I felt I needed a sixth team for the Fantasy Icehockey project, having so far dwarves, rats, orcs, skeletons and humans. More about this the previous work here.
As I have run out of available teams I, just as for the human team, had to find a fantasy football team to convert, adding sticks and skates. I found the team below on ebay – they are printed STL model and come on the typical 3D print resin with a consistency of a Brighton Rock (hard sugar candy) which makes conversions different than say plastic or metal. The team has two types of lizards and I kept the bigger ones on the sides as I might do another team with them later, or do a few star players for this team.
I cut off hands, modified and repostioned added some sticks and skates and filled or added detail with green stuff where needed. As you can see this is pretty brutal and lacks finesse (skill) but works out for getting them done and the idea that they are hockey players on ice and not football players. Not sure how good the Lizard are in a cold environment but I speculate that they have a big fire in their box where they sit and heat up when on the bench or something like that.
The sticks and the skates are made from coffee stirers
Not sure how comfortable those skates would be but since they do not have shoes I was thinking to add shoes to them but then thought about some kind of beach sandal type of skates – well it is Fantasy so why not. These guys are not very well protected but their game is based on skill and good skating, the tail allows additional tricks to be carried out – a stinging attack whilst still maintaining control of the puck as giving bonus to balance/skating checks. I painted them in a bright green (Vallejo Game Colour – Livery Green 72.033) with a darker green wash, some deep red and bronze. I think it works well overall.They are a fun addition to the overall set – six teams that is enough for a tournament!
/ Hope that was of some interest, have a good week.
I wanted to add some flavour to my collection of Fantasy Ice Hockey teams, having recently got a Skeleton team I noticed the new Bloodbowl teams and the human team shown below – I thought would be possible to transform them into an ice hockey squad and a goalie.
After some adjustments of arms and adding some green stuff and some ice hockey sticks I bought from Impact Miniatures last year, they came out like this.
As for the skates I used coffee stirers and some skillful cuts.
Painting them was based on the old Canucks (Vancouver) Ice Hockey Jerseys.
I am really happy how they came out, hope you like them too.
And of course we had to see if they could skate too.
The link takes you to some STL files with a fantastic team of Fantasy Ice Hockey Skeletons. As you may be aware I did a little project last year (see link here), building an ice rink and painted up some amazing models (Orcs, Rats and Dwarfs) and with a resin 3D printer here on the hobby bench and $11 to spend I downloaded the files. Here are the teams I already have, Bromm’s Icers, Uruk-Hockey and Rats on thin ice (or something like that).
The Set comes with a bone goal, a Keeper, three types of winters/attack and 1 defender (I just mirror imaged this one and printed two, to give me the required 5 players and a goalie) and a referee.
Printing wise, I used base settings and let the CHITUBOX software add the light support and hoped for the best. With a total print cost of less than £1 it is not really worth overanalysing the supports. They printed well and in cleaning I broke one of the models but just superglued it back.
I gave them a quick paintjob and I am yet to finalise the basing, but I hope you agree these are great little models and good complements to the sets I already have.
Here are the models (apart from the Goal and the Referee)…
I hope more teams will be made available… really good value and fun to work with!
Writing this about 2 months into the lock-down, it is surprising how long the days feel when you sit at a screen most of the day in a little room trying to keep things moving. As a consequence I have not really been tempted to sit down and do much blog updates but here is a go (I have a few more drafts I may be able to get out here and there). We have been lucky and all of us are well, but we have friends and family who has been affected badly by this Virus both directly and indirectly. The implication of this, I fear, will be more far reaching than we can yet imagine.
Anyway, I suppose that some kind of COVID-19 reflection is not what made you come and have a look. I have tried to reduce the lead mountain during this lock-down but inevitably I have done a few impulse purchases. One of these were the splendid sets of Fantasy ice hockey players produce by Brigade Games (link here).
They were a joy to paint and are really fine models, the only shame is that there are only 3 teams currently available. But I guess if you like these order some. Demand very often provokes supply.
The Orc Team
The Dwarf Team – sorry for the Swedish Colours (could not help myself and it would not really be me without a Scandinavian/Nordic hint).
The Rat Teams
There are some amazing detail in these models and I am not sure which one I like the most.
The next step was to decide what rules to use. I found two main contenders on the net:
Trick shot – the ice hockey board game (you can download it here – link worked 20/05/20). The PDF is sufficient to play the base game. It was a kickstarter and I do not think the game is officially out, the advanced game contains some additional cards that makes the game more varied. The game is a basic ice hockey game.
Dread Puck – a variant of the Fantasy Dreadball game (you can download it here – link worked 20/05/20. You would also need the Dreadball game to play.)
Having looked a both of these option I wanted to try out the trick shot rules and needed a board to play on – an ice hockey rink.
The game board for the game looks as follows.
I took a piece of blue foam I had in the garage and got to work.
First I decided on how big squares to use and found that about 27.5mm squares worked well with the 25mm round bases I had beeen useing to base the miniatures.
Then I used the non-sharp side of a pencil and just carefully followed the lines and quickly got a nice board, you could use this as a dungeon for another setting.
Then the magic ingredient for the ice rink, some thick matches (I used the thicker hobby version) and coffee stirrers. This is best done in stages and I used PVA glue.
I tried to make some damages and repairs here and there – this is fantasy ice hockey!
I did the goals built into the game board, attach, glue and cut. This kind of thing works best with superglue.
Perfect!
Build done!
A little bit too blue!
First paiting, trying to make it white but keeping the brown background shine through.
I had some Mod Podge at home that I mixed some snow into, not too much of the snow as I wanted the squares to be seen through. I ahve used modge podge for some gloss effect on rivers on my big Great Northern War mats in the past.
I applied a few coats until I was happy with the look
Then I painted in the lines (yes I f**ked up the middle and ended up doing a cross instead!)
I was going to put up some nets for the goals but decided instead that big flags were used by the teams that were places on top of the goals, “Put it in the flag, is a common term in fantasy ice hockey!”. I used to rice paper I have which is brilliant for doing this kind of things, then I soaked it with Matt Mod Podge and put it on top of the goals.
Full of Mod Podge!
The other flag
Once it all had dried we made some special dice for the game (as you can find in the rule book), they are just blank dice that I painted the symbols on. I guess you could use small round labels and print on as well and then stick them on the dice. I also made some would markers made from acrylic 1mm bases – I just mixed some black and red ink (idea stolen fromhere). They have no actual use in the game – yet!
Anyway, we have had a few games now I we really enjoy it. It is a nice little diversion and relative quick to make. Have ordered a human team from Impact Miniatures. I will get back to you with a part 2 later and perhaps talk a little bit more about the rules. Anyway what follows is a fair few pictures from some of games we have played and some Fantasy Hockey League Promo shots.
/ I hope this was of some interest, stay safe and take care of each other.
