There’s no denying that this bust is taking my longer than expected at this point. I contemplated not even updating this weekend because I don’t have a ton of progress to show off and I almost always update between Friday-Sunday night and so I’d missed my deadline. Ultimately, I figured an update is in order because I don’t want to do another one until this project is finished. There just isn’t that much more exciting stuff to show until its actually done and if that means no update next weekend or even the weekend after that, then that is how its going to be.
This week I removed the reflection on the face, which didn’t take too long thankfully and I worked on the mohawk which was a lot harder and more trouble than I expected. Painting hair in this shape/style is pretty exacting. You need smooth blends which is not easy to achieve because you can’t use paint that’s too thin or it runs all over the place and you frequently need to correct your lines so they look clean and straight. I also wanted to ensure that the hair shows where the light is hitting accurately so that it meshes well with the rest of miniature. The dark side was actually easy and came together nicely.
The front view wasn’t too bad either. This is obviously the most important of all and so I was very concerned with getting it right.
But the bright side was tricky. Hair tends to be like metallic surfaces where the light bounces and you have transitions between light and dark. This is a somewhat extreme and exaggerated example of what I’m talking about. You can see how the highlights “bounce” or there is darker parts and light parts that alternate next to each other.
For a Mohawk though, you can’t really do that so easily. And so with some helpful advice from a fellow painter, I finally got the highlights looking right. My first inclination was to make pretty extreme highlights (go from pretty dark to very bright) and that was the wrong approach was it turned out. Instead, I just made all of the hair brighter on that side and it looks much better that way. Here’s a look at the final side.
I’m definitely learning a lot from this project and I hope to build upon it as I work on future busts. At this point, I just have to paint the back of the bust and do some touch ups and I’m done. It might take me longer than a week to do that but I’ll stay patient and try to bring this project home.
The other major thing going on with me is a renewed focus on my other main hobby, playing video games. While I was struggling with painting the hair, I found more enjoyment and satisfaction from playing Bioshock 2 Remastered on Steam which I’ll talk more about in a bit. The fact that I was playing a game on Steam marks a significant shift for me in how I participate in the hobby.
There are a couple of reasons for the renewed interest. The first being that I realized that Steam now shockingly has most of the Playstation and Xbox exclusives available to purchase and play. Console exclusives have been core to the gaming business model for a very long time. You generally pick your console based on those exclusives because you can’t get them on other consoles. More recently Playstation and Xbox have decided that releasing their games on PC can net them more money and not hurt their consoles sales I guess, because they’ve released a lot of games on Steam. For example, Elden Ring, Ratchet and Clank, and Last of Us are all on Steam right now. Those games are the main reasons why I was going to buy a PS5 and they’re accessible to play on the computer I already own. That not only saves me money by not needing to buy another console but it also lets me maximize the Steam account I already have and save some storage room. That’s a win-win-win-win or something like that.
Another thing that is relevant to my renewed interest in Steam (which is an-all digital platform) is that physical media is in a funny place right now. If you go to your local electronics store or place that sells video games and movies, you’ll notice that they’ve really scaled back on movies and video games. They keep less and less in stock nowadays and I think people are buying fewer physical copies because of streaming and digital downloads. Another sign of the changing times is that the Playstation 5 actually upcharges you for a disc drive so you have pay more to use physical games on your console which was almost never done in the past. I haven’t heard many complaints about this new business practice either which could be more evidence of the shift in consumers’ buying habits. I like having a “library” of the games I’ve beaten and I like having something tangible to show from my purchase so it definitely gives me a bit of pause to see physical video games becoming rarer and rarer.
There is a kind of divergence happening with video games in particular. There are the video game collectors who are paying extra for physical copies, especially for games that are likely to be valuable in the future. These include the expensive collector’s edition games (like pictured above) and Limited Run games where the overall number of copies is capped, for those that are curious. The regular console game you pick up at the store that costs $60 when first released (in the US anyway) is what is diminishing in popularity. The problem that I have is that for Playstation games in particular, these games often drop to $20 after being out for a year or so (which is when I usually buy them truthfully) and they never go up in value in any real way. So most of my Playstation games are worth around $20-$30 each which isn’t all that exciting as a collector. The video game manufacturers aren’t making games that are found at retailers that go up in value very much like they used to on older consoles. For example, one of my favorite purchases is a game on the Nintendo DS called Little Red Riding Hood’s Zombie Barbecue. Great title, right? This was an obscure game made by a tiny studio in Europe and they somehow made some physical copies of it. Eventually collectors realized, this game is good, quirky, and pretty darn rare and so the value skyrocketed. A quick price check indicates its worth probably $150 right now which is x4 to x5 times its original price. These kind of games aren’t getting physical copies at all now or at least they aren’t ever going to be at your local retailer. All this is to say that even someone like me, who has a pretty extensive video game collection from Game Boy and Nintendo 64 up to Playstation 4 and Switch, is seeing less reason to buy standard video game releases, especially for Playstation and Xbox. The games aren’t valuable and never will be worth anymore than what you spend on them and the vast majority will never even be worth their original $60 price point again. The only exception is Nintendo games which do hold their value so physical purchases on those is much smarter and well worth your time, in my opinion.
I don’t know what the future holds for me and video game collecting. I don’t have infinite storage room, of course, so I can’t buy many Collector’s Editions that come with statues and other bulky items like that, generally. The current market trends have made me decide that I don’t need to get a PS5 or physical games for that system because there’s no sense in dedicating the storage space and money to something that isn’t going to have that much of a return in investment. I’ve always liked looking for and hunting down obscure games that I think will be valuable later on but seeing that it isn’t very likely to happen on PS5 and going digital for that console is a huge shift for me and video game collecting.
It also means I have a reason to play more games on Steam, which I’m happy to do. If you don’t know, I have put quite a lot of energy into achievement hunting and having an impressive profile on there. I’m more than happy to get back to my old achievement hunting ways too.
And that brings us to Bioshock 2 Remastered which I was arguably more into than painting this past week. I really enjoy Bioshock and consider it an all-time great game and Bioshock 2 is a really strong game too. It isn’t as groundbreaking (since it is a sequel) but the exploration of collectivism and its potential flaws is no less interesting than picking apart Ayn Rand’s philosophies like in the first one. Dystopian stories can be really interesting too and that is the case here. I played Bioshock 2 when it came out many years ago and saw that it was cheap (everything is on Steam when you catch it on sale) and the achievements weren’t too hard or time consuming and I slowly became more obsessed getting 100% of the achievements last week. Ironically, this version of the game has serious issues and my second playthrough was crashing ALL the time so I don’t recommend playing it on Steam, unfortunately. It must have crashed 15 times in that playthrough (and the game is maybe 10 hours long so that is a terrible rate) which was maddening because I would lose progress in my game each time but yet it made me more and more obsessed with finishing my goal. Fortunately, last night I got my 44 or 43 perfect game (depending on who you ask) and I’m eager to get some more. Its exciting to be able to use my new PC and monitor and make my Steam profile even more impressive and I expect I’ll be doing a lot of that sort of thing in 2025 when I’m not painting, of course! Video games won out this week but I suspect that painting will win out until Grunthal is done. Hopefully my video game ramblings are interesting to some of you out there and if not, don’t worry, I wouldn’t expect them to become a regular occurrence.
Kuribo's Painting 
Grunthal is looking great. Every time you show him now I think “well, that must be him done now”. And then the next week you’ve taken him even further.
I’ve not been playing computer games much lately (not enough hours in the day). I’m always saying I’d like to get back to it soon.
I’ve noticed that it’s getting harder and harder to buy physical copies of things though. We got a few DVDs lately and 9 times out of 10 they just don’t play. Compare that to films I bought 20 years ago and which still play fine. I guess it’s somewhat self-fulfilling because why buy physical copies if you’re just wasting your money? On the other hand if I’m going to buy something I want to actually own it, and that’s not really the case when “my” copy is stored on a multinational corporation’s server and they can take away my access whenever they feel like it. So yeah, it’s practical and convenient, and I’m almost certainly over-thinking things but on the other hand it’s a bit too much like owning nothing and being happy for my comfort, and I’ve not quite managed to square that circle to my satisfaction! Oh well, I guess if the power’s that be are going to force me to store my films, games and music in a way that makes less mess and takes up less space then I’m going to clutter up the house with miniatures instead. That’ll show them! š
LikeLiked by 3 people
The last week or two, I keep thinking that I just have one more thing to do but that isn’t the reality. I’m glad you like the blonde slayer so far too š
I’m right there with you on physical versus digital. I generally want to own physical though there are some video games now where they give you a download code basically instead of even providing a disc. So physical stuff is being undermined bit by bit it feels like. Digital as a whole has a lot of problems though too so there’s not a perfect solution right now anyway. There will always be some people who want physical but it could be that one day they only make expensive, collector’s edition physical media one day which I suspect a good chunk of people don’t really want.
Its hard to predict where all this will go and I don’t think even the media manufacturers know at this point. Where we can all agree is that we are going to clutter up our houses with something so if they take our physical movie and video games away then its almost definitely going to be miniatures š
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great progress on the Bust Jeff, and yes hair can be very tricky to get right, and you’re doing a fantastic job.
Interesting thoughts on the state of streaming over physical copies, I always prefer a physical copy, so a book over a kindle, or a DVD over it on a streaming service, and this pays off for me, as living in the sticks the internet can drop out repeatedly ! LOL I guess I’m just old, and would rather not have to bother with streaming services, especially when they cancel shows I’m enjoying ! LOL
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Dave! I’m relieved to nearly be done with the hair. I’ve certainly been challenged by follicles on this project as well š
I have traditionally favored a physical copies as well. The streaming services are fickle and things come and go all the time. The thought of having to search to find out where the thing you want to watch is actually available is a little bit annoying too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice work on the painting, Jeff! š I’m a bit of a dinosaur and like to have physical items as opposed to digital ones but I do make exceptions if it suits me! Gave up on PC games long ago as I know they’d just eat my time up (and I’m pretty crap at them anyway)!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, John! My preference is physical overall too though I have had to adapt to not having tons of storage room in the last 5-10 years which makes me strategic with what I keep. Video games certainly do take up plenty of time and I find that you almost have to pick between TV and movies or video games because there is so much out there to consume in each form of media. Having said that, we really have no reason to be bored in modern society and this is all a good problem to have!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Interesting post. The bust is exquisitely painted – kudos on all the fforts as it definitely paid off. wow! As for video games, I’m out of my element there for sure.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Mark! Not too long to go now either, thankfully. And no worries about being out of your element on video games. I’m that way on a golf course, to be fair!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Grunthal is looking very nice now, I like the tweaks youāve done. I think not going full shine on his hair is the right move he doesnāt look like heād be using lāOreal to me!
Iāve gone the other way for gaming actually, I own a ps5 and no gaming computer. It got to the stage where buying a gaming computer was much more expensive than a PlayStation so after a lifetime of PC gaming I moved over to consoles. I donāt play many video games anymore though I spend most of spare time painting and or playing tabletop games (card games/wargames/board games).
LikeLiked by 1 person
I reckon having shiny hair like l’Oreal would be quite the sight in Warhammer! Thanks for the kind words as well, mon ami.
Having a PS5 is definitely less work than a gaming PC, which you can endlessly upgrade too. I split my time between video games and painting most evenings but if I was a parent, I’d be hard pressed to do both, I’m sure. As long as you get your gaming in someway or another, that’s the important thing! š
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ohhh myyyy God! Iāve obviously missed a few posts but Grunthal is looking absolutely amazing my friend. The metal on the horns, the eyes and the scars are real standouts for me. Incredible work
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, mate. Getting closer and closer to being done and I’m glad to hear you like what you see!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That Mohawk looks amazing!
I’ve always been more of a fan of physical media, I’ve been buying 4k versions of movies i like when practical. Just like the option of knowing I have it vs having to search for it and find it’s on a streaming network I don’t subscribe to. Went to Playstation when every game I wanted to play required an update to my computer. Or the game I had didn’t work on the newer operating system.
Wow, I sound like a grumpy old man. Get off my lawn!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! Really glad to hear the blood, sweat, and tears were worth it.
I prefer physical overall as well. I’ve begrudgingly moving towards being more digital or at least being strategic about what I keep and what I don’t.
Once the PS3 era started, console gaming looks a lot like PC gaming. Sure you don’t need to upgrade the graphics cards or download drivers but every game has updates and there are frequent system updates. Many games nowadays require a day one patch even so the two are more alike than ever. Having said that, I still think the home consoles are easier to operate than PC gaming and cheaper overall so I don’t blame anyone for choosing that over having a gaming PC.
LikeLike
Why there are games on the newer Playstations that I would like to play I know I won’t buy them because I can’t play them. The problem with pc games was I would buy a game and then find out my system couldn’t play them to their full potential.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is true. I have had some trouble determining whether my computer can run certain games as well. I bought a new PC game that I will start playing soon and I’m sure I’ll talk about it in some capacity in the future but I wasn’t sure exactly how well it would run when I bought it but I gambled anyway and bought it since it was fairly cheap. Its much easier to figure that out with home consoles. You just have to check to make sure the PSX on the game case lines up with the systems you own š
LikeLike
Great work on the topnot looking very realistic to me, figure out what colour to do the fur cloak yet?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, mate! I do have the fur cloak figured out and I’m working on it as we speak. Hopefully I made a good choice and you’ll end up liking it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
itās hard for me to imagine what could be left to do for the bust. It looks really nice. Like, reehaaaly nice. š
LikeLiked by 1 person
Unfortunately, the back was basically unpainted when I wrote this. The fur on his shoulders was only basecoated too so the project drags on for a little bit longer š Its looking like another week yet before I’ll be done but only time will tell. Thank you for the kind words as always too! š
LikeLike
Grunthal continues to progress beautifully. I don’t think I would have really picked it up without your commentary but the difference in the way you’ve painted the beard vs the mohawk is quite stark. I feel that you’ve captured a bit of sheen on the beard which is perhaps not that common in real beards – by which I mean that most people’s beards are quite course and don’t have that shininess that you can see in the reference picture of the model’s hair.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, mate! I think I probably to some degree failed to paint the mohawk and the beard in the exact same manner (despite using the same paints!) and that is mostly why there is a bit of a contrast between them. With that said, you’re right that beards generally do look different than the hair on the top of our heads so there’s plenty of room to interpret the variation as intended even if it was mostly accidental on my part š
LikeLike