How to Paint Your First Blood Bowl Team
How to Paint Your First Blood Bowl Team
So you've picked your Blood Bowl team, maybe using our team building guide, and now you've got a box of miniatures staring at you from the desk. Good news: a Blood Bowl team is one of the best painting projects in the entire hobby, and I say that as someone who has been painting miniatures for twenty years. You're looking at somewhere between twelve and sixteen models, they're all on the same side, and unlike a Warhammer army there's no codex telling you what colour they should be. It's a sports team. You get to invent the franchise. Here's how I'd approach it.
Pick Your Colours Like a Sports Team, Not an Army
This is the mindset shift that makes Blood Bowl painting fun. Don't think "what's the official scheme," think "what does my team's home jersey look like." Two main colours and one accent is the classic formula, the same way real sports teams do it. Bold combinations that would look garish on a 40K army look fantastic on a Blood Bowl pitch: purple and gold, teal and orange, black and red. If you're stuck, look at actual football and hockey teams for inspiration. Pick colours you'll enjoy seeing for sixteen models, because consistency is the whole point of a team.
Batch Paint, But in Small Groups
Painting sixteen models one at a time will take forever, and painting all sixteen at once will burn you out somewhere around the third pair of boots. My sweet spot is groups of four or five: all the Linemen in one batch, then the Blitzers, then the fancy stuff. You keep the assembly line efficiency without feeling like you're working a shift at a factory. Do every model's skin, then every model's jersey, then every model's leather, and the batch is done before you know it.
Contrast Paints Are Your Best Friend Here
If ever there was a project made for Citadel Contrast paints, it's a Blood Bowl team. Prime the models white or a light grey, then let Contrast do the heavy lifting on jerseys, skin, and leather in a single coat. I use Contrast and Citadel Shades constantly in my own painting, and on a Blood Bowl team they'll get you to a genuinely good-looking tabletop standard in a weekend. From there, a quick highlight on the raised areas lifts everything. If you prefer traditional acrylics, Vallejo and AK Interactive both give you smooth coverage for jersey colours, and AK's ranges are what I personally reach for most these days. Whatever you use, thin coats and patience beat one thick coat every time.
Make Your Positionals Easy to Spot
Here's a practical one that new coaches learn the hard way: mid-game, you need to instantly tell your Blitzers from your Linemen across the pitch. Real teams solve this with numbers, and you can too, but there are easier tricks. Paint the helmets or shoulder pads a different colour for each position. Give your Catchers white boots. Paint a stripe on the base rim: one colour for Linemen, another for Blitzers, and so on. Base rim markings are my favourite because they're readable from any angle and take about thirty seconds per model. Your opponents will thank you, and so will future you.
Don't Sleep on the Bases
Blood Bowl bases are half the character of the team. The classic look is pitch turf, and a simple green flock or grass tuft finish works great. But an astrogranite-style stone pitch, a sandy Nehekhara desert, or a snowy Norse field can tie your whole team to its lore. Keep the recipe simple and repeatable, because whatever you choose, you're doing it sixteen times.
Varnish Everything
Blood Bowl models get handled more than any other miniatures you'll ever own. They're picked up, knocked over, pushed into cages, and occasionally thrown by a Troll. A coat of matte varnish protects hours of your work, and if you want that classic sports-gear look, hit the leather and armour with a touch of satin afterwards.
Get Painting
A finished Blood Bowl team is one of the most satisfying things you can put on a table, and the whole project is achievable in a couple of weekends. Wandering Adventures in Woodbridge (Vaughan), Ontario carries everything you need to paint your team, including Citadel Contrast paints and Shades, AK Interactive, Vallejo, Army Painter, brushes, and basing materials, plus Blood Bowl team boxes and the new Third Season Edition boxed set. Visit us in-store or shop online at wanderingadventures.ca with free shipping across Canada on orders over $150.
