Another week of steady progress on General Hondo but it wasn’t without some serious drama. I’m pretty careful with miniatures so they don’t take a swan dive off any tables but a couple of days ago my wife was sitting at my desk and accidentally knocked Hondo over which caused the Citadel paint handle to pop the miniature loose and to the floor he went. I was incredibly lucky because almost no damage occurred other than some really minor paint chipping off and one of those spots was only basecoated at the time. I did have to clean off the glue on his feet and rebase him but after 30 minutes he was back on his base and ready to receive more paint. Whew! I was lucky that he is a sturdy resin miniature and that no more damage was caused… My wife has vowed to stay away from my hobby desk in the future so I’m reasonably confident something like this won’t happen again or at least not anytime soon!
Setting the dramatic moment aside, I finally assembled my favorite part of the miniature and have been working on painting it this week. I think it adds even more character to the mini and it captures the feeling I want in the diorama too. The more sense of scale you get when seeing the diorama, the better of a job I did with it, I reckon.
Hondo’s weapon of choice is another reason why I need a bigger base for this project as well. It won’t make sense if he’s using a missile truck like a rocket launcher if his opponent is within arm’s reach! As you can see, the end is now well and truly in sight on this project so there’s a decent chance that I won’t update the website again until I finish Hondo. I think it will take longer than a week’s time to finish everything so don’t be alarmed if things are quiet for a week or two here!
Perhaps foolishly, I did buy something Warhammer for a future display project as well. I picked up a Darkoath Chieftain on Warsteed because I got it for about 50% off on eBay. $25 is not a bad price for something that retails for just over $50! I really like this miniature because it gives Conan and Frank Frazetta vibes. It also comes with two weapons, two different kinds of horse head armor, and three different human heads for the mini so a really nice amount of options. I have a lot of ideas for how to make a cool base for the miniature in addition to the nice “mood rock” it already has. I will say that in looking over the various pieces of this miniature, I was struck by how fine and delicate many of the details are. It made me feel slightly out of practice and intimidated though I’ve done it before and I’m reasonably sure I can do it again. I would be very surprised if I take this project on anytime soon as I’d like to get some gaming stuff when Hondo is finished and I have a lot to do on the diorama after that but I’m happy to have this mini waiting in the wings. I’ll probably try and get it assembled over the next month or so because I’d like to prime it whenever the weather cools down. Unfortunately, I feel like I’ve been waiting all summer for that to happen and its almost August!
Finally, I’ve got some more games of G.I. Joe Deckbuilding Game under my belt and I must be getting a little better as I play it as I struggled to get out of the second Mission Act for 2-3 games but I played earlier today and managed to get to the Final mission. I had a lot of dice to roll to beat the final mission and I only needed one more success with four dice yet to be rolled and they all came up short! I promptly lost the next round, unfortunately. So close to victory after five games! It will be interesting to see how many more plays it takes to finally win. I can’t quite tell if skill is more important than luck or if you need a bit of both to win. I’m curious to see how much staying power the game has as well but time will tell on that. I imagine I’ll keep sharing my thoughts periodically leading up to the eventual base game review.
Kuribo's Painting 
He is looking really good mate, and the weapon of choice certainly adds scale which I never got from your previous posts.
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Thanks, mate! I hope to really play that up in the diorama when I get around to it in 2026 at the rate I’m going 🙂
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think on the positive at least you will not run out of things to do 🙂
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That is very true and our hobby keeps me out of trouble I suppose you could say too! 🙂
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Hondo is looking terrific — that truck missile launcher is super cool and badass!!
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Thank you, mate! I’m looking forward to “bringing him home” and finishing up this lengthy project fairly soon.
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Hondo is really looking the part now! 🙂
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Thanks, John! Not too long to go now…
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Hondo is really coming along nicely, reminiscent of watching the old godzilla movies where the man in the rubber suit is walking through miniatures fighting the JDF with their tanks and missiles.
That warhammer figure is nice, wish lotr figures would come with more options.
Just curious, have you watched the second season of the Last of Us? Not having played the game I couldn’t really get into it.
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Sorry for the slow response. I was back in Cincinnati for most of this week visiting family. There is definitely something over the top about the mini which I love. Its ridiculous and fun all at once just like those old movies.
I wonder if MESBG minis have more restrictive licenses which makes them harder to get approved and that’s why GW doesn’t do it quite as much? GW also seems to do that sort of thing much more commonly with plastic kits than resin and I’m sure there is a good reason for that but I don’t know what it is.
I haven’t watched either season of the show but I heard about Season Two being disappointing. I have a few thoughts about the situation. I’ve talked to a few people about the show versus the game and my feeling is that the game is so good that the show was going to have some trouble matching it and it seems like that came true, unfortunately. One of the biggest mistakes the show made was who they cast as Abby. That actress is good but she doesn’t capture the look of Abby well at all. Abby is built like a tank and is pretty intimidating. At the same time, she’s very likable or at least I thought so anyway, and that makes everything that goes down pretty gut-wrenching. I think the show tweaked some plot points from the game which caused controversy as well.
Last of Us 2 is a masterpiece of a game and story. The only things I can think of that might put someone off it is the brutal violence and grim story though that’s kind of par for the course for post-apocalypse as a genre. The ending is one of the best in a video game or movie that I’ve experienced. It reminds me a lot of Lolita and why that book is so good. I know that’s a strange comparison to make because the plots are wildly different but they end on just about the perfect note. For these reasons, I’d say give the video game a try and I bet you’ll like it more than the show.
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Hondo looks great, love the missile launcher. Glad he survived the spousal attack!
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Thanks, Mark! I’m glad Hondo stood up to my wife’s attack too haha.
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Glad to hear the damage was limited, that’s a scary moment! The “rocket launcher” looks excellent, it’s really all coming together.
That new darkoath range is excellent, very keen to see what you do with that model.
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I consider myself very luck in regards to the damage that could have occurred. To say it could have been devastating is not an exaggeration!
I’m glad to hear it on the Darkoath mini. I’m looking forward to tackling it and I have ideas and plans for other Warhammer (mostly AoS and Old World) minis too! I just need to find the time to work on them all.
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So when are you guys signing the divorce papers? Haha jokes. Im glad Hondo survived the fall and he’s looking bloody fantastic mate. Side note: my wife actually knocked over one of my metal unpainted French foreign legion dudes and she said the look I gave her was something she’d never seen before haha. When I asked what it was exactly she said “threat” hahaha FYI I hugged her and said I love you so much that I’d forgive you.
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Can you refer me to a good attorney, mate?! In all seriousness, I was pretty shocked by it all and I told her before I checked it how bad it could be. Of course, once I saw that the damage was minimal then all was forgiven haha!
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Im not sure about attorneys as I’ve always represented myself, hence why I’ve lost every case. However Judge Judy seems fair. Or Judge Dredd.
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I’d be scared of what Judge Judy or Judge Dredd would rule against me 😀
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OMG. That’s just another reason why wives and miniatures don’t mix!
kidding of course. But glad it only got minor damage. But hopefully you made her feel extra guilty about it so that’s she obligated to make it up to you…
kidding again.
love the fact he’s holding a missle truck. 😀
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You’re not wrong that they don’t mix. In my house, there’s little to no interest in miniatures! 🙂 I love the missile truck too. Its my favorite part of the mini and it is what makes Hondo stand out from 2-3 other King Kong inspired miniatures in Monsterpocalypse.
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Everything about this mini screams awesome! I love the contrast between the black and the colours, and the complementary blue/orange scheme is lovely. The NMM is superb and I’ve only just noticed that he’s holding a bus!
I’m also happy that he survived what could have been a fatal fall. I’ve dropped enough resin minis to know how fragile they can be, so congratulations on your escape!
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Thank you for all the kind words, Matt! I’m really glad you like how the mini is coming together. I was lucky that this miniature is the really chunky resin that doesn’t break easily. If it was softer resin or plastic, I would have been toast as far as this project is concerned!
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I never knew that Hondo brought his own rocket launcher, that is extremely cool! It sounds like you had a lucky escape dropping him. If there had been major damage to the paint do you think it could be possible to recover or does all the blending require that you do each section completely?
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I’m glad you like it too. Its a very creative design on this miniature to be sure! I’m not entirely sure how easy it would be to fix. The problem is that if you have paint chip off, you’ve got a very uneven surface which has to be remedied. You can try and fix it by adding more paint to fill the hole (which is tedious) or you could sand it all off in that area which carries risks as well. The big problem is that if you put too much paint on any miniature, you’ll lose details and shapes sooner than later so its a good problem not to have! Its also really tough to get a specific color when you’re blending like this. I have occasionally been able to do it when fixing mistakes but I’ve just as often failed in my efforts so its definitely something you want to avoid when possible!
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