Blood Bowl Wood Elves (Ylthari’s Guardians)

I REALLY want a Wood Elf team for Blood Bowl, but i'm forced to wait for GW to release one!
In the mean time I keep dreaming up ideas on how to build my own so that in the horrible event that I don't like what GW puts out, I have some options.

Most recently I find myself looking at the Tree-Revenants. I think these models are beautiful, and would lend themselves well to conversion. The main down side is the price! $45 for 5 would most likely leave me needing 3 boxes ($135) for a functioning team, and that is without a Treeman. A Treeman is a player that I REALLY want to have. For the Treeman I was thinking that GW's Kurnoth Hunter models would be a great base model to convert from, but that is another $70.

Finances aside, I really like the look of these models and the conversion possibilities they bring. I like the idea of painting these models too. I was thinking that painting the "elf portion" of them in the same blue/green OSL fashion that I did my sepulchral guard would contrast nicely with the mossy wood that I would paint their "tree like" components.

Now all I have to do is sit back and wait to see what GW puts out.......

Not terrible... I will need to see more before I decide on them. This doesn't seem finished to me...
And to be honest I am still REALLY liking my idea of using Tree-Revenants to build the team...

May 22nd, 2019

Well.... A decision has been made! I went in on an eBay sale with a friend last night and have two sets of Tree-Revenants on their way!!!! So that is 10 players accounted for. I have an extra Ylthari's Guardians set too which is an additional 4 models, making the grand total 14. I think Ylthari will be the coach.

June 5th, 2019
This just happened! I am SO stoked with these models!!! $45 for 5 sounds crazy, but they are AMAZING!!!! Here is my first Line Elf. I can’t wait to make more and get started on the positionals!!!

Underway......

The Wood Elves are a team that I have wanted to build/paint since I first learned what Blood Bowl is. I have ALWAYS loved wood elves, and as it turns out they are considered a pretty competitive, although difficult to master team! WIN, WIN!!!

I had the misfortune/fortune of having a broken model in a Warhammer Underworlds War band and GW sent me a complete kit as a replacement. As such, I now have an EPIC model to use as the team's Thrower!

I cut the bow off and replaced it with a Revenant left hand, and had to do a thumb transplant to make it "right"(pun intended). Then I did a hand swap using a cut down GW EU hand and catcher's ball. There was actually quite a bit of work for a seemingly simple conversion, but WELL worth the effort IMHO.

My plan is to build each player and their base before moving onto the next. A big change in this approach is that I will be making each player's base as I go. I will do my best to replicate the Underworlds bases, and I am liking the idea of using water effects to have a stream feature in a lot of them. I may even add some flowers... I intend to paint each model and their base completely rather than batch paining. We'll see how the plan holds up as I move forward with the project.

In regards to conversions, I want to keep the project manageable. As such, I will make all the Line elves "static"/out of the box poses (as below), and add movement to the 4 catchers and 2 War Dancers. This I am hoping will not only help to differentiate the positionals, but also keep the project manageable and help me to complete it. The War Dancers will be horned, I want to use the horned head from the Ylthari Warband for one wardancer and the standard Revenant horns for the other. I am also "throwing around" the idea of giving the Catchers tabards, but im not sold on it completely yet...

Next step for this line elf is the base! I have decided not to glue the head on as I will have better access to painting the model with it separate. I think the basses MAY have to be done in stage to prevent squishing the GS details. I will most likely start bu sculpting rocks and branches, and then add finer details like moss and leaves once they have cured...

June 13th, 2019

First base completed. Pretty lengthy process. I will need to speed things up a little. This one may also be a little too tall, but not by much. Basically, mossy rocks, smooth rocks, and water. Other bases will have branches on them too.

June 14th, 2019

Well, I think there is going to be a change in plans for the basses!!! I just caught a glimpse of the new GW Wood Elf board and dice!!! I think I will go for a more grassy look to the basses to fit with it. Perhaps I will use the bigger base I made for a coaching staff model... The dice are going to fit awesomely with the aesthetic of my team! Bark and glowing green!

I think that this Spite will be EPIC to model, and REALLY fun to play!!!

June 15th, 2019
War Dancer #1 WIP!!! Underworlds head, Spite Revenant body, and my first attempts at repositioning the Tree Revenant models... Removed the left leg at the hip, then cut the front and back of the knee to put more of a bend into it, filled the gaps with GS. Pinned and replaced the leg at a steeper and more off to the side pose. Cut the right foot off and repositioned to look more dynamic. I think I will mount her on a skull of waystone to make her more identifyable. SUPER stoked with how she looks so far!!!

I have calmed myself a little after first seeing the Wood elf new releases. I think I will get the dice for sure, and give some more thought as to whether or not I need to get the pitch... I have also decided not to go with such intense bases as originally planned, and will instead opt for a more "pitch-like" base that will perhaps have some gifts of grass, the odd Waystone here and there, and of course some skulls.

Here is the team to date! Almost three players done!!!

June 17th, 2019
Pretty productive last night. 4 Line Elves assembled and a rock sculpted for the Wardancer's base. The rock allows to get the angle I am looking for with the pose without having to do any more cutting and pinning.

I am still thinking through how I want to approach the Catchers... I think that having the larger left branch hands of the Spite Revenants' will help to differentiate them from the other positionals, especially when combined with the more dynamic poses I am hoping to be able to achieve.

I am also having a hard time thinking of what to do for the second Wardancer! I feel that I did such a good job on the first one that I have screwed myself for the second!!! Well... I guess its back to the internet to try and find some inspiration/ideas!

The concept for the basses is becoming clearer in my mind. I am envisioning a nice summer green static flock, accented with grass clumps and the occasional mossy rock and skull for flavour. Team numbering will be free-handed on the basses in OSL green "Elfy text".

Given that I am not buying the GW Wodo Elf team I am also having to think about markers... I have human team coins, and the Revenant sprues have cool banners which has me thinking that I could combine the two and add in grass, skulls, waystones...? I also have extra EU hand tokens spinning a gemed ball which I could use some how. The other idea is that I build Waystone markers...

June 22nd, 2019

War Dancer #2!!! I decided to make both War Dancers female to set them apart from the other models even more. For this conversion I did the following: Leg chop, Knee chop and re position, Chopped the right arm at the elbow and re positioned. Fiddly but fun. I still need to add GS and tidy up a little. She will most likely be jumping off of a skull.

I am really happy with how the team is coming along! On to the Catchers and the last of the line Elves next...

June 24th, 2019
Ok, I was able to get some modeling done!
I have stuck the first Wardancer to his base and I mounted the second onto an Orc and Beast man skull! Which I think looks pretty cool and is VERY fluffy IMHO. I'm just not sure if I need to do something different with the second Wardancer's horns to make them a little more imposing or not...
I glued the heads onto the Line Elves, and have been doing some sketches to determine which models to use for the Catchers. They will use the Spite left arms/hands instead of the regular ones, and they will be wearing tabbards to distinguish them further. I think I am comfortable enough with my vision for these guys to move forward with them now!

June 26th, 2019
I decided to assemble all of the remaining bodies so that they can cure before I chop them up. I was finding that assembling and converting at the same time was making things more difficult than they needed to be.
I also had a great idea for tokens/markers. I will use the fancy Underworlds basses! One I will place a banner in, another with the water feature I was thinking would make a great "apothecary" marker...Add in a Spite or two and you have a perfect healing pond/spring

June 27th, 2019
I made a marker last night using the custom base I sculpted and a banner. Pretty happy with it, but I may add a little something to it as I feel it is "missing something". I will be using water effects and most likely add a little Spite in for fun.

I also had the unpleasant experience of my Wardancer's hair falling off when i picked it up last night! It turns out that this wasn't as bad as I initially thought, because it ended up with me redoing the head/horns, and swapping out the left arm for one that fits better with the other Wardancer. I used a new head and my GW skulls for the job. I cut the horns from a Khorne skull and thinned them down to fit. IMHO they are better now that they are bigger and pointier. I also used the broken piece of hair and added it to the model. Now lets hope it doesn't break again!

July, 2019
Things have been pretty busy lately, so modeling has taken a back seat. But that is not to say that I have been completely idol. I have made a couple of tokens for the team, and two Catchers. I am feeling that the pics I have been able to take are not doing the models justice, so I have not taken any more at the moment. I also raided my Dark Elf bitz and feel that the turn counter hands can be great bases to create WE markers from.

GW has released more pics from their WE team, and that has inspired me to make my own WE balls with ivy on them like in the pic, and possible a couple with spites either on them or holding them up.

The first marker that I made has me REALLY excited because it uses pieces from a Wood Elf edition that was/is a favorite of mine. I also have a friend that is giving me another Spite and Waystone so that I can have two of these bad boys! I will use GS to further connect the details to the base by adding roots and possibly rocks.

For this marker I have used a Ylthari Guardian base and body as a stand for a Tree Revenant flute. I used the Spite from Anslaine's base but cut off the arrow holding abdomen and added some strategically trimmed Revenant axe details to represent stylized wings. I am SUPER stoked with how it turned out. I will also be using water effects on this base. Presently the thought is that it will be a re-roll counter...

July 15th, 2019

Star Player build is complete! I just love the idea of having a Spite on the pitch stabbing people and being annoying! Not sure if I will ever play it, but it was a blast to build and I am excited to paint it.

Upon SIGNIFICANT reflection, I am not 100% on the new Wood Elf dice, so I think I am going to use these from the boxed set... As you can see, they roll REALLY well! LOL!

I have been having fun with tokens/markers for this team. I found some cool Wood Elf bitz in a box and put together another coin (this is also where I got the above star player from). I was REALLY struggling to make a "hand" marker that I was happy with, but I think I nailed it last night with this one! I cut all of the gems off, slimmed it down to look like a naked arm, added in some tendons, and rebuilt the knuckles! I think this will be my score marker! Nice green gems, and the rest brass with some patina... I may go the extra mile and add a Spite for good measure and an opportunity to add more OSL!

Re-posed the left leg and head AGAIN to look more natural, and I am MUCH happier with him

Mounted this Catcher on an Orc skull which really helped to emphasize his dynamic pose (not really visible in pic)...

I'm really liking this Catcher's pose. I just need to customize his tabbard to flow the way I want and it is on the fourth and final Catcher!!!

July 17th, 2019

I did it! I got the fourth catcher started!!! I decided to use an EU Catcher pose for inspiration/reference. LOTS of conversion work. I replaced the right arm of the female torso, lots of gutting and filing was needed, and repositioned the right leg (still to be attached). Rather than build a tabbard from scratch I have decided to use the thorn tabard and feel that it is fine consistency wise as this is the only female catcher and she still fits in really well with the theme I am using of that positional.

I made changes to this Catcher AGAIN! His pose just wasn't sitting right with me. I swapped his arm out and I feel that the new pose works. I also added a spite from the Ylthari's Guardians set to the score marker's ball to make it more "Wood Elfy".

And here they are in all their glory! I need to finalize the leg positioning on the newest Catcher and attach the tabard (which OF COURSE requires customization). And they are done except for basing which will be done as a team.

Next up is deciding on how many Line Elves I want to have made up...6 or 7. Then I can do the basses. I am thinking that having vines as the field marking like on the WE board will be cool and relatively easy to do. After that I can make staff.

July 23rd, 2019

Trying to get a Wood Elf pitch ordered is proving to be unnecessarily difficult here in Courtenay...

I have managed to decide that buying the pitch is what I want to do... I am still on the fence about the dice though... I'm waiting to hear back from two different stores as to whether or not they can order the pitch in for me! UGH!

I will be modelling vines onto the bases of the players to fit with the board, and I think that I will need to wait until I get the board before I decide on what I am going to do about grass. I am actually thinking that adding in butterflies and/or faeries to the bases will be a nice touch.

July 24th, 2019
No "actual" work to report, but I have been thinking A LOT about the vines!!!! LOL!

July 29th, 2019
I bought the WE pitch today, and it is brilliant! I LOVE Wood Elves!!!! The Autumn and Summer sides are both brilliant! and I really like the dugouts too.
I was also able to pick up a massive pack of magnets! Which means I will be able to magnetize the basses and balls for this team AND the Night Goblins.

Having the pitch in front of me was also a great inspiration and reference piece to get going on the bases. Pics don't do the work justice (as usual). The roots add a really cool dimension to the models as I have been able to position them rising up and twisting around each other. I think that when they are painted and the grass is applied it will really take the basses to the next level. I will most likely NOT root all of the bases, I was thinking that a mix of roots, skulls, stones, and spites would be fun.

My struggle to settle on a re-roll token continues!!! This is a token that I initially made for my WIP Chaos team (YES, it is going to be Khorne themed, how ever did you know!?). I am thinking that if I model some roots among the skulls, coming out of their eyes etc..., and add in some "Ona" faeries and glowing balls that it will lend itself well to the team. TBH i'm still TOTALLY undecided on how I want to move forward!!! LOL!!!!!

August 10th, 2019
Well A LOT has happened since my last entry... I decided to use the EU converted marker with the Spite on it as the re-roll marker, Kinda makes sense to me know. It has a ball and a spite.

I made a score marker on a spare BB coin and used a WE branch as a base from which the banner is growing, added a skull, roots, and and spite for the win.

I took a pretty big step and changed my Apothecary token, and I am REALLY happy with the results! I just need to tidy the conversion with some GS.

All bases now have roots with quite a few of them incorporating skulls. I removed any rocks that were there from previous conversions to increase the unified feel of the team, and to link it more with the GW pitch. I completed the work I needed to do on my final Catcher. I have decided to keep with the dark green static grass I used for my EU team, partly because I have SO much of it, but also because it actually goes pretty well with the WE pitch!
I have also committed to using the Ylthari model as my coach. I have added a flute to her back and I am throwing around the idea of modelling a playbook into her vines to make her just a little bit more "coachy".

And last of all I think I am going to go with 7 Line Elf models, which leaves me with 2 more bodies that I can potentially use for Star players...

August 15th, 2019
DICE!!! I was planning to paint the green so that it is more visible, but I actually think I can see them fine as is!

August 19th, 2019
I just started getting some paint onto my Ylthari Guardians which will be great practice for this team! I stumbled across these cool models today and I think that I will use these images as a reference for my own Treeman sculpt! I love the way they look slow and heavy! It really speaks to me of a movement 2 model that hits hard! I think mine will ave more of a face to it, hands, and a more "trunk-like body... I love finding great inspirational images like these!

October 20th, 2019

I'm not sure when I did this magnet work, but at least I am getting something done for the team right?!

Thanks for lending me the ball Chris!

November 15th, 2019
Having a hell of a time finding a tree man that I like and am willing to pay a reasonable price for! Just found this on-line and I think it will be great reference material for a scratch build. He's big and cool looking enough, and I feel that the legs portray the low movement of the player better than other models i've seen.
https://www.winzorchogminiatures.com/product-page/birch-the-treeman

April 27th, 2020
Been quite a while, and I really don't have any idea when I will work on the team again TBH. But... I do like the idea of building one of these from scratch... Or possibly a few and making that Spite team I really like.

May 19th, 2020

So after a CONSIDERABLE hiatus I have pulled the Guardians out and reached what I consider to be a significant achievement! With the completion of my latest Line Elf, I have now officially included components of all 4 of the Underworlds Ylthari's Guardian models in the team!

May 20th, 2020

What a night! After months of not working on this team it seems that I have finally found the inspiration to revisit it, and give it the attention it deserves! I have assemble the last three Line elves for the team, finally filling the 16 elf roster. 17 if you count the Spite star player!

I added the flute to Ylthari to distinguish her a little more from her Underworlds counterpart. Looking at the pic, I think I may actually use her original scenic base to help her pop as a coach should... and why try to fix something that isn't broken!?

And here is the complete team in all its glory!!! Realistically I still have a couple of evening's work left on assembly/basses, but paint is just around the corner!

May 25th, 2020

I have added vines to the final basses, grabbed Ylthari's base for her, and done a sand base layer to all of the basses including the counters/markers. It's definitely a slow and steady approach for this team, and I feel that it is working.

As a side note I played a game with the team on FUMBBL against my friend Chris and won 4-1! Needless to say I think this is playing a role in keeping the motivation to finish the team alive.

June 5&6th, 2020
Glued the players to their basses. Next it is on to the magnets.

June 7th, 2020
All of the basses are magnetized. And with that step complete the team is ready for paint!

June 11th, 12th, 2020

I was able to put paint to model! I have base coated the entire team and tokens with Dryad bark. I am feeling SO excited as I start painting this project! I have A LOT of work ahead of me, BUT the more I paint these models, the MORE I get excited about them. It doesn't hurt that the ream is really fun to paint too!

June 12th, 2020

I was able to get two coats of Gauss blaster onto these 5. quite a few to go, but I think slow and steady is the key here :)

June 14th, 2020

2 more done last night. That's 7 base coated!

June 25th, 2020

Got the green base coat on the Wardancers and the Star Player last night.

July 7th, 2020

Still cruising along with the base coating. Two Catchers and the coach left!

September 24th, 2020

I just stumbled across this awesome treewoman model from greebo-games. I'm not sure of the scale, but I like it. I have been thinking about whether or not I could sculpt my own...