Hello everyone. If you were wondering why I didn’t update last weekend, there is unfortunately a reason for that. I managed to do something that is foolish, embarrassing, and shockingly easy to do even when you think you’re being careful. I hurt my back exercising (lifting weights which weren’t even that heavy to be more precise) about two weeks ago and it has taken quite a while to recover. My back still hurts but I can do most things again, just not standing or walking for longer periods. I’m hoping that changes soon as I’m very eager to get back to “real life”. Of course, I was exercising not only for the health benefits but because I’ve been working on losing 10 pounds (which I gained when I had stomach woes a year or so ago) and was very nearly there before this setback. Hopefully I can get back to exercising soonish and achieve my goal. That is assuming I don’t gain it all back waiting for my back to heal! Life can be such a pain sometimes…
After a couple of days of barely being able to do anything other than experience pain, I started playing computer games again which included Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty which was absolutely excellent. I beat it and got all the achievements and mon ami, Nic, over at Lair of the Lagomorph, was not wrong when he said it was great. First of all, Idris Elba plays a character that is just as good as Keanu Reeves as Johnny Silverhand and Idris is just coolness and talent personified in my book. Phantom Liberty has five different endings where are varying degrees of good and bad and at least two of the five were emotionally affecting for me. They also really make you think about what is right for you and the other characters in a way that I’ve not seen often in video gaming. Cyberpunk 2077 and Phantom Liberty get very high marks from me indeed and I highly recommend them for any of you video gamers out there.
As I started to get a little bit better, I could paint some again too and so I needed something easy to get back in the swing of things so I worked on another piece of street/road terrain for Fallout. This piece is a bit different however because it is a cul de sac. I assume these exist globally but the street I grew up on has one so its very familiar to me in that sense. I think it really screams suburban which is more or less the theme I’m working on with my Fallout terrain so I’m glad to have it in my collection and I probably ought to get another house or two done so I can really put it to use in the future.
At this point, I felt like I can paint normally again so I surprisingly worked on something else from Fallout. This is my 9th out of 10 objective markers that I’ve painted up. Its taken forever to get them done because I really have to be in the mood to tackle one and thankfully, I was again. This marker really tested my limited freehand skills and ability to imitate tiny writing. Unfortunately, my camera struggles with really small minis and the photos tend to turn out kind of dark. That’s what happened here and some of the nicer details are hard to see which is a shame. I did some really nice chipping on that dark blue lunch pail too…
This marker is food themed with the lunch pail and cooler but also an Eat-o-matic that was ripped off the wall. When you add some booze and other boxed snacks. you’ve got a real potpourri of food. You rarely come across anything like this in Fallout but it makes for an eye-catching objective anyway. Its nice to know that I’ve only got one more of these objective markers left too. The end is in sight, finally!
The weather was shockingly good today (65 Fahrenheit) a week or so after we got a snowstorm so that meant I had a chance to do my last rattle can priming of 2025! I got more buildings for Monsterpocalypse primed and unfortunately, I think I’m going to need to buy some more for the diorama based on what I saw when I laid them out next to each other. More importantly though, I got one of my brand new 75mm miniatures primed which I tried to take pictures of. Its really hard to get decent pictures of primed miniatures but here it is. Its only partially assembled as I’m sure you can tell!
All in all, this miniature has very few issues, especially for a resin sculpt and I’m excited to paint it now that its primed. One thing I failed to appreciate about Kimera Models previously is that they design their minis to be easy to paint in sub-assemblies. I think they do an even better job than GW does in this regard. The pieces fit together pretty snuggly and easily which is helpful but they only make you assemble pieces that are likely to block your brush access to other parts of the miniature as well. I somehow never noticed this before so I want to give Kimera their flowers here. I much prefer assembling this mini to the complicated and sometimes finicky GW sculpts, truthfully.
Here is a look at what the box art for Lokaris looks like too as I know the picture above makes it hard to visualize the assembled mini.
I haven’t worked on assembling the other mini as I won’t be working on it anytime soon but I will show you the other one in case some of you are curious. Its this bloke right here.
He will be a great project in terms of display painting, I reckon. He’s one of those ultimate NMM sculpts like Sanguinis in Warhammer 40k, I’d say. And he will also take absolutely forever to complete but that’s okay, I should be good for it later on in 2026 hopefully.
I know this is a longer post so I don’t want to ramble on too much longer but I made ANOTHER miniature purchase which was probably financially irresponsible of me but I stumbled across some terrain that I think will work really nicely for Hellboy so now I’m excited to receive that and work on it whenever I get around to it. At the moment, I have tons of exciting things to work on and I just need to devote time to completing it all. Of course, that’s always the hardest part in our hobby as its easy to come up with ideas or indeed, buy new miniatures and terrain. The trick is getting it all done before our patience runs thin!
Kuribo's Painting 
My condolences on the back issues! Hope you’re feeling better very soon, and good luck with the weight loss, I’ll have everything crossed for you there! I’ve been trying to do that for far too long now, and always find the slide into Christmas a tricky time…
Fallout looks a very interesting game, I looked into it a few years back, but there’s no don’t around me who plays. The whole setting and everything, it all seems really fun!
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Thank you, mate. I’ve still got a little ways to go yet on the back recovery. I was so close to hitting my goal before this injury so I am somewhat confident that I can hit the target when I’m fully recovered. I just have to be smarter about how I work out or so it would appear.
Fallout is very fun and highly thematic if you like the video games. The rules are a bit more advanced/complex than some wargames out there which some people are put off by. It is a solo friendly game (that’s the only way I play it, in fact) but I’m not encouraging you to buy anymore games. You have enough on your plate as it is!!! 🙂
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Fingers crossed for a full recovery and getting back on track, then!!
Yeah, I probably don’t need any more games in my life… 👀
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Happy to hear you’re on the mend. Back issues are something else… life grinds to a halt. I’m sure you’ll be able to jump back on the workout horse in no time though.
I played 2077 when it came out but on the PS4 so I couldn’t get Phantom Liberty. I’ve heard it added a lot to the series. I also appreciate when a video game manages to make you think. It is rare these days but thankfully still happens here or there. The video game medium is very effective for a showing the player a moral message. Maybe it’s because you get so invested in your character and their world? Maybe I’ll have to snag a PS5 finally.
I also have to say you did great work on the foodie objective. Your color choice screams Fallout and the chipping looks very good despite the camera conspiring against you.
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Thank you, Ben. You described back injuries perfectly. I’m going to try my very best to avoid any further ones in the future.
I’d recommend picking up Phantom Liberty since you already enjoy 2077. It is a bit different as there’s a focus on espionage in the story and some of the missions. The endings really explore morality and go to some surprising places. I hope that we see more video games do this sort of thing in the future as it makes the world of Cyberpunk seem that much more real.
Thanks for the kind words on the marker as well. I’m glad you like it! I’m hoping that when I take a picture of the last five markers all painted up, I’ll be able to show off the paint job better then. We shall see!
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Sorry to hear about your back Jeff, back pain is the worst. Completely limits what you can do. Really glad you got to enjoy Phantom Liberty though (and thanks for the call out!), it really is one of the best video game experience I’ve had recently.
Love the objective marker, the concept of fighting over a bunch of food and drinks is very fallout. You have your work cut out for you on those 75mm minis, both heavy NMM (although that gold one is another level!) keen to see your take on them.
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It really is, Nic. I’m hoping to get over it soon as I want my life back! You’re very welcome. I always like to give people who make a good recommendation full credit for it. I always feel gratified when I help someone else out so I’m sure that’s part of it too.
Glad to hear you like the objective marker as well. They tend to take as long as a regular Fallout mini (despite the fact that I don’t get quite as much usage out of them as I would like) so its always nice to get one done. And you’re right that both of the 75mm will involve plenty of NMM. For display projects, that’s the way I like it as it seems like that’s about as impressive of a thing as you can paint.
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Don’t rush too quickly to do things after a back injury, just gentle movement to keep it from doing other damage from lack of movement.
The cul-de-sac road looks excellent, in the UK they are laid out slightly different in a L shape or T shape. The markers are exquisite, and great you are down to the last one, as you don’t enjoy them.
The large models should keep you busy for quite a while, as should the new Hellboy terrain
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I can’t rush even if I try. My wife has got me under a close watch! I tried to go to the grocery tonight with her and didn’t go well so I was humbled yet again and didn’t make it very far before I had to walk back to the car and rest. Hopefully I get better by Thanksgiving as I’m eager to get back to normalcy.
I’m glad to hear you like the street terrain and that is an interesting difference in our countries too. It will be nice to finish the last marker in the future as well. They take quite a bit of time to complete.
With all of these new purchases, I shouldn’t be bored in the coming months. There may even be more new stuff if Black Friday goes my way… We shall see!
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Back injuries suck, been there with surgery. Take it easy.
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I’m sorry to hear it and I will heed your advice! It is frustrating at times but having surgery would be much worse.
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Nice work on the painting, Jeff! 🙂 I’ve been there with a back injury so I know it’s no fun – was weeks before I could get back to painting minis! 😉
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I guess I should consider myself fortunate! I wondered if some “wise old heads” might have some experience with this matter 🙂
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Guess I better comment before you post again 🤣
Seriously, I like the cul dec sac and the objective/scatter terrain. I think the new road piece will do wonders for your battle board with your existing road pieces and destroyed houses. I don’t know if your scenarios call for specific terrain layout or just general references.
I’m a big fan of small pieces, either as objectives or just adding a point of interest on the table.
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That time is rapidly approaching 🙂 I’m glad to hear you like it. It isn’t the most exciting thing to show off because if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. There is a scenario that calls for a lot of buildings scattered around a cul de sac but there should be others where it will work well even if the scenario doesn’t specifically call for it too.
I need to buy some more small pieces for Fallout. I keep pushing it off in favor of spending money on other things (mostly other miniatures, to be fair). Not sure if that will happen with Black Friday sales about to happen or not!
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Most Black Friday deals don’t really apply to our hobby except for specific dealers. I have in the past held off buying until this time to save on shipping but probably not this year.
Do me a favor and try to go the one ring site, I think it might be down for good
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I’ve got something specific in mind. I’ve been able to cash in a few Black Friday’s in a row at the same place and I hope I can this year, partially because I’m not sure how many of their products are going to be available in the future. You’ll find out more next week if I was successful.
I can’t get to it and I found a Reddit thread about it: https://www.reddit.com/r/MiddleEarthMiniatures/comments/1op7obx/oneringcouk_gone/. I think it very well could be gone as well which is a real shame. Its been a great bastion for MESBG minis.
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Ah man, I did my back in last year and it was nine days of hell. Hope you’re back to 100% soon.
The objective marker looks really good and for once the actual objective (food) makes sense in the context of a game. Looking forward to what you do with those 75mm figs!
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I’m sorry to hear it, Matt! I didn’t have it that bad, I suppose it was 3-4 days of hell and purgatory since then 🙂
I agree that food is an important resource in Fallout so its nice to have something to represent that. I’m looking forward to painting the 75mm minis too. I have a lot of projects on the go at the moment but I will get going on them sooner or later.
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Oh, I have lots of projects on the go too and never know which ones to do next. I took a look at my Purchased Items list on Etsy the other day and I cannot remember even ordering half of it LOL!
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Haha, I want to say I’m surprised but I’m not overly surprised to hear that 😀 Its good to have options, so long as you aren’t overwhelmed by them!
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I’m a bit late here but hopefully your back is ‘back’ to normal 🙂
I really like that objective marker and it gladdens my heart to see that you put as much effort into somewhat minor gaming aids as you do into the stars of the show.
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