Blood Bowl Pitch Case Part 2

Following on from the construction of the case, I started building the pitch and dugouts. This was an interesting change from the first section of the build, because it allowed me to be more creative.

The first thing I did was to undercoat the entire outside of the case. I think I gave it three coats before moving on to black Rustoleum All Purpose Gloss. Then I gave it a few coats of satin yacht varnish for protection. The finish isn't perfect because of the texture on the plywood, but I'm still very happy with it. 

The next step was to make the pitch and lay out the markings. I started off with a sheet of static grass mat, the kind used by railway modellers. Using a ruler and paintbrush I measured out the squares and painted them in. This took a lot of time and patience! The result was far from perfect, with many of the squares being a few mm too small or big, but it's almost impossible to be completely accurate. Mistakes were easy enough to fix, I just used some PVA and static grass to cover them up. 

I made quite a few corrections to the pitch after this photo was taken! I then used a knife to cut along the Line of Scrimmage, and glued the two halves into the case. 

With the pitch completed, I could start on the dugouts, score counter and turn trackers.  I decided that the half of the case to the right of each player would contain dugouts, while the left would be taken up by turn and reroll tracks. 

I cut squares from a thin sheet of plywood (I think I got it from the back of an abandoned bedside locker!) and glued them in to make the turn and reroll tracks. I decided to only include one turn track per player to save space. After each half of the game they can simply be reset. 

   Numbers were painted into each track. 

I left some empty space on either side of the board so that I could make a scatter template and score tracker. I wanted the scatter template to look more interesting than just a few numbers, so I decided to sculpt it from Milliput. I rolled out a thin layer of Milliput onto greaseproof paper and sculpted the numbers 1 to 8, them I made a Blood Bowl ball. 

I decided that there would be four rooms in each dugout; Reserves, Knocked Out, Dead and Injured, and a Dungeon for players who have been sent off. Using some 3mm MDF and a sharp knife, I carved out some walls and doors to go between each room. 

     The bars in this one were made from           paperclip wire. 

I wasn't sure at first how to make the floors of the dugouts. I decided eventually to use coffee stirrers to imitate stone blocks! I cut them into different lengths and used PVA to glue them in. 

I started to furnish each room. I made a ladder from matchsticks for one reserves box, and a flight of stairs for the other. The steps were made by gluing bits of sprue together, then sculpting stone details with Milliput. 

I made "Home" and "Away" signs using old metal sprues. These were easy to make, I just cut them to be rectangular and painted them. 

I painted a beer barrel from an old Ogre kit for one reserves box. I filled it with some clear resin. 

 I made a stretcher for the Knocked Out box using two lengths of paperclip wire and Milliput. Again I sculpted this on a sheet of baking paper (used wet pallet paper actually!) to stop it sticking. 

I made some coffins for the Dead and Injured rooms using small pieces of thin plywood covered in Milliput. 

Some benches were made for the dugouts using matchsticks. Once all the furniture was finished, I painted the floors and walls of the dugouts and glued everything in. 

Here is the completed pitch! 

In each left hand corner, I made extra sections, to be used as dice trays.

I'm really happy with how the case turned out! 

Blood Bowl Pitch Case Part 1

Many years ago, I saw a custom Blood Bowl pitch case online. Since then, I've always wanted to build one. I looked at others for inspiration, and decided upon this design. Here's how I designed and built the whole thing! 

I wanted the case to consist of two halves which sit flush against each other when closed. I decided the dugouts would be below the level of the pitch itself. 

A Blood Bowl pitch is made up of two halves, 16 squares wide by 13 squares long (including end zone). Each square is 34mm. This means each half of the pitch is 51cm by 44.2cm. I wanted the dugouts to be 2 squares wide, so the final size of each half of the pitch is 45.4cm by 66.2cm. This is to allow for the border around the edge of the case, which is made using 1/2 inch plywood. 

With all this in mind, I made each half using the following shapes of 1/2 inch plywood. I robbed my dad's electric circular saw for this (be very careful if you use one!), but I'm sure a jigsaw or even hand saw could work if you focus on getting accurate cuts. 

1x 66.2cm by 44.2cm rectangle - this is the "base" of each half - referred to as A

1x 66.2cm by 4.5cm rectangle. Referred to as B. This piece makes up the back border of each half of the case. 

1x 66.2cm by 3.3cm - referred to as C. This piece will go under the Line of Scrimmage. 

4x 44.2cm by 3.3cm rectangles. These create the border on the left and right of the case, as well as the edge of the pitch. Referred to as D 

This is the mess I had after all the parts were cut out!

This picture also shows a mess *ahem* a completed half of the case. All pieces are assembled using wood screws. 

Piece B is attached to the edge of A, forming the border of the case. This means it rises up 3.3cm over A. 

Piece C is attached on top of A. This will form the Line of Scrimmage for the case, and grass will go over it. It's very important not to mix up pieces B and C! 

The D pieces are all attached on top of A. Each pair is 68mm apart. The inner D pieces will go under the pitch. 

Phew, that was complicated! Once two halves were made in this way, I had this. 

At this point I decided to install the hardware. I recommend bolting a handle through part B at this point, as the hollow inside will soon be filled. I put latches between the two Bs. I added hinges between the two C pieces. 

This is the right time to fill any gaps between the parts. It is almost inevitable that there will be some errors in the cuts. I sanded away any imperfections. 

The next step is to build up the pitch itself. For this I used a scrap sheet of Kingspan foam (aka XPS, extruded polystyrene, blue foam, pink foam or whatever it's called!). This was glued to the A pieces using Gorilla Glue. The stuff I used was the wrong thickness, so I had to do a lot of cutting, sanding and cursing to get it down to 3.3cm in height. 

So that's it for the first part of the case! This is by far the most technical section of the build, and I hope my descriptions of all the different parts were OK. The next section is much more fun, as it involves furnishing the whole stadium! 

The Silver Pinnacle Slayers

I painted this Dwarf Blood Bowl team back around the start of Lockdown, having wanted to start the game for years. I chose Dwarfs as my first team because they are very resilient players who are also well able to dish out damage!

I decided to go with NMM for the metal parts of the figures. I'm very happy with how it turned out. Apologies for the poor quality of the photos. 

A group shot of the whole squad!

My favourite players on the team are the Troll Slayers. These guys are very strong, and are able to hold their own against most other teams. Their main downside is their "Frenzy" special rule, which makes them recklessly pursue their opponents. 

I painted runic tattoos on both of them, although they might not al be visible in the photos. 

Two Blitzers:

The three different poses of Blockers (also referred to as Longbeards). 

Finally, two Runners. These are the "fast" players on the (notoriously slow) Dwarf team. They're great for running into the End Zone for a touchdown. 

I plan on painting up some Star Players and Secret Weapons for this team. Every Dwarf team needs a Deathroller sooner or later! 

The Averland Adventurers

 These little folk are my new Halfling Blood Bowl team. They're great sculpts with a lot of charm. I did a few conversions on some of the players to make them more unique, and to allow me to use Star Players. Their kit is inspired by FC Barca's Catalan shirt. 

Here's a group photo of the whole squad! 

These two are Hefties, particularly tough Halflings. I like their design, both of them look like they're seasoned fighters (even if they're not exactly great!). I sculpted a scarf for the one on the right and gave him an extra shoulder spike so that he can be used as Puggy Baconbreath. 

These two Hopefuls are posed sprinting up the field. As with all the figures on the team, I really enjoyed painting their faces.

I made stilts for this player. He can be used as a normal Hopeful or as the Star Player Nuddley Verruca. 

This fella looks confident, as if he could be the team captain. 

Two Catchers:

I did a head swap on this Hopeful to make him suitable for Captain Colander. I sculpted a cape for him from Milliput too. Painting chequered clothing is always a challenge, but fun. 

This is another converted Hopeful. I combined two heads from the kit and sculpted some curly hair. He can be used as a standard Hopeful or Big Jobo. 

A fairly normal Hopeful :

Player number 6 is one of my favourites. 

No Halfling team is complete without some Treemen, and I'd like to add some soon. I'm not sure which miniatures I'll use for them, but I might try the Treemen from the Warlords of Erehwon range. The box includes 3 different sculpts, so it's perfect for a Halfling team.