Cute and furry, but with a sting in the tail...

It's been nearly a month since I posted any actual models I'm working on, so this is probably overdue. For those of you who play Blood Bowl, you'll be aware that sideline figures and re-roll counters are a nice opportunity to model something that can have an in game effect, like additional coaching staff or cheerleaders.

Dice re-rolls are a key part of Blood Bowl...you could use the card ones that come with the game, but it's much nice in my view to model something on a little base. I had been mulling this over for a little while, but couldn't think of anything suitably Dark Elfy beyond some sort of spikes/torture gear.

Then it struck me...Dark Elves like Manticores...I'll make some baby ones (from now on referred to as Mantikittens!


So, with a plan in hand I set about finding a suitable base model - some small and cat-like. I looked at a couple of 15mm Manticore options, but they were all a bit odd-looking, and eventually I stumbled on Heresy Miniatures' Demon Cat Familiar 'Pussbag'

Pussbag by Heresy Miniatures

I thought with a little tweaking, there was something to be done with Pussbag. I sourced some suitably-sized scorpion tails from Reaper Bones scorpions (dead cheap but a real pain to work with), and some little wings from some bat swarms from Black Tree Design, and here are the results:

Two Mantikittens playing with a ball

For the 3rd re-roll I wanted to show the Dark Elf link, and selected a suitably mean-looking Marauder Wood Elf as a handler. He gets the job of hefting around the rather larger Mantikitten of the three. This one is clearly a bit more dangerous and needs to be kept on a lead!

The entire Mantikitten is sculpted from the shoulders down

So there we have it - some little cute but dangerous mascots for the team!