I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough painting progress to show off for another update this year but I’ve just about managed. There is a lot of other stuff I want to discuss too so strap in for one last, meaty update in 2022. The main attraction is the Golden Demon project so here’s a look at my modest progress.
Since last week, I worked on the fur some more so what you see is close to being done and hopefully looking realistic. I still need to add fur to a few places but at least I’m getting closer on that. I’ve been working a fair amount near the horse’s head as well. There are a lot of small little pieces to pick out so it is taking quite a bit of patience. The metal parts like the rings are also a real pain because I have to paint them and then glaze over what I painted a few times to tint them the right color. I’m doing that to ensure they stand out from the leather straps. Or in other words, so every detail is hopefully painted well in the end. I’m glad that I’ve made progress but I wish I was further along just to make me feel like I’m closer to finishing this side of the horse. The picture below is a better look at the horse’s head. The miniature is too close to the lights because I had to hold it and take a quick picture but at least it gives you an idea of what it looks like since the horse’s head is at a weird angle.
I hope that Christmas treated all of you well and you got some fun hobby goodies from Santa. I made out like a bandit as always. I got two new boxes of Fallout miniatures which I look forward to painting in the future. I’m especially excited to paint the Railroad who were ultimately the faction I sided with in the video game (in addition to the Minutemen).
I also received a motorized turntable so that I can take short videos of display miniatures slowly rotating to show off the details. While I’ll mostly use that on Instagram, I think it may make some appearances here too. I’m excited to play around with that and see what I can do in the near future.
If that wasn’t enough, I bought myself some Fallout terrain and a couple rules supplements from Modiphius’s US Store since they ran a Christmas sale. It will take some time to get here which is fine because I’m plenty busy with the Golden Demon project as it is. I also bought myself some new Arkham Horror cards from The Path to Carcosa and I’m excited to use those in the coming days.
Unfortunately, Legendary James Bond did not work out over break. I played it three times and lost each time. I enjoyed the game less with each play and by the end, I was thinking to myself, “Why don’t I just play Arkham Horror instead?” I promised that I would review Legendary but because I don’t enjoy it, I won’t bother. My biggest complaint about the game is that luck plays too big of a role in your success. The problem is that there are only five cards you can add to your deck at a given time and if you’re unlucky, you can end up with cards you can’t afford or don’t want to buy and there are very few ways to cycle those cards out. That is really frustrating and a major weakness in the game, in my opinion. In a lot of other card games, including Arkham Horror, you build the deck yourself so you can mitigate luck to a fair degree, but since Legendary is a deckbuilding game, you start with a set deck of cards each game and slowly add to it over the course of the game depending on what is available in the five card slots I mentioned previously. Hopefully you can start to see where luck can play a large role in the game. The silver lining is that I’m determined to focus on the three games I own and really like in the coming year. That will keep me busy and out of trouble, I reckon!
One thing that has worked out nicely is Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. In November and into December. I played Zelda: Breath of the Wild for Switch which is widely considered to be one of the best games of all time. I liked it but it is far from my favorite game or even Legend of Zelda game and I’ve played a lot of them over the years. Mario + Rabbids was a game that I thought I might like but it really exceeded my expectations. I want to mention it because I feel like its made for wargamers too. There is a sub-genre of video games often called Tactical RPGs or Strategy games which are very similar to miniature wargames. They’re usually turn-based and you square off against a computer AI opponent using your different units to fight and win a series of battles.
Mario + Rabbids is exactly that but with Nintendo’s beloved characters… and the Rabbids. Rabbids are like the French version of Minions and are not universally loved. I’m okay with them but I get why people don’t like them. I highly recommend Mario + Rabbids because the combat is fast and fluid but still makes you think. It is also really well balanced. Some Strategy games have punishing difficulty where you have to use the exact right combination of characters and/or skills to be able to win but this game always felt fair. Mario + Rabbids wisely doesn’t waste a lot of time on the story and gives you lots of 10-20 minute battles. That makes the game surprisingly addictive and enjoyable to play. I’ve played other games like Final Fantasy Tactics which I would say is a better all around game, but they are not as addictive as this one since the battles are longer and more involved. I really appreciated how Mario + Rabbids respects your time and doesn’t have any filler content either. It took me between 20-30 hours to beat it and I was very satisfied at the end. If you have a Switch, then I’d definitely recommend this one.
With some time away from work, I’ve been mulling over some things and have realized that I need to get back to some of the things I said I was going to do this year but didn’t necessarily finish or even strayed away from. The first thing is to focus on playing the games I own that I enjoy which I previously mentioned. Another area that I would like to improve in is with reading. I have done a poor job of reading in 2022, mostly due to lack of motivation and not having that next book I was looking forward to reading. To address this, I found a bunch of books I want to read next year and so I’m going to try do better at that.
The other thing I need to continue to do is reduce my collection of things. I have been chipping away at this slowly in 2022 but there is still a lot more work to be done. I have a lot of remnants of things I collected in the past and I’ve realized that when I stop collecting something, I tend to appreciate that thing less and less as time goes on, especially when I already got rid of the bulk of that collection. As a result, I need to keep putting the work into reducing what I own. That will free up room for the things I own that I do use and enjoy like miniatures, terrain, and Arkham Horror. I’m going to try and focus on “collecting” those things and video games this year and see if that doesn’t bring me enough collecting joy. I’m pretty sure it will and it lets me focus on the things I use and let go of things that I don’t.
I don’t think I ever mentioned it explicitly over the course of this year but my wife accepted a job a few months ago with what proved to be a really unethical organization and her job sadly wasn’t worth keeping. Unfortunately, it took a while for her to find the right opportunity but she recently accepted a position which were excited about. Not having a full-time job for a number of months tightened our finances and basically stopped a lot of things that we wanted to do including getting furniture for our condo. I’m excited to work on that and finally get the place looking decent, if not, finished in 2023. That includes redoing a lot of stuff in my room. While I have a great closet and video game shelf, there is still a lot of work to be done and so that will also be a focus of mine in the new year. I’ll be sure and share some pictures of my progress, because if nothing else, I’ll feel gratified and be able to appreciate the hard fought progress we’re making.
As far as painting goes in 2023, you can expect more of the same from me. I will get more Fallout terrain done in 2023 but will otherwise, focus on getting Hellboy stuff painted and hopefully a bit of Prehistoric stuff as well. My hope is that 2023 is overall a better year than 2022 has been but even if it isn’t that great, I hope there will be plenty of hobby joy for all of us.
Kuribo's Painting 
Glad to hear you had a good Christmas Jeff, and here’s to a better 2023. Some great progress on your GD model, the progress in the face was the first thing I noticed before reading the text.
Good to hear your wife has found a new job, and that it will ease the finances and that she doesn’t have to work for the bad company.
Sounds like you have got some solid plans for 2023, and hope they all work out for you, and look forward to seeing them grace your blog as you get to them.
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Thanks, Dave and I agree on having a better 2023. With my wife’s new job starting soon, it already is off to a promising start. I’m glad the progress is visible on the horse. It hasn’t felt like I’ve gotten enough done lately but slow and steady is probably a good approach in this case. I hope you weren’t suffering from insomnia when you wrote this. It had to have been in the middle of the night, if my math is right!
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It was very early hours of the morning ! LOL wasn’t the insomnia this time ! LOL
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Haha, that makes feel a little better anyway! 🙂
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Some nice progress on that horse! Keen to see it develop over the new year. I’ll take a look at Mario rabbids, been on the lookout for games I can play with and around my 2 year old and Nintendo stuff is pretty kid friendly and if the strategy is interesting then all the better! Have a great hobby filled new year!
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Thanks, Nic! Mario + Rabbids could be a good game for a 2 year old to watch. That even be the target age for the Rabbids and their low-brow humor 😉 I hope you have a great year as well!
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I am so pleased that Dave Stone has been so quick off the mark on leaving a comment on New Years Day! 🙂 That saves me having to think about too much and I agree with him completely (yet again)! The horse is coming along very nicely and I’m pleased you’ve had a chance to think more about what you’d like to do in the year ahead! I think the best news is that about your wife’s new job though, so hope that goes well!
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Haha, he was up early your time suffering for you to piggyback off his thoughts, John! 😉 In all seriousness, I’m glad that the horse is looking good. I hope you’ll be thinking the same in future updates as well! I’m excited for my wife to start her new job and I’m hopeful that she enjoys working there too. That alone will make 2023 a better year than 2022 for us anyway.
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Lovely work on the horse mate and I look forward to seeing more of your excellent work in 2023. Glad you had a good Christmas and that Santa delivered some goodies for you. Hope things work out for your wife and her new job. Happy New Year. 🙂
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Thank you for the kind words, mate! I would say the same about your painting too 🙂 I hope we both have a great year in 2023!
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Quite å lot on your plate mate but it sounds like you are handling it well. Focus on the fun I say.
The horse is looking great, such meticulous attention to detail. The fur is starting to grow on me, pardon the pun, but I just would not have the patience for that. I admire you!
The Railroad is a cool faction. The faction plot ending as written by Bethesda makes little sense but I do like the good intentions of the Railroad members they give out some interesting missions.
Protectrons for the win! Seriously excited to see you paint those up.
Wishing you a brilliant 2023 mate!
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I’m trying to keep moving forward and staying positive in light of a challenging year, to be sure. I’m really glad the horse is looking better to you. I feel similarly that the more I work at it, the better that effect looks and the less I miss the previously applied paint.
The one downside to the Railroad is that I really don’t remember any of the characters except Desdemona so they may not be as exciting to paint as a lot of the other Survivors have been. I will definitely get those Protectrons painted too because I need them for a specific scenario I want to play. I hope you and your family have an excellent year as well!
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The horse is looking amazing, you’ve got the dark brown spot on and the strong contrast with the black really brings it to life. Despite it having an armoured head it’s got a great expression and the detail on the face is superb. Can’t wait to see more!
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I’m really glad you’re liking it so, Matt! I think this may be a really dark and evil-looking miniature when its done and it sounds I’m on the right track to pull that off 🙂
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Happy New Year, glad that things are working out for you and your wife.
The horse is coming along very well, I don’t think I have seen the fur effect before, and if I have, not as well as what you are accomplishing.
I have been avoiding video games, I enjoy them too much and end up playing too long and getting tired eyes and weird dreams 😄
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Thank you! I have used the fur effect once before on the Blood Elf but there is fur sculpted on that mini too so it is a bit different. This horse does not have any so I’m hoping to add texture and visual interest to the mini wherever possible. Tired eyes and weird dreams? That sounds like a potentially fun outcome after playing some video games to me! 😉
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The horse looks amazing so far, and the figure has a lot of character that you are bringing out nicely. My recent figures don’t have that level of detail so I both envy the opportunity you have with it as well as glad I don’t have to accomplish anything nearly as good. Congrats on your wife’s new job, and best wishes to you both for 2023!
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Thank you for the kind words as always, Mark! There are definitely times I wish I could move faster on this piece but I know I have to stay patient since its for a painting competition. I hope you have a great 2023 as well!
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Superb read, Jeff.
Starting from the top…
Nice steed! The mouth really draws the eye, with the colours of the tongue and teeth standing out from the browns. The second picture shows the colours a little better, at least on my computer, and gives a better impression of what it must look like in the flesh.
Talking of flesh, you’ve done some fantastic blending on the horses. That must take some time to do!
Interesting about what you’ve said about Legendary James Bond. I notice, though, that it isn’t a Legendary Encounters game, like the Aliens one or the X-Files one that I have; I wonder if this makes much of a difference?
I’m surprised that you can’t buy a generic card to add to your deck each turn – in X-Files you can add a Special Agent – that increases the buying power of your deck if nothing else. There are also cards that can be purchased when they come up that allow you to bin other cards from your deck. Without these, then yes, the game certainly seems flawed exactly as you say. I’m surprised, because this is one of the later games released in the series and I wouldn’t have thought they’d have made such an error.
Ah! A Nintendo fan!
Never been one myself, mainly because I can’t stick the characters or the cartoony look of many of the games. I do like those kinds of games though and have a few on both the PC and the PS: X-Com, Divinity: Original Sin 1&2, and Hard West, all worth a look if you have Steam.
I think sticking to a few of your favourite games is the way forward and I wish I had the dedication to do that. Look forward to more Fallout and Arkham over the next year🙂
Glad to hear Your wife has got an exciting new job, best of luck to the both of you in creating a home for yourselves😃
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You’re too kind and when I blabber on for this long, I hope there’s at least something interesting it somewhere! 🙂
I’m glad you like the horse thus far too. It does take some time. I’d estimate that this is somewhere around 20 hours of work. Maybe more, maybe a bit less.
And what!? You don’t like Nintendo. I’m not sure we can stay friends! I like Playstation and PC gaming pretty well too but Nintendo is my bread and butter for video games. With that said, I’ve heard good things about all of those games so I’ll give them a look. Mario + Rabbids has some similarities to X-Com for what that’s worth…
I’m looking forward to plenty of Arkham and Fallout and Hellboy this year. My wife starting her new job next week is a great way to begin the year too. Thank you for the kind words as always, mate! They are greatly appreciated!
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20hours! That’s like, nearly 2-months of painting for me, as I’m only getting about 2-hours a week at the mo.
It’s just the Nintendo characters that put me off – I prefer grown up stuff!😉
It will be interesting how you find Arkham in the long run. The amount of content now available for the game could prove overwhelming, especially the options for deckbuilding. But then, if you’re playing it often enough, you’ll know things well enough not to get bogged down. I know I find it a drag when I get it out because I haven’t played it for so long and struggle to remember what’s what.
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I’m child-free, work from home, and have a very generous wife who lets me maximize my hobby time so that is mostly how I accomplish that. With that said, I hope you get more painting time in the near future. 2 hours a week is not a lot and you get a lot done in that short amount of time!
You are unbelievable, mate! I’m going to start writing long essays about why Nintendo is great and tag you in them, just to help educate you on how great Nintendo games are 😉
That is well said on Arkham. I had fun playing and have not been overwhelmed yet. My binder of Investigator cards is most certainly getting full though so that could change. I’ll write something up about it for this weekend’s post so look forward to that 😀
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Sounds like heaven to me! Lol!
My painting picks up during the warmer months (that’s not too many over here!) when I can paint in the garage and leave everything set up.
Lol! I look forward to ignoring your Nintendo based essays😁
Looking forward to it…😃
I think there’s less chance of being overwhelmed when paying solo. You don’t feel under any pressure to put together a deck – my daughter will sit there, deck done and sorted, staring at me and making ‘bored now’ gestures!
On your own, you can sit back and enjoy finding cards that work together or find a loophole against certain situations, or sometimes, just admiring the art!
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Don’t let your wife and daughter read this, mate! 😉
There is no hope for you, mate. You’ve been demoted from mucker to mate I’ve decided over this whole Nintendo debacle 😉
Based on the info you’re providing here, I think you really are a solo gamer through and through. I wouldn’t say I’m fast-paced but I’m not as slow and thoughtful as you are when I game. I guess dumb Americans can only handle Ameritrash as it turns out haha! 😀 It all makes sense now!
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A far as Nintendo goes, I think calling me mate is far more worthy than I deserve! LOL!
I love Ameritrash games, I just play them in the good old English way 😉
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You’re right! Git might be a more appropriate name 😀 Haha, sounds good, mate. Just remember it doesn’t count as a true win if you bore your opponent to death! 😉
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LoL!
Compared to Yasmin, I work at a snail’s pace, as she processes things really quickly, but quick doesn’t always mean correctly, though!
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Hey! I’ve been off the internet for awhile so it’s good that the first post of yours that I read in months has a nice update on life and gaming. Happy Nee Year. 😀
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Happy New Year to you too, Stew! I had been thinking about leaving you a comment on your blog to make sure everything was okay but I never did and thus am a terrible blog friend. Its good to have you back!
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Good to read that you had a great Christmas! I’ve got that Rabbids game but haven’t yet had time to swing around to playing it. I’ve been playing a bit of the new Tiny Tina Borderlands game with Marouda, so that’s taken up most of my vidya gaming time. Looking forward to seeing the new Fallout models once you have a chance to paint them up. 🙂
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I hope you had a good Christmas as well! I think you’ll like Mario + Rabbids when you get around to it, assuming you can stomach those French bunnies of course! I’ve started building some of the new Fallout minis so I’m sure I’ll be painting some of them sooner or later!
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Progress on that horse is looking really good. The fur looks nice and neat and I also like how the mouth and teeth have turned out. I wasn’t crazy about Breath of the Wild either, but I prefer older games in general. What’s your favorite Zelda? Glad to hear your Wife found a better job. It’s not fun being in a place that sucks!
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Thanks for the kind words as always, Brian! I think the mouth came out looking nicely too (as strange as that is to say). I never played Zelda on NES and I never got into Link to the Past but I did play the old Game Boy games so I’ve played a lot of them over the years. I still think Ocarina of Time is my favorite. The game is just a classic and really well done! I really like the handheld (Game Boy and up) Zeldas too though. Those are more of an old school 2D style and that makes them really enjoyable to me. Do you have a favorite Zelda game?
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My favorite Zelda is the SNES one. The Zelda games after that, just didn’t feel like Zelda to me. Though I am waiting for Windwalker to come out on the Switch, and I will certainly give that a go when it does. I have a feeling my youngest would like the new Zelda on Switch once she gets better at the controls. So I imagine I will take another crack at it later.
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That is a lot of people’s favorites. I just missed it on SNES and found it hard to go back to later on when I thought about trying it. Wind Waker gets a ton of praise but it is not a favorite of mine, unfortunately. You spend too much time on your boat in that game though I think Nintendo updated that in the Wii U version to make it better.
Link’s Awakening on the Switch is kind of obtuse as I remember it on Game Boy but if you like Link to the Past, I’d recommend it. It is 2D and an open world like the SNES one but with modern graphics on the Switch.
The new Zelda will be hyped to the moon so it will be interesting to see how good it is. I’m hoping I like it better than Breath of the Wild. Playing your youngest should be a lot of fun too!
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Yea, SNES was just the right mix of gameplay, music, art, etc. at the time. I’m sure some games do some stuff better now, but I haven’t seen one that does it so well. It was kind of like the ultimate Roguelike back then.
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That is well said and I would have to agree!
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Great work on the horse, that is really shaping up nice, the fur is looking great!
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Cheers, mate! I’m glad to hear you like it 🙂
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Amazing painting! You seem to have made out very nicely at Christmas so I’ll look forward to seeing them all painted up.
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Cheers, mate! I look forward to painting up some new stuff soon too. That will hopefully keep me motivated to get Hellboy done in the meantime 🙂
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great work on the horse mate!! I’m painting up a heap of Samurai cavalry horsed when I’m not busy on the block and thats OK until I get to the harness affair!! So well done on what you have achieved on this fine fellow!
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Thanks, Pat! There’s no doubt that painting horses is not the best part of the process. I don’t hate painting them but they take some extra practice at the same time.
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Very true mate, I did get over the
Fear long ago but they are certainly not the most exciting things to paint 😅👍🏻
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