We at Necromunday are equal opportunity bashers, so in honor of the upcoming super game here in the US, lets take a look at the often wacky and and always characterful sportsball teams from Games Workshop’s Blood Bowl and seeing what we can port over to the 41st Millenium. Mostly hands. We’re going to be talking a lot about hands.
Hive Market Minis: Blood Bowl features an impressive range of teams covering core factions of the classic Warhammer Fantasy setting while additionally tackling some more niche offerings. With the current iteration of the game dropping in 2016, we have a reasonably fresh range of sculpts packaged in the same “two identical sprues in one box with” style as 2017’s Necromunda relaunch. The kits I’ve handled offer two build options for most bodies, though that’s not always the case with the smaller, odder, larger, or gooseier inclusions. Building a proper team thus leaves you with plenty of extra bits, and kit cannibals such as myself can stretch a fresh sprue across a surprising number of models.
Before we get into the individual teams, it’s worth calling out a few notable elements that crop up across much of the range. With this being a sport-centric game, we end up with a lot of dynamic poses, especially after the initial batch of teams. This can be a pretty wild shift from your rank and file Fantasy Battle models of old, and makes for some compelling base models when converting.
As hinted at earlier, Blood Bowl also offers up a treasured resource for kitbashing: empty hands. I build a lot of Necromunda gangers and juves that are either too impoverished for a second weapon or too busy posing to hold those larger guns with both hands, and there are precious few options to accommodate this. Imagine, if you will, a game where most models aren’t holding anything in the first place. Delightful!
Each sprue also contains a number of balls and tokens for the game. Your mileage will vary, as some of these are excellent little trinkets; some can make for perfect drinking hole or vendor signs, and some are just footballs. I am not going to touch on these much, so consider them potential happy little extras.
A graduate of the Reikland Reaver Athletic Scholarship program. Credit: Genghis Cohen
Lastly, there is a sprawling range of resin Forgeworld models we’re also going to skip today to focus on the full team plastic offerings. Give them a look! I find many to be a bit on the cartoonish side, but again, there are some excellent and dynamic sculpts occasionally touching on models or concepts that haven’t gotten an appropriate amount of Old World or AoS love yet.
We're only scoring includedhands here, and I’ll be keeping these to lighter overviews to focus on any notable, unique, and useful aspects. I’d also like to thank everyone who shared some of their own kitbashes with me, some of which I will share as we go!
Wood Elf Wardancer by King_Ghidra
Athelorn Avengers
I had to do some real research on this one. The freshest proper multi-model Wood Elf release since all the way back in 2000, and the beautiful sculpts here showcase what we specifically lost in the shift to Sylvaneth. A stunning set with some of the most acrobatic poses across the game. The armor does unfortunately come across as exceptionally “fantasy”, but it also has some serious Eldar Exodite potential. Could also work as proper updates on the classic Wardancers troops with a little love. None of these help us at Necromunday, though!
Hive Market Hands Score: 9 out of 10. Starting us off with a bang! Everything goes right for using these hands, with all but one set either exposed or in skintight uniforms. Only two total hands are occupied, with no pesky armor or accessories to work around. Great stuff! Now go make some Exodites!
A nice addition to the roster of human teams. The breecher-covered legs and glimpses of finer clothing are easy highlights, and the range of body sizes, including a pair of hefty fellas with prominent guts, are nice. The armor details and iconography are prominent, but this could work for a Rogue Trader or spire brat ganger. The pair of female models are particularly useful for whipping up an Imperial or Inquisitorial agent or official.
The helmets are…noteworthy. I’m sure there are uses for the towering feathers, but I haven’t ported them over to anything yet. That said, the overall aesthetic has made these one of the more prominently and frequently kitbashed teams, and for good reason.
Archaeotrader. Credit 40khamslam
DYLON: A few years back when the Imperial Nobles team was released I saw that they had massive potential for a certain flavor of weirdo. I was in the early stages of creating my Trading Post for Necromunda, named “The Archeobazaar”. I’ve named my sector of Necromunda “The Archeowaste,” as I picture it a techno-wasteland of rotting and corroding machinery and storehouses, largely bereft of human activity outside of the ganging factions attempting to strip the machines of useful bits.
Part of my Trading Post was making individual vendor stands with loads of kit for sale and a seller for each one. The first I made was an exotic goods seller and having found some resin vases, found the pose of the thrower to be perfect for it.I left the pose intact and largely everything else too. I did shave off the spike from the bracer and the scrollwork from the chest. I added a scanner-type gubbin and a sack and knife at his waist. I added a back piece from the GSC Neophyte kit which fit nearly perfectly.
The second Salesman uses the body from one of the hefty lineman. I chopped him apart below the belt and used just the torso and left arm. I used Goliath legs and a Goliath right arm with the a different hand from the same team, held out with coins cuts from styrene rod in it. I used the head from Josef Bugmannsson and added a plastic backpack from the GSC range. I also trimmed off all the spikes and the decoration from his torso so that I could paint it up like a shirt, instead of as a metal chestplate.
Archeotrader. Credit: 40khamslam.
Hive Market Minis: Hive Market Hands Score: 6 out of 10. One of a handful of all-glove teams, but a number of them are completely plain. Some basic bracers and spiked knuckles as well, making this a workable set.
Brettonian Knight Thrower
The Brionne Barons
Big “Holy Grail” energy here, with plenty of prancing and fisticuffs. A fresh offering from GW, and it shows with the attention to detail and great posing. There are a bit too many medallions and such strung around all of their necks for my liking, but the Bretonnian style is a great match for a prospective Cawdor gang that hasn’t been reduced to picking through the nearest trash heap for wardrobe updates. The armor could be lightly scratched up with some knife and dremel work, and some of the more ornamental flourishes on the shoulder pads would be easy enough to sand down.
Hive Market Hands Score: 3 out of 10. For as nice as the models are, every single hand is gloved and most have some extra ornamentation. Not my pick for human hands, but worth looking through for other uses.
A mixed bag of undead horrors, showcasing some skeletons, some ghouls, some zombies, and surprisingly, some large mummies. This is my preferred team of assorted undead models, though I’d much rather get the proper AoS kits from that Grand Alliance for most of these.
Not true with the Mummies, however! A fun and unique offering, as these beefy bandaged bruisers have no real counterpart outside of Blood Bowl. The armor is great, the bandages don’t instantly read mummy, and you could do a lot with a simple headswap and a bit of cleanup. A real winner!
Hive Market Hands Score: 3 out of 10. Many of these have solid places to clip off for hand swaps, and the skeletal stuff doesn’t look too boney. I like the ghoul hands for muties and other underhive scum. The mummies are probably best kept intact, with there being better uses of the overall models than trying to rework those large mitts.
Pump Wagon Howdah pushing my Arachnarok Spider agenda. Credit: @grimngribbly
Crud Creek Nosepickers
A whole team of Snotlings. The Pump Wagons are neat and have some fun potential (Cawdor trash hauler, anyone?), but the rest of the team? They’re just Snotlings. Great sculpts, but extremely specific use case.
Hive Market Hands Score: 1 out of 10. Fun models, but much too small.
Marketed as the “Chaos Chosen” team, but with a clear majority of Beastmen models. Sure!
The four humans are bulky and imposing, with chunky waist and leg armor. I am sure these guys are workable where big bodies are needed, but I find them outdone by the more recent human-centric team offerings. The eight Beastmen are quite nice, though. I love the charging poses, and they have just the right amount of armoring to read as properly underemployed but still dangerous. I prefer the UW and 40k Beastmen offering for my own projects, but these guys are excellent representatives of the Bovidae family tree.
Hive Market Hands Score: 9 out of 10. You weren’t expecting that, were ya?? While the humans remain a bit too large, the Beastmen have just excellent hands (and arms) across all eight models. Gloves that end right at the wrist for ideal snipping and gluing, and though they all have some forearm armor, it is both well designed and perfectly generic! Two of the models are lefties as well, so you get a full range of options. Great hands.
The NEW Vampire Team. Credit: Games Workshop
The Drakfang Thirsters
A nice mix of Thralls and proper Vampires. The classic vampiric styling paired with heavy armor plating doesn’t work for me outside of Blood Bowl, but the ruffled shirts and light armor on the Thralls could be used for some Brat gang action or underhive charlatan types. The Thrall holding a bat is a market vendor in the making. Hive Market Hands Score: 4 out of 10. Good human hands, many are draped with baggy sleeves from those nice shirts.
Dwarf Slayer by @churlishminis on Instagram
The Dwarf Giants
Dynamic Dwarfs! Fun models with an awesome Old World look. I myself have used these with Votann and Kharadron bits for some lesser-armored Juve options in my Squat gang, but they do go together oddly with the hair often separated from the head bit. I love all the poses, and I think those alone justify mixing these up with some of the extremely static Arkanauts or even Hearthkyn Warriors. Bring some heads and weapons over from those other sources and you’ll be good to go.
Hive Market Hands Score: 2 out of 10. They’re almost all clutching ornamental blades, and you’ll be stuck wrestling with their armguards. The scale is fine for humans, but I’d rather use something that’s going to require less cleanup from the jump.
Baja Blasters Elven Union Team - Credit: Dan "The Sex Cannon" Boyd
Elfheim Eagles
Another dynamic elven team, this time comprised primarily of women. Whereas their Athelorn peers are acrobatically posed, this squad is more athletically oriented with almost every model mid-sprint or jog. The armor reads a bit on the classic fantasy side, but it’s workable. The studded pants options are cool, but the footwear and leg armor is awesome. Solid bases for some Escher work, especially from the waist down.
Hive Market Hands Score: 4 out of 10. The hands themselves are a bit tricky to pluck off, as each model is gloved up with a demi gauntlet slapped on top that transitions to bracers. This whole assembly is quite nice, however, and the entire arms would be worth using somewhere.
Awakened Ogryn Brute. Credit: Hive Market Minis
Fire Mountain Gut Busters
Yes, I am an Ogre devotee, so do take that into consideration. The dozen Gnoblars are fine for goofy little guys, but the four big boys are the focus of the kit here.
These are a nice addition to the fantasy lineup, with all the plastic groups of “Ogors” on foot dating back to the 2005 Ogre Kingdoms release. One of the bodies is in a sprint, and the other is in a defensive position. I have used both a few times now, but find the latter option easier to work with. My hunch is these were sculpted by the same artist who worked on the Necromunda Ogryns kit, as the scales and posings are reasonably compatible (doubly so with the singular Ogre box, which is a gem of a mini). These guys are unfortunately a bit too small to automatically mesh with the AoS lineup.
If you’re looking to expand an Ogryn gang, these are excellent additions. I have tapered the shorts with a sanding stick to putty them into pants, and the sporty elements are either easy to work around or clip off.
Hive Market Hands Score: 7 out of 10 if you’re building Ogryns, with the variety of nice arm and hand poses along with the scale compatibility. 1 out of 10 if not, with these being huge hands ill suited for most anything else. Look at me being all objective.
Grapplehonk & Cyber-Badger. Credit: Fowler
The Glimdwarror Groundhogs
The foxes, badger, and goose are highlights from this Gnome team. The Gnomes themselves are too small and too oddly proportioned to be used for most anything else. Adorable and unique models, but unfortunately a bit too unique for most kitbashing.
Hive Market Hands Score: 1 out of 10. Just too small. Mister Goose is a full 10 out of 10, though, and you get TWO of them.
Blood Bowl Orc Throwers by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms
Gouged Eye
A nice set of armored Orcs! I think the scrappy aesthetic to their armor across 40k, AoS, and OW helps the sportsball plating stay inline with those mainline offerings. I prefer the hulking brutality of their Thunder Valley peers, but these are great greenskin models with plenty of workable bits and in some fun poses.
Hive Market Hands Score: 3 out of 10. A few solid bare hands with exposed wrists, though the majority are grasping something and armored from the top.
The Margaritaville Manglers. Credit: SRM
Greenfield Grasshuggers
A team of proper Halflings, which is a treat to see. Obviously a natural fit for some Ratling work, but that’s about it. The helmets are goofy, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I love the three “extra balls” they included.
Hive Market Hands Score: 2 out of 10. Hands in pockets, large oven mitts, odd scale, and unique proportions. Keep them in the Ratling family.
The Lizardmen break the Necro cage open and tag the ball-carrier
Gwaka’moli Crater Gators
I’ve gone back and forth on these guys. They predate the 2023 Seraphon refresh, so they are an older and chunkier style of Lizardmen. They’re also possibly the last models of that era, and as such, they still look pretty spiffy. I think the Chameleons are nice, and the Saurus Blockers have great posing further enhanced by not rocking any weapons. If you are working on some reptilian warriors, these are certainly worth a look.
The Slaan statue is cute in a “Shrine of the Silver Monkey” kind of way, and the egg balls are a nice touch.
Hive Market Hands Score: 6 out of 10. Ironic that some of the best hands with clearest clipping points happen to be slapped on to a range of lizards in various sizes. I’m sure these can still fit in with more warm-blooded models, especially if you give them a slight manicure.
The Hexalotl Jaguars. Credit: Fowler
Kara Temple Harpies
A nice glow up from the metal Amazons of old. Neither the clothing nor the armor translates to the 41st millennium, but the snakes are nice. I’m sure you could work a certain style of Escher gang out of these, but going barefoot in the Underhive? No thank you.
Hive Market Hands Score: 3 out of 10. A lot of claws coming off of demi gauntlets, which are going to be hard to work with. The limited number of exposed hands are great options with ideal spots to clip them off.
Tomb Kings Linemen by @hd_miniatures
The Nehekhara Nightmares
Fourteen ornate skeletons! Very neat models, but I’m afraid they’re pretty Tomb-Kingds-or-bust for kitbashing purposes. On the plus side, some of the best ball bits for your Antiquites stall.
Hive Market Hands Score: 1 out of 10. Gaudy skeleton hands and ornate bracers are going to be visually rooted in the Old World without a ton of cleanup work. If you need skeletal limbs, go with a Gravelords options.
Dark Elf legs for an Infiltrator Operative. Credit: @Victor.tcvr
Naggaroth Nightmares
One of the truly excellent options from the entire range. The female bodies are fantastic (and even wearing SHORTS, Morathi be damned!), all the padding reads perfectly as armor, and the pants/boots combo works great for hive or assassinorum life. The blades on the gauntlets are also a breeze to trim off as needed, so very little cleanup work is required.
The poses are also a bit muted by Blood Bowl standards, which I think works well for most kitbashing you’d want to do. Lastly, the giant egg token is neat! Give these a look, a lot of possibilities for Escher and beyond.
Hive Market Hands Score: 6 out of 10. As good as they are, the hands could still be a little fussy to work in with where the gauntlets and gloves end along the arms. Still very workable, especially the thinner leather ones. Hand holding the fresh heart is a nice bonus.
Raf's Werk Force Wreckers. Painting and Photo Credit -Shoshie Bauer www.shoshiesminis.com
Norsca Rampagers
All hail the precious Beer Boar, of which you get TWO! The helmetless option is quite nice, and has a place in any underhive setting as either a creature, a mascot, or even a sculpture.
The team is solid as well. The Norse themeing leans a little too Space Wolves for my taste, but they’re only a step (or a headswap) away from blending in with your local Darkoath warband. The shoulder pads and overall armoring is excellent, as reads a lot less like sports padding than with many of their human peers. The empty hand selection is pretty standard, but the variety of beer mugs are a real highlight. They’re ornate in a fun way, and something perfectly at home on your average Orlock ganger. A good all-around kit.
Hive Market Hands Score: 7 out of 10. Strictly average if not for the beer mugs, but ideal for your thirsty gangers.
Arguably the GOATs of the Blood Bowl kitbashing game. I asked folks to share any Blood Bowl conversions they had done over on Instagram, and almost half of the 40ish messages I received included some of these models. There are some compelling reasons for this!
The four Bloaters are popular and fantastic models, as they are a rare hefty humanoid option with minimal armor. The various organs and sores clean up really nicely, and the shoulder armor is an ideal subdued design with only a pinch of iconography to take off. Fat without being Ogres, and with a great gestural energy in their posing. Excellent models.
The pair of Pestigors have some of that heftiness going on as well, though there is a lot more you might need to take off and patch up before recontextualizing these. The heads can be swapped, and the odd woody growths can be cleaned up. Another good pose, and the only plastic Pestigors around until WHQ Darkwater dropped. You can see where these had some influence on those designs.
Lastly, you get six Rotters. These read as a bit more human than the models of the venerable Plaguebearers kit, but hold onto some of that twisted and shambling movement that reads as distinctly Nurgle. Ideal bases for mutant conversions, with a number of details you could easily leave or sand off depending on how grotesque you want these to look.
They are a break from the freshly updated AoS Nurgle aesthetic, but I find them a better fit in the far future than the 2026 models. A worthwhile pickup!
Hive Market Hands Score: 6 out of 10. A lot of oddly gloved hands, but you're not having to fight any bracers or gauntlets when sneaking these in elsewhere. I would happily get this set for kitbashing anyway, with the abundance of hands as a nice bonus.
Vandoth the Fallen, with Addidas Sambas. Credit: Fowler
Reikland Reavers
The classic human option of the bunch, fully geared up in standard sports equipment and locked in static poses. Four of the players have got a hand on some pigskin already, and the other eight have got clawed gauntlets. The sporty look works well for any gladiators, bounty hunters, hive scum, or possibly an Orlock prize fighter. They would have a harder time blending in outside of that kind of context, but they are solid models.
Hive Market Hands Score: 3 out of 10. Too many claws with no good place to clip at the wrist for use elsewhere.
Scarcrag Snivellers
A serious group of goblins in contrast to the extremely goofy Snotlings from the Nosepickers squad. They’re small but fully armored up, which could help with some quick head swaps for something else. Not for me.
Hive Market Hands Score: 3 out of 10. Surprisingly decent! Some of the options are good, with a few sporting nice leather gloves disguising the need for a manicure. The proportioning makes these a bit large for the team, meaning they’ll slide onto human scale models more easily.
Skavenblight Scramblers
A pack of Skaven from before their Skaventide refresh. They look exceptionally outdated on account of this, and I can’t suggest a reason to work with these over any of the fresh sprues. I do like the notably long rat tails tipped in various weapons, but that’s about it.
Hive Market Hands Score: 2 out of 10. The unkempt look isn’t a bad thing, and many of the options have solid places for clean cuts. That said, they are small hands belonging to humanoid rats, so not something I would bother with.
Blood Bowl Khorne Team painted by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms
Skull-tribe Slaughterers
As you can easily guess, these are Khorne’s chosen gridiron warriors. I like this set quite a bit, as they’re spiffy updates on the AoS Blades of Khorne models that dropped all the way back when the game first launched in 2015. Four of the models are heavily armored AoS Blood Warrior remixes, and they are fine. It is some of the easier Khorne armor to de-chaos-ify, but I don’t know if I would personally bother with them.
The six Bloodreaver-adjacent players, however, are worth the effort. Great posing and a perfect amount of armor, with an absolute minimum of Khorne iconography. A handful of awesome head options as a nice bonus prize as well. These would make for excellent gladiators or pitfighters as well as killer bases for Goliath juves, and mesh perfectly with the newer Khorne Jakhals and Goremonger kits if you want to swap some hands and weapons around between them all. Easily some of my favorite models from the entire gang.
As another bonus, there are also a pair of Beastmen included! It’s as close as you’re getting to a modern Khorngor for the time being (though with the release of WHQ Darkwater, they’re the only flavor still waiting for an update…), and though I find the heads a bit goofy, everything else is solid.
Worth mentioning that this is one of the ball and token spreads that would be tricky to port over or recontextualize in any way.
Hive Market Hands Score: 3 out of 10. The wrist guards extend too far for easy clipping, adding a frustrating obstacle to the process. The handheld blades could be nice on pit fighters, though.
But does it Mordheim? Oh yes. Credit: Fowler
The Thunder Valley Greenskins
Six Orcs and six Goblins. I absolutely love how beefy the Orcs are, and they look like they’re ready to wreck face. The posing is perfect, with the group looking like they’re ready to strike without being stuck mid-run. The armor also works just fine, with only the helmeted heads reading as distinctly sporty.
The Goblins are of course small, and compatible with your 41st millennium grots. That’s about all you’re getting out of them.
Hive Market Hands Score: 3 out of 10. Some of the gloved hands are usable, but they’re too large for any humans. They could potentially work for Ogryns and will, of course, be just fine on other Orcs or Orks or Orruks.
The Grimcinnati Benghouls. Credit: Fowler
The Wolfenburg Crypt-stealers
Arguably the most unique offering in the game with a distinctively Halloween aesthetic. It’s an interesting smattering of creatures to work with. I think the Werewolves and Flesh Golems have some easy and useful applications, and I do personally love the lanky Ghoul Runners. I’m less crazy about the Wraiths and Zombie Lineman, as there are much more workable alternatives between Nighthaunt and Soulblight Gravelords. That said, they do have that spooky pumpkin patch vibe you will not find anywhere else, but it’s a bit too cutesy for me.
Hive Market Hands Score: 2 out of 10. The Zombies and Ghouls are a lot less useful than they ought to be, and the Wraiths don’t even have hands. The Werewolves offerings are the most workable, but this is a kit you’d be getting with plenty of other plans in mind already.
The Stampeding Herd - Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl Team - Credit Beanith
The Zharr-Naggrund Ziggurats
The last group of Chaos Dwarfs to land before Hashut’s Helsmiths took over. They are slightly outnumbered by Hobgoblins, but the overall armor styling is the same between both groups. I don’t dislike this kit, but both races are very visually distinct and thus harder to work into anything else. I prefer the old Forgeworld Infernal Guard models to any of the current Chaos Dwarfs, with their toned down look being an easier port out of fantasy battling. I think there are better greenskins and less outlandish dwarfs to work with, and I’d recommend taking a look at those first.
Hive Market Hands Score: 2 out of 10. Chunky metal gauntlets on the Dwarfs and odd proportions with unfortunately placed bracers on the Hobgoblins. Pass.
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A graduate of the Reikland Reaver Athletic Scholarship program. Credit: Genghis Cohen
Wood Elf Wardancer by King_Ghidra
Orlock Baron built by @idolotry_blog and painted by @winters_riveting_archives. Credit: @winters_riveting_archives
Archaeotrader. Credit 40khamslam
Archeotrader. Credit: 40khamslam.
Brettonian Knight Thrower
Shambling Undead by @rumhampainting on Instagram
Pump Wagon Howdah pushing my Arachnarok Spider agenda. Credit: @grimngribbly
Doom Lords Goliath conversion. Credit: @hudd.exe
The NEW Vampire Team. Credit: Games Workshop
Dwarf Slayer by @churlishminis on Instagram
Baja Blasters Elven Union Team - Credit: Dan "The Sex Cannon" Boyd
Awakened Ogryn Brute. Credit: Hive Market Minis
Grapplehonk & Cyber-Badger. Credit: Fowler
Blood Bowl Orc Throwers by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms
The Margaritaville Manglers. Credit: SRM
The Lizardmen break the Necro cage open and tag the ball-carrier
The Hexalotl Jaguars. Credit: Fowler
Tomb Kings Linemen by @hd_miniatures
Dark Elf legs for an Infiltrator Operative. Credit: @Victor.tcvr
Raf's Werk Force Wreckers. Painting and Photo Credit -Shoshie Bauer www.shoshiesminis.com
One hefty Gunlugger. Credit @rokksville
A different breed of Pestigor. Credit @tom_paint_n_build
Vandoth the Fallen, with Addidas Sambas. Credit: Fowler
Orlock Road Relic. Credit: Fowler
Beastmen Reaver hybrid. Credit: @onepunchorlock
Blood Bowl Khorne Team painted by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms
But does it Mordheim? Oh yes. Credit: Fowler
The Grimcinnati Benghouls. Credit: Fowler
The Stampeding Herd - Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl Team - Credit Beanith
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