One of the best parts of this week was undoubtedly finishing the Goblin King. Much like Atlas taking the world off his shoulders, it was like a burden had been lifted! Here’s a look at the final results with some thoughts on painting him to follow.
One of the things that I failed to mention previously is that the Goblin King might be the hardest miniature in the whole LOTR/Hobbit line to paint like in the movies. Its so hard that almost nobody attempts it (though I have seen a couple pretty cool attempts out there so kudos to the brave souls who have!). Here’s what the King actually looks like in the movie.
The lighting creates a lot of unusual colors and there’s a lot of skin blemishes, veins, and all kinds of stuff that would take forever to paint up nicely. That is why most people end up with a scheme closer to GW’s (which I ripped off for mine truthfully). Its probably only fair to acknowledge that the sculpt “cleans” up the Goblin King a fair bit compared to the movie as well but that’s neither here nor there.
The reality is that the version of the Goblin King that I got from Games Workshop is basically around board game quality which is kind of shocking. I forgot that I documented this years ago around the time when I acquired this mini. Here’s a look at the modelling work I did to get him into a decent state and honestly, the sculpting it I did wasn’t really all that great.
When you’ve got a rough sculpt that is time consuming to paint and you’ve arguably already painted the better miniature previously, you’ve got a recipe for toil and trouble! When I compare this Goblin King to the old one, I’m surprised I got them to look as close as I did considering I used different colors and painting styles. I actually think the one I painted a while ago is much cleaner and neater so I almost prefer it even if my grasp of lighting and shadows was not very strong back then. You can certainly see that the plastic on the left is much high quality than on the right. The details are much crisper.
As I mentioned a while ago, the plan is to sell off all of my Goblin Town minis because I haven’t used them in years and I could use a bit more miniature storage space. I will take a picture of everything to remember them by so I’ll post that up when I get around to it. I took some pictures way back when of almost everything minus the Goblin King I just painted but my camera wasn’t very good and so the photos haven’t aged very well. It will be a nice way to send them off, hopefully.
With the remaining hobby time this week, I managed to get another mini done as a sort of palette cleanser. “Pancakes” Hellboy is a fun extra that Mantic threw into Hellboy: the Board Game and this particular mini commemorates one of the funnier Hellboy stories. Its short so let me include it below.
In some ways, the Pancakes story reminiscent of a comic strip with a punchline. It also shows why Hellboy sticks with humanity and not his hellish side too. Surprisingly, this little guy has his own stats and unique abilities so I’ll have to try him out in the board game and see how much fun he is. Here’s a look at the little guy about to eat a pancake.
Fortunately, I have some plans for a cool “cinematic” photo or two using him so you expect to see him again. That’s probably for the best because he was hard to get a decent photo of and this one doesn’t quite show how nice the paint job is unfortunately.
Since last week, I have received three more Monsterpocalypse buildings. Unfortunately, I ran into another issue with Monsterpocalypse, though not the manufacturer’s fault thankfully. I ordered a Cathedral which is almost impossible to find online. A place I’d never heard of in Maine has it and so I researched them to make sure they were legit and of course, they accidentally sent me the wrong thing. Instead I got the Media Building which is 3D printed and not as high quality as the resin buildings I’ve been buying from Privateer Press. I tried contacting them and have gotten zero response. The Media Building is going to require some freehanding which makes a bit uneasy. My freehanding skills are not that strong and I don’t want to have any “mediocre” painting in the diorama so we’ll see how I get on with that.
I will most likely grab at least another building or two and then see roughly what I’ve got and what kind of layouts I can achieve for the diorama. I can also promise that you’ll see something Monsterpocalypse next week that I’ve started working on already too so hopefully that will be interesting as well.
To wrap things up, I’ve often bemoaned how many cool games there are out there and how its not possible to play even half of the ones you might like. Well, I recently heard that Joseph Mccullough, the creator of Frostgrave and Stargrave has a new game coming out that holds strong appeal to me. Warriors of Athena is going to be based on Greek mythology. That is one type of game that I think has been missing in the modern wargaming market so I’m glad to hear it is being rectified. While I’d love to give it a shot, realistically, it takes me so long to get anywhere with all of the Fallout and Hellboy stuff I need to finish that I think there’s not a great chance that I’d be able to paint or play it in the next year or two. I’ll be keeping an eye on it all the same and I hope it ends up being a great game.
Kuribo's Painting 
Lots to talk about!
The goblin king looks great, really cool to see him done! That is a lot of re-sculpting you had to do though, I think I might have given up on the model!
I remember Pancakes from my pass at reading Hellboy and it’s a fun one. Cool they made a model for it, and I think you did a great job there. I’m a fan of scenic photos so I’m looking forward to what you do there.
Finally really unfortunate you had that issue with the building, very medium of them not to reply to your email.
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Its a long post as per usual. Thanks for giving it a read, mate!
I’m glad you like how the Goblin King turned out. The mini was nearly as bad as finecast which is really saying something. GW really does hard plastic better than anything else.
I’m glad to hear you’ve read Pancakes as well. Its a classic Hellboy story at this point! I just need to do a bit more Hellboy terrain and then I’ll be good to take the scenic photo. I’m looking forward to it!
I was less surprised about them sending me the wrong thing than I was about them not responding to my email. That was disappointing. I may have a way to get my money back though I’m not sure if I’ll pursue it. I hate to punish small hobby shops who probably have it hard enough as it is.
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Great to see you get the Goblin King finished, and that was a lot of filling required on the model ( one day I will get you using greenstuff and not milliput). That is a pain on the buildings, hopefully you will get an answer soon from the vendor.
Always had a soft spot for Greek Mythology, but like you have enough projects on the go without adding more.
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Thank you, Dave. You might be encouraged to know that I did that “sculpting” work in 2019 and haven’t owned any Milliput in a few years at this point, I’d guess. When I saw that picture with the milliput, I have to admit that my first thought was that the work I did looks pretty darn amateurish! I hope I’m a little better with sculpting now but probably not too much truthfully.
I’m afraid I won’t ever get that purchase rectified but such is life. At least it was fairly cheap (around 20 quid).
I’m almost always neglecting one of my projects at any given point so being able to add another into the mix is very challenging, unfortunately. Such is the life of a hobbyist!
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Nicely done on the Goblin King; one question, why the difference on the antlers between the old sculpt and this one? Made me go back and watch the scene in the first Hobbit movie where the horns and antlers seem to be a different color (or shaded) than the main skull. I think I prefer the darker antlers (listen to me, who thinks nuln oil is the answer to everything 🤣)
Enjoyed the Hellboy with the pancake!
Warriors of Athena sounds like it will be additions to my unpainted pile.
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I feel like a villain in Scooby-Doo. “I almost got away with it, if it wasn’t for you blasted kids!” is often what they say or at least that’s how I remember it. Truthfully, I was lazy and painted it bone colors but you’re right, it doesn’t match the movie and it isn’t realistic so thanks for pointing it out! 😛 I’ll go back and redo them as it won’t take long, thankfully.
Warriors of Athena could fit alongside Broken Legions very nicely. I think its certainly one for you to watch out for! I’m very tempted but skeptical that I can follow through on it… There just isn’t enough time in the day!
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Nice work on the minis, Jeff! 🙂 I do like Hellboy! I’ve never used greenstuff and use milliput all the time, although I just can’t sculpt at all!
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Thanks, John! When I paint Hellboy I can generally count on you liking whatever I work on 🙂 Don’t tell Dave Stone that you haven’t used green stuff before either! 😉 In all seriousness, other than its higher cost, I’d recommend giving green stuff a shot when you have to fill some gaps on miniatures. I think its the better material of the two to use.
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Actually I have used liquid greenstuff for filling gaps etc. but prefer Vallejo plastic putty, so I’m not really a good advert for greenstuff! I reckon Dave can sculpt with anything so he’s not bothered that a mere mortal like me can’t use greenstuff! 🙂
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I reckon you’re right on Dave’s skills. He’s an inspiration for us all in that regard! 🙂
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great job on the goblin king and I hope the sale goes well. Hobbit miniatures are kinda a nitch in a nitch under a nitch genre.
liked the other stuff too. Looking forward to seeing the monster buildings when they’re done.
😀
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Thank you, Stew! I’m impressed by your knowledge of the market and I’m curious as to how you know as much as you do. Are you secretly buying MESBG minis or looking to get rid of some of your collection? Those are just wild guesses and I’ve got it wrong, I’m sure.
You won’t have to wait long to see a Monsterpocalypse building either… 😀
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Oh my, I just love that cute little baby Hellboy with his pancake! Your painting of him is lovely too; I especially love the way you painted his shirt. I definitely want to see more of him.
Congratulations on polishing off the Goblin King. You can reward yourself now for a job completed.
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I’m glad you like baby Hellboy too, mate 😀 He’s surprisingly cute for a little demon! And thank you for the kind words on the Goblin King. Now I just need to do the work to put him up for sale but I’ll get around to it in due course, hopefully.
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