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Hellboy: The Board Game – Nazi Knife Fighter I

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This is going to be a longer than usual post because there are a lot of hobby happenings this week. The good news is that there are a lot of different topics to cover so I can keep things moving and touch upon a wide variety of topics along the way.

Early in the week, I was gearing myself up for something I am not good at and kind of dread. Batch painting or army painting is something I don’t enjoy at all. Some of it is mental as I prefer to focus on one miniature at a time for the most part but I also don’t have a way to paint more than one miniature at a time on paint handle because I only own one. I thought this time would be different, and I even consulted with someone who is much better at it than I and well, despite my best attempts to get motivated, my resolve quickly crumbled. In my defense, the miniature in question has enough details to it that I think I’m justified in not cutting any corners with it but I’m probably just justifying my own preferences, more than anything!

So that is what a Nazi Knife Fighter looks like! It is surely a little known but historically accurate title that Nazis used to classify each other, right?! In all seriousness, I had to consult with John@JustNeedsVarnish for ideas on how to paint this guy because I know nothing about WWII uniforms. We put our heads together and concluded that all of the Nazi miniatures in Hellboy are made up more or less and so you can’t really be too historically accurate with them. That’s no problem here because I’m not really a rivet counter and enjoy the lack of constraints in fantasy art. I do want to thank John for his help on getting me unstuck and while I want to say all of these miniatures are dedicated to him and his love of WWII, I’m hesitant to do so because they’re all Nazis! It reminds me a bit of this classic segment from 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. RIP Sean Lock!

Unfortunately for me, I have five more of this same sculpt to paint so you’ll be seeing more of these as I get the desire to tackle them. I’m starting to work on the Conqueror Worm expansion for Hellboy The Board Game which not only happens to be a great Hellboy storyline but requires me to do the most batch painting of all the expansions. I think there’s either 30 or 36 Nazis in total and so that’s five or six sets of identical miniatures in total. If I can manage to get through them all in a reasonable amount of time (less than 1-2 years), I’ll be very glad and relieved!

During this week, I got a couple of replacement miniatures so I figure we’ll discuss that next. The first was a fresh box of Brahmin Herd for Fallout since one in my first box was damaged and couldn’t be repaired. Wouldn’t you know it, but in this box I was very surprised that another miniature was damaged. I am very fortunate though because it was the one I had already built. So that means it took two boxes but I have one of each of the Brahmin which is a relief. Its a shame the miniature appears to be so fragile. Most Fallout minis aren’t too bad in this regard but I’ll certainly be careful with mine.

This is the final miniature I’ll get assembled for Anne’s Challenge and in fact, I sent her a photo of everything assembled so you can look forward to seeing that on her website Anne’s Immaterium in the near future! I’m excited to see all of the other entries as well!

I also received my second copy of the Bushido Oni miniature and I had very low expectations for it and its a good thing because the second one is also damaged…. In this case it is only a tiny part of the horn that is missing so definitely some improvement there.

Unfortunately, this miniature has more 3D print lines on it than the first one and I felt the horns in my hand (what a weird thing to say!) and they feel VERY fragile. I don’t know that I’ll actually paint this miniature in the end as I’m concerned the horns will break in any kind of mishap. Its about as fragile of a mini as I’ve worked with in quite some time and I think that 3D printing might be doing Bushido miniatures a disservice here. I don’t think I’ll be buying anymore in the near future as they seem to be very frail and they’re actually somewhat expensive for what they are too. This single miniature cost $30 which is pretty much what a box of Fallout miniatures costs.

I don’t quite know what this setback means for my diorama plans. I think I’ll go back to the drawing board and do some more brainstorming. Its a minor setback but I can always pivot into some other ideas and projects so that is what I will likely do.

In the meantime, I’ve decided to start working on a different display project and while its very early days, I’m happy enough with how its going so far. This is Lokaris, the Kimera Models miniature I bought a little while ago. I’ve done a lot of sketching to test out colors and a lot of stuff like the belts are only halfway done. They’ll look much better after I put a little more time and work in them. So far, I’m having a blast painting this miniature and its great to be back working on a 75mm miniature. I really do like the scale and the larger details on this mini. I’ve heard people call it the “Painter’s scale” and I think that’s an apt name. I’ll talk more about Lokaris next time but here’s a sneak peek to wet your appetite!

But wait, there’s more! Last Christmas, my brother kindly gave me a voucher to Games Workshop as a gift. I used some of it on some paint but the rest of the balance sat in my account for a while because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it. I guess GW ran some kind of deal when he bought the voucher because they gave my brother a gift voucher for $15 and he does not participate in our hobby so he kindly offered it to me. Games Workshop then gave me ANOTHER voucher because it had been a while since I’d bought anything from them, I guess so I ended up with about $50 in store credit. Apparently that last voucher was a temporary “deal” so I needed to use it or lose it. Long story short, I decided to buy one of my favorite Warhammer minis that I’ve been tempted to get many times.

So hopefully sometime this week it will arrive so I can get a closer look at it. Honestly, I don’t know when I’ll work on it as its a pretty big project and will take a long time to complete. I’d like to get other things done before that happens like the Kaiju diorama. It will be cool to have a Stonehorn though and I’m excited to paint it one of these days too!

Lastly (whew!), as part of my diorama brainstorming, I’ve taken to following hobby news a bit more and keeping my eyes peeled for interesting new releases. The easiest way I’ve found to do this is to check Beastsofwar.com semi-regularly as they’re always showing off newly announced miniatures. It turns out that Warriors of Athena, a game I am intrigued by based on the setting alone, is starting to get miniatures released. Take a look at these beauties!

It looks like these are plastic or resin and the details are very sharp! Apparently they’re 40mm which suits me to the ground as well. That will make them look quite impressive whether you use 28mm regular troops with them or not. I’ll certainly be keeping my eyes on these and researching a bit more on the game itself too because it is in my wheelhouse. Its certainly encouraging after the lack of success with Bushido to immediately see something else that looks like it could work just as well too.

33 thoughts on “Hellboy: The Board Game – Nazi Knife Fighter I”

  1. Excellent work on the Knife Boy Jeff, I think the color choices you’ve gone for evoke Nazi Germany really well, and great advice from John (reminds me of the Nazi’s in the Blues Brothers).

    Great news on the replacement pieces, that you have at least a full set for Fallout, the Oni having lines could be hidden with paint, so don’t give up on it yet.

    Great progress on the 75 mm model and the NMM on the plate mail looks excellent.

    Shall be interesting to see what you do with the Stonehorn, and those Greek models look very interesting.

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    1. Thanks Dave! Knife boy is a great title as well as this guy looks pretty fresh-faced!

      We’ll see what the future holds on the Oni. My motivation is definitely sapped but then again, I have enough going on for the immediate future as it is so it can sit for a little bit.

      I’m glad you like the plate mail on Lokaris too. That is about the only thing done/nearly done on it thus far though that will change this week. Unfortunately, I won’t get this mini done in time for the challenge but I’m enjoying working on it which is the most important thing.

      I look forward to tackling the Stonehorn as well. Its been a long time coming and I have some interesting plans for it.

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  2. Hey mate! I didn’t know the Hellboy Board Game has Nazis in it. Fitting for Hellboy of course, but I thought the game was set in the modern era. The ochre uniform is most evocative of the Brownshirts that predated the full rise to power, or the DAK. The armband makes it more of a Brownshirt look, though. Of course, as you say, fictional Nazis can be painted in any scheme that evokes the look and feel. I notice you left the armband red without any iconography?

    Shame about the broken Fallout minis, but at least you were able to get replacements that worked. Not exactly a great set of selling points for that range and it’s QC, though!

    Looking at this Oni I can see a couple of options – leaning into it and painting it “as-is” as a damaged horn; resculpting a replacement tip with greenstuff or milliput (or a mix of the two), or cutting them both off and replacing them with a pair from either a metal or plastic miniature of your choice.

    To get rid of (or lessen) the print lines you can try spray filler primer, or perhaps something like a paint-on filler primer applied carefully by brush. AK sells a “microfiller primer” in small bottles (google ak filler primer) though you’ll need a laquer thinner to clean your brushes – and they won’t be good for model painting afterwards so get cheapo ones. Probably still cheaper than replacing the models, though and once it’s in your toolkit it’s there for the next instance it’s needed. Either way, I look forward to seeing what you do with Lokari.

    Nice score with the chain-pull of GW vouchers! It’ll be good to see the Ogre Stonehorn once it starts appearing on the blog. The Greeks look nice as well. Reminds me I need to get onto some of the Greek Pantheon models I have here. Someday. 😮

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    1. Always good to hear from you, mate! Hellboy is mostly set in modern times (well modern to the comic book which is not new any longer but neither are we!) but there are some stories set in the past too. That has become more popular in the last five years and a lot of them have a year in the title even. Regardless of that, you make a very good point that the Nazis are not literally from WWII and they may have slightly different uniforms as a result. I was going to give him a swastika on the armband but there is a nasty “reverse” mold line over the spot where that would go and so I lost motivation to do it 😦 I’ll talk about it more when I paint these some more but these are quite possibly the worst sculpts that Mantic made for Hellboy, sadly.

      I know we’ve talked about what version of Hellboy, you have before but I can’t remember which one you’ve got. This expansion comes with the original Kickstarter but was barely available at retail and maybe even only directly through Mantic’s website. So you might have it or you might not. Its crazy to think but Mantic has already stopped making some of the expansions for Hellboy…

      I hadn’t thought about replacing the horns altogether. That is a very creative solution to the problem and I would definitely consider it! Thanks for mentioning it. The same goes for the AK filler. I didn’t know that such a thing existed but I definitely see a market for it. I’ll research that a bit more and see if its something I can use.

      Who says GW isn’t kind to their customers!? I don’t know how exactly I lucked into it but I have loyally used their paints for years so that’s gotta count for something, I guess! I didn’t know you had Greeks and that’s exciting to hear. Is it possible that you own Monolith board game that I am too lazy to Google at the moment? Mythic Battles, it might be or I’m imagining it! They sure make games for the coolest subjects. DC, Conan, Greek mythology! If I ever get a new board game, I’d certainly give theirs a look.

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  3. Nice work on the mini, Jeff (and thanks for the mention! 🙂 I think the colour scheme works well with the figure! I do have a question – do the manufacturers badge the figure up as a Nazi Knife Fighter? I recently started reading a WW2 historical account (that I gave up on) and the author seemed to refer to the opposing forces as Nazis more than they were referred to as Germans! Maybe some people don’t distinguish between these terms, yet to me at least, they are distinctly different!

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    1. Its well-deserved, John! You were a big help (even if you don’t think so). To answer your question, yes, that is the name the designers gave this particular enemy. That is interesting that a historical book would make that decision. Its not something I would have recommended!

      Azazel made a point that I hadn’t considered up until now and it might help us better understand the Nazis in Hellboy. While there are moments where the story flashes back to WWII, like when Rasputin summons Hellboy, in general, the stories are set in modernish times (1990’s and up) so the Nazis that Hellboy is encountering are WWII survivors (and in some cases, their offspring) and they might not be wearing “official” gear any longer since there is nobody to issue it. That is another good explanation of why these sculpts don’t line up with actual WWII Germans, necessarily.

      Of course, this leads to the Captain America and Magneto problem where both characters had a timeline and lifespan that made sense a few decades ago but at this point, the characters should be over 100 years old and not doing any superhero’ing any longer! I’m willing to let that slide though 🙂

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  4. Good job on the knife fighter! It came our very nice, although I do hope he meets a grisly end on the receiving end of Hellboy’s fist!

    The 75mm looks really nice, I really like the work you’ve done the belt there. Big fan of that aged/roughened leather look.

    I hadn’t seen those Warriors of Athena models, they look quite cool. I’ll be keeping an eye on the game, been really enjoying the author’s other games (mostly silver bayonet, but his others are great too).

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    1. I’ll be hoping for a similar fate for the Nazis. I’ve heard this expansion is pretty difficult so it will be interesting to test in 2028 when I get them all done 🙂

      I’ve been working hard on the belts since posting so hopefully you like what you see even more next time I update!

      I’m glad you like the Warriors of Athena minis too. I’m definitely interested in painting them! I watched an in-depth review of the game and its a lot more like Rangers of Shadowdeep than I was hoping. That requires a lot more hobby work than I can give right now so I probably will be sitting on the sidelines for this one, except maybe painting the odd miniature for fun, of course!

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      1. Look forwards to the progress on the belt!

        I’ve basically read nothing about Warriors of Athena, but I suppose it’s not surprising it is similar to Rangers of Shadowdeep given how popular that’s been. I have Rangers on my bookshelf and I’ve been thinking about painting the required models, but it is indeed quite the project.

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      2. I’m excited for the next update as well. Sometimes its more just routine or habit for me to write a new article on the weekends but I think Lokaris is really turning out well so far.

        While I know Rangers is advertised as easy to get into, I saw the models and terrain needed for it and never considered trying it. To me, it is as high as any other wargame and more restrictive than some people let on. Yes, there is more wiggle room than MESBG’s narrative scenarios but it still takes a healthy collection. Having said that, you have a bigger collection than me, I would think. I’ve basically got some trees, a few pieces of rocky terrain, and some crop fields for fantasy wargaming so I could see you playing Rangers or a game like it in the future whereas I doubt I will ever get there because I don’t want to commit to years of making terrain for it. I’ve already done so with Fallout and will stick with the game as a result.

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      3. That makes sense. I’m pretty much all covered for terrain for the game but it’s the enemy models I’m missing. Much easier problem to solve than to have models and terrain to build and paint!

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  5. I’m getting really leery of 3d prints, need to see a very nice picture of what is being offered before buying. Print lines and being fragile and not being able to cut them to modify without it snapping is infuriating.

    Speaking of modifying, have you thought about cutting the arms at the shoulders of the nazi knife fighters and just shifting them a little to break up the monotony of so many similar figures?

    Could also change the tint of the uniform on some to show different wear and tear of the users.

    I will not fall down the Warriors of Athena hole/trap…..

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    1. I have concerns about using them too. I bought a bust a while back that went from a resin cast to 3D Printing and the sculpt quality went down. And now with this mini from Bushido, it has inconsistent surfaces and more importantly, its very fragile which is not good for gaming.

      That’s an interesting idea! I don’t do any conversions pretty much (as you know) so I hadn’t even considered it. Since I’ve partially painted all of these, I won’t try to cut them up but I will try to remember it whenever I get the rest of the Nazis ready for painting. Thanks for mentioning it!

      I think that is also a good idea on the uniform. I think this one looks a little dark in the pictures so I might try and go lighter on the next one. This might be one advantage of not batch painting which I’ll certainly take. I should add that luckily, it is very rare to get all six of a single type of enemy on the board at once. I can’t recall it ever happening but that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible!

      I watched a review of Warriors of Athena last night and I’m no longer tempted by it for gaming purposes. It is very similar to Rangers of Shadow Deep which is kind of like narrative play in MESBG in that you want to have specific model types and terrain done for each scenario. If I had an existing collection of ancients and mythological miniatures and terrain, it’d be much easier to jump in. That might be something I could do in the background but I’m many years away from being able to actually playing which is a shame.

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    1. Thanks, mate! I will get there eventually, its just going to take a lot longer than I want it to but that is the way of things. I hope you like Lokaris just as much in the end as well!

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  7. Amazing stuff, all round! The Conqueror Worm expansion is good, isn’t it? Can’t wait to see what you do with the big Worm himself!! I think I’ve only played it once, but from memory it was pretty epic!

    Those Greek models look really interesting. I wonder if I should start to look into that sort of thing, they’re really sharp, and 40mm might be a decent scale to make an impact…

    The temptation!!

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    1. Cheers, mate! I appreciate your enthusiasm 🙂 I haven’t played Conqueror Worm yet so we’ll see what I think of it when the times come. I set a rule for myself that I only play with fully painted stuff so it will take me a while to get there sadly.

      I think that regular troops are 28mm and the demigods are 40mm so bear that in mind. With that said, I’d love to see what you do with them! I will probably pick some up eventually myself even if its just for the joy of painting.

      If there’s one thing that’s true about wargaming, there’s always a new temptation around every corner!

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      1. My goodness, I think it would take me forever to get anything played if I did that! Good on you though! I bet it really enhances the game, having it all painted?

        So… I looked at this Warriors of Athena game, and apparently it’s solo/co-op? Oh dear… that could be deadly! I’ve recently been looking at Konflikt 47 as well… there’s so much good-looking stuff out there nowadays! The temptation, as you say, is everywhere 🤣

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      2. Well, obviously I’m completely biased but yes, the world you’re playing in comes to life when everything’s painted. Of course, board games are less immersive than wargames by their nature but when I do play either, I want the world of whatever I’m playing to be as realistic and cool looking as possible. That to me is just as satisfying as the game itself.

        Yes, it is indeed solo/co-op. It is VERY similar to Rangers of Shadow Deep from what I hear, if you know about that game at all. Konflikt 47 is very popular since it has come out. Even I know about it and that is not the type of space I typically game in! It can be hard to stay focused but I find that unless you can paint fast, you’re better off focusing your time on a couple of games so you can do everything you want with them. But then again, for me, that means having beautiful minis and terrain and some people just want to play as many games as they can which is also totally valid. There’s two signs to the coin, you could say.

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      3. That is so very, very true. I think I’ve really learned that the hard way, having too many projects on the go, and not getting anywhere with them. I’m kinda in danger a bit again, but being able to just focus on one thing to completion is, I think, the way forward now. Rather than having a loft full of games and just feeling guilty for not giving them the time they need…

        I find it interesting about painting the boardgame pieces because it’s pretty much as you say for me, I don’t find a boardgame (with its board, probably some cards and tokens as well) to be as immersive as a wargame can be. It definitely makes sense to get it looking as cool and realistic as possible though, and with the amount of plastic involved in something like Hellboy, I can imagine it would be an incredible achievement when it’s finally done!!

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      4. For better and worse, we’re all in danger of starting too many projects and having too much to paint or play. I’m contemplating a new project and I already have enough to do for the near future but that isn’t stopping me… yet! 🙂

        And I plan on keeping Hellboy for the long run and keeping it as my one dungeon crawler board game. I MIGHT get another one with miniatures someday but probably not until I’m nearly done with painting Hellboy. I’m hoping that kind of discipline will help me actually achieve my goals. We shall see!

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      5. Well I shall definitely keep my fingers crossed for you on that front! I’d love to have that kind of discipline, but my 10,000 card games probably show that I don’t! As for dungeon crawlers, I’ve recently been thinking a lot about giving Imperial Assault another look… 🫣

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      6. Cheers! That would definitely fit into your painting interests. I hope you don’t get tired of painting Star Wars because that would be a lot of Stormtroopers to work through, for example 🙂

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  9. Batch painting is such a chore! I remember painting entire horde armies in a month back in the day, now, anything more than 10 models has me whining something fierce!

    It’s too bad about how fragile resin can be, especially from Modiphius. I have a couple of Star Trek minis from them that look like they would shatter if I looked at them wrong!

    Very intrigued by the Hellboy minis, I hadn’t really looked to closely at them, but they really look sharp, especially after you painted them! Nice!

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    1. I’ve never been great at it and the better of a painter you become, the slower you become it seems like too.

      Modiphius does have really fragile resin and some of their older Fallout minis really suffer from it as well. I’ve broken a couple and learned to be really careful with them. I’m glad they’re moving more and more towards plastics, though I’ve yet to actually get my hands on any of that yet.

      Unfortunately, the Hellboy minis are lower quality than Modiphius. They’re sturdier but they have nasty and hard to remove mold lines which is a bad combo. If you’ve painted much by Mantic, then you probably have a good idea of what to expect. They’re definitely board game quality which puts them beneath wargaming quality, in my book anyway. With that said, the game is fun and the minis are fun to work on as a fan of Hellboy and B.P.R.D.

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  10. Blimey, you have indeed been busy. I agree with you about the uniform on that baddy – he’s from a world where all sorts of magical nonsense exists, to say nothing of Hellboy himself – so it’s definitely not worth worring about the minutiae of his shirt buttons! Will you need to use loads of them in one go in the game? Otherwise maybe you can get away with painting just one or two of them and still be fully painted when you actually play.

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    1. I need about six of each of the sculpts. I think there’s either 5 or 6 different sculpts to paint. So isn’t really army painting, its more board game batch painting. I think you’re probably right that I could just paint half of them and get by. I’ll try and grind them out before playing just because I’m afraid I’ll never get them done if I cut any corners. If I can get through the Nazis, there’s nothing else as bad as them in the rest of the game as best as I can remember so that’s helpful too 🙂

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