Normally its pretty easy to pick whatever the main hobby focus of the week is and there’s your title. But this week, not only has it been two weeks since regular service but I’ve also split my time evenly between terrain for Fallout and Hellboy. So I hope you enjoy seeing a bit of both today.
We’ll start with Hellboy as I think its slightly less exciting. As you may recall, I painted one bookshelf already (the one on the left in the picture below) and had a heck of a time with it from paint not sticking well to the surface to my color scheme not working that well. The second one I went with a tried and true color scheme and for whatever reason, the paint stuck much better so it was more enjoyable to work on. I even did a little freehand which is passable in quality but adds a little detail to something that is otherwise pretty unremarkable.
A while back, you might recall that I was having trouble with Vallejo’s varnish. I’ve been loyal to Vallejo for varnish for years now and I’ve found it to be a pretty strong product overall. They recently reformulated it which I have mixed feelings about but more significantly, I had trouble with the bottle I bought. The matte varnish just wasn’t matte. No matter what I tried, it just wasn’t performing like I expected it to. Thanks to a suggestion from friend of the site, LordcommanderEloth, I bought a new bottle of Vallejo’s Mecha varnish. It looks similar to the other bottle in that instead of being clear colored, it is white, which was a little concerning. I gave it a try though on everything you see in this article and thankfully, it does indeed make things matte like I hoped. So thankfully, that crisis seems to be resolved. I think I unfortunately bought a bad bottle and there’s nothing I can do but pitch it at this point. I would still say that the previous iteration of Vallejo varnish was easier to control (the new formulation is thinner which I don’t like since I brush on varnish) but at this point, I’m just thankful I found a solution.
I mention varnish because I actually gave the next piece of terrain a bit of a glossier look than normal. I wanted it to look satin more than glossy but I wasn’t entirely successful. It looks better in-hand than with bright lights pointed at it, unsurprisingly. There’ isn’t too much to say about painting this chair. It was very straightforward and not time consuming. It sparked an idea for a “cinematic photo” which shows off all of the Terrain Crate stuff I have done currently.
There is one more mini I could add to the scene above to make it pretty much perfect so who knows, maybe I’ll revisit this one in the future.
I’ve also been working on a new idea I had for Fallout terrain. It isn’t too mind-blowing but I’ve been thinking a lot about what do I need to take the next step with my Fallout boards to make them look even better. What I came up with is to create some smaller “accent” pieces that can help fill in certain spaces as needed. Here’s a quick look at what I mean.
Here is a smaller tree that didn’t make it through the nuclear fallout. This tree could have been in someone’s yard or is just in a natural area. While I have some tree sprues from Woodland Scenics, I find them to be a little bit of a pain to work with. They’re also pretty tall and I think its nice to have some shorter trees to mix in. Here is a look at a bigger one I also completed.
The set I got from Epic Basing came with a couple more trees, some tree stumps and a lot of branches. Some of them are too small and frail to use as terrain but I’ve got at least one more of these pieces coming. Once that is done, I’ll take some pictures on the mat with even more terrain to illuminate my idea a little further. Hopefully when we get to that step, my vision will become even clearer.
So that’s what I’ve been working on the last couple of weeks hobby-wise. All of these projects are the kind of terrain I enjoy working on so its been a nice change of pace from display painting.
Outside of that, I received a new board game which I’m very excited to try. I did make a dumb mistake that has some unfortunate consequences. Amazon in the US has terrible shipping in terms of packing, they tend to throw stuff in a box and it rattles around from the warehouse to you so stuff shows up damaged quite often. I thought I’d try eBay instead and I got a great deal on the game but the board game was packed in a flimsy box, so even with adequate packing material, the bottom of the box has a huge crack in it.
I tried to contact the seller and they took zero responsibility for it which is unfortunate. I should have known better and just bought it from a reputable board game retailer because then this wouldn’t have happened. For now, the box is holding up and if I like the game well enough, I’ll probably need to invest in some other storage solution anyway. So the damage isn’t the end of the world but I wanted to share my tough lesson in the hopes that it helps someone else out there.
While my plan was to play more G.I. Joe and then write up reviews for the expansions, I’m throwing in the towel on it as I played twice this week and found that the frustration around luck in the game hasn’t subsided. I got pretty far both times into the mission I tried and it felt like my luck turned at the end of the game which is not a fun way to take a loss. So out with Joe and in with Arkham Horror: Third Edition!
Finally, I promised in my last update that I would talk about how I plan to keep motivation high for the Kaiju diorama and one of those ways was to check out some Godzilla comics. My favorite of the bunch so far is Godzilla: Here There Be Aliens. There’s only three issues out for this series but its silly, action-packed fun and it reminds me why pulp can be so fun. As the title suggests, there is an alien invasion and only Godzilla can save the Earth from it. At the same time, the alien invasion is being led by some kind of shadow corporation and all kinds of mecha-kaiju have also hit the battlefield in the most recent issue. The art in the book fits the subject matter well and has plenty of kinetic energy to it. Truthfully, this series hasn’t given me any ideas for the diorama but that’s okay because its been really fun to read. It also makes me want to play a pulpy alien invasion board game or wargame, though I’m not so sure that such a thing exists. Perhaps I have a second Monsterpocalypse diorama in me down the road as there is a Martian force in the game… Time will tell!
Kuribo's Painting 
Glad your second book case was easier to paint after all the problems of the first one, and glad the new bottle of varnish is better. I do like the chair, mind you I just really like that chair type, would be great to have one like that in my house!
And the trees look really nice!
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Thank you again for suggesting Mecha varnish, mate! Chairs like that are very classy looking and they stand the test of time well too so I say go treat yourself! 😀
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Agree with the Lord Commander about the chair! 🙂 I like all of the scenery though, very nice!
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Thank you, John! I only had a couple of weeks to work on stuff for Dave’s challenge so I wanted to make up for lost time and try to catch up to people like yourself that had already made strong contributions 🙂
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You’ve been busy! I like what you’ve done with the hellboy pieces, and glad that second bookshelf gave you less trouble.
Those fallout bits of scatter terrain are also really cool, really like those trees. That should really help add some interest to your boards.
Unfortunate to see what big rip in the game box, that must have taken some trying. Boardgame boxes aren’t the most resilient things but still that’s a significant tear. Sounds like the contents made it through ok though, which is the most important.
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Having two weeks as opposed to one definitely made me look productive this time around. I’m glad you like the trees and I hope the terrain will look even more lively with them and some other things I need to work on down the road.
You’re absolutely right that the Arkham Horror game components could have easily gotten damaged. It was a little surprising that the seller didn’t want to take any responsibility as they probably deserve negative feedback though I’m not going to give it since I occasionally sell stuff on eBay myself and I would hate to have it happen to me, if that makes any sense. All in all, it could have been worse and I’ll have to come up with some kind of storage solution for the game regardless so the box being damaged is not a huge deal, thankfully!
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Yep that’s fair enough. How do you store your games if you don’t mind me asking? Sounds like you don’t use the box?
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Generally, I do store stuff in the box, when I can. Some games are easier to store in the box than others though. Hellboy is pretty easy because it comes with plastic trays to store everything. Fantasy Flight Games come with almost nothing for storage and organization so its common for people to buy third party kits with pre-cut foam that can fit inside the box. There are also MDF ones which is probably what I will get, if I want to keep Arkham Horror for the long term. Otherwise, I’d probably get a foam kit that fits in the box because I think its nice to have the original box and be able to see the cover art, for example. That’s a long-winded answer, but hopefully its helpful!
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Those are some nice pieces of terrain, I can see one of those tree pieces as a front yard tree in one of your houses.
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Thank you and its like you can predict the future! That’s exactly what my plan is once I get this last piece of terrain done.
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hey! Great job on the terrain. The bookcases and chairs look great together and the dead trees really look natural. And the bases should make them easy to put out. 😀
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Cheers, Stew! I’m glad you like everything I’ve been working on, especially the trees as they’re just about the opposite of where the Quars live, I reckon 🙂
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The gnarled and twisted trees look great. Just the sort of understated scatter terrain that a lot of tables miss or lack. Probably because they generally just add aesthetics rather than a rules interaction so they get overlooked very easily. I could see something like fallen logs, small(ish) clumps of raised earth etc also working well as part of this type of terrain.
The bookcases and chairs look good. They’re another great example of terrain where there’s very much a “good enough” point based on the sculpt and material quality.
Have you tried AKs paint-on/airbrush varnishes? Not sure if I’ve mentioned them before. They’re my go-to for Gloss/Satin/Matte and Ultra Matte. Really good quality products.
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Thank you, mate! I agree with you on the lack of rules interaction being a deterrent. The amount of extra work is probably part of it too, I reckon. I kind of like that they aren’t cover (as it keeps playing the game a bit simpler). My only regret was that I couldn’t raise the trees up even higher with a bit of foam so don’t be surprised if I take you up on your idea in the future. Some tree stumps and downed branches will look great as terrain too, I reckon.
I have a couple AK varnishes. A gloss one that works well on MDF (where Vallejo does not) and Ultra Matte which I do use sparingly when something is pretty glossy. It tends to knock down the colors a little too much so I don’t use it often on gaming pieces but of course, this is all to taste!
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I’d recommend picking up the others as well (Satin and regular Matte), especially as they can all easily be mixed together for speficic levels of Matte-ness or Shiny.
Looking forward to seeing more of these from you. Dried-out roots (put them in the oven for a few hours to fully “sanitise” them, seal with PVA) can make for amazing looking dead trees.
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That’s a good suggestion and I do mix varnishes pretty often so I’ll look into getting some more. I haven’t tried using roots before though its very common in dioramas, from what I’ve seen. I’ll have to keep that in mind. As you said in your other comment, using a 3D printer is probably the best/easiest solution nowadays. They’re a real problem solver!
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I always love to see scenery getting painted, so now I can look forward to spotting it when you share photos of your games. Excellent work.
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Cheers, mate! I have more scenery coming soon so hopefully you won’t be tired of seeing it! If I can keep at it, I’ll be motivated to play Fallout sooner or later too.
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