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Hellboy the Board Game – Kromlech Dresser

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After a fairly aggravating and exhausting week with work and life, I’m happy to have something positive to share to end February. You may recall a while back that I bought some Kromlech terrain for Hellboy that was pretty exciting to find. Not too long ago, we got a day of nearly 60 degrees in February, no less, and the one thing I wanted to prime more than than anything is the Kromlech furniture which I need to get painted so I can use it with Hellboy. So I primed it and this dresser jumped to the front of the hobby line as I was pretty curious what I could do with one of them.

At first, the answer was: not much. My original idea was to paint the wood similar to how you’d paint lumber. This was very much the wrong approach. I often forget to snap a picture when I mess something up but this time I didn’t. So here’s what the initial idea looked like.

Unintentionally, it looks very cartoonish and not like most furniture. Realizing my mistake, I did some photo-referencing and changed my approach. I focused on making the wood looked stained (because it is on most wooden furniture) and had much better results, thankfully.

My paint job isn’t perfect quality, truthfully and the camera picks up flaws that are barely noticeable in-hand, surprisingly, but the second effort is much improved overall. I’m impressed with the quality of this miniature as well. The wood grains felt pretty shallow and I feared that it would be hard to get them to show in the finished piece and I’m happy to say that I’m wrong. Kromlech makes some good stuff over in Poland and kudos to the sculptor as well. I may try to fix a few of the mistakes I made on this one before varnishing it or I may try to take what I’ve learned and apply it to the second copy so that I can get one that is “diorama”/scenic photo quality. That was a big motivation in replacing stuff that is already done so we’ll see how I get on with the other dresser at some point down the line.

Of course, the real question is does this dresser look better than something similar that I painted from Mantic’s Terrain Crate? I’ll let you be the judge based on the photo below!

Other than that, I have been dealing with a real first world problem, if I’ve ever heard of one. A couple of months ago, I subscribed to DC Universe Infinite to read Batman comics, which has been mostly a lot of fun, but I started reading an event called No Man’s Land and I truly did not grasp how big it is or how much time and effort it would take to finish. I’m pretty sure its over 2,000 pages and its taken quite a bit of determination to finish it. The issues I’ve read have been pretty darn good. No Man’s Land is basically Batman meets Escape from New York and the Warriors. Its hard not to like that! At the same time, 2,000 pages is a very long story indeed.

The real problem is that I keep buying comics each week as they come out so that I can keep up with the series I’ve been reading but I don’t have time to actually read them, because I’m subscribing to “infinite” digital comics and I want to get my money’s worth. If I had finished No Man’s Land in time, I would have cancelled my subscription so I can catch up on the nearly foot tall stack of comics I have but alas, it wasn’t to be and it will be another month until that happens.

I’ve recently hatched another plan for 2026 reading goals (in addition to reading lots of Batman) which is simply to read as much Conan as I can and get gaming ideas for the future. This means I will read the Robert E. Howard stories, comics, and the any of the pastiche stories that are good. I think doing this will be really beneficial for the wargaming project as I really have no idea where to start with Conan in terms of terrain and miniatures. There are tons of different possibilities out there and I want to pick stuff that is versatile and has variety since my storage space is limited. As you can imagine, my desire to start exploring Hyboria is pretty high, but I simply don’t have enough hours in the day currently to get after it. In fact, it is going to be a month or so, at least, before it happens, because I’ve still got about that much time with DC Universe Infinite. Its a great problem to have but at the same time, it is testing my patience just a bit as well.

And before I forget, and I nearly did forget, I did receive a Cimmerian miniature recently. It is none other than a metal Barbarian by Avatars of War which have almost completely disappeared from the US market. I will probably pick up a 3D printed Barbarian or two from Avatars of War eventually because you can’t have enough Conan and it will be interesting to compare the overall quality of the two. I haven’t primed this one yet (let’s hope the weather warms up enough for that soon!) which is a shame because its hard to tell how good the quality of it is. I can confirm the details are pretty darn tiny which is going to be a blast to try to paint NMM. And yes, that’s a bit of dry humor there!

And here is a painted example from Avatars of War which looks very nice.

So there you have it. A tiny step forward into Hyboria!

27 thoughts on “Hellboy the Board Game – Kromlech Dresser”

  1. You made a good call on the dresser Jeff, I appreciate all the extra work you put in on the first scheme, but the second one looks more realistic to me.

    Too many comics and not enough time, the horror ! LOL

    Great first model for the Conan project, Avatars do make some excellent models.

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    1. Sadly, the first attempt was a decent amount of wasted time. The second attempt is mostly glazing which means a lot of downtime waiting for stuff to dry but the results are much improved so its worth it.

      If The Onion wrote a headline about my predicament, it might say, “Ambitious person is annoyed by not being able to complete their own ambitious plans” or something to that effect haha

      Glad you like the Conan mini I chose as well. I might have gotten a different one but it was the only one I could source so I am happy to add it to my collection.

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  2. Just to echo Dave’s comment there, the dresser looks much better how it’s ended up, much more Hellboy 😃 That Conan mini is so old school, I love it!

    Your trouble with the comics reminds me of when I got into marvel first time around, when House of M was going on. I was buying physical books, but the amount of crossovers I felt compelled to buy had me spending over £120 a month on them, and I think I ended up with 4 boxes under my bed… that was definitely not sustainable!

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    1. Cheers! I’m glad you like the dresser and Conan. I have to paint another dresser at some point so you’ll see it again eventually.

      Crossovers and events are a real wallet killer! I’ve always favored reading Marvel and DC stuff digitally because its way cheaper, especially if you subscribe (and have the time to read!) their unlimited subscription plans. With that said, I buy physical comics as they come out and donate or recycle them when I’m done because its tough to actually collect comics. They take up a lot of room very quickly and they’re heavy to move which is a bad combo!

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      1. That sounds very familiar! I still have all of my older Star Wars comics from Dark Horse, kept in boxes that I had to label as ‘heavy’ when we moved a few years back 🤣 It’s definitely rough trying to collect comics if you aren’t set up for it (which I no longer am!)

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      2. That’s awesome that you still have them! I had quite a lot of the Dark Horse comics in trade paper back from. Dark Times, Knights of the Old Republic, Legacy, and others I’m probably forgetting. They are part of the reason I ended up with a closet full of comics and realized I needed to stop collecting them 🙂 But for me, when I think of Star Wars comics, I’m thinking fondly of those!

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      3. Oh yeah, I could never part with my SW comics. I love those stories far too much, even now I still like going back to them. Haven’t read the KotOR ones in years though. Maybe I should go back at some point..!

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  3. The dresser came out really nice, comparing it to the bookcase is like apples to oranges, different pieces of furniture with different uses. Together they look really nice.

    What you are saying about comics is why I went cold turkey on them; they got too expensive to buy, not enough time to read and crossovers and variant covers became to much to sustain.

    Really like that conan pose, has a frazzeta look to it.

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    1. Glad you like it. I think I’m ready to graduate to doll house making now. Kromlech makes a bookshelf and that is on my to-buy list so once I have that, it will be a better 1:1 comparison hopefully.

      I’m not a fan of crossovers (they’re really a marketing scheme sometimes more than anything else) and variant covers get expensive to collect too so I know what you mean. I read the books and donate or recycle them which is probably a waste of money but I like having a reason to get out of the office on my lunch break and take a walk around the Loop (downtown). Avoiding Marvel and DC really helps with events as well. That’s why I mostly read other publishers too.

      Glad you like the Conan mini. I’m not sure how I’ll paint it but I’ve got some time to think as I wait for warmer weather…

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  4. The dresser looks really good, Jeff! 🙂 Having said that, in its first incarnation it would have looked fine in Bilbo’s house I think!

    I’m at the same place with military history books as you are with comics, but we’ll no doubt make progress getting them read!

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    1. Glad to hear you think so, John! I think the first version had a nice cartoony look as well. It isn’t what I was looking for but it still has some appeal.

      I should have known that a fellow man of letters was suffering just as much as I am! 😉 I’m trying to stay patient and invest a little extra reading time each day to help. I hope you’re able to get caught up in the near future too!

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  5. No Man’s Land is basically Batman meets Escape from New York and the Warriors – That sounds excellent! Haha so you have the same problem with comics as I do with minis. Keep buying them but don’t use the time… haha. The furniture looks great mate. I quite liked the original cartoony look but I can see why you changed it. If you ever do a Simpsons tabletop war game you could definitely paint the furniture that way then.

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    1. I knew someone out there would like the premise of No Man’s Land. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised who it is 🙂

      We are all in that camp with minis to some degree. I can get caught up on comics in a couple of weeks, maybe a month. I need a year or two or three to paint everything I own that’s unpainted…

      I’m glad you like the furniture and you’re right. The first style is a perfect fit for the Simpsons. I have never been into the Simpson’s (other than the old arcade game, that was pretty cool for the time) but I reckon I’m ready to paint terrain for the inevitable jSimpsons wargame!

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      1. Never into Simpsons? Wow, I don’t think I’ve met anyone who didn’t like the show haha. I sort of grew up with it then and watched the whole series again with my first daughter. I must admit I haven’t watched for a few years now. I loved Ren and Stimpy too but never really got into south park

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      2. I wasn’t allowed to watch it as a kid and its kind of so popular amongst people I know that it almost irritates me and makes me want to avoid it. I like Family Guy so I have no issues with animated adult comedy at all! South Park is one of those shows that I can’t believe is still on. I watched it when it was brand new a little and never again since which makes me feel old!

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  6. That’s some very cool furniture! But shouldn’t you be grinding your way through knife-weilding nazis 🙂 ? I remain impressed that you put more effort into (and get better results from) your scenery than I do with centrepiece minis!

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    1. I’m running away from the Nazis for now, mate haha. I need terrain to use in-game more than I need the Nazis painted because I won’t play another game of Hellboy until I have fully painted terrain again. I could just use the old stuff but I’m committed to the new stuff, I think. It will make the games look noticeably better 🙂

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  7. Nice work mate – the second version of the dresser looks far better than the first. If you’re going for realism it often conflicts with painting every detail or perfectly highlighting every grain in the wood or crack on the sidewalk, etc – and a finish that’s a rougher paintjob can often give a smoother and more realistic finish – if that makes sense?

    With wooden furniture you can easily go a lot darker than the dresser there. it looks great but if you look at stained wood it’s often quite dark and only becomes lighter in areas of frequent wear, where the laquer and even the top layer of the wood has worn off with use.

    The dresser could also look more realistic with a semi-gloss on it to represent the sheen of the finish. The bookcase looks good, but it has a “dry wood” look to it as a result of the lighter colour and the visible wood grain on it. If you take a look at it IRL, polished wood would really only show wood grain as more of a “smear” of lines on a smooth surface. Because, you know, polished!

    Either way – both look well above requirements for the tabletop -more just stuff to bear in mind when you’re painting a dresser for a painting comp. 😉

    Comics! Ah yes. I still have stacks of unread comics from my older days collecting. And you should see the number of unread books I have! It’s a too many hobbies issue combined with the fact that time is a zero-sum situation. As I type this blog comment on my Saturday morning, I’m making the choice to do so instead of painting my models, or cleaning up the junk in my home, or changing a display, or working out, or playing a PC/console game, or watching a video – or reading a book or comic.

    At least with the comics you can always go back to them once you’ve finished the storyline on DC online – cancel/pause the sub for a few months, read other stuff, come back later. After the conclusion of Legion Remix, I’ve recently cancelled my Warcraft Sub in order to play some games from my backlog. I’ll go back in 6 months or 2 years I’m sure, but in the meantime I’ve got plenty more to play. Look at the DC sub and your comic backlog in the same way.

    Speaking of backlogs, I’ve got that same AoW barbarian miniature. It’s been there for over a decade now, still in it’s blister! 😀

    You might want to check out the Monolith Conan game at some stage if you’re getting right into it. It even has a solo/co-op mode these days!

    https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/302261/conan-the-conqueror

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    1. Yes, I know what you mean about realism. I probably use the term too loosely but you’re right that a “real” piece of furniture is not likely to be pristine. Certainly not where Hellboy goes.

      I agree that I probably can push the inks even further. My version is a lot lighter than the ones Kromlech commissioned. I might see if I can’t make the other one subtly a bit darker than this one. A little variety won’t hurt them. I haven’t varnished this one yet so I may see if I can leave it a bit glossy. I’m not the best at mixing varnishes but I’ll see what I can do. And yes, I’m eager to enter into a furniture painting competition. I’m guessing that will put me squarely in either the diorama or dollhouse category 🙂

      I’m impressed that you have older comics to read. All of mine are a month or two old. I’m getting pretty close to getting through the last DC comics I want to read so it won’t be too much longer now before I can finally get to the “backlog”.

      You’re going to have to paint up that AoW Barbarian soon then! I got mine primed so other than maybe acquiring a couple new paints, I could paint him any time, I reckon!

      The board game is on my radar and I’ve seen you paint some Conan stuff in the past. It isn’t in my current plans but never say never! Only Crom knows what the future holds! Some of my Conan terrain ideas are actually influenced by things you’ve done but we’ll have to wait a while on that, I imagine. I have enough projects going at the moment.

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  8. I like the dresser! Didn’t mind the original wood pattern but you’re right that it does feel more like rough furniture than the sort of higher standard cabinetry the sculpt suggests.

    Glad to see you continue on with your Conan ideas, really like the avatars of war model so I’m glad you managed to find it.

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    1. Glad to hear it, Nic! While it took more work, I found this dresser much more enjoyable than the Terrain Crate stuff.

      I’m glad to hear you like the Cimmerian as well. He’s primed so in theory, he could be painted at any time in the future!

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