Another week, another Fallout-based pun. Fortunately, I have regained hobby momentum this week and so I have more to share than in the last couple of weeks. I had some time to fill so I started another Fallout mini. For whatever reason, its hard to find decent pictures of Assaultrons in Fallout 4. I could have sworn they have a greenish look to them but the pictures I saw looked more silver/metallic so that is what I went with. I did do a bit of freehand on the star and while it isn’t perfect, I think it looks decent enough considering how small the miniature is. This mini didn’t take too long to finish and I’ll be curious to see how it plays in-game as Assaultrons, while they don’t look like a little slight, are very dangerous in the video games. They’re fast, can take a lot of damage, and do a lot of damage. A deadly combination!
Truthfully, this mini was a bit of an appetizer for the main course as I finally was able to start working on my next display piece. Using some of the knowledge gained from the Oliver Spath Patreon, I mentioned a few weeks ago, I set about making the best looking display base I’ve ever done from scratch. While this is obviously unpainted, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I think it should look very nice when everything is said and done. I certainly learned a few things while working on this and hopefully I can use these skills in the future to continue to improve.
Compare how this base looks to a previous attempt at a dwarf on a mountainside in 2019. While the mini below doesn’t look bad by any means, the slate isn’t as realistic looking and the base is too flat. When all is said and done, I think the newer base will look like someone standing on the edge of a cliff or hill which is more what I intended in both pieces.
Once I had the base built, I could start working on the mini itself and while its very early days, I think I’m off to a fairly decent start. For those of you who don’t know the sculpt, I’m painting Eomer from The Lord of the Rings. The only thing that is giving me trouble are the eyes which are absolutely insanely tiny. I’d like to really nail them as the rest of the mini I’m pretty confident I can handle. Unfortunately, with a mini this small, its really tough to be able to improve or even fix eyes like this. I will say that I think the face looks quite nice and realistic otherwise. Maybe my best one yet.
I will say though this is the most intricate mini that I’ve seen Games Workshop make for Lord of the Rings. This is beyond the talents of a lot of painters and will be a good challenge for me. I’m a little worried that they’re making this mini look easier than it is because GW is clearly arming their painters with magnification lenses to paint miniatures like this and the average painter isn’t going to realize that they’ll never achieve the level of detail that Games Workshop did, especially in the face. My face isn’t as good as theirs because I’m using the naked eye here.
In non-miniature related news, I did want to mention the game I’m currently playing as I think it might appeal to a couple of you and you might not be aware of it. If you like a good Run N’ Gun game like Contra or Metal Slug, there is a game on the current consoles called Huntdown, that you should check out. If that doesn’t entice you, how does a game set in a world inspired by Judge Dredd, Robo Cop, Blade Runner and The Warriors sound? If you like Necromunda for example (paging Wudugast and Azazel!), I think you’d feel right at home in this gang-infested environment. In Huntdown, you’re a bounty hunter who has one job, clean all of the gangs up! The game is fairly short (under five hours to beat) but the graphics are absolutely beautiful pixel art and the action-oriented gameplay is excellent as well. I haven’t beaten it yet but I would still give it a strong recommendation if any of this sounds appealing to you.
I’m fortunate enough to have all next week off from work so I’m going to try and relax and catch up on some gaming and movies as I can. I wanted to say thank you to everyone who made table suggestions last week as well. I got a couple of cheap folding tables from Amazon which don’t take up a lot of storage room and should work well for my gaming needs. I am planning on giving Hellboy a try over break and I have plenty of stuff I can play in Arkham Horror: Card Game so between that and painting, I should have a nice week. Happy 4th of July to all of my American friends and I hope you are able to enjoy some time away from work doing what you love too!
Kuribo's Painting 
“Warriors, come out to play-eee.”
Glad to see you have your mojo back!
Should be a great week for you of painting and gaming.
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That is a classic scene, to be sure! With any luck, I’ll make solid progress on Eomer this week as I’m enjoying painting him thus far 🙂
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Very cool! Assaultron looks right on, and very excited to see you tackle Eomer. I told you last time that I had a guess at what mini you would pick and I got that very wrong! I was thinking of the new witch king model.
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I’m glad to hear you think that on the Assaultron! 🙂 The Witch King is something that is in contention for a future project. I need to work out if I can come up with a unique or interesting color scheme for it through. I reckon you or I could easily paint it up nicely in the traditional gray tones so I’d like to do something a bit different than that, if possible.
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The assaultron looks excellent Jeff, and sounds a tough character to beat. The display base is coming on nicely, and if you feel happy about it, I’m sure everyone else will like it (I do). Great looking model to put on it, and I prefer your painting of the face, it looks more natural than GW’s.
The game looks fun, but I haven’t played a computer game in years (messes up my thumbs for sculpting ! LOL) but can certainly see a lot of the influences you mention.
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I really like that Assaultron mini, Jeff, and your painting has given it a cool look just as if it’s been wandering around a post-apocalyptic wasteland for decades! I love the weathering, you’ve done it perfectly. It’s something I frequently overdo but you’ve got just the right amount.
The base is looking good so far and as Dave says, the way you’ve painted Eomer’s face is more realistic than the GW box art.
As for the pun, as a former headline writer I can say that there’s nothing wrong with it 🙂 Have fun on your week off!
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Thank you, Matt! I would say that weathering is one of those things where if you go with a light touch, it usually ends up looking better than not. So that is what I keep in mind whenever I’m working on it.
Oh wow, you were headline writer?! Was that for a newspaper or something else? Either way, it explains a lot 🙂
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Thanks, Dave! I was definitely unsure about this display base but I think its come out well in the end. Thank you for the kind words on the painting as well!
Maybe you’re better off not gaming! I sometimes wonder between typing for my job, gaming, and painting if I’ve got hand surgeries like carpal tunnel in my future…
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Yeah, I worked in newspaper production — design, layout and editing — for almost 25 years before taking a buyout just before we left California for Vermont. Pun headlines are one of my fave things 🙂
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Its a tough industry nowadays so that makes a lot of sense. I can only hope you can get back to what you’re best at in the near future 😉
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Oh, after spending literally half my life drawing boxes, rushing to meet deadlines, sitting around for hours waiting on stories and photos, and listening to the copy editors arguing over whether a phrase is hyphenated or not, I don’t miss it too much LOL!
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Haha, fair enough! I have to deal with some of those things in my line of work as a technical writer and if I could never be in or forced to listen to an argument about grammar, that would be fantastic haha!
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The assaultron is so cool man! Glad you’re back on track too.
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I’m really glad to hear you like it and I’m thankful to be back on track too!
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I also thought Assaultrons were olive drab being as they are US Army combat robots but your take on it looks brilliant! I look forward to seeing your Eomer as you are able to breathe life into minis with your paintbrush.
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That was my memory of Assaultrons too, mate. The pictures I found looked more gray than drab but I think I’ll do at least one of them in olive drab. I figure some variation in color will look good with them. Thanks for the kind words as well. I will certainly try my best to give Eomer life!
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Nice figure mate and enjoy your time off. Seems like you will have plenty to keep you occupied. 🙂
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Thank you, mate! I think I should be able to stay out of trouble anyway 🙂
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Nice work on the minis and base, Jeff! 🙂
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Thank you! 🙂
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Is that a robot with chainsaw arms? Crazy. Glad it restored your painting mojo. Good timing with a week off. Paint and play during the day and romance the wife at night. Sounds good.
That Eomer model is killer but way too many small details for the likes of me. For you though it’s a good choice for a display piece. Great start so far along with the base. 😀😀
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You got that right. I guess the danger they pose is fairly clear from that alone! I’m lucky to work in a place that just gives me this week off and I will certainly follow the plan you laid out there too 😉
Thank you for the kind words on Eomer too. I think Eomer could look good with some careful drybrushing but all in all, I think he requires a bit good of brush control (or hand-eye coordination) which many tabletop painters are not going to be keen about.
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That Assaultron looks pretty killer and I like base too. Eomer’s face looks great! What scale is the mini? I find that sometimes the sculpt is so messed up, that no matter what you do the eyes will look weird.
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Thank you for the kind words! Eomer is 28mm and non-heroic, I believe so very small overall. I agree that eyes can be very tough to paint if not sculpted well too. Older metal minis are the toughest to paint in this regard for me anyway. It always helps to have some kind of “guide” in the sculpt on where the eyes should be.
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The problem I’ve run into is when there is a little bump or other imperfection on the eye. Something I can’t actually see with my eye, but once you run the paint across it, there it is! Sometimes you can de-emphasize it, but it’s a pain when it’s not possible.
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I know exactly what you mean and it is definitely a pain!
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The Assaultron looks great! if you don’t mind some unsolicited advice, the way I sharpen my lines on logos and icons and such like the star here is by going back over (needed) edges with some very thin paint of the base colour, so for example to add a sharpness to the point of a star.
The bases both look good, but I think you’re being unfair to the newer one by comparing it in the unpainted state to the finished one on the Scibor Dwarf.
What you’ll notice on the GW Eomer is that the most part of their effort has gone into that face, the rest of that model is painted well, but much simpler – they’re going for the focal point and the lower level of painted detail on the rest of the model actually acts like a focus on a camera – the face is in sharp focus while the rest is as though it’s just ever-so-slightly out of focus.
Huntdown looks interesting – ot something I’d pay AU$30 for but I’ve added it to my wishlist for when it gets a sale/price drop/goes onto GamePass. Thanks for the heads-up! 🙂
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Advice is always welcome! I wasn’t very patient (as this was the second star I painted, the first one had to be redone when I didn’t like the color scheme I was using) and I will definitely give that a shot. I’d like to work on lettering as USA should go under the star too technically…
I completely agree on GW spending a lot of time on the face both painting wise and with their photography. They really tried to sell the mini based on that. For whatever reason, they struggle to paint blonde hair without using yellow and that is a mistake in my opinion. It just doesn’t look especially realistic. Even with all of the effort, their version of Eomer could have been even better.
Huntdown should go on sale from time-to-time and that is the perfect time to get it, especially since it is a short game (under five hours to beat). Its well worth the time and investment. I bought the Collector’s Edition for it and I don’t regret it!
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That is some great black lacquered metal. Love the subtle weathering and markings. Also love the scenic base. I always enjoy vertical features, especially with a rather squat mini like the dwarf. Gives the eye opportunity to wander.
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Thank you, mate! Glad you like the robot and the display base both. It won’t be too long and I’ll be painting up the base which hopefully brings it all together nicely!
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