The Irregulars; American Football for Blood Bowl

[Seuchenhexer]

TL;DR

I like American Football, and I like Blood Bowl. So here we go.

Background and Planing

Somewhere through the third season (2019) of the league I am playing in, I decided that I wanted something different, something more real. If you want to call it that.
The first miniatures I bought from Franchise D.R.A.F.T., but while they are of a pretty good quality, they are not what I was looking for at all. And the only other option I found at the time was a American Football board game on Kickstarter that was no longer available.

With a little luck I then came across the world of Electrical Football, which offered exactly what I was looking for, or at least some. Because it is pretty different from tabletop games, there are next to no details on most of the miniatures. But Electric Gridiron (and some others) make miniatures that are of pretty decent quality and offer the right level of details.

Getting the show on the road

With the Covid-19 pandemic slowing everything down there was no real reason to start painting, the league being stuck in the play- offs, and only recently starting up again.
So the miniatures did rest for almost two years, but now with the end of the 2019 season coming closer, and the new season starting with a new set of rules, there is really no more excuses to not start with a whole new team!

With the name Irregulars being set for all this time, I now took 15 bucks and did wander of into the internet, to get me some log for my team.
Hopefully Konami will not sue me.

With the colors and a light hearted logo set for something like a High school or maybe College Football team I finished the first miniatures yesterday. Testing out the colors and the scheme I wanted to go with.

For the first test I used a couple of Linemen and a Thrower.
Going with square bases, as using round ones with my barrel shaped dwarves caused them to roll around when they have been down on the ground.

As for marking the players, I decided to use the olden days color bases for Blood Bowl, as well as writing their position onto the base.
The numbers on the front and back, as well as the shoulders use the NFL system and kind of indicate their role as well.
And last but not least, I decided to give every position a different sort of white line on their base. For the Lineman one in the front of the base, and the Thrower gets a line at the back of the base.

I also had to pull some light fun and made myself into the headcoach, using the body of some miniature from the Harry Potter game, the head of a Franchise D.R.A.F.T. Coach, and some greenstuff to add some hair.
At least it is supposed to be me and not Donald Trump, but either way will Make American Football Great Again.

I finished the miniature already some weeks ago, but did not really got around to post it here.

But thats it for the belayed start of this project. I will try to finish all the Linemen next.

[Easy E]

I am surprised no one has really done this before.  They may have, but yours is turning out great!

[Seuchenhexer]

Thanks for the comment!
I am pretty sure that out there will be the one or another football team, as it goes pretty well with Blood Bowl, even though you kind of encounter a lot of problems. Like finding suitable miniatures.

I was able to finish the first batch of players. As I already had started using the Lineman for figuring out the colors, and what to add to the jersey it was pretty easy to finish them.

When it comes to decals, and emblems and everything I decided to add an I on the right side of the helmet, while keeping the bird head decal on the left side.
As the miniatures had been a bit bland, I added hair, towels and hand warmers made of greenstuff.

[Seuchenhexer]

I finished the two Big Guys and three Throwers over the weekend.
With a two colored line on the base I tried to set the Big Guy a bit more apart from the other players, as there was no real option to get them that much bigger, without getting any ridiculous looking sizes.

As with the Linemen I try to get some extra players for every position, as they all got unique names on their jersey, and I want to kind of switch them through during a season. In case one gets wounded or needs to be replaced.

[Seuchenhexer]

Following the Big Guy this week are the (new) 'halflings' for the team. I minted them special team, and tried to sort out the players that kind of crouched lowest.
But of course you only can go this far without coming up with maybe a bit of a more crazy idea (which I did not wanted for this team).

Second class I did have been the catchers which are my absolute favorites so far.

So far it is 31 players, and I have to say I am quite satisfied with how the roster fills up for the upcoming season!

I also started to work on some parts of a stadium. I am not sure how far I want to go with it, but at least I wanted to build a scoreboard and maybe some clutter for the side.
As with the other teams I did I am working on a new dugout, but thats more of an idea and not really a project so far.

[Seuchenhexer]

I managed to finish the scoreboard this week. It took hours upon hours of printing, and then glue it all together as I was not able to print it in one go.

The "time" on the board cannot be changed, and shows the year I started with the team, or more like getting the first miniatures.
Everything else can be taken out and be replaced to show the score of both teams, the turn (QTR), rerolls (DWN), bribes (BRB) and fame (FME) of my team.

I also added some flagpoles, for the feeling!

Everything came out way bigger then intended, but I do not mind at all.

[Ranthony]

Splendid showing!

I'd love to do something like this one day, it seems the printing side of things is really bringing dreams closer to reality.

Go the whole hog and print a stadium, I dare ya! you only live once after all.

Thanks for sharing

Ry

[Seuchenhexer]

I would not mind printing/ building a whole stadium.

I guess I just have to level up my engineering skills.

[Seuchenhexer]

After the recent 3D printing adventure I had to go back to paint miniatures. With the new season at my club starting at the 11th of November I have to get the boys in shape.

Last missing class have been the Blitzers. Again going with two more players then I can take to have some for circulation in cause of injuries, or other replacements.
They do look similar to the Catchers, but do not have a ball with them.

As they are one of the more star like players in the game I did go heavy on them with greenstuff, adding hair, towels and hand warmers.

Then as a little exta I did finish the actual Starplayers.

From left to right I got my Morg'n'Torg, or like a model that can stand in for any Big Guy, as it is a pretty bulky guy, and more or less close to the pose of the Lineman and Big Guys I already have. I added a face shield (as I did with the Big Guys) so there are more similarities.

Then I got some more sleek guys that are kind of close to Blitzer and Catcher.

The team captain himself.

Then a female player! Using a miniature from Franchise D.R.A.F.T. with a head swap and some detail work. Like getting rid of spikes, adding a bit of more jersey and so on.

And last but not least someone who can stand in for players with illegal weapons, like Helmut Wulf.
I tried to give him chainsaw tattoos on both arms, and a yellow flag on the base.

And thats it for the 43 players of the team!

[Smokeyrone]

Great work.  I got the 2001 Hurricanes home and away for 14 bucks online.

[Seuchenhexer]

The warning that this topic has not been touched by me for the last 120 days is a bit shocking. Clearly I have to work a little harder, if I want to finish my Blood Bowl team in one lifetime.

And while a lot of those 120 days where used to sit lazy on the couch and Netflix, I also used some of them to find cheerleaders, and start finishing the staff/ sideline for the team.

I did not like any of the cheerleaders that are offered by several miniature companies for any range of fantasy football. Most of them are either too sexualized or like too fantasy. So once again I found the solution to my problem with the Harry Potter board game from Knight Models.
Turning the school uniforms into cheerleader uniforms was no problem at all. Just cutting off the ties, and adding some greenstuff pon- pons for the females, and the job was done.

[Seuchenhexer]

After the team, I now got the whole sideline finished. Meaning that everything I need for a game of Blood Bowl is finally finished.

The bases are made to fit into my Feldherr bag, and everything can be taken off, so there are no problems when it comes to transporting the team.

[LouieN]

That is really impressive and looks like a lot of fun.