Griff Oberwald conversion :: NAF World Headquarters

Griff Oberwald conversion

Last update by sann0638 on May 26, 2014
Categories: Archive

By Alex Bermudez,
Edited by Indigo

Okay, so I finally justified paying a buck and a half for this 3rd edition Griff Oberwald figure. I got him because I ordered Blood Bowl from New Wave (www.newwave.org) and decided I would get a Human Star Player and an Orc Star Player. They didn't have Mighty Zug, who actually looks pretty cool, so I settled for Griff. I saw a picture of Griff, and although I didn't really like him he was the best available option and when I got him I hated him even more! First off, his face looks ridiculous. He looks like he's daydreaming, not playing Blood Bowl - there's no emotion there at all. Secondly, there is his infamous helmet. You'd think this guy was a Brettonian knight! However, although everyone is very familiar with the chicken on his head, much less attention is given to the bow that's tied to the back of his helmet, with huge ribbons coming down his back. I didn't notice the bow until I actually started converting him!

Here is Griff as he appears "normally"

As I've mentioned, I thought this figure was crap, and since we don't actually use Star Players where I play, I never used the figure after the first game I played. I could have used him as a Blitzer, but who wants a Blitzer with a chicken and a bow on his head? Not me, sir. So I went to town on this guy. First thing I did was get rid of that stupid looking head. I was actually able to get a pretty clean cut, and I was able to save the head! This will only be used for one thing... lying bloody on the floor of a figure (possibly the conversion) or maybe for a cup. I dunno

Next I started chopping into his belly. What I wanted to do is give him a better pose, by making him lean forward, and make him look like he was actually trying to play football or something, not trying to be on the cover of Muscle Magazine. So I did that. After I bent the body, it didn't really look so cool, so I chopped him all the way through. Here's what I had:

Notice on the second picture, there's a different head there. I wasn't exactly sure what head I would replace Griff's with but then I remembered that Fantasy Football Boris from Heresy Miniatures comes with two heads, and this head looks pretty mean! Wow, emotion? On a guy who's playing Blood Bowl? Who would have thought? Anyways....

I drilled a hole into his pelvis and through his torso, and stuck a paperclip in there to form something like a spine and started playing around with a pose. Instead of simply bending the torso forward, I twisted it to the right and bent it forward. Now his arms were in a better position but not quite perfect. His left arm was pointing forward, which just looked kind of stupid. So, I bent the arm towards the front of the torso, putting him in a shoulder-ramming position. Now I was getting somewhere! His right arm was now pointing upwards so I bent it forward to make it look like he was gonna smack the crap out of someone. What's this? A Blood Bowl player that actually looks like he's gonna hit someone? Neato!

Okay, so now I busted out the green stuff. I always take out way too much and have tons extra, so I cut a piece that was like a quarter inch wide. In the end it was just a tad too much, but that's okay cause I used the rest for extra stuff. The first thing I did was fill in his gut because it was the biggest part that needed filling. Starting to look pretty cool! Next, I had to smooth out his back because I had destroyed it taking out the ribbons. I swear, I don't know how Griff made it so far in Blood Bowl with a bow and ribbon on his back...

So I green stuffed his back as well, then I added some fabric folds to his whole back, from neck to belt. In retrospect, I shoulda added like the back of his breastplate or his belt or something, but that's okay as it still looks pretty cool. (Ed - A lot cooler than a bow and ribbon!)

I kept going up his back and added in the neck. There was a lot to fill in for the neck because the way I chopped his head up. So anyway, I did that, then added a strip to make it look like he has a collar on the back of his shirt. It also seemed like I had cut a bit of a groove into his right shoulder pad when I chopped his ugly head off, so I put on some green stuff there to fill out the ridge. Not the best job, but I'm not a pro at using this green stuff... yet!

Now I had to do something about those little chicken legs of his. I'm a fan of big, thick boots, and I'm sure a lot of you will think that the boots I gave him are way too big (Ed - someone described them as "leg warmers from the movie 'Fame'

). Basically I just wrapped his lower leg in green stuff then I added a groove in the back of the boot to make it look like a seam. Then, since I'm trying to be a little more detail oriented (mostly in my drawing, but it looks like it carried on a touch here), I added little straps to make it look like that's what's holding his boots together. With a little bit of leftover green stuff, I gave him a real simple looking knuckle dusters on his right hand.

Here's the finished model:

So what do you all think? Better? Worse? Couldn't care less? A comparison of the poses and feel of the figure would be good. Just anything you have to say about it... say it! I'll be painting him soon so thanks for looking and all comments and critiques are welcome!

1075 total words in this text | 6858 reads