I am running out of clever frog-based titles at this point. I finished my second-to-last set of frog minis which surprisingly were pretty enjoyable to work on. When it comes to painting the same stuff over and over again, if you can pace yourself and put some time between when you paint the same sculpts, that really makes a difference in how much you do or don’t enjoy the process for me anyway. There isn’t too much else to say about these at this point other than I managed to find some colors I haven’t used on previous ones. That will be even tougher for the final set of frogs but once those are done, I can take a fun group shot of them all swarming something.
I also got a few more markers for Hellboy done. There isn’t too much to say about these either other than they came out reasonably well for what they are. I’ll be glad to make use of them and have even more painted stuff whenever I play next time.
In other news, I received the prehistoric animals order I put in with Acheson Creations in May. There are some hefty metal minis in here! As cool as it was to get these, I am a bit overwhelmed by my backlog which has a reasonable amount of Fallout minis in it, a ton of Hellboy minis, and now a reasonable amount prehistoric stuff. I certainly am at the point where I will not be taking on any new gaming projects for the foreseeable future. For those curious about the next LOTR display project, I’ve gotten the base and one mini ready to paint for that project with more stuff arriving in the coming weeks so that one may start to ramp up within the next couple of weeks as well.
Finally, I wanted to give a mention to the video game I’ve been playing for quite a while now. Dragon Quest Builders 2 is not the type of game I typically buy. I’ve never considered playing Minecraft before or any game like it, but to my surprise and delight, DBQ2 is a great game and something I’ve really enjoyed. It is basically a light RPG with crafting and building being the focus instead of combat and leveling up. Essentially, you can build things like buildings using blocks. I’ve seen some people make some really impressive things, though I’m still making my way through the story and unlocking new things I can build with and tools to make building easier. I think the story in the game lasts 50-60 hours and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played through thus far but I’m hoping to focus on building some stuff in the game’s sandbox modes once I wrap the story up. We’ll see if I can make anything interesting or impressive when I get to that stage in the game. If playing with “digital Legos” sounds at all fun to you and you can sink your teeth into a fairly long game, this is a fun and addicting game that you can put a lot of time and energy into. Even though I haven’t beaten it yet, its one of my favorite games on the PS4 already.
Kuribo's Painting 
Frogs! Have you thought about using the new contrast/shade paints from GW for your next batch of frogs? Might be a break from painting the same figures again.
Video games – how did The House in Fata Morgana work out? Did the visual novel genre keep your interest?
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I do use Contrast paints for the frog’s skin and then drybrush and strategically highlight the important areas like the face, feet, and hands. I don’t know if I could use Contrast for the clothes other than the one that has a shirt and pants on since the paint is thin and runny. Are you using Contrast much on LOTR minis? I could see some of the simpler troop models like Uruk Hai working well.
The House in Fata Morgana didn’t go as well as I had hoped unfortunately. The story was fairly good but not as moving or gripping as I hoped. I think the game was a bit too long for its own good and I started to lose patience with it. I’ve played games that are story driven that take way longer to finish so I’m afraid that the lack of variety in the game was what did me in. At this point, I don’t know if visual novels are something I enjoy or not. I also feel like there’s some egg on my face because I paid a lot of money to get this game and I love reading so its a bit surprising that I didn’t end up enjoying this game more. I may give another visual novel a try to see if maybe it was just that game and not the genre. I won’t be buying an expensive one though, I can promise you that!
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Sorry to hear that you felt that you didn’t get your money/enjoyment worth out of the game.
Have had mixed success/ feelings about the contrast paint. I find it hard to paint over but does have advantages on some models.
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Thankfully, it isn’t a mistake I make often with video games. If I don’t like a kind of game generally, I don’t play them and I tend not to make mistakes too often, so I can certainly live with this one.
I feel similarly to you on Contrast as well. I like a bit more control over the paint tones and Contrast takes that way so there are a lot of minis I wouldn’t consider using Contrast paints with.
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Yea, after the initial Wow factor of using Contrast paints, I’ve mostly left them sitting except for some terrain stuff. I did have a recent success with Ironjawz Yellow and then using Black Legion as a wash. But mostly I find that by the time I prep and fix the Contrast paint, I could have just finished the mini in about the same amount of time using my usual method.
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The dry time definitely slows down how much time you save. I mostly doing layering with what I paint and I like the extra control that gives over Contrast but it definitely has some uses on minis that are predominantly one color.
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Nope, I’m not tired of frogs! 🙂 Nice work, Jeff, and I like the Hellboy markers as well! The game sounds good and the sort of thing I’d like, but I know not to go there these days – too much time in my younger years playing Command & Conquer and Starcraft into the early hours!
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I’m glad you aren’t sick of them yet, John! There are very few frogs left to go now and I should probably start thinking about how I want to paint other things in my budding Hellboy collection. There are a few things that are likely to tickle your fancy more than the frogs but you’ll have to wait and see on those! 🙂
I wouldn’t have guessed you played a lot of C & C and Starcraft. Those are very serious video games, John! I could barely play them online without getting crushed. Fortunately, there are lots of less intense games out there for those who want them (like me!).
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Excellent work on the frogs and markers Jeff, no dip in quality of your brushwork on either, some interesting models you’ve got there, and will certainly be a different style to the fantasy stuff, will probably make for great ” I need a break models”
Really don’t play many games anymore, after locking my thumbs up and not being able to sculpt for a week, while trying to unlock everything in Soul Calibre 4 ! LOL
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Thanks, Dave! I have a certain level of quality that visitors have come to expect after all 🙂 I intend to keep the prehistoric minis as a change of pace when I get tired of Fallout and Hellboy for sure. In terms of your video game playing, it sounds like you were gravitating towards intense games. I don’t know Soul Caliber well but I’ve played fighting games and know how intense they can be. I think you might try something a little less intense if you decide to play any video games in the future! 🙂
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Keen to see the full collection of frogs together when you have them all done, should be quite the sight! The markers look great too, love the mystical pot, very compelling.
I haven’t played Dragon Quest builders but have had it recommended to me and I do enjoy a bit of minecraft with friends so maybe I should try it.
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Thank you, Nic and I’m excited for the group shot too. Probably because it will mean I have those minis done more than anything else but hopefully it leads to a decent picture too!
If you like Minecraft, I’d say give it a shot! There is a lot of dialogue to read through in DBQ2 but if you’ve ever played a Dragon Quest game before, you will be well prepared for it. Some of it is pretty funny too or at least I think so anyway.
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Nice work on the frogs, sir! They look horribly slimy and personally I’d be changing my underwear if I spotted these on a dark night LOL! I have to ask, as I know bugger all about Hellboy, why do frogs play such a large part?
And after I put on my copy editor’s cap, I came up with some headlines for the future:
Toad to nowhere
Froggin’ hell
Croak and dagger
A night at the hopera
I should be kermitted
Toads from the hole
Hoppin on heaven’s door
Straight outta frogtown
I like the objective markers too, especially that jug’s little green curly markings. Very Lovecraftian!
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You missed Hell comes to Frogtown Matt, which was an 80’s movie starring Rowdy Roddy Piper ! LOL
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And how could he have forgotten that one! I’m sure it is a great movie considering the title and that a professional wrestler starred in it 😀
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Not as good as “They Live”, which is a classic, and also got banned in many cinemas, as too many people thought it was real, but a good cheese fest
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Cheers, Matt! The Frogs are people turned into their current forms by a Lovecraftian god. The funny thing is that there are only 2-3 brothers who get turned into frogs in the entire Hellboy comics but in the spin-off series, B.P.R.D., the frog people pretty much start the apocalypse so they’re really prominent there. Frogs happen to be the base game enemies in the Board Game so that is why they’ve been such a focus for me lately. There should be a greater variety in Hellboy characters as I work on other minis for the game in the future.
I will have to take some of your suggestions for at least one more title too whenever I get around to finishing the last four 🙂
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Those are all great. 😀
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It’s likely that the artist, Mike Mignola, just enjoyed drawing them. There are a number of things that show up in the comic over and over, mostly because he likes to draw them. If you like comics at all, I’d highly recommend reading it. Mignola loves old fairy tales and myths and has done a lot of research on them before bringing them into the comic. It’s like a pulp detective mysticism romp with a big red surly hero as the protagonist! 🙂
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That’s a great point and you have described the appeal of Mignola’s work well. There really isn’t anything like it out there and its of a higher quality than a lot of comics, I find too.
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The frogs look great, that will be a nice group shoot when they are all done!
The animals look very interesting, I’ll be keeping an eye out to see what you do with them.
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Thank you for the kind words, mate and I’ll see if I can’t get a prehistoric animal in the painting queue here sometime soon then.
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Nice work on the frogs and markers. Simple stuff yes but they still need doing well and unsurprisingly you managed that! 🙂
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Cheers, mate! Our hobby projects of choice lately definitely take some persistence and dedication.
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Frogs and markers look fantastic. The board game is really gonna look sweet in the end.
At the risk of sounding old; I haven’t played a video game in over a decade. 😀
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Thanks, Stew! I need to get some more games in with Hellboy to ensure I like it as much as I hope I do but assuming that goes okay, I’ll definitely do what I can to make it all look good!
You sound extremely old to me now 😉 I’m going to guess a decade ago is when you started to have kids? If I had any, that would slow down my hobbies a fair bit, I would imagine.
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Great work as always mate! I never get tired of your Frogfolk. And you can never have too much awesome objective markers that can double as scatter terrain for multiple games. I know the backlog can be daunting but I look forward to your Prehistoric gaming.
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Thanks, mate and I’m glad to hear it! While it probably won’t seem like it as it is below Fallout or Hellboy in terms of priority, I’m excited to get some Prehistoric/Pulp gaming in one of these days. It will probably take time but I hope to get there eventually.
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Prehistoric would be great… Pulp… even better!
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I’m with John, I’m never tired of FROGS !!
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I’m glad to hear it. You should see more sooner or later! 🙂
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👍🏻🤓
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Nice work on these, but I especially enjoyed the little touches on the markers. Helps bring them to life! Those prehistoric minis look pretty cool and looking forward to seeing how you paint them up!
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Thank you for the kind words as always and I hope to mix in some Prehistoric minis as I get time. They should be fun and fairly easy to paint or at least I hope so!
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Good work on the frogs. Do you find it a nice change to move between relatively simple projects like this and your dozens-of-hours-per-mini types like the recent Eomer? Or does it just mess up your rhythm?
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Thanks, mate! And this is a good question. I definitely consider it a nice break overall to work on some minis you can paint quickly. Its satisfying to get what feels like a lot done in a short amount of time. The main thing I have to do is not try to be perfect with how I’m painting them. I focus on that with display pieces to try and get the best results possible and I have to remind myself, that I only need tabletop done quick for stuff like these frogs!
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