Brushwork – Sunday 3rd April

I’ve been taking a break from Infinity models for the last couple of weeks to concentrate on some pieces for my club, namely the models from our club copy of Dreadball.

I volunteered to paint up these guys with the aim that we can start to run demos of it at the club. Due to our GCN membership we were actually given the game for free, which was a nice bonus of being a member club!

I started with the human team – I wanted to go with blue for them so as to make a nice contrast with the red of the Marauder team. I started with Coat D’Arms Marine Blue, washed with Asurmen Blue then highlighted with Coat D’Arms Bavarian Blue.

I painted the white with Celestra Grey then highlighted with Ceramite White, nothing too complex.

The fronts of the bases were painted Mephiston Red and highlighted with Trollslayer Orange – this is to denote their Threat Hexes easily:

Dreadball Humans – click to enlarge

Dreadball Humans – click to enlarge

Next up were the Marauders. I begun by painting the red armour with Khorne Red, the skin in Knarloc Green and added some accents with Leadbelcher. I then shaded the whole model with Nuln Oil. Once dry, I highlighted the armour plates with Evil Sunz Scarlet and they were done. Like the human team, the front half of each base was painted with Mephiston Red then highlighted with Trollslayer Orange:

Dreadball Marauder team – click to enlarge

Dreadball Marauder team – click to enlarge

Finally, I painted the Refbot – her main panels were painted Celestra Grey, then highlighted with Ceramite White:

Dreadball Refbot and balls – click to enalrge

Dreadball Refbot – click to enalrge

I like how she’s got eyes in the back of her head!

Inspired by all of this Dreadball stuff, I decided to add some extra detail to my Robot team by painting their base fronts as well. I went for hazard lines on these guys, although I may change to the same theme as the two club teams as that was far easier and faster to paint! I also added a light effect to the Dreadball gloves on the Strikers and Jacks.

Dreadball Robot Team – click to enlarge

I’ve been unsure how to number the team members – because of the unique nature of the Robots and their transformation abilities, their numbers would end up changing with them as I swap models around. After some deliberation, I decided that rather than try and buy tons of alternate models to number the same, I’d use a symbol to denote the position. Since the robots are changing form, I reasoned that the circular plate on their backs could rotate, and so change the look of the symbol depending on the position. I’ve decided to go with a stylised triangle for the symbol. Pointing up denotes a Striker (since they rush forward), pointing down denotes a Guard (because they are slower) while pointing to the right is a Jack. If I ever get the option of Keepers I’ll point the triangle to the left:

Dreadball Robot symbols – click to enlarge

Finally for this Dreadball-themed post is the Robot Team booster which I was able to pick up. Having only a passing interest in Dreadball over the past couple of years, I was unaware that the Team Boosters that Mantic originally put out to add variant poses to the teams released during the first couple of seasons were discontinued. This meant I needed to track down a set as best I could, unless I wanted to spend over the odds for the new box of Robots, which has some variant poses but mostly the standard ones – not ideal! I found a seller on Amazon with some in stock but after 3 weeks nothing arrived, so I had to get a refund and go elsewhere- luckily a second seller on Amazon had them and so I eventually got a set:

Dreadball Robot Team Booster (work in progress) – click to enlarge

It’s nice to have extra Guards and Strikers, as well as a couple of extra Jacks who could either boost my team numbers in a league or stand in for Strikers in a pinch – I noticed in my first few games with the Robots that I would quickly run out of Strikers or Guards as the match went on and people ended up in the sin bin – at least now I should have enough of them to last a match now!

Going back to Infinity, I’ve been enjoying the recent Infinity Week on Beasts of War, where they’ve been covering Human Sphere N3, which has some fantastic new rules, new units and new options for all armies – I’m especially excited to hear of the changes to the Aleph Posthumans and the Tohaa! I won’t re-cap here as plenty of people have already done a better job than I could do on the forums.

I’ve also taken part in a couple of Flamestrike battles too, which have been good fun so far, and I hope to get a couple more in before it ends!