The team is done, with just a few days to spare, I had to spend a good part of the Easter and last weekend along with several evenings finishing them off. The original plan was slightly more ambitious originally which included Hakflem along with the markers, coin and footballs you get with the boxed set.
Sadly with time running out I had decide which to prioritise, a survey on TFF showed that stars were most popular, followed by the display base with the markers and other stuff last. I liked the conversions I came up with for Glart and Fezglitch so completed them first, but Hakflem was just the 3rd edition model. I wasn’t a huge fan of that era as all GW stuff was pretty weak then, in fact the 2nd edition models hold up better than most of the 3rd in my opinion. In the end I decided to drop Hakflem and the markers to focus on the base. I believe forgeworld may well release a new Hakflem model, and I might revisit him if that looks good.

The display base was a lot more time consuming that I had anticipated and took nearly a month to complete. In part this was due to not having fully decided the exact look of it. This is why having a deadline helps as I can tend to procrastinate forever and many part completed ideas have ended up dropped. I wanted the base to reflect the team was in an underground stadium, the idea would be between astrogranite, a dungeon or sewer, possibly with chunks of warpstone. In the end I steered away from warpstone as that was use with the GW team and I wasn’t a fan of how that looked.

Instead I opted for the design I’d used on the past 2 teams with a NAF logo cut out of plasticard. This time instead of having it surrounded by jungle or swamp I had the entire floor made up of slabs. Cutting out all the card was heavy going and I went through several knife blades chopping it up and then cutting 18 holes into it.



Looking at the official NAF colours they matched the team colours quite well, I swapped dark brown in for black, orange for red and light grey for white. The slabs themselves were painted mid-grey. I kept highlights light on the logo but added some via drybrushing to the slabs. As this was a skaven team, not known for the pristine nature of their possessions I painted cracks onto the slabs.


I could have stopped there but wanted to add a few scuffs and damage to the logo. I thought this would fit in better with the team and rest of the base. One thing I disliked about the logo I did for the slann base was that it was too bright and pristine. For the Lizardmen I did it in cracked stone with grey edging and this worked much better combined with the jungle/swamp.
I also added position name and numbers to help match up the players with their position. The central models were easy since they had bits of the logo but the rest would prove tricky. I used the transfers from the boxed set for most of the holes but had to and hand paint a lino and 2 gutters along with the star players.



The players themselves changed little from the earlier pics, I did add numbers based on the transfers that came with the boxed set. I am not a fan of transfers myself unless it is for very geometric images so painted them on by hand. This allowed me more freedom to have them fit onto the variety of surfaces used. I was also able to add a black shadow to help the white stand out better against the orange.
Originally I was using the standard slotta bases that the team came with but those wouldn’t work with the slabs. I had to chop off the tabs, drill holes in their feet and pin them to these bases. This did mean losing the hole for the footballs but all players had a nice flat surface to place the ball on.







I do like how a team looks with a display base and it helps to present the team in its best light. The cold grey contrasts nicely with the warmer orange and brown team colours. So I’m glad I avoided the more realistic dungeon floor I was originally intending to use.



Something else to repeat is that this year the team I painted will not be awarded to the overall champion. Instead it will be randomly allocated to one coach taking part in the tournament, so everyone going has an equal chance of winning this time. Looks like they’ll have over 200 people attending this year, the largest yet.