since my teen years and then dragged my son Reilly into it before he was 10 years old. We are loving the recent GW attention to this game so the re-release of Dungeon Bowl last month was a no brainer for us.  I mean, its fantasy rugby/gridiron played in a Dungeon with exploding treasure chests and magic teleportors - whats not to love?

Dungeon Bowl is quite differently managed in comparison to the more traditional above ground leagues. Underground, teams are sponsored by a different Colleges of Magic and comprised of mixed race players. 

Skaven team members

This is the College of Shadows - one of the 2 teams that come in the new boxed set, comprising Dark Elves, Skaven and Goblins (though I added the latter models from our stash, they don't come in the box).

Dark Elf players

Each college has a theme colour and the College of Shadows has adopted (perhaps unsurprisingly) grey. I embraced the colourless tones overall with a saturated green for the Goblins to really leap out, and kept this same spot colour to get a consistent team look.  The dungeon styled bases are home made (3d printed) and the dungeon they are standing in is a project you will see more of later in the Challenge :-)

The Goblins are fun, but..not the most valued players in the team!

The Team's legendary female Captain is Harriett Heart-Stealer, so named for her long line of heart broken suitors. And also for her penchant of actually removing this vital organ during matches and then keeping them for some kind of secretive, post-match ritual that sensible people don't ask about...

In their quest for on-pitch glory, adoration of cheering fans and the attention of high paying sponsors, the heroes of this College of Shadows team are assigned to the planet Glorantha. Overall this submission is 14 figures, but 2 were pre challenge colour testers, so only 12 for scoring (60 points) plus the planetary bonus for a total of 80.

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I think it's terrific that you and Reilly have been bitten hard by this game, and that you share a history of Blood Bowl back to your early years. 

I like how cohesive your team looks, further reinforced by the excellent dungeon tile bases. Really sharp. I particularly like Harriet 'Heart Stealer'. She's a bit literal, but you have to applaud her fashion sense (though not suitable for Saskatchewan at this time...). 

I look forward to the post where you talk to us about your 3D dungeon tiles/walls. It really fits the bill for this project!

- Curt

From ReillyOG: Through the Fire and the Flames! College of Fire Opening Lineup (50 Points) (Arda)

The opening lineup for the College of Fire

 

2021-22 Painting Challenge start! Glad to jump into the challenge this year with renewed painting vigour after a long iso painting slump, with the recent re-release of a GW cult classic Dungeon Bowl. A new take on the blood soaked fantasy football game, this version sees our teams lost in a labyrinth of tight corridors and large rooms filled with traps and treasure alike trying to find the ball which has been locked away in a chest (naturally there are decoys with bombs inside) before escorting it to an endzone room, also hidden in the dungeon. TLDR; Bloodbowl but with the craziness tuned up to 11. 

College supplied portal is also apart of this entry.

The release of this new box set finds me with the College of Fire. A team made up of Ogres, Dwarves, Snotlings, and Khornate Bloodborn Marauders due to their shared 'hot-headed' personalities. This entry brings us to the opening line up for the team. The lads who start the game already in the dungeon, as opposed to being teleported in randomly from the Dugout.

Gnoblars 'Angry Bird'(Left) and 'Che Guevera'(Right)

Make sure you don't accidentally trod on them, cause we're starting with the Gnoblars of the team. These guys, while absolutely rubbish at the game on a regular blood bowl pitch, get quite the glowup when chucked into a congested dungeon. Their small size makes it quite easy for them to navigate dungeon corridors even when they are filled to the brim of players both friendly and otherwise, whether that is by squeezing through their legs or being chucked over the top by their friendly Ogres. That, added with their handy ability to choose where they are pushed and block up space in the dungeon (both standing and when laid out by a fairly brutal punch) means they can make navigating the dungeon quite frustrating for your opponent. 

These two were by far my favourite two sculpts of the Gnoblars from the Ogre Blood Bowl team sprue that came in the Dungeon Bowl box set and thus became the proof of concept for the colour scheme.

The Bloodborn Marauder and Troll Slayer of the team

Next we have the more average(ish) sized members of the team, the Troll Slayer and the Khorne Bloodborn Marauder. These fellas fill a more regular role when compared to their pitch bound counterparts in that they are there to punch, and punch hard. They can often find themselves in trouble as the tight space when combined with their never ending frenzy means they can often accidentally step on a portal while concentrating on bashing some skulls and either end up on the other side of the dungeon, or lost in the College Library (portals aren't an exact science... or science at all really). 

These boys gave me some excellent practice for painting heavily muscled bare chested players for an upcoming project, as well as serving excellent proof of concept for the colour scheme for the rest of the team (many of which are dwarves). 

To my great shame, this was my first time painting the distinctive bright orange Troll Slayer mohawk and beard, despite my entire WHFB army full of 60+ Troll Slayers. Very happy with how it turned out.

Bear Traps are a classic favourite of these large Mountain faring 'men'

High fiving people's faces with bear traps doesn't come without a fight.

 

Last but not least, we have the large looming figure of one of the team's Ogres. This particular ogre, 'Larry', is part of the famed trio of Ogres that find themselves on this team and continue to prove themselves invaluable to the team's success. In the few games at the start of the season so far, Larry has already managed to score a touchdown; a feat many Ogres fail to achieve both in the dungeon and on the pitch.

This big boy gave me a very different view of painting skin the the muscled and toned physique I was suddenly used to. The fatty skin was a lot harder to give some decent definition and depth to the point where I still have no idea how one might achieve that past giving him tattoos, scars, and bruises(which I did start to explore). I loved the idea of him running around a corner and slapping you in the face with a bear trap too much to not get this guy painted up first out of the trio.

Overall, this release has firmly starting the painting train again in the O'G household with Paul and myself beginning the inevitable Dungeon Bowl arms race. The game is a lot of fun and I highly recommend it as a low cost of entry GW game (rare, I know) that is a whole bunch of fun.

This entry's points come out to a neat 50 points due to the generosity of Arda:

 - Arda: 20 points

 - Snotlings + Dwarf: 15 points each

 - Bloodborne Marauder + Ogre: 14 points(Khorne Marauder and Ogre are larger than your usual 28mm fig and come in at a more decently sized 32/35mm, similar to that of a Primaris Space Marine, and thus costed at 7 points each, precedent set by previous Primaris Marine posts)

 - Portal: 1 point

Happy Painting all, and good luck getting through all your piles of shame!

Reilly 'Right Stuff' O'G

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First, welcome back to the Challenge, Reilly!

I quite like your 'College of Fire' team, especially the Slayer leaping forward with his impressive beard trailing underneath him. The Gnoblars look great as well, and I like the idea that they can be thrown by their larger companions. Fun!

Great job on these, Reilly. I look forward to seeing what your dad has come up with later today. :)

- Curt