Wednesday 14 October 2020

Dreadball: recently-finished figures

 Introduction

I've been working on some Dreadball figures recently.  As well as some MVPs and coaches/assistants, I'm experimenting with styles of painting for my mechanite/robot team.  See what you think.


The Mechanites


I have a mechanite team for Dreadball.  Indeed, I've had it for quite a long time.  However, until recently it languished in my "lead pile" of unassembled & unpainted miniatures.  This autumn, I'm trying to make some progress on these models and to date I've finished three of them: TRS-80, Commodore and VIC-20.



I'm aiming for a grungy, beaten-up look.  There are a handful of trivial conversions in my builds so far - for example, Commodore wears a yachting cap (who knows where the robot obtained that?).



These models are difficult to build, having a myriad of tiny pieces - all with some form of mould line that needs attention.  That's even leaving aside the game-affecting decisions on which arms/legs/torso/head to put together.

I'm finding them difficult to paint as well; there is a lot of detail on these models - but much of it is quite 'soft' because of the material from which they are made.  The paint jobs I have put on them took some time, yet I'm no happy with the results.  Are they too grungy?  Is the painting too sloppy?  Are the colour choices not good?  I can't quite put my finger on it...


Nightshade


In contrast, I painted Nightshade very swiftly.  From memory, most of the work was completed within a short evening (and alongside other work, at that).  He's a star player with a very shady past, so muted, sombre painting works well.  I'm particularly pleased with the eyes, which were something of an accident.  The whites add a tiny speck of light to what is otherwise a very dark figure.


Blaine


Now here's a coach/sponsor that I started a long time ago (painted the flesh) and then just stalled.  When I eventually decided to do him in a brown trench coat and metallic blue armour, the model was finished very rapidly.  I just wish I had done this long ago, instead of putting it off.  Now that he's finished, I'm quite pleased with the result.


Conclusion

I'm delighted with the way that Nightshade and Blaine turned out.  So why am I unhappy with the robots?  Ah, maybe I'm just my own worst critic, I dunno...

8 comments:

  1. I do like the coaches, I can see them easily being used for other systsms! The robots do look good as well & I think you dead get the grungy feel to them.

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    1. Thanks, Terry. I agree that many of the Dreadball coach & sponsor models could have alternate uses in a scifi setting - usually as civilians. Not so sure about the star players/MVPs and support staff (cheerleaders c), mind.

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  2. Those are cool! Always wanted to try dreadball... but I guess I need football to be fantasy.

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    1. For me, organised sports makes *sense* in a sci-fi setting. Based on my knowledge of history, the concept of teams, leagues &c in a (medieval-based) fantasy world is just weird.

      Dreadball is a good game. I believe that Bloodbowl (you did mean that, didn't you :-) ) is also well regarded, though I have no personal experience of it. I understand that the two games are very different in play style and mechanics, so shouldn't really be compared at all closely.

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  3. As I don;t knw that much about Dreadball, I'm assuming that;s this is a regular team choice? They look OK to me, despite your reservations.
    Other than as eye-candy, do the coaches serve any game purpose ?

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    1. Yes, the mechanites are a regular team. They are slightly unusual in that you design your own players by constructing every robot from an assortment of parts, each of which has different game rules.

      Coaching assistants do indeed play a part in the game, as do cheerleaders and medi-bots. Each of these (well, not the medi-bots) has multiple options for how they can be employed each turn. For example, a coaching assistant can (roughly speaking) facilitate a play, issue a "look out" to a friendly player during the opponent's play or remonstrate with the referee after a foul has been committed.

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  4. The grungy, beaten-up look for the mechanites is indeed an apt look.

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    1. Thanks. I think my concerns are more about lack of definition in the models & painting, rather than the dirty, battered look.

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