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Next team up on the painting block is my dwarf team. Continuing my trend of NFL themed teams, it’s on to the Games Workshop dwarf team. Pittsburg’s historic history of the steel industry is a great fit for a dwarven team, as is their history of punishing defenses and a strong running game. Thanks to Casey for whipping up the team logo for me!  In case you don’t know, Gromril is the Warhammer metal that is prized by all for making of armor and weapons.  I went with the city of Zhufbar as it was renowned for its metal working, and it fit perfectly with the theme. The first major question was to determine the paint scheme.

As usual I turned to the Gridiron Uniform Database for ideas.  The modern Steelers uniform is nice, but a black top with a black helmet wouldn’t look very interesting. The old yellow helmet though spoke to me.  It’s old-school and with the yellow pants and white socks it should work well on the GW dwarf team.  The GW design has some curious accents in the armor that appear to be cut like gems.  The prospect of painting that many gems though wasn’t appealing and didn’t speak to the Gromril part of the team.  Instead, I opted to go with gold and turned to one of my favorite gold colors, Scalecolor’s Necro Gold.  A fantastic greenish gold that is also great for doing bronze.  With the colors determined I decided to start with the backbone of the team with the Lineman.  

As usual for the yellow I went with my favorite in the GW colors. I’ve been using the same Averland Sunset since I was in Korea in 2014, but it still had some left to get this project going.  The models do have gems in their beards and hair and to tie them in with the team logo, I thought it would be good to use Yellow, Blue, and Red like the gems on the logo.  Blue and red worked great, but I don’t have the knowledge on how to do a good yellow gem affect.  Certainly, something to look at in the future. 

Since I hate myself, I figured why not add some stripes to the socks. These guys have some monstorous calves, so it was a bit odd to get the correct look on the stripes. I used the 360-degree painted models on the GW website to get an idea on how to do it and overall, it turned out well. 

For the base I went with the Rival Craft Fantasy Football base topper.  I own a ton of these, but unfortunately, they don’t stock them on their site anymore.  I was able to get an order last year by emailing them and asking, but I don’t know if they will do it again in the future.  I went with winter grass because I imagine an open-air stadium high in the mountains where this team plays. A stone base may have been more likely, but I like how the cool tones of the winter colors compliment the team uniform.  Some of the bases that had stripes painted on them were not the best, as the white grass of the stipe kept coming off the base.  Finally, I used a number on the base opposed to transfers.  These are resin or metal and will be my go-to moving forward with Blood Bowl teams. 

Overall, I loved the final product.  The gems in the beard aren’t the best. I have done round gems in the past but never ones with hard cut angles like these ones. I’m decided to move on with it though. I have developed a real enjoyment with vallejo paints. They are very matte compared to the GW ones and I appreciate it when painting black. For some reason the glossiness on black paints makes it difficult to see details when I am looking at the model. I could just be getting old though. 

Moving forward the plan is to knock out the base players before moving onto the positional players at the end.  The idea is that at the end of the project I’ll not be burned out with painting lineman after lineman. Next update should have more completed work to show off.  Here are few glamour shots to finish it off.