Having put together the majority of my goblin team from a Gnoblar regiment and some spares it was time to move onto the exciting part, the secret weapons. This was the part of the team I was most excited by as it really gives a chance to flex the ideas in ways that just aren't there for other BloodBowl sides.

First order of business was the pogo. I did consider for a period usingWright ‘n Bright, the Gnoblar on the shoulders, as the pogo but after some thought decided this didn't represent leap well enough. Therefore the last Gnoblar from the regiment had a pair of little wooden shoes made from a coffee stirrer and some straps of paper. I then wound a paperclip tight around another to create some springs and drilled it into one foot. Needing some height to give a better silhouette the second was stretched out to be mid bounce. Ballast was added for stability in the form of the second trolls hammer end, waste not want not, and for quite a simple conversationEric da Ninja came out looking ok. In retrospect I'd love to mount him on a real spring so he wobbles but this probably would be annoying to actually use.

Boing!

The looney was simply a gnoblar wielding a club from the job lot for quite a long period of time, being newly back to the hobby simply didn't have a bitz box to work from. Browsing random sites eventually led me to a bitzbox site from which a range of chainsaws, future mutations for chaos teams and other gubbins were purchased. I believe this one was once from a meganob. The ‘saw was trimmed down to be a bit thinner (relatively!) and some exhausts made from cocktail sticks to fill the blank space. Another piece of troll rock as ballast andRazor was complete! A suitably ridiculous sized weapon for a goblin I’m sure you’ll agree.

Vroom!

The last two secret weapons were both converted from the same miniature, a gnoblar with a flaming stick hauling a sack of cannonballs. First glance leads the mind to a sack of bombs making the conversion to the Bomma relatively simple. One of the models already had a head glued on with a flaming brand in the mouth, perfect for lighting bombs. The stick was removed, a bead with some picture wire glued in added and then greenstuff to restore the fingers and fill gaps.

Boom!

The flaming stick also felt quite right as the ball & chain, I imagined no-one would want to get near a drunk idiot waving it around randomly. However I didn't fancy the major reconstruction required were I to remove the sack of cannonballs. Months passed until inspiration struck watching a continental game with flares being waved around. A wire skeleton with some foil filler was added from the flame back round to the sack to build on. With some filling the sack looked like cartoony billowing clouds so layers of greenstuff were built up over multiple sessions to build upon that. Adding some extra eddies and motion effects it now looks likeThe Ship has spun around into the smoke from his flare. I was pretty pleased that even side by side these guys don’t obviously look like the same model any more.

Cough cough!

At this point GW dropped Death Zone Season 2 with the new positionals in. Back to ebay I went in search of suitable models. Many were considered with the ‘ooligan proving quite problematic to find something suitable for. After a lot of digging, some lateral thought and fortunate ebay wins I ended up with 3 suitable miniatures; a trapper with a sling shot, one holding a rope from the scraplauncher and one being dragged by his feet.

In the end I decided the gnoblar trapper epitomised disturbing presence the best and could be used as is. Catching the ball while being pinged by sling shots? Exactly. The latter two could both be the doom diver but I still liked my secondary idea for the scraplauncher gnoblar so I used him to bulk out goblin numbers if I wanted boys more than toys. By carving out the rope from his hand and placing him looming over a flattened gobbo it looks as if he's giving out a good kicking. Stay down ya mug!

'Kebab' and 'Budgie' rounding out the team. The downed gobbo's colours are entirely coincidental, honest.

At this point the team was actually complete with 10 gobbos, 6 positionals, 2 trolls and a turn marker. Those of you who can count (not our goblin readers then) will notice one is missing from these articles though. Indeed a minor catastrophe occurred to the doom diver so we will cover him, plus some other changes that have been made, in the next article.