In our How to Paint Everything series, we take a look at different aspects of the hobby. In today’s article, we’re looking at how to accessorize and enhance your Blood Bowl experience through the use of terrain!

Blood Bowl terrain is a bit of an odd concept; the game doesn’t really need terrain in any real sense, but it’s still worth talking about some cool projects and kits you can build and paint to add flavor and character to your game. Building your own Blood Bowl arena can really add a lot of fun to the experience and cultivate a “home field” feel to your games.

In preparation for our local club’s spring kick-off, I painted up some terrain from Ironheart Artisans.

In addition to scoreboards, they also have several sponsor boards:

If you don’t feel like painting the sponsor boards yourself, you can order painted and weathered versions from their site.

Basing the Terrain

I based the terrain using Buffalo Chicken’s method from a previous tutorial and sealed the bases with primer. I keep a large bucket of sand, gravel, pebbles and other detritus for basing terrain. You can get a combination of materials from local hardware and pet stores. Throw it all in a container and save it for future projects.

Painting the Scoreboards

Most tutorials suggest priming MDF before painting, since the wood could absorb the paint – but I didn’t want to risk obscuring the laser-etched detail with primer. As an experiment, I airbrushed Contrast paint directly on to the MDF without primer:

Note: You can paint the contrast directly on to the MDF, but the color will be darker. I then drybrushed the remaining colors.

The darker wood scoreboard was drybrushed with Gorthor Brown, followed by a drybrush of Ushabti Bone.

The lighter wooden scoreboard was drybrushed with Mournfang Brown, followed by a drybrush of Ushabti Bone.

The ground was drybrushed with Dryad Bark, followed by a drybrush of Gorthor Brown, with a final light drybrush of Ushabti Bone.

Once drybrushing was complete, I sealed the terrain with Testor’s Dullcote.

Painting the Sponsor Boards

I painted the sponsor boards with a range of GW colors, but you can also get them pre-printed in color with new or weathered variants.

Once the base coats were complete, I weathered the boards using sponge weathering and dabbing on Rhinox Hide:

You can apply different amounts of pressure to simulate various levels of wear and tear.

And that’s it! Additional Photos below:

If you’re in the NYC area and would like to join us, the New York City Blood Bowl League (NYCBBL) will be starting their 2022 season with a Kick Off event at the Carcosa Club in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.