ALWAYS.

BE.

PAINTING.

This has been my motto for awhile now, having a desire to put brush on model as often as possible. And while I have plenty of Blood Bowl projects to occupy my time, I have found myself painting teams for friends of mine recently. I painted up @savion47's humans for the OBBL Human League, and I finished and unified a partially painted Necromantic team for @Patriarch of Sigmar's trip to Orclahoma Bowl. Based on my work on the Necro team, @Ziggens asked me if I could help him with a team, and I said yes. Boy, did I not realize what I was getting in to .

I was presented with the Impact Miniatures gnomes, a team that can be played as a few different Blood Bowl teams. They can easily represent Halflings or Gnomes (an unofficial Stunty League variant), or in Ziggens' case, Dwarfs. Ziggens brought over a box full of little bits, and nicely wrote his intentions for the team on each baggy.

After receiving the models, assembly began, and wow...I learned a lot about this team. To start, and no disrespect to the team at Impact, these models are...not sculpted as nicely as others on the market. I think that is my diplomatic way of saying I won't likely be purchasing these models for my own team in the future . The Gnomes are small, and relatively detailed considering their size.

As expected, the models were supplied with bases, very much in the Games Workshop slottabase style. However, with a lack of a tab on the Gnomes, and my desire to use Citadel Texture as the primary basing material, I decided to use tape to cover the slot. After a quick Exacto knife slice, the bases were ready to receive the texture.

The basing choice is a combination of Citadel Armageddon Dust, fine slate and a ballast mix I use for all my basing. 

For some of you, it may seem unusual to base this early in the process. I used to struggle with finishing a model and then having little to no motivation to base. Now, I counter by basing early. Also, in those cases where I am feeling uninspired to paint, I can always base coat, wash, drybrush and work on the base. This has helped me get past painter's block. 

Ziggens wants a traditional garden gnome look, so these Gnomes will very much be in a rich garden landscape, complete with a bark dust feel, and of course, moss and lawn. Also supplied are some plastic mushrooms, but these will be added towards the end of the process. I plan on using a dark brown as base layer, then picking out the stones and slate in grey before wash and drybrushing. As a fan of static grass, I plan on using that for the lawn, though I'm playing with the idea of using it sparingly as weeds or ornamental grasses. after all, a garden gnome isn't often placed in the middle of the actual lawn.

The Gnomes will represent both the Dwarf Longbeards and Dwarf Runners. The Blitzers and Troll Slayers are represented by the taller contraptions, with the Troll Slayers having the large hammers attached to their right arm in the picture below. The Blitzers, pictured in the final photo in this entry with the wide stance.

The team comes with a oddly red plastic vehicle, in this case, Ziggens will use it as a Dwarf Deathroller. While is isn't as imposing as the current Forge World Deathroller, it certainly follows the theme of the team. 

In addition to the basic team, Ziggens included four additional contraptions, representing four popular Dwarf Star Players. These contraptions closely match the Troll Slayers and Blitzers, but have a few different legs and torsos. Pictured below, in order from left to right, is Boomer Eziasson, Barik Farblast, Flint Churnblade and Grim Ironjaw. The picture doesn't show Churnblade's saw blade/chainsaw very well, nor does it show Ironjaw's Gnome 'extend-o-fist', which clearly helps him frenzy players of the pitch.

The team has been assembled and based, with priming as the next step. I'm not in love with these models, and I expect to run into some challenges with the project...however, given the nature of the models and my quick painting style thanks to Lahmian Medium, I expect the painting will go well. The plan is for red caps, mostly white beards (not Troll Slayers, obvi), olive tunics, and brown/black/grey/whatever boots and leather. The contraptions are puzzling, however. I'm sure I will paint them olive to match the team's tunics, but I will need something to break the monotony...battle damage for sure, but maybe another color. I may do some basic red striping to tie back to their caps, but I have time to decide. Also, I will need to find a way to identify easily the positionals; white for Runners, blue for Troll Slayers, red for Blitzers and grey for Longbeards. Feel free to offer advice in the comments section. 

I'm excited to see where this project goes, please follow and offer comments along the way!