Ra Ra Ra!

Cheerleaders!

Just as significant to fleshing out a team theme and taking your Blood Bowl team from 'playable' to a 'showcase presence' is the team staff. One of the best miniatures to have is a cheerleader.

But you might say, 'I don't have a cheerleader on the team so I don't need a miniature' or 'But I have 8 cheerleaders on the team, I don't want a miniature for all of them!'

Yes you do, and No you don't. Well.. maybe you want 8 cheerleader minis.. that might be cool, but you don't need them. You do need at least one though.

Why?

* If done in theme it adds a lot of style points to your team.

* If you don't have a score token, the cheerleader miniature is a great thing to use for it!

* If you have one and your opponent doesn't, it makes them jealous.

Three basic ways to go with cheerleaders:

* An actual cheerleader miniature

* Convert a miniature into a cheerleader

* A different approach to the cheerleader issue.

Actual Cheerleaders don't need much explanation. There are many good ones from many companies.

Find one you like, paint in your team colors and you're set. It is worth noting that a cheerleader doesn't have to be the same race as your team... there could be some interesting reasons why there is a different cheerleader type... a dark elf team could have an enslaved human cheerleader... a poor human team might have only been able to hire that homely old orc woman to cheer for them.. you know the one.. with pasties... awesome.

One of my favorite cheerleaders: the high elf, done here as "Christmas Cheer"

Converted Cheerleaders are even more rewarding, because it is something unique and different.

This pair of Dark Elves is one of my favorites I've done. Clip the weapons and make the pom-poms from green stuff.

This is may be my favorite Cheerleader I've made. Again a weapon clip & pom-pom style.

The weapon clipping was a bit more complicated, still, the pom-pom's cover any damage so there isn't much to worry about. This is from Reaper's Pathfinder Goblins. I used the goblins as Hobgoblins in my "Vulcan's Hammers" Chaos Dwarf team so this female goblin of the same style was an obvious choice for a cheerleader.

Some minis need more extensive green stuff to pull off a conversion.

For a necromantic team I started with a Heresy Ghoul and began the creation:

Heresy Ghouls are nude, and thin, and male. I wanted a corpulent female and clothed.

Rather than pom-poms I figured she'd use severed heads.. sure to catch the crowd's attention!

GW kits have many severed heads, and these hair top knots from the Ork kit make perfect extensions... take that you Elves!

"Candy Corn" the Cheerleader complete.

This one isn't painted yet... I'll get to this team someday. I have an all-female Norse team. In our world, football teams are all male and have female cheerleaders, so if the team is all female it stands to reason the cheerleaders would be male!

So here is Sven, ready to cheer for the Valkyries... shake it Sven!

Again, those 40k Ork topknots are ideal.

Last there are Alternate Concept Cheerleaders.

Not all cheerleaders have to be pom-pom shakers.

You could have musicians, yellers, a rock-band, dancers, and the list goes on.

There was an amazing Elf Rock Band on TFF awhile back!

I converted this from a skink with a blow-pipe, he's now ready to call his cheers to the crowd.. and answer the age old mystery "what do skinks sound like?"

A drummer! Perfect way to get the crowd stomping!

I haven't made a Khemri cheerleader before, but I'll leave you with this tidbit from one of my old history professors...

The first cheerleaders were actually from Ancient Egypt!

They changed a lot through the ages, but the original tradition was in religious ceremonies for Aten, also known as the sun-god Ra. Egypt experimented briefly with Monotheism, saying there was only one god, but this was very unpopular with the people, so the temple sent out minor acolytes to get the crowd more enthusiastic about this with chants of "There is only one-god, he is the sun-god, Ra Ra Ra!"

;)

What are your favorite cheerleaders?