2003 Games Day Orc team
That is my converted Blood Bowl Orc Team “ Moguntia Wreckers „.
It took me more than 3 months conversion and painting time to finish this team for the German Games Day 2003. And, after the last year try with the “ Blood Bowl Stand „, this year i won a silver “ Golden Demon “ in the category “ Blood Bowl „. One week later i played with this team at my very first German NAF tournement at “ Morgs Mannheim Massaker “ and won the “ Best painted team “ price… and reached place 58 of 62 at this tournement 🙂
For the Orc Blitzers i ordered four of the Ruglud Armored Orcs with metall crossbows sprues to get some hands , too.
After millcutting the weapons and pouchs from the body and removing the xbows from the hands i repaired some hands with greenstuff. As some of the metall hands of the metall crossbow sprues didnt fit good enough i cut some hand of the plastic Blood Bowl orcs of my 3.ed Blood Bowl Box and fixed them on some of the Blitzers. The original shoulder armor seems not large enough for Blood Bowl shoulderpads and so i sculpted some new and enlarged the existing ones. For the borders of the shoulderpad i used small plastic bands (0,3mm thin) which i glued with superglue. Quite a work to keep the bands from glueing on the shoulderpads and not on my fingers !! To make them different to the Lineorcs the Blitzers got no helmets and more round shoulderpads than the other Orcs. Here the way of one blitzer as example : Some millcutting…first greenstuffing… one more shoulderpad …primed white, the mini looks quite ok already… the basecolors of the team without shading and highlighting… … some shading and highlighting. … final detail painting and finishing of the base.
For the Throwers i used the bodies of the Orc Tankbusta Boys. Again i removed all 40k stuff and build some armor made of plastic cards. I added some belts and straps with greenstuff. And for those both minis no need for big shoulderpads as orc throwers got less armor.
First i tried to model a hand with a ball for the Thrower #1, but i found out the hard way, hands and fingers arent easy to model … after some luckless tries i cut the hand with ball of the plastic Orc thrower and exchanged it with the metall one! I used the left arm of the Tankbusta, too, and remodeled the grip of the mine into knuckles. Easier to do that than removing all parts of the grip 🙂
I removed also the head of the Tankbusta #2,too , as i didnt like the helmet of this mini for a Blood Bowl Player and so i exchanged the head with one of the Stormboy heads. This time i couldnt find a fitting hand with ball for this thrower and so i had to model a new Hand with greenstuff … hm, the ball looks like a bit smashed. The last step after painting the mins was again to fix some protection wire in front of the faces.
For the Lineorcs i bought some blisterpacks of Gorkamorka or 40k Spaceorcs.
I used the bodies of the Burner Orcs and the Heavy Weapon Orcs as basis. Quite a work, to millcut the backpacks and weapons.
I removed also all anmunition packs and pouches. As i need 4 different Lineorcs i exchanged some hands and bend some arms to get different poses. The armour is done with some plastic cards which are normal used for interior design models. Some shoulderpads and some repairs of belts and hands are done again with greenstuff. For the helmets i ordered some Orc Stormboys helmet sprues from GW Mailorder US. (Thanks for the fast delivery! As everybody knew, thats not normal at MOUK !)
The last steps after painting the miniatures were the wire guards in front of the helmets. I bend some very fine wire, which took some time for “ try and error “ testing for every helmet.You need quite calm fingers to glue them into the right positions, too. Those guards are very fragil and i lost some while playing with my team on my first tournement. But for the show, just perfect.
For the Blackorcs i first bought two of the Waagh Bosses. But than i found out, that i will need four Blackorcs. And there are no other Orcs of the size of the Boss ! So i decided to buy different Nobs for this player typ.One of the Waagh bosses ended as my Coach mini…
I used the bodies of three Gorkamorka Nobs and the body of the Stormboys Nob as basis. There are quite a few to choose from, but i prefer the ones with little armour. And again it was a lot of work to remove the technical 40k stuff like anmunition packs and jumppacks from the minis. Also all the weapons had to be removed again.
The arms need a bit “ greenstuffing “ because i change the position of the arms and the shoulders were to small in my opinion.
This time i didnt put some additional armour on the minis as i like the look of the shirt wearing Blackorcs, no needing armour because of their size. Some shoulderpads were rebuilded, especial the big shoulderpad of Blackorc #4 as i had to remove the jumppack rack of the Stormboy Nob. I added some belts and straps with greenstuff and plastic cards. For the helmets i ordered two Orc Stormboys Nob helmet and two helmet with horns from GW Mailorder US. After painting the minis i added some spikes on the shoulderpacks to give them a meaner look. And again some protection wire were fixed in front of the faces as last step.
For the Ogre i used a very old Warhammer 40k Ogryn made by Bob Olley 1985. I got this mini from a UK ebay auction. Normal this mini is armed with a warhammer in his right hand, but in this case the weapons was already removed. Not much conversion work to do in this case.
First i wanted to use a troll for the „Moguntia Wreckers“, as i though, a troll is more fitting into a Orc Team than a ogre. But i know, i would use this Orc team for the „Morgs Mannheim Massaker “ tournement one week after the Games Day and in my opinion, a ogre is a better player than a troll…. Luckly i kept a open lot for another “ Big Guy “ at the presentation base … and now, after the rules update, there is no more ogre allowed into a Orc team. Still its a nice mini at my presentation base.
For the start i used a old Warhammer Stone Troll, which i ordered from GW Mailorder. As there are no much nice metal Gobbos for conversions, i use again the parts of the gobbos sprues. After some cutting and bending of the troll i started “ greenstuffing “ the Blood Bowl conversion parts of the minis… some shoulder-,ellbow- and kneepads for protection. Well, after showing my work in progress at TBB i got some comments about the too small claw of the troll… so i cut the claw and resculped the whole thing again. 🙂 Much better … ! After priming the minis, i was quite pleased with the final result. The proportions and the pose of both miniatures together fit well. And just in time i finished painting both miniatures for the Dutch Open Tournement 2003. I used a colorschema of the skin and belly for my troll, which i found in a White Dwarf Magazin. I build also a two sided marker for “ troll prone “ and “ troll stunned „, as this mini combo is just to large for laying down on the pitch.
For the Team Coach i used the body of the Orc Warboss body. First i wanted to convert him into a Blackork player, but now he is a retired Blackorc player working as coach :). It was a bit difficult to find arms of the right size. I needed to “ greenstuff “ his shoulders, too. When i removed the cybernetic eye i remodel the ear and the eyepatch. I like his agressive pose.
For the Coach Assistent i found a old Miniatur from Gorkamorka , the Rokkit Buggy Gunner. The pose of this mini, leaning backward and fending off his coach, is perfect for the combination of both minis.There was no much conversion work to do. Just a bit bending of the arm and giving him “ Da plan “ in his hand, because of he got some trouble with his boss.
For the support staff of my team i used different orcs:
The Water Orc boy i use for displaying my rerolls. This mini is from the old orcish Rocklobber crew, which i ordered from MOUS Archives, too. I millcutted the rock into a water bowl and “ greenstuffed “ the lower part of the chainmail into cloth.
For the Fan Orc boy i ordered also the spotter of this old Rock lobber crew. No much conversion here, i just exchanged the hammer with a sign made from real wood and bend the right arm to get the expression “ Dont forget to move the turnmarker, yes ?! “ Well, this miniature is the team´s turnmarker now 🙂
The Apothecary is based on the body of the Gorkamorka Mad Doc. Here i exchanged just the original head with a bigger orc head. I gave him a left arm with a nice knife for amputations.
The Cheerleader was a old Savage Orc Big Boss. After removing the weapons lot of millcutting and greenstuffing was necessary to get the mini in this female form. I still got another similiar Savage Orc i like to convert sometimes, too.
The Orc Drummer is also based on a orc from the Archives. For this Orc Big ‚Un Musician i didnt need much conversions. Just some weapon removing and repairing of the chainmail on the back.
Here some picts taken while working on the Orcteam presentation base. Its quite easy done without a lot extra stuff to keep the focus on the miniatures as this time the aim was not modelling a diorama. It should be just a big base, but still give the miniatures a kind of theme to keep the two parts… team-players and team support staff… together. Thats also the reason, too, i decided to take a very plain frame. I took two same size plastic plates, the material is called “ Forrex“, each 4mm thick. After drawing a paper template of the positions of the players i used this to drill holes with the size of the bases into one plate. After glueing both plates together i sprayed them green. Now i painted wood glue with a old brush on the plate, careful not to glue sand into the holes. I did this a few layers to get a firm sandlayer. Now the normal base building time ..ok, a bigger scale this time… followed. Everything was painted careful with a big brush, as i didnt want paints into the holes, too. First a very dark brown as basecolor and later different hightlightings. After drying time i added spots of static gras just on the playfield part. This time i put the already ready “ sanded “ empty bases of my missing players into the holes, too. BTW… the plain wooden frame was done cheap from a professional framemaker. I gave the plate to the shop after sanding and painting the sand to keep the frame clean. The fence was made from wood, the “ nails „on top are small slices of plastic. The field markings are done with very fine white sand glued at last.
