While this week has been a slog in pretty much every facet of my life, I do have a few finished things to show off. First up is Abe’s marker for Hellboy: The Board Game. I wanted to get this done before I forgot how I painted the mini and to my surprise, the marker was fun and fast to paint. As with previous busts, the larger details helped me bring the character to life even more than with the mini. I can’t remember if there is another Abe sculpt in the expansions that are coming out in a couple of months or not but I wouldn’t mind another crack at painting him in a higher quality sculpt, should I get the chance. I have one more thing I’d like to finish (which I’ve already started on) and once that is done, I think I can play the first scenario in Hellboy so that is something to look forward to!
I also finished my third piece of railroad track terrain for Fallout. There isn’t a lot to say here other than I will not paint something like this where you have to mix paints together on successive terrain pieces. Not a single piece of the three tracks I’ve painted match each other which is a minor annoyance to me. This is unsurprisingly despite my best effort to match them. Unfortunately, I don’t have a great place to put the track together for a photo so you’ll have to settle for this fairly unexciting picture. I need to buy some more railroad tracks to really be able to use them in Fallout so that is something I will look to do in the future.
Truthfully, I wouldn’t say I was filled with excitement to watch it. I think Scarlett Johansson doesn’t have a lot of range as an actress and she probably was one of the few casting whiffs Marvel has made. With that said, the trailer for the movie looked good enough so I was hoping it would have strong action and maybe some good espionage because that is what Black Widow comics generally focus on. While the action was good, I found the characterizations were a bit bland and only Red Guardian brought any humor or charm to the movie. For how scary the villain and his minions could have been, the movie was lacking in tension and suspense as well. Even Taskmaster looked cool but wasn’t all that interesting of a threat. Overall, I thought it was a good movie but somewhat forgettable and probably something that didn’t need to be made. I fear that Marvel is starting to crank out a lot of things, both movies and TV shows, that fit into the good but forgettable category which is not what I like to see but unfortunately, that is something that only Disney can change at this point.
Kuribo's Painting 
The bust looks great, and matches the mini you did really well. Black widow I found roughly the same as you, some cool ideas and characters mired in generic action.
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Thanks, mate! I’m glad to hear I wasn’t the only one who felt that way about Black Widow. If nothing else, I enjoy seeing what other people think of a particular movie or show, just to see how my opinion compares to theirs 🙂
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“…this week has been a slog in pretty much every facet of my life”. That sounds extremely familiar (that’s my excuse for missing Abe the first time around anyway!). Excellent work on the bust there, matches up nicely with the original. I’ve not seen Black Widow myself, but I’ve fallen behind on watching the Marvel films. I used to live 5 minutes walk from a very budget friendly cinema but since I moved my movie watching has dropped right off unfortunately. Hope things sort themselves out for you and you get a decent night’s sleep soon. 🙂
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Great painting as always mate. I admire how well you can bring even boardgame sculpts to life.
Mrs. GG and I quite like Scarlett Johansson however we agree that the movie was good but ultimately forgettable. I really liked Red Guardian and could watch a movie just about him. I hope David Harbour gets a lot of screen time in season 4 of Stranger Things, he seems under utilized by Hollywood. Too much of Black Widow was spoiled by the delayed release as well, knowing how things play out took some of the gravitas and tension out of the movie for me. Still it was not a waste of time for us, we just wished it was better.
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Cheers, mate! I do what I can and there is something satisfying in making a mini look as good as I can too.
I would have to agree about David Harbour, he was by far the highlight of the movie and I hope that he gets more opportunities to showcase his talents going forward. I agree with the last sentence you wrote as well. I enjoyed watching Black Widow but hoped for more and probably won’t be in a hurry to watch it again.
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Very nice work as always mate. 🙂
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Thank you, mate! 😀
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Excellent work on the Abe bust Jeff, if you do end up with another Abe sculpt, will you be sticking with the comic book colours or maybe doing the film version ?
The tracks look great, and don’t forget Season of Scenery starts in July if you need to get the other pieces done.
Sorry to hear about the sleep problems, I’ve been an Insomniac since I was 16 so can understand how it can really mess you up.
Black Widow wasn’t my favourite Marvel movie, but enjoyed it for the most part.
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Thanks, Dave! That is a good thought. I’d certainly consider doing a movie version of Abe for fun, if nothing else.
I do have more terrain sitting around, waiting to be done so its certainly possible that I’ll be able to participate in July.
I am a light sleeper and not an insomniac (yet!) but when I get stressed out, that is usually when I start to struggle to sleep which is what happened this time. Having a holiday weekend here in the US has really helped me destress. I don’t know how you’ve managed to deal with insomnia for that long, Dave! I’m sure it hasn’t been easy.
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Abe II looks great and really matches the tabletop model well. Nice thing about things like these busts is that you can really get in there and add extra details and nuance that you can’t with a normal model. 🙂
I’ve got the solution for your railroad track blues as well. Finish the last piece(s) and then when all of them are done, just give them all a pass at the same time in the same session with some weathering powders. They’ll really be unified as one set even more than they already are.
On Black Widow – I never had a problem with Scarlett, though she was never one or the main Avengers for me (or probably most people), I did enjoy her expanded role in Civil War. I also enjoyed her movie, but we all know it (and Black Panther) should/would have happened way earlier if not for the POS Ike Perlmutter. The movie itself was a solid 6 1/2 or 7 out of 10 for me. I enjoyed it, but it’s also pretty much an upper midcard film and has a few too many Marvel Tropes (TM) and plot holes but I found it to be by no means a bad or boring film. I was “you know, that was pretty good” at the end – far, far better than Wonder Woman 84 or Eternals. I just watched Spider-Man 2002 for the first time last night (yea, really) and while it was also enjoyable I’d still put Widow above that movie.
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Thanks, mate! I think weathering powders could be a great idea. I don’t have any currently but I can certainly pick some up.
Its good to hear your thoughts on Black Widow. I was thinking around a 7 out of 10 on the movie as well. I would have to agree with Wonder Woman as well. I haven’t seen 84 but I found the first one to be completely uninteresting and I’d much rather watch Black Widow than it.
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I actually liked the first WW movie well enough, but WW’84 is an absoluite car crash – and terrible compared to that first one! 😀
Weathering powders are certainly a good investment, and they tend to last a long, long time, too!
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I’ve heard 84 was really bad. I don’t know why but I found Wonder Woman overhyped and kind of bland. Its not bad but I thought it is nowhere near as good as people made it out to be. I have at least one tiny thing of weathering powders still kicking around here so I would have to agree with you!
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Nicely done on the bust, really brings out the details. As Azazel mentions above, a final touch of weathering on all the components will tie them together like a wash does on figures. Looking forward to a battle report!
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Thank you! I will certainly keep the weathering in mind as I’d like to see them all tied together a bit better in the end. I think it may take a while yet before I’m ready to do another battle report for Fallout. I need to get some more shipping containers done but I am certainly looking forward to it, as well as trying out the AI finally!
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Great work on the bust, matches the mini really nicely. The scenery for fallout must be coming along nicely now!
I also saw that move znd was not that impressed, it was as you say fine.
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Thanks, mate! For me, making enough terrain is really a marathon but I’m glad to be making progress on it. Glad to hear you felt similarly on Black Widow too. I don’t want to be too critical of these things so its good to know that others agree!
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That bust has come out really nicely, Jeff, and looks good shown alongside the mini! 🙂 I’m way behind on Marvel films and have only just seen Captain Marvel (which I really enjoyed)! Hope you get caught up on your sleep!
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Thank you, John! You are further behind me on movies but not too far. I didn’t enjoy Captain Marvel that much unfortunately but I’m really glad to hear you liked it. That is the strength of Marvel. If you don’t like one flavor of Marvel, you’ll probably like another so its worth trying as many as you can! 🙂
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Great work on the bust, you’ve matched its colours to the mini perfectly! And congrats on the awesome freehanding on the back of the jacket!
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Thanks, Matt! The details on the back are sculpted so I can’t take any credit for freehanding them. I wish I was that skilled at freehanding that I could though 🙂
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That is stellar work on Abe Sapien. The eyes in particular are just perfect, capturing the inhumanity of the character. I love how well you’ve replicated the colours between the bust and the mini, especially since you didn’t paint them together.
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Thanks, mate! I did try to get across Abe’s character in the eyes so I’m really glad it came across. I always live dangerously and rarely batch paint so I should probably consider myself lucky when that doesn’t cause problems 🙂
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Sorry about life being a slog: especially after a vacation!
The bust looks great, especially the back with the icon. Looking forward to seeing HellBoy on the table eventually.
I haven’t seen a marvel movie in a long time. 😀😀
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Thank you and I’m taking this as a sign that its time to get a new job so I’m working diligently on that. Thank you for the kind words on the painting as well! As for not seeing a Marvel movie for a long time, I would say that you might be missing out on some good ones but if you can be disciplined enough to pick and choose what you watch, you’re probably smarter and have more willpower than me 🙂
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Great work, Jeff, as usual😁
I put Black Widow at the bottom of the pile in terms of MCU movies. I didn’t think much happened throughout and it was more of a vehicle to introduce new characters, of which I thought Red Guardian just fell flat and didn’t belong, but then I can’t remember much of it to be honest, which fits in with what you were saying🤔
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Thank you, Justin! You have strong feelings on Marvel as per usual 😉 I can’t argue you with you that not much happens in the movie other than introducing new characters. I think that is one element of Marvel’s secret sauce that was missing from this movie now that you mention it. Also, I hope that secret sauce isn’t too much of an Americanism for you as well 😀
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‘Secret Sauce!’ Careful, that could be construed as something entirely different over here😂😅🤣
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Our slang is so wildly different that its often funny to learn about what words are bad in your country! The phrase secret sauce comes from the fast food industry (or at least I’m pretty sure!) and its basically the special ingredient that makes a Big Mac a Big Mac at McDonald’s, for example. Nothing salacious about that, mate! 😉
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Not so different – Big Mac’s special ingredient, yep, we use the saying for that, but in the military at least, ‘Special Sauce’ takes on a rather different meaning, one that is a little more, shall we say, saucy!😉
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Its good to see that British prudishness hasn’t permeated the military is all I can say, mate! 😀
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