After a week off from regular service, my hope was to have a solid amount of progress to show off this time around and I suppose I do, though there’s certainly plenty to go on this big ape. The good news is that the back is very nearly done. That’s almost always the hardest part to get motivated to paint so I’m glad to be in this position.
On the front, I worked on the most important part, Hondo’s face and I’m pretty happy with how he looks. My plan was to initially use Kong from the movies as inspiration but I started down that road and didn’t like how it looked. Instead, I photo referenced some actual gorillas and I noticed that they tend to have some brown hair on the top of their head.
I was glad to try and emulate that on Mr. Hondo and it took a couple of goes to get right but I reckon its not too far off considering the scale of the miniature.
I’m getting closer and closer to being able to attach the last piece to Hondo which will be exciting though I admit that there’s still significant pieces to be painted like the stomach armor and the shoulder pieces. Hopefully it starts coming together week-by-week from here on out.
I have enjoyed working on this animal miniature and I will have to find ways to do more in the future. Working on most of the gorilla parts of this mini got me thinking about my hometown zoo where I saw gorillas quite frequently growing up. The zoo I’m thinking of is the now somewhat infamous, Cincinnati Zoo, at least in regards to gorillas because of Harambe’s untimely death. I still can’t believe that a child somehow got into the enclosure and a gorilla had to be killed to protect the child’s life. I would have never thought such a thing was possible having visited at least 20-30 times in my life. And it is a dark mark on what is otherwise a very good zoo. To end this subject on a happier note, if you like gorillas and are in the US, I’d recommend a visit to the Bronx Zoo. There are plenty of other great places to see them but I think no zoo comes close to capturing their natural environment better.
I also had a chance to go to Michael’s, a ubiquitous craft store here in the US, and I picked up the largest trophy base I could find for a whopping three quid. Unfortunately, the largest one they had is 7 by 9 roughly and I think its a little too small for what I want to do. The shape of the base presents some challenges as well since most cities are laid out in a grid shape. Here is a picture I took with some of the main subjects of the diorama.
My original plan was to include some of the smaller forces from Monsterpocalypse in addition to the “Kaiju” sized ones to help show the scale. Obviously, that’s going to be really hard with the amount of space left and if I used this base its going to be more of a 1 v. 1 matchup with maybe another building or two on the base. The other problem is that in my head, the diorama is going to look more like a living, breathing city and this would unfortunately be more of a city backdrop. We’ll see if I can find something a bit larger in the near future and go from there. Testing these pieces made me realize just how much work I’m in for too. Nobody said making dioramas is easy or quick!
One thing you won’t see in the final project is the unpainted miniature in the picture above. I accidentally dropped it while working on assembling it and I snapped off a back claw off the foot. I can’t find the darn thing on the floor and I don’t know how well I could repair it anyway. The miniature is pretty fragile for a gaming piece and it wants to fall over because its so front-heavy. All this means that I need to look for another Cthulhu miniature which is annoying when you’re on a tight budget but ultimately, I think finding something more stable will benefit the diorama on the whole.
If that isn’t enough hobby happenings, Modiphius made a big announcement for Fallout Wasteland Warfare. They must have listened to my editorial a while back because Fallout Wasteland Warfare is getting a second edition in 2026. At a high-level, they’re making the following changes:
- No more cards
- Streamlined rules, especially the AI system
- Previous supplements will be supported like Into the Wasteland and Into the Vault which let you randomly generate a vault or exterior location and the enemies that reside there
- Modiphius also mentioned is that they want to increase the scale of miniatures a bit so that they have great detail but are easier to paint.
Obviously, Games Workshop fans know how new editions can go and there’s always a chance that a new edition is a mixed bag or worse but to me, this sounds pretty promising. They seem to be looking for ways to improve on some of the game’s greatest weaknesses which is smart. I’ve talked before about how figuring out whether to use cards or the Fallout app is not easy. The cards become out of date with errata and Modiphius has had more and more trouble making the cards as well so getting rid of them makes sense.
I love Wasteland Warfare but the rules can be intense and its easy to forget some of the rules while playing so I hope that they can make the game less daunting to newcomers. It sounds like a lot of the symbols and tokens are going away and I think a lot of people will welcome that as its often cited as a negative about the game.
The supplements being supported in the next edition sounds great to me and is exactly what I would hope for. I really want to try my hand at those when I have the collection for it.
The scale change is raising some people’s anxiety, probably more than any of the other changes. Unfortunately, they haven’t showed what this will look like and I hope they find a way to do it and not make older models look ridiculous but we shall see. I do know that the details on Fallout minis are really, really fine. The faces in particular are not easy to paint. The eyes have to be done really small or they look off. If Modiphius can remedy these issues and keep the range cohesive (which is a big if!), then I’m all for this change. I do think this is the one thing that could backfire on them though as someone people are already getting worked up about it, online.
But that’s not all! Far Harbor is finally coming to Wasteland Warfare. This is probably the best part of Fallout 4 and while I won’t show a lot of the minis here, they all look great. Far Harbor presents some hobby challenges as it is set along the coast and a lot of fighting happens on beaches. That is much harder to create a nice-looking table for, in my opinion. I’m also curious how many scenarios they can create for what is a fairly modest part of Fallout from a size perspective but we shall see. At least we know the Hermit Crab mini above will look fantastic!
Whew, that’s all from me this week. I managed to play Hellboy: The Board Game and Fallout since the last update and so next week, I will have a battle report to share, probably in lieu of the usual update since there’s plenty of work to do on the report between now and then. I hope you’ll forward to it as it was a pretty fun game this time around.
Kuribo's Painting 
I really like the red on the head, adds a lot of interest and presumably will guide the eye towards the face. Nice too see some more pieces of the diorama too, although unfortunate about that claw, is there really no way to save that model? (Also that building behind the Cthulhu monster is looking like it’s having a bad time!)
Interesting about fallout, wonder how big they’ll make the minis. They were already quite big by my 28mm standards which made them not that useful for things like this is not a test so presumably that’ll become more so of a problem, although for monster minis it doesn’t matter much!
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I hadn’t thought about the touch of color on the crown of the head drawing attention to the eyes, but I reckon you’re right on that, mon ami!
You bring up a good point on ditching the Cthulhu monster. You could try and sculpt a claw for the back I suppose but I don’t trust my abilities in a display project to do that. If I were gaming with the miniature, I’d definitely try and salvage it in that way. Maybe I’m just too much of a risk adverse person but I don’t like taking chances on things that I’m not good at in display projects because I want the final result to be as high of quality as I can make it. I’d hate for a miniature to be docked points because of a “mistake” like that, in other words. I also think that getting a different and more stable miniature will make the diorama easier to complete so that is a small side benefit as well.
I’m not exactly sure how Fallout is going to achieve the changes they’re talking about. The minis are 32mm non-heroic scale currently and that means the fine details are really fine. I don’t mean this as a slam on Fallout minis but I think painting them demonstrates why GW does heroic scale. It just makes for an easier and better painting experience. I hope they can increase the size of key details without the change being too obvious. Whenever Modiphius shows how they’re trying to accomplish this task, I’ll share it on the website as I imagine it will be interesting to discuss.
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That’s fair enough for the Cthulhu, display standard is much more exacting that’s true especially if you’re wanting to take it to shows so I understand completely.
I’ll probably read about the new scaling on your blog first, you seem to be the source for fallout news for me!
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Excellent progress on Hondo Jeff, the additional color on the forehead brings focus on the face, and adds an area of interest as well. Shame about the Kaiju, although the loss of a claw could be painted as fight damage, which would add another level to the scene, without them having to make contact. See what you mean about the base size, and how you wont be able to fit many buildings in let alone streets, hopefully you can source a larger one.
Hopefully the size increase wont be as bad as legion, to shatterpoint, but I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see, do like the hermit crab.
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I’m glad to hear you like the latest progress and I agree that the base size just isn’t going to work. Fortunately, it was really cheap so I’m not out much. In thinking about it, I might want to work backward and try to figure out what I want space to include in the diorama and then figure out the base size I need afterwards.
I forgot that Star Wars had scale changes in it. The more I think about it, the more I think Modiphius should be cautious with any changes they make. It can definitely go astray if they’re not careful!
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I like the hair but I really like how the mouth turned out, the shading on the tongue is what stands out for me.
Probably not your style but I would have a photo of Tokyo buildings behind Hondo.
I feel your pain about losing a part on the floor, I had a piece fall off my worktable, swept the floor into a dustpan looking for it and eventually found it on my chair.
I’m always leary about scale updates, GW changed the base size of some large miniatures which would be a pain if I actually cared.
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I referenced gorilla photos with an open mouth to make sure I got it right so I’m glad to hear it paid off! 🙂
I’ve been contemplating trying to paint a sky background for the diorama. I don’t have much experience with painting anything other than miniatures so I’m not sure if I can pull it off. It would look really cool, if done well.
I’m glad you found the missing piece. I’m pretty sure I’ll never find this one because I looked pretty thoroughly for it. I will go check my hobby chair though, just to be safe though!
Do you mean that GW did that for MESBG specifically? That’s interesting and would almost definitely cause some controversy, I would think. I assume they had reasons for doing it though I can’t think of what they would be…
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great job on the gorilla face. It’s looks ferocious but dignified. 😀
I grew up in San Diego where they have the world famous San Diego Zoo. It’s giant and well done and kinda ruins other zoos for you. 😝
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Thank you, Stew! I certainly am happy with the accolades you’re sending the gorilla’s way! 😀
So you mean to tell me not only are some people blessed with good looks, fantastic Quar terrain, but they also grew up in San Diego!? Some people have all the luck! San Diego is one of my favorite US cities and you were spoiled because you technically had TWO world class zoos in your hometown. The Wild Animal Park counts in my book anyway even if its on the northern edges of San Diego proper.
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Hondo’s looking more impressive each time we see him! 🙂 And that hermit crab is impressive so it’ll be good to see you paint one up!
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I’m glad to hear it and it is very possible you will see a giant hermit crab from me in the future! 🙂
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Brilliant work on Hondo, especially that sweet painting of his armour. I’m not such a fan of the brown hair / head fur though – I think it’s because of his crown making the contrast between black and brown more delineated than it actually is.
Funnily enough I saw that there was a Fallout game announcement and I thought of you. Hopefully it delivers what you’re looking for and patches up all the annoying things from the first edition.
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Thanks, mate and I’m sorry to hear you don’t like his crown! I’ll be curious is if you like it anymore as I get the rest painted up. I can always make adjustments to it later on as well.
Thanks for the kind words on the new edition too! I don’t have tons of complaints about Wasteland Warfare but if they can pull off their stated goals, I reckon the game will be even more fun to play which sounds great to me.
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