I’m not going to bury the lead here. Unfortunately, things are not going well with Henry. I tried to take an excellent suggestion from Dangerous Dave Stone (I’m giving everyone Conan-style names from now on when they get a shout out, so look forward to that) to try and blend the teal and purple on Henry’s forehead. That is indeed realistic and how light would work. Unfortunately, teal and purple do not blend because of the green that is mixed into blue to create teal I’m guessing. So that did not work. I then decided to just do a 50/50 mix of teal and purple on Henry’s forehead but that still doesn’t look right.
A friend, who is a better painter than I, gave me some useful feedback and did something that I tried and failed to do. He found a great reference photo, not the one below but this one is close enough. I could immediately see some of the flaws in my painting.
I see how how the shadows could have been done to be more effective and realistic. Also, there is no skin tone showing at all as it turns out so I got that wrong too. Ouch.
Unfortunately, I’ve been approaching a crossroads on this mini where I’ve applied enough paint to where I’ve lost some details in the sculpt and the mini doesn’t look as good as it could if I had known what I was doing from the beginning. As a result, I will most likely permanently shelve it. When I work on a display project, I want it to be in the upper 10% of the miniatures I’ve painted when possible. It doesn’t always work out that way but that’s what I’m shooting for. This guy won’t be able to achieve that (or even close to it) unfortunately and that is why I’m going to almost definitely walk away from it. Its also a question of time vs. money. I can continue to invest time in a miniature that I’m not all that happy with or I can just buy a new sculpt and start over. This might seem wasteful to some but time is a more precious commodity to me and I try to use the time I have as wisely as I can.
As I reflect on this mini, I want to acknowledge that I tried something really ambitious and I wasn’t ready for it. I need to do a bit more homework and have an exact photo reference in mind next time if I want do better. It really does suck and is humbling to mess up on two display projects in a row. I need to get the next one right and will probably try something less ambitious, like I did with Minerva. Just painting a bust was pushing myself hard enough, I didn’t need to go crazy with the lighting too. You live and you learn, as they say.
As the title suggests, I did work on something beyond Henry this week. Its none other than our friend Johann. This mini counts as “been on my hobby desk too long” and needed to get done. He wasn’t an easy mini to paint either. Unfortunately, my version was not well-cast or the details got messed up somehow because a lot of things I would have went to town on just weren’t well-defined.
His glass head is very difficult to paint well. I thought I had a decent idea of how to paint it but compare what I did to Angel Giraldez and he certainly bested me. I think he was able to paint the superior, resin version instead of Mantic’s hard plastic but I’m not making any excuses. My paint job is good but not great, even with the somewhat average photos I took. It is a bit of a shame as Johann deserves better! He’s one of my favorite Hellboy characters to be sure.
Expect to see more Hellboy in the coming days. I had a bit of an epiphany last week that I probably don’t need and might not have time to add many board games into the mix. If I prioritize painting some gaming stuff (which isn’t hard after stopping work on Henry), I should be able to get Hellboy in a state where I can play it several times without becoming bored. I also stumbled across news that a Prehistoric miniatures ruleset that I’m interested in buying is on sale because the people that make it are going out of business. I will certainly pick that up, give it a read, and probably a review at some point. That in turn led me to dig out my Prehistoric minis and Palaeo Diet rules and I realized that I only need to paint one more mini to be able try it out with a fully painted game. And if that isn’t enough, I was then reminded that I have Pulp Alley and I want to use that to do some Lost World gaming in the future. So instead of looking for more stuff to play, I need to work on what I have. I also could stand to do a bit more reading and that includes some pulp, Lost World tales so I’m going to get on all of this stuff in the coming days and see if that doesn’t scratch the gaming itch and buy me some time to build up my Fallout collection more too.
Kuribo's Painting 
Aww man, that’s a bummer on Henry! When doing light, I feel like I have to have a ref photo as I just can’t figure that out in my head like some people can. I’d probably be tempted to take pics of the mini with different lights on him to begin with. I do think instead of scrapping Henry, you should just play around with what you have and turn him into some cool art piece. It would also give you a chance to experiment with other parts of the model before you re-tackle Henry again (if you plan to).
The Hellboy minis look pretty cool. I think the helmet on Johann looks pretty good, it’s just different from what Angel Whatstheirname did. 😉
I need some Dinosaur minis, or at least I think I do, so I’m curious about that last part and especially what scale the things are in!
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Reference photos are a huge help for sure. My mistake was just taking reference photos using regular lights and assuming that I could work off that. I should have gotten a reference photo like the one in this article from the beginning and I would have had much more success (and saved time too). Henry isn’t being tossed out any time soon so I may play around with him further. I’ve never had the desire to go back and revisit something I’ve given up on (without starting over fresh) but you never know, I suppose!
Haha, thanks. I did my best on Johann in a reasonable amount of time. I think I could have done a bit better but not too much. I have another one of him to paint so I’ll see what I can do there. Angel Giraldez does a ton of commission work for Mantic so you’ve probably seen his work before 🙂
You almost got solicited over the weekend for RPG’s that are pulp/lost world but I did some Googling and spared you the work! I don’t have any dinosaur minis, if you can believe it. Everything is Ice Age in my collection currently. I’m not opposed to adding dinos in the future though!
This website is becoming more and more outdated with time but this is a good resource for dinosaur manufacturers (especially if you don’t want to overpay for GW’s): https://stevepugh.net/VTT/dino/2528mm-dinosaurs-and-other-prehistoric-miniatures/.
I would think Reaper and Wizkids make some things though I could be wrong! I’ve never tried to figure that out because I find both of their websites a nightmare the few times I’ve tried to look for things…
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Oh yea, if Giraldez has done anything for Deadlzone or Dreadball, I have probably seen it. I remember the painted minis on their site looking pretty good. And would say a big part of that was due to the painter! I definitely couldn’t get them to look like that back in the day.
Reaper and WizKids have a FEW Dino minis, sadly they are varying scales and most are nowhere close to 28mm. I have purchased Dinos from various places and it’s been really hit or miss. My best luck so far was an Etsy 3D Print shop. The guy is working on making some more models available, as I’d really like to get ahold of a Brontosaurus. I’ll definitely check out your list too! Thanks!
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He definitely paints their Kings of War sculpts. I tried to check for Dreadball and discovered they don’t even sell it anymore. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised… And I completely agree, he sells their sculpt quality quite a lot. Nothing I’ve bought from them is as good as I expect it to be and its all thanks to him raising expectations 🙂
I didn’t even think about scaling problems… I bought my minis from Acheson Creations and they do have dinos. As far as I can tell, the Ice Age critters I bought have pretty good scaling with 28mm minis so it might be worth a look at that one specifically. Though having said that, he doesn’t make a Brontosaurus so nevermind 😦
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Great to hear that you’re close to getting several games to the “fully painted” stage – or at least the ability to play fully painted games. It’s a real motivator – and then again moreso once you get the games in (at least I find it to be that way!)
I don’t know much about Johann, but let’s be real – comparing your own non-professional, hobbyist painting of a PVC boardgame mini to Angel Giraldez, one of the world’s most famous and well respected minis painter working on a resin one… it’s not usually going to go so well, even for very talented home hobbyists. Just as real, though – based on the photos you’ve got (even your slightly-dark, slightly-small ones) your Johann head looks more like glass than Angel’s one. And not in any kind of “blowing smoke to another blogger-friend” kind of way, either. Legit. I don’t know the character so maybe Angel’s version looks more like the comics, but based on “glass” I actually give it to you.
With Henry, I obviously haven’t been keeping up to date with all of your (or anyone’s post) for a bit, but if you’re going for the same kind of two-tone coloured light reflection, I have a couple of suggestions (for this bust – or maybe a future one – or this one stripped back and restarted?)
1. Try a soft OSL light “tint” of say blue/red on a painted model Similar to what Soastro does here (7:55 in the video) https://youtu.be/NXC-jG5iHvU?si=o_31wfSd4f4DI9J8&t=475
Do that a few times with varying intensity and moving from glaze products to paint + glazes as you intensify the colours.
2. For a “full effect” project, like the photo I would suggest something like a black base, zenithal priming through grey>white, and then using two coloured lights (mobile phones?) to get the exact effect that you’re after, kind of mirroring the photo above, but it will be on your own bust/project so you can see exactly how the light falls, light and dark, and also the interactions betweem the two. Take a photo of the model lit to your specifications (another phone?) Then use THAT as your painting reference image.
Anyway, as you’d know – we often learn more from our missteps than we do from successes, and just going to town and experimenting can be a great way to learn. Perhaps instead of relegating Henry to the shelf, use him as an no-more-stress opportunity to experiment with colour (and shade – look at the girl’s forehead in the photo) to see what you can do, salvage and learn from. As Faust says – play with the head now!
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Thanks for weighing in, mate. I’m right there with you on motivation for gaming pieces. You’re too kind for your compliments on Johann too. A painting friend and I often joke around that we’re outdoing the ‘Eavy Metal team or whoever the studio painter is for a given company with what we’re working on from time to time and its all meant in good fun. I probably should have made it clearer that I am not at all disappointed that my version doesn’t best Angel’s. As you correctly point out, its always going to be hard to better a pro painter with an inferior version of the sculpt! And truthfully, even if I did outdo Mr. Giraldez, there’s no real reward for it too so that also makes it a silly thing to aim for. I don’t know why but it does give me a little bit of motivation so that is also why I even think of such a lofty goal. I’m going to have to paint up the “bust” version of Johann sometime soon so we’ll see if I can do any better with a larger surface. It may end up just being a larger version of what I did here though too, I’m not really sure yet. Honestly, Angel Giraldez’s version was a very useful benchmark and example to work off and he didn’t have that option so kudos to him for breaking that ground. Whenever you get around to painting your copy of Hellboy, you might be surprised how few of painted examples there are out there. Most of what I’ve seen is fairly low tabletop standard. I feel like I’m mostly making things up as I go because Mantic only hired Angel to paint up the main characters and then some of the minis in the expansions.
I think you’re absolutely right on the future projects. I didn’t really think about it until I admitted defeat but what I was trying to do was leap five steps forward when one or two steps would have served me much better. I need to turn the ambition down just a little bit and try to be slower and steadier in my growth. As long as you’re moving forward, that’s the important thing.
Henry definitely will stick around in my hobby desk for a while. I think he could be useful to mess around a bit more. He doesn’t look terrible either, he just isn’t quite up to the standard I was aiming for.
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Yeah, definitely look at Henry as an opportunity to mess around with and learn from.. erm, on now that the pressure is off.
Angel is a pro painter and like BigChild Creatives, etc is probably flat out painting whatever any and all of the companies can book them in to do. Really though, as you’ve noticed with LotR, the pool of painters gets smaller and smaller and smaller the further away from Warhammer and then GW you get – it’s one of the reasons I’ve been reviewing all that Battlefield in a Box scenery over time – finding decent detailed info on non-GW stuff can be real difficult. Similarly, google “Painted Marvel Zombies Miniatures” and you’ll find a whole bunch of mine and several other painters who’ve been working on that game a lot on the first page. You won’t find me if you google “Painted Space Marines”. 😀
The Hellboy game is a niche within a niche within a niche – a lot of boardgame players don’t paint their minis at all, and many who do are not what we would call “hobbyists” who decide to “dip in” to painting for their game(s) and are just super happy to get their models looking like, say, Clix models – which is a ton better looking than coloured plastic. People like us, Sorastro, Agis, who attempt to paint boardgame models to a high(er) standard are the exceptions rather than the rule.
https://sorastro.com/
https://www.agisn.de/index.html
No Hellboy in either of their galleries, unfortunately.
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Yes, its very true that outside of Warhammer and GW, you don’t see a huge community of painters. I don’t know exactly why that is, I’m sure its at least partly due to GW’s dominance in the market. I think a lot of board game minis get posted on Boardgamegeek and not in other places so that might partially be why you don’t see as many though I might be wrong. If you’re willing to find and join Facebook groups, there is a lot of painted stuff posted there usually. The quality varies wildly though, of course.
For Hellboy, you’re spot-on. You would think since Mantic makes it, that a lot of wargamers would be attracted to the game but when I still had FB, most of the people who painted the minis in the FB group seemed very green. That is the only place I can think of where I posted something (anything really) and people really responded favorably. That might literally be the only thing I miss about having FB to be honest. Not that I need my ego to be stroked but I experience praise and/or acclaim so rarely, other than the awesome support we give each other in this small group, that it was definitely a novel experience.
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I mean.. in terms of numbers, Mantic is a tiny fish in GW’s small lake. Outside of “dialled-in” gamers like us, a lot of more casual players and gamers won’t have heard of them at all.
I don’t nessecarily agree that Mantic beingthe ones behind a making a licenced boardgame would make it more attractive to wargamers – with their …mixed reputation on mini quality I could easily see it having the opposite effect, though in truth I think it’s much more about how interested in Hellboy someone is, and Hellboy is pretty niche.
With the painting aspect, the board game community is a separate one – though obviously we cross over with them via Zenn diagram and only a relatively small segment of board gamers paint their models – the people who share their work on BGG/Reddit/Facebork/etc are part of that small segment of boardgamers, but a lot of that work still ends up in GIS results (excepting those from closed groups) – and again – not much out there at all compared to GW stuff or even Boardgames from larger BG minis companies like CMON.
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Those are all fair points, mate. I can see where you’re coming from on all of them. A Zenn diagram is a good way to think about board games vs. wargames and how interests align too. I wonder if the fact that many board games are swimming in games is a big reason why we don’t see more of it painted? Then again, almost all of us have healthy backlogs so that doesn’t seem to explain it either…
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Damn that’s a lot of typos in my responses yesterday! Venn diagram, obviously – but the replies are riddled with them. That’s what happens when you post while raiding in WoW, I guess! 😡
I’d blame this new(ish) keyboard as well, because I geninely seem to mistype more often with it even though there’s no real rational reason for it, so I’ll just have to wear that one.
Again, I think “proper” board gamers both have a backlog of games as you suggest AND are less likely to paint at all – and even then most of those few are going to be stoked with a Heroclix-level base-coated paint job and incredibly happy with the most basic Contrast job, let alone more advanced (to a completely non-painter newbie) techniques like slapchop or drybrushing.
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I go back occasionally to old comments and realize I’ve done the same thing and I’m not raiding in WoW either so it happens to the best of us, I reckon.
I agree with you on board gamers and how they approach painting. There’s no shame at all in it as I think there is a good chunk of wargamers who more or less have the same skill and approach to painting their armies, though I do think that overall, wargamers are better at painting than board gamers which I think is your opinion as well.
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I’ll be honest – I think your version of the glass head looks better! 🙂
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You’re too kind, John and we’ll see if when I take a better picture of it later on, if that opinion still holds!
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It’s been a very long time since anyone has called me Dangerous ! LOL As the others have said, learning from a mistake can be more important than getting it right first time, and there are many great products out there for stripping back the model rather than buying a fresh one ( I even soaked a metal model in Cilit Bang to clean one, but have no idea how it would work on resin, and that was cleaning off enamel paint).
Johan looks great in both forms, and have to agree with the others that yours looks more like smoke in glass than the other version, so never sell yourself short. Look forward to seeing more of your gaming miniatures being finished, and subsequent games, and what’s not to like about Dinosaurs ! LOL
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Haha, well there’s always a chance you’ll get a different Conan inspired name in the future! That is part of the fun of it, in my book anyway.
I didn’t have much luck stripping the other bust so I don’t know if I’ll try with this one or not. It is definitely food for thought.
You’re too kind! I don’t think Johan looks too bad though I’m sure I might have done a bit better as well. I look forward to working on the bust and seeing what I can do with it. I figured plenty of Hellboy minis wouldn’t upset you too much! I don’t own any dino minis currently but you never know what might turn up in a pulpy Lost World setting! 🙂
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before getting rid of Henry at least glue his cig back on: otherwise he’ll be in constant cravings and grouchy. Lol
but I’m totally behind ceasing work on something that is not required for a game and stopped being fun. Just a learning experience and stuff to do better next time. Painting the HellBoy stuff will be more rewarding and get you having fun again.
Art is about experimenting and sometimes they fail but it’s not actual failure; it’s learning and development. 😀
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Haha, I appreciate the care shown to Henry over the course of this project. His cigarette was indeed a great loss 🙂
I appreciate your support and everything you said is very true. You have to try and fail sometimes to move forward. Hopefully I can actually apply the lessons I learned and do that 🙂 I wouldn’t mind the chance to play some games again soon either!
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Well, it’s a good list nonetheless and gives me a start. Though a number of the links appear to be dead. Scale has definitely been a pain. I’ve bought toy dinos and mini dinos. Once I got a t-Rex almost the same size as a stegosaurus from the same manufacturer! 😣 That’s the plus side of buying 3D prints off Etsy though, I can ask them to send me a pic with dimensions or if they can scale something. The downside is the cost! 😉
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Yeah, I think that some of these companies are no longer around sadly and the list hasn’t been updated in a few years too. The scale definitely matters, you can’t have a T-Rex and Stegosaurus that are the same height. That just won’t do!
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Glad that someone agrees with me on that one, haha! 🙂
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…you’ve never seen an adolescent T-Rex?
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I haven’t but I assume they mostly look like mini versions of the real thing! 🙂
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I really like what you’ve done with the glass head on Johann, but I agree that the ghost version of him is a pretty unexciting sculpt and maybe even for someone as skilled as you it’s hard to make that look lovely.
Henry looks very impressive but my take on it right now is that he’s wearing wierd stripy warpaint which I think is probably not what you’re intending. If could you could make it look like that reference photo then I’ll truly take my hat off to you!
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Thanks, mate! I do what I can but we are always limited by our “canvas” aka the sculpt quality. You’re spot-on with Henry as well. It didn’t turn out the way I intended but I suppose I did learn some things in failure, which is good.
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