DIY Blood Bowl Sevens pitch

I have a soft spot for Blood Bowl that goes back to the 90's (anyone remember the polystyrene "astrogranite" board?) and I've been keen to dust off my newer copy and get it all painted up.

One of the best things I think that came out of Blood Bowl being OOP all those years was the Sevens format, 'cos let's face it GW games can be overlong and the idea of lunch break gaming has always appealed! So here's my take on a Sevens board:

Basically I just masked off the lines on one side of my regular Blood Bowl pitch and stippled some white primer in (to try to match the existing effect of the lines).

Blood Bowl Sevens pitches are 11 squares wide and split into three 6 square long areas between the end zones, each team has its own scrummage line. Note I didn't put the end zones on so my board is 18x11 not 20x11 but for the purposes of the rules it will work just fine.

It's not terrible, and more importantly it's not £30. Looking forward to playing some games on it...

Quick and dirty slap chop tryout

I've been putting off painting my minis for a while now, mainly because I worry that the output doesn't justify the time invested.

So today I've decided to treat my as-yet-unpainted Blood Bowl minis as "just board game minis" and give them a super quick and dirty 3 colour slap chop paint job. Skin, cloth, armour. Let's just get stuff done - starting is the important thing, after all. If only I still had the 90s one with the polystyrene board...

I usually use a rattle can zenithal base but I thought - especially as I live in a cold, damp, windy climate - that I'd give slap chop drybrushing a go. Honestly, apart from the colour schemes I chose I'm happy with the results (in context) and each of these minis took less than an hour tops.

Drybrush Threepwood

In retrospect, I think I should have stuck to my guns and gone with my gut blue armour for the Ork (Deff Skulls til I die) and maybe a less clashy undersuit for the Human, like grey?

However, for the time invested - and the Just Getting Stuff Done factor - I'm happy. This is my first time working with SpeedPaints and they seem to be just fine. Poor pallette hygiene suggests they mix well, which is something to explore in future. Time to finish these (and the Infinity Nomads) and get through WarCry so I can buy more minis...

Gaming With The Kids at Ambush Wargames Show

Yesterday I took my two eldest to Ambush which is run annually by my FLGS at our local showground.  I wasn't sure what to expect, and how long they'd want to stay...

• After a look round the stalls we enjoyed an introductory game of Blood Bowl run by the local gaming club Wolds Wargamers.  Both of them had so much fun they wanted to buy a copy straight away! It was a close and very swingy game, ending in victory for my daughter from the jaws of defeat.
• Both wanted to have a go at painting so we grabbed a free mini each and spent an hour or so in the painting area while the painting competition was being judged.  Suffice to say we didn't produce anything that could compete!
• We all got talking about all sorts of games - we didn't even get to play any of the boardgames which I thought they would make a beeline for - and my son even wanted to have a quick game of Infinity when we got home, so all in all a positive experience.

Is this a shameless plug? Maybe … but it was a great event, all very friendly, and the work put in deserves recognition. It's running today as well, and then hopefully back bigger and better next year.