I'm headed to The Kalm before the Waaagh in Huntsville, Alabama this year. In addition to throwing down with 2000 points worth of my Orks in a 40k showdown, I'm also going to play in a small Blood Bowl tournament the night before.

Now, to say my Blood Bowl skills are a bit rusty at the moment is a massive understatement. The last time I played the game regularly was when they included a styrofoam pitch in the box.

At any rate, since I'm going to be playing in this thing, I figured I'd better build myself a team. The choice of team was simple: Orks (bet you didn't see that comin'). The color scheme was also a simple choice. I live in San Francisco and I'm a die-hard 49er fan, so I went for the ol' red and gold.

First up is the Thrower, or as I like to call him...Joe.

Yup, he'll be rockin' the #16 jersey.

Next up is one of my Blitzers. I'm going to do a few of these guys, and since the Blitzers are the best players on a Blood Bowl team, they'll all be sporting the numbers of some pretty famous names.

Cheif among them will be #42, Ronnie Lott.

Here are some of my Black Orc Blockers. These walls of muscle and armor aren't know for their speed or agility, but they are damn tough to shift.

These guys will be sporting the numbers of some of the big offensive linemen to play for the 49ers over the years. Randy Cross and Jesse Sapolu will be in there.

Here's one of my Lineman. These are the guys who round out the roster. Not sure who they're going to be yet, but something will come to me.

Finally, we have the Troll. He's slow, clumsy, and he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but damn he's BIG.

I'll probably give him the jersey of one of my favorite 49er heavyweights from back in the day, Bubba Paris.

Here's another Blitzer, flanked by a couple of Linemen.

A few more players I'll have a respectable team, then it's time for paint.

Update 2/02/10:

I've built a few more players to complete my team.

Here we have a couple of Blitzers. I haven't figured out which models are going to be named for which players at this point, but the guy on the right here is definitely gonna be "Hacksaw" Reynolds.

Here are three more Lineman, giving me 6 total on the team.

If you're going to have a Troll on the team, it seems kind of a waste not to have Goblin for him throw using the 'Throw Teammate' rule.

Here's the team as it stands now.

- 1 Thrower
- 4 Blitzers
- 3 Black Orc Blockers
- 6 Linemen
- 1 Troll
- 1 Goblin

I won't be able to field all of them in the upcoming tournament in Alabama, but this will give me a good selection of models to try out some games and see what works best.

Next up.... paint!

Update 3/23/10:

First up we have...

Joe Montana, rockin' the #16 jersey.

Since I decided to go for all my favorite players from the "Team of the 80's", who better to lead the team than arguably the greatest quarterback to ever play the game.

Montana was elected to eight Pro Bowls, and had the highest passer rating in the entire NFL in '87 and '89.

The dude was an absolute machine under pressure, especially on the road. I can't remember how many games I watched where the 49ers were behind at the 2 minute warning,only to have Montana pull their asses out of the fire and win.

Damn, I miss watching him play.

Next up is #42, Ronnie Lott.

Talk about a badass. Ronnie got his left pinky badly mangled in '85. Instead of opting for several surgeries that would make him miss more games, he had the doctors amputate it!

You heard me right... when it came to a choice between keeping his finger and playing football, Ronnie Lott told 'em to chop the damn thing off!

You don't see that kind of badassery today. Jeez, I sound old.

At any rate, even though you can't see it in these pics, this Orc Blitzer is missing his left pinky as well.

Gotta be anatomically correct :)

Next we have Randy Cross, wearing #51.

Randy played center for the 49ers throughout the 80's, which means he kept the rest of the neanderthals in the NFL off Montana's back so he could do his thing.

Sounds like Black Orc Blocker material to me.

One of my favorite players from back in the day was #77, Bubba Paris.

He wasn't the quickest player on the team, nor was he the flashiest...

... but damn he was BIG!

Who better to model my Troll after than one of the biggest dudes ever to play on the Niner's offensive line.

Here's the team as it stands at the moment.

Only 4 guys painted, and about 3 weeks until I have to have the team finished.

Better get crackin'

Update 4/09/10:

I've got the team all finished up, at least what I'm taking to Alabama with me. Two Linemen and the Goblin are going to be warming the bench, but I've got the rest of the players all ready to hit the pitch.

Here are 4 of the Linemen.

From left to right they are:

#49, Jeff Fuller
#62, Guy McIntyre
#50, Riki Ellison
#36, Merton Hanks

Up next are 2 more Black Orc Blockers.

On the left we have #53, Bill Romanowski, or as I like to call him, "Roid Rage Romo". Romanowski has been known to hit the juice, and it made him a bit ... unstable. I figured a huge Orc that looks like he needs to be chained up when he's not playing fit ol' Romo pretty well.

On the right we have #75, Kevin Fagan. This dude is so big that John Madden used to refer to him as "Big Ol' Kevin Fagan"

Here are 3 more Blitzers.

On the left is #97, Bryant Young. This dude is a brute, he once ripped a guys facemask clean off his helmet.

In the middle we have #64, Jack "Hacksaw" Reynolds, who once cut a '53 Chevy in half with ... yup, you guessed it, a hacksaw!

And last, but certainly not least is #94, Charles Haley. Haley was an absolute beast. A first class pass rusher, he was a quarterback's worst nightmare. He's also the only player in NFL history to have five Super Bowl rings.

Here's the team as it stands now:

1 Thrower
3 Black Orc Blockers
4 Blitzers
4 Linemen
1 Troll

It's defintely not much of a finesse team, that's for damn sure.

It's not going to break any passing records, but I'm hoping it'll bust some heads!

I'll finish the Gobbo and the other 2 linemen at some point, but for now these guys are done.

Update 4/20/12

I'm heading to Alabama agin this year for The Kalm before the Waaagh, so I figured I'd paint up the gablin and give him a shot. Since he's basically a wide receiver, I decided to give him the number of arguably the best wide receiver to ever play professional footbal, #80 Jerry Rice.