I’m mainly painting these miniatures to learn how to paint Non-metallic Metal (NMM). I figured I would start with the linemen and work my way forward to the positionals. The idea being that I would improve as I go, so the players I care about will look better than the players I don’t. I figure after finishing a 16 player Bloodbowl team I should get reasonably good at it. At which point I’ll apply the technique to some Malifaux and Arena Rex models I’m particularly keen on looking good.

Before starting I spent a bit of time looking at video tutorials and the one that took my fancy was by Painting Buddha. In particular how they painted the gold armour on a GW Stormcast Eternal. They call their technique the Loaded Brush, and it involves loading the brush with the thin base or shadow colour and putting a tiny amount of the highlight at the tip. As you paint the base colour diffuses into the highlight and you can get a fairly quick blend. You then fix this up and tweak with thin glazes. That of course is if you know the technique, which I do not. However, my aim is to learn the technique with this team and I’m curious to see how I develop. To achieve this I’ll finish each model in its entirety and then move to the next.

The colours I used are below. There was a lot of mixing of the different colours to create the glazes and tweak spots.

• Armour (NMM):
• Base: Mix of Gold Brown (VMC 70.877) and Flat Brown (VMC 70.984)
• Loaded Brush – Base: Gold Brown (VMC 70.877)
• Loaded Brush – Tip: Ivory (VMC 70.918)
• Shadow: Hull Red (VMC 70.985)
• Pants:
• Base: Black Grey (VMC 70.862)
• Shadow: Dark Shade (VGC 73.201)
• Shadow II: Black (VMC 70.950)
• Highlight: Mirage Blue (VMC 70.900)
• Gloves:
• Base: Dark Sea Blue (VMC 70.898)
• Highlight I: Mirage Blue (VMC 70.900)
• Highlight II: Grey Blue (VMC 70.943)
• Boots:
• Base: Cavalry Brown (VMC 70.898)
• Wash (2 coats): Sepia Shade (VMC 73.200)
• Laces: Pale Sand (VMC 70.837)
• Sole: German Grey (VMC 70.995)
• Straps:
• Base: Brown Sand (VMC 70.876)
• Wash: Sepia Shade (VMC 73.200)
• Steel Studs (NMM):
• Base: Black Grey (VMC 70.862)
• Highlight I: Mirage Blue (VMC 70.900)
• Highlight II: Sky Grey (VMC 70.989)
• Base:
  • Texture: Sandy Paste (Vallejo 26.215)
  • Colour: Medium Olive (VMC 70.850)

The other thing I’d thought I would try is an darker skin colour on this team. I’ve listed the colours below, but I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from CMON: Ethnic Skin-tones

• Base/Shadow: German Camouflage Black Brown (VMC 70.822)
• Highlight I: Chocolate Brown (VMC 70.872)
• Highlight II: USA Tan Earth (VMC 70.874)
• Highlight III: Rose Brown (VMC 70.803)
• Highlight IV: Basic Skinton (VMC 70.815)