Drakfang Thirsters Review

The latest Blood Bowl team has arisen and it’s one you’re really going to want to sink your teeth into. The Drakfang Thirsters are a vampire team with two Throwers, two Runners, two Blitzers, and eight mortal Thralls. The bloodthirsty vampires are quick, strong, and agile. However, the unique ability Bloodlust may be their undoing. They need to keep their craving under control because if they fail the test at the start of their activation, they’ll need to take a bite out of one of their own teammates.

Boxing Clever

Included in the box are two identical sprues, a bag containing fourteen 32mm bases, a transfer sheet, and a leaflet with the assembly instructions and stats. The Thrall Linemen have 4 parts each and the Vampires have 6 or 7. There’s a different head for everyone so each player looks distinct. If you make the team exactly as it appears on the box, you’re left with 14 spare heads, a bat wing, hand, pointing arm, and a spare bat buddy (I need to find a suitable kitbash for him).

Build Me A Team Worthy Of Blood Bowl

As there are so few parts, the models were pretty quick to put together. Most of them fitted nicely, but a few of the Thralls didn’t feel quite flush when attaching their torso to their legs (although I am notoriously terrible at building models so this could just be me). Mold lines were often integrated into the folds of the flowing shirts and trousers, which helped to reduce the amount of clean-up needed. I also thankfully didn’t need to fill any gaps in the models.

The Vampire Throwers are my favourite models in the box. One of them looks like your classic Hammer Horror Dracula-inspired vampire, whilst the other has a cool bat wing shielding his hand holding the ball.

Recipe For Suck-cess

Here are the colours I used to paint my Drakfang Thirsters in a similar style to the box art (using Citadel paints unless specified otherwise):

I used different shades to tint the vampires’ skin (Daemonette Hide, Thunderhawk Blue, Stormvermin Fur), and then mixed in Rakarth Flesh to get a base colour. Afterwards, I highlighted with Deepkin Flesh and Pallid Wych Flesh, as these provide a great off-white colour that looks quite sickly. To make the Thralls look pale and anaemic, I began with a basecoat of Kislev Flesh, than used Cadian Fleshtone in the recesses, before highlighting with Wraithbone and then Corax White. For the players with dark skin, I used Bloodreaver Flesh, Knight-Questor Flesh, and Zandri Dust for the highlights.

I painted the flowing white shirts by working my way up through Administratum Grey, Grey Seer, Corax White, and finally White Scar. The bold red clothing really pops against the rest of the team’s more subdued colours. To achieve this look, I applied Evil Sunz Scarlet as a basecoat, then shaded with Mephiston Red and Khorne Red, and highlighted with Wild Rider Red and Fire Dragon Bright.

Some of the Drakfang Thirsters players wear black cloth trousers and long black cloaks. For these I used Abaddon Black, Mechanicus Standard Grey, and Dawnstone. To show the contrast in materials, I painted the black armour plates with cool blue tones. I applied Incubi Darkness as a chunky edge highlight over the Abaddon Black, then followed up with a thin edge highlight of Thunderhawk Blue, and finally a spot highlight on the sharpest edges with Fenrisian Grey.

Any leather straps and belts on the models, I painted with Rhinox Hide, Mournfang Brown, XV-88, and Balor Brown. I also applied some small scratches to show where the leather had worn away. Finally, I used Darkstar Molten Metals (Steel, Graphite, and Silver Verde) on the metallic parts.

(Un)dead Good

The Drakfang Thirsters are an awesome addition to the Blood Bowl roster. This updated vampire team looks fangtastic in their elaborate armour, sinister helmets, lace shirts, and billowing capes. There are loads of great little details too, from untied shoelaces and bat hair-pins, to the plasters on the Thralls covering their wounds. It’s clear that a lot of thought went into designing these new models, and they’re going to look super-stylish on the Blood Bowl pitch.

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