I was convinced all week that I wouldn’t have anything to show off for this week’s update. I was steadily glazing away which always takes a while to get anywhere and I caught a bit of a lucky break. The internet was out basically all of the work day on Friday and so I couldn’t play video games on Steam and instead had extra time to read and paint. That helped me push towards getting what I have to show you mostly done. Its not the most interesting part of the mini in many ways because its on the back but it should wet your appetite for what is to come.
I’m going to go back and try to smooth out the highlights on the raised areas a bit more but other than that, I think it’s looking pretty solid right now. The only catch is that this armor looks quite a bit lighter than what I previously painted on the gauntlet so I’m going to have to revisit it that and carefully lighten it up now too. Here’s a photo from last week to demonstrate what I mean.
This is par for the course on a display project where you need to make sure everything is fitting together and looks uniform so its not a huge surprise or even a setback to have to go back and revisit the gauntlet. Depending on how long it takes, I might be working on some interesting parts on the front next which will be nice. I need to paint Hondo’s face pretty soon if I ever want to attach the other arm as well.
I did get Hondo’s adversary in the mail yesterday along with a matching building for the new foe so I’m starting to assemble what I need for the diorama miniature-wise anyway. I’m getting close to the point where I need to figure out what size display base I need so I can potentially buy some additional buildings for the diorama as well. I generally don’t like to spoil anything but who knows, maybe I’ll share some of these things as I get them ready to be painted as this diorama is going to take a good while to complete and I plan on taking breaks throughout the process to prevent burnout.
I haven’t talked about comic books in a while and this past week I read the eighth and final issue of Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. I really enjoyed the series from beginning to end and honestly tried the series on a whim and had never seen the movie before. The story is fun and whimsical while still being a dark fantasy tale and the comic book is really nicely illustrated. I am a fan of Jim Henson’s work and would like to see other things he did beyond The Muppet Show which is mostly what I know him from so I think that is a big part of why I tried this comic book too.
A month or so ago, well before the comic had ended, I tried to watch Labyrinth on one of the usual streaming websites and I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I expected. I thought the sound/voice quality was kind of low which is a strange thing to complain about, I know. All of the monsters that Jennifer Connolly runs into sounded like weird voices done by one or two people and that also took me out of the story a bit. The overall visual quality to Labyrinth is kind of old and grimy too. With all of the advances in cinema technology, I think Labyrinth doesn’t hold up as well as I would have liked. Sir David Bowie does put in a pretty good performance though, especially considering he didn’t do a ton of acting in his life, I don’t think. I fully admit that some of these opinions might not be popular for those of you who saw Labyrinth when it came out and perhaps I don’t appreciate as much as I should because I was born a year before its release and watched it as an adult many years later. I guess it just lacked the charm that the comic book has and I expected considering Jim Henson’s other work and I can see why it was somewhat divisive. I read somewhere that Henson felt like Labyrinth was ultimately a failure which is a shame because he deserved credit for doing something different, if nothing else. Labyrinth is also creative and does some unique things and that usually means it isn’t going to be widely accepted. I’m not going to recommend the comic necessarily but for me, I found the more cartoony and stylized version of Labyrinth comic book to be more enjoyable than original release. Go figure! Of course, if you have have thoughts on Labyrinth, I’d be happy to hear them.
With the exception of Friday, work has been pretty busy and this week is likely going to be worse so we’ll see if I can manage an update next week or if I need to skip a weekend to have meaningful progress on Hondo.
Kuribo's Painting 
Great progress on Hondo, and really appreciate the forced shadow on the backplate just below what would be his shoulder blades, as for the difference in the colors with the gauntlet, it could be two kinds of metal, or just brighten up the top third to match then putting the rest in shadow.
Glad you enjoyed the comic, not surprised on the film, as it was divisive when it came out, I enjoyed the movie and all of my children have grown up watching it, and Dark Crystal, which Henson did before this one, which actually made less in the cinema than Labyrinth, people just couldn’t seem to get past a whole movie starring puppets.
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I’m glad you like the highlights and shadows too. It really sells the metal look. I had debated doing a camo pattern on the metal but am glad I didn’t go that route in the end. I have been working on the gauntlet and pushed the highlights a bit more and I think that helps make everything fit better. We’ll see if that does the trick as more of the armor gets finished too.
I expected to enjoy Labyrinth, the movie version, and I did think it was totally fine but it just didn’t have the magic the comic did for me which I did not expect. I have heard of the Dark Crystal and I should probably give that one a watch too.
Sadly, its hard to imagine something like the Muppet Show or anything Jim Henson worked on happening again. I think advancements in computer graphics (or whatever the proper name is for digitally created scenes) have probably made the odds of people accepting puppets in a movie even less likely.
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A few years back Netflix did a series set in the Dark Crystal world, was hugely popular, but they wont be making anymore, as it was too expensive to produce.
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You’re right! I forgot about that. Its the same reason that hand-drawn, animated movies are unfortunately gone…
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Amazing work on Hondo again. The NMM on his armour just blows me away, I’m very much in awe of your skills.
We somewhat recently rewatched Labyrinth and I have to say that my experience was very different from yours in that I found that I still loved it. In fact, all the bonkers 80s puppetry was even more amusing now that it also bears the sheen of nostalgia. However, my kids also got right into it so I clearly it wasn’t only trading on the nostalgia factor. I’m glad that you enjoyed the comic though.
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Thanks, mate! I’m glad you like him so far. It should get more and more exciting from here as I start to finish parts of the mini.
I’m really glad to hear that your kids liked it! Labyrinth is a great story about growing up/coming of age. I’ve been thinking about it since I posted this latest article and perhaps this is a case where I really like the first version I was exposed to (the comic book) and that is the way I prefer it now. I’ve seen my wife go through this with her favorite musical, Wicked. She saw that many years ago and the movie just can’t replace it for her. Humans can be oddly finicky when it comes down to it 🙂
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Nice work on that back armour, very smooth blending you got there. Interested to see what you do with the buildings, that’s a really interesting theme for a display base (also exciting to find out what Hondo’s opponent will be!)
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Thank you, Nic! I’m glad to hear you’re anticipating more of the diorama too. I’m in the same camp though we’ll both have to be patient as there’s most definitely weeks of work yet to come!
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Nice work on the armour, Jeff! 🙂 I’ve got no views on Labyrinth I’m afraid – never seen the movie!
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Thank you, John! And no views are required on Labyrinth. I was too young to see it when it came out and I’m guessing you weren’t the target audience in 1986 either! 🙂
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Haha, well guessed! 🙂
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Wait, what?? You’ve never watched the movie the labyrinth?? That’s wild and as crazy as my best mate not ever seeing the movie Rocky. There’s just some movies you have to watch brother. I’m glad you enjoyed the comics but you have to watch the movie now too. Let me know what you think.
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Mate, this is really going to send you through the roof. I tried to watch Labyrinth and wasn’t enjoying it so I decided to just finish reading the comic book instead. I don’t know if I’ve ever watched Rocky… I don’t think so. I watched Creed and that was really good though. Boxing in general is great for movies. There’s been a lot of good ones over the years.
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Southpaw is a good one. Im going to look past the fact you haven’t watched these classic movies and continue to be your friend. Onl just thought haha.
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Haha, fair enough, mate. I will try to win back your respect in the coming days 😉
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Hahaha good man
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Wow, that blue back armour is amazing; beautiful blending and such smooth transitions. Awesome work!
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Thanks, Matt! I’m really glad to hear you like armor thus far. There’s more of that to come!
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The armour looks perfectly fine to me, but if you really want to make sure the shadows and light values are “perfect”, you can try lighting them starkly with directional light in a dark room and taking photos of them from multiple angles. Then turn those photos into greyscale using your favourite image editing program – you will then have a series of reference images showing the light and dark areas as well as the transitions – all to use as a gudeline for consistency.
Way more faffing about than I’d use for my models, but for a display project, it could be worth the time investment.
As for Labyrinth, it may well be a case of “you had to be there, or at least first watch it when you were young”. It’s certainly far from a failure given how entrenched it has become in pop culture for literally decades, though. Surprising to hear that Jim Henson thought as much – but then again as a creator he sees all of the flaws from Day 1 – like we do with our models and the little things we’re unhappy about that noone else cares about.
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I follow a process similar to what you describe to help me see where light hits certain shapes, especially complex ones. I don’t always follow it exactly but its a great strategy for achieving realistic results. I’ll have to try the grayscale part of your suggestion sometime soon as it can’t hurt to have some extra clarity on how light works on a given surface.
That’s a very good theory on Labyrinth. My experience would definitely support it as well. I agree that Henson has nothing to be ashamed of. Taking chances creatively speaking doesn’t always pay off but it makes you better at what you do or at least that’s the way I look at it.
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