Monsterpocalypse – General Hondo Done!

Its great to be back after going quiet to knuckle down on Hondo. I’m excited to share with you the finished results and something else I got done too.

Before I show off Hondo, I wanted to share what inspired the color scheme. In 2018 when I was still relatively green in our hobby, I transitioned away from board game minis (Mansions of Madness 2, to be more specific) and got into Hobbit SBG (MESBG now) for gaming purposes and Warhammer for “display” purposes. I wasn’t really a good enough painter then to paint for display but I painted stuff as well as I could that I had no intention of gaming with so the label still kind of fits. On one trip to the local Warhammer store, I bought a box of Space Marines but I nearly bought Tempestus Scions. It could have gone either way truthfully.

I remember all of this quite vividly because I only finished painting one of the space marines in the box of 5-6 which is amusing to me now because I was acting like a display painter early on apparently! I really gave the space marine my all and submitted it for scoring on Cool Mini Or Not and it got the worst score of any miniature I submitted there by a fair bit. I didn’t understand it at the time but I shrugged it off and a lot of time has passed. I haven’t forgotten about that space marine or how much I’ve improved since then. Here’s a quick peek at it.

I never did buy the Tempestus Scions or use their military-inspired, color scheme but when I was trying to come up with ideas for General Hondo, for some reason, I remembered the Tempestus Scions. I guess this is proof that good ideas never die and while it may take years, sometimes you surprise yourself and get the chance to go back and execute an old idea.

With that out of the way, lets take a look at Hondo finally!

I suppose there isn’t too much more to say about him at this point. I did want to mention that waiting to paint the front of him until last was a good idea in terms of motivation. I was pretty motivated at the end of this process and it wasn’t just because I wanted him done. I knew that I was working on a key part of the mini that would make or break how he turned out. Truthfully, I don’t think this the greatest miniature I’ve painted but I’m happy with how it turned out and I think its a really fun mini. Certainly the kind of thing you can build a diorama around. I need a bit of a break from display painting but I’m sure I’ll get back to working on other parts of the diorama in the near future. I even have a good plan for how to keep my motivation high on this project which I’ll talk about most likely next week.

Unfortunately, I also worked on something else this past week that is basically done (it just needs varnish) but it was not fun to work on. I don’t like to be overly critical of any company’s products but I find it hard to be positive about Mantic’s Terrain Crate based on this bookshelf. I bought a box of Terrain Crate because it fits Hellboy: The Board Game really well due to cross-product marketing synergy. I have purchased and painted some Terrain Crate stuff before so I knew some of its limitations but what I worked on was a fairly mediocre sculpt. The wood grains are not sculpted well, the shelf itself is bent which isn’t noticeable from the front but it is from about every other angle sadly. Most annoyingly, the paint would not stick to anything on this miniature even with primer was applied. I had to use thick paint straight of the Citadel pots and even then, it took a couple goes generally to cover the books. I have no idea what caused this to happen but it made painting this bookshelf a pretty miserable experience. I also tried to experiment with the wood colors a bit and honestly, that didn’t work out all that well either so I probably sound a bit salty all the way around. I’m glad this one is over and I hope the other furniture in the set are a bit easier to work with. I’m going to try and experiment with painting the wood in other colors to see if that helps them look any better.

As many of you know, Dave Stone is running a community challenge involving terrain and I’m eager to get involved now that Hondo is done. The bookshelf was my first effort and I’m sure I can get some more done before the challenge runs its course. I’m especially motivated because Dave has been dealing with some serious health challenges and he is one of the most generous people in the blogging community so I feel like the least I can do is to put forth my best effort with the time I have. It doesn’t hurt that I need to get new terrain done for Fallout pretty desperately so we’ll see what I can whip up over the next two weeks!

Its rare that I can catch a movie these days but I got to watch Creed II finally and man, Creed and Creed II are such great movies. I know its not a “genre” movie (Sci-Fi, post-apocalypse, or fantasy) which meshes well with miniature painting so I hope you don’t mind if I rave about it a little bit. Creed does something that I don’t see in that many movies or TV shows. Of course, there’s drama, there’s highs and lows that the characters go through like any movie, and somehow, you end up feeling inspired and motivated by the end or at least I always do. Creed is about boxing but knowledge or an interest in boxing isn’t required to enjoy it. I think that’s probably because the themes are so universal in Creed. The first movie focuses on the main character, Adonis Creed, who wants to become a boxer but he’s an illegitimate son to his deceased father so he has to start from the ground up to prove himself. In life, we all have to prove ourselves in some way or another so this is pretty easy to relate to. There’s plenty of other things going on like family (though not necessarily the one you’re born into) and responsibility too.

Maybe I just see myself in Adonis Creed’s character and struggles, which is kind of ironic because I’ve always been unathletic, I’ve never boxed, or even physically fought someone in my life. I’m a lover and not a fighter as I kiddingly told my wife the other day! But when I watch Creed, I know what Adonis goes through. To fight for people in your life, both alive and no longer here, and to want to make them proud, to be successful, to be your own man. With both Creed movies, I feel like I can do anything after watching them and it reminds me what it feels like to be alive. As corny as it sounds, I paint to the best of my ability because I want to see how far I can go, to be the best version of myself. If you want to be a professional boxer, you have to do the same thing or your body is going to hit the canvas and your career won’t last very long. Just like Adonis Creed needed the right people around him, I’m most thankful for anyone and everyone who has supported me along the way. Its not an easy road sometimes and I’ve certainly made mistakes and learned tough lessons but it always helps me knowing that others believe in me and want to see me succeed. So thank you for your support and go see Creed if you want to get motivated and inspired. I’m already looking forward to watching Creed III when I can though honestly, I’ll probably savor it since the first two have been so excellent.