This is... BLOOD BOWL!

It's been over 20 years since a new Blood Bowl game was released in stores, and Games Workshop has finally resurrected this enduring and popular Specialist Game.

Blood Bowl is the game of Fantasy Football where teams of Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Dark Elves, Skaven and Humans do battle on the pitch - be it grass, Astrogranite, ice or mud.  The goal (if you'll pardon the pun) is to get the ball into the opponent's End Zone by running or passing it down field.

I'll give a brief review of the boxed set and add-ons in an upcoming post, but for now I wanted to share what I've been working on:

These are part of the Dark Elf team known as the
Balmorra Raveners.  The team colors are Black and Purple, suitable for Dark Elves.  I've tried to
keep the skin tones consistent with the color palette and properly cold and pale.  The bright green accents stand out vividly against the purple armor, boots, and gloves.  I used P3 Rhulic Gold to give the golden parts a nice, warm, rich luster.

For the Witch Elves, I decided to go with a sort of "Bride of Frankenstein" look to the hairdo.  It really enhances the savage and manic aspect of these players.  You may notice the face of the Assassin looks a bit different.  He is known as "Vigo Vendetti" and I've painted him up with "V for Vendetta" in mind.

Next up is a concept model for a Dwarven team.  The new Dwarven Blood Bowl models look spectacular but they won't be out for another month or two.  In the meantime, I'm painting up some Dreadball Forge Fathers to serve the purpose.  Meet Johann "The Mountain", Captain of the team known as the Fort Tyr Miners:

I named him in honor of 49ers Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana. He's still not completed in these pictures, but it's sufficient to get the point across.  The team is just being painted to a tabletop standard so I can get them on the field in the next few weeks!

The concept was serendipitous.  I wasn't originally planning on this color scheme - I knew I wanted the gold armor but was originally considering blue and grey clothing.  I opted for red instead, and originally went with white trousers but after some good advice I made them golden yellow instead.  I wanted a name that suggested mining, and the resemblance to the colors of the San Francisco 49ers is readily apparent.  But the year of the California Gold Rush doesn't have much significance in the world of Warhammer, so after a little thought, the name "Fort Tyr Miners" just fell into place.

I'll post pictures of the team once it's finished.

The last little thing I wanted to show off is a decoration for my Skaven team, The Doomtown Rats.  While field goals are not part of the Blood Bowl rules (at least, not currently), I made a goalpost out of sprue and some plastic skeletal horse skulls and Skaven regiment shields.  The symbol of the Horned Rat, turned sideways, makes the "D" that is the team logo.

That's all for now, but stay tuned!  I hope to provide more exciting Blood Bowl content in the weeks to come.

REVIEW: IKEA Micke Desks, and the Hobby Zone SDM3b Professional Paint Station

I thought I'd talk a little about my new painting area.

I wanted a fairly compact setup that would still allow me the ability to do my best work.  So I went to Ikea and got a "Micke" desk for about $50.  The desktop is 20x29 inches and it has a full-length drawer underneath.

It's a pretty good size to place right under a window, to allow you the largest amount of natural sunlight for painting.  However, I also wanted some space to store boxes of models and other materials, so I later purchased a drawer unit in the same style.  Its top is the same level as the desk and it cost me $60.

In retrospect, I should have gone with the larger Micke desk for $80 and then I'd have a consistent surface for larger work and no need for the drawer unit.  Live and learn.

This is the kind of desk I built for my girlfriend.  I should have gotten the same kind for myself.

These desks were easy to assemble - it took me about 45 minutes for the larger one and about 30 minutes to put my small one together,  You have the option of putting the cabinet part/open leg on either side.  For the larger desk, there's a hutch available for $40.  It's very handy (if you are not right in front of a window, of course).  Someplace to display your finished work or keep other needed things at hand.

 I also got a couple of inexpensive desk pads to protect from scratches and spills - they're durable clear plastic and sized to fit the desktop.  It's easier to replace a $6 desk protector than a $50-80 desk, don't you agree?

My main problem with these desks is that they do not have an edge that you can use to clamp on a work lamp.  So I need to place my table-top lamp on the side cabinet.  It's a fairly big adjustable lamp with a heavy base about 7 inches across - but the LED bulb in it is so heavy that the lamp isn't as stable as I'd like.  I use a bulb that puts out 1250 lumens at a color temperature of 5000K - almost exactly like natural daylight, but it weighs over a pound.  Make sure your lamp can support something like that, and you'll have he best possible workspace lighting you could need!

I also wanted something that would allow me to keep my most frequently used paints at hand, as well as my brushes.  So I bought a  Hobby Zone SDM3b Professional Paint Station on eBay for $55.  It's 24x16 inches and is made of MDF fiberboard.  It shipped in a flat package and required assembly with wood glue and masking tape.  Assembly was easy and fairly quick (aside from the time needed for the glue to dry).  If you can build models, you can aseemble this thing.  The slots are 36mm wide and can accomodate the Citadel paint pots.  It's got room for about 50 Citadel pots, or probably 60 of the P3 jars.  There is a model available if you use the AV dropper bottles - it's called the SDM3s and it has 26mm slots.  The paint station also has holes for 20 brushes and a couple very large holes for things like glue bottles or a small water pot.  The small "wings" on either side are detachable and can be used for setting aside models to dry.

It's already saved my desktop from one spill and the nice thing about it is, you could pick the whole thing up and move it without disturbing anything.

So, that's a little about my work area.  It's not 100% ideal but realistically, few of us have the space or expense to set up the perfect work space - especially those of us with spouses or girlfriends who have input into how much room our hobby occupies.

There are advantages to my setup - it alleviates the need to paint at the kitchen table (no longer allowed with a brand new table!) or at my computer desk.  However, it's sitting directly perpendicular to my computer desk, so I can just swivel to the right to paint.  That also allows me to view a YouTube video or listen to music while I am working.

I hope you find the product reviews useful - I encourage you to check out the paint station, and maybe I have given you some ideas about setups that are economical in space and money.

We'll Be Back Soon!

It's been a long, long time since I posted anything on the blog.  I appreciate those of you who have checked in from time to time.

I had hoped to be able to return to painting this past spring - I was back to work, and had the funds to buy a new Space Marine army after having to sell all my miniatures last fall.  But a lot of other things changed and I wound up moving to a new place.  It took a while to settle in, and a bit longer to get things set up to paint once again.

Finally I have a small painting desk near the window in the den, a nice MDF painting station to keep my paints organized, and I'm slowly starting to paint again.

So I hope to be able to re-invigorate my blog with more articles, reviews, tutorials and pictures.  It may be a slow start but I look forward to it and I hope you do too!  Thanks for following the Sage Brush!

STILL ALIVE!

Hello to all who have followed my blog in the past - and apologies for my prolonged absence.

I just wanted to announce that I intend to return to blogging soon (in about a month or so) and explain my absence.  When I last posted in late May of last year, I was about to embark upon painting my Dark Angels army.  I expected to have it finished by the end of the summer - but no plan survives contact with the enemy, so to speak, and  Life Happened.

First major change was leaving my old job.  I planned to take the summer off to spend time with the family and catch up on my painting.  My savings were sufficient to allow for that, but after an unexpected family medical emergency, I was left with no choice but to sell my Space Wolf and Dark Angels armies (and most of my gaming books) to cover those expenses.

As you can imagine, this left me with little to paint - but more significantly, it kind of really crushed my desire to do any painting.  Even looking at my work area reminded me of what I had to give up, and that was very sad and hard to face.

I begin a new job next week - and I'll be earning about 25% more than I ever have before.  This should allow me to get back into a small 40K army.  I was uncertain of what faction to pick up - I considered Tau because I like the look of all the robotic suits... but I know little about them.  The new Space Wolves models look amazing but I'm honestly sick of painting that blue-grey and I don't want to have to buy all the books.  Likewise with the Dark Angels - great options and the Deathwing are still among my favorites, but it's time for something different!

After some consideration, I've decided to go with Crimson Fists.  A Codex Space Marine Chapter will let me use all the nifty models that the SW or DA might not have access to.  I love the Imperial Fists Chapter Tactics, but I've never been good at painting yellow!  But I did paint up a Pedro Kantor last summer and I love that Prussian Blue, and the contrast with the Crimson gloves and trim.

My Plan is to pick up a Demi-Company box to begin, adding only a Sternguard Squad and a box of Sniper Scouts to begin with.  In fact, the latter two squads may be my first purchases, as I can use them in the Kill Team games we have been playing recently.

Also, last summer I picked up a Nikon CoolPix S7000 digital camera.  It's got all the features that I wanted for miniature photography.  It's more stable, has a better macro mode, better white balance and contrast, and in short is far and above the crummy camera on my HTC One M7.  As I didn't sell any of the models I'd already painted, perhaps I'll spend some time taking better pictures with it and the Foldio - and perhaps I'll buy one of the larger new Foldio 2's with the brighter strips, dimmers and diffusers this year!

So, to sum it all up - things happened, but I'm back and looking forward to resuming my painting and blogging to share my experiences with you!  Thanks for being a loyal reader!