I have a rare hobby triple threat this week and some other things to discuss on top of that so I won’t waste any time! First up is Lokaris. I did work on some key parts of this mini since the last update and I think he continues to come along nicely. Here’s a look at where he stands now.
One of my biggest concerns was getting that helmet and its unusual shapes right as I think its the coolest part on this mini. Thankfully, I think I just about got it right and Lokaris is looking pretty mean at the moment! Things got kind of busy and I was tired from work and life so I decided to stop and think about how to proceed with him as I don’t want to rush it and want to keep doing the best work possible. I’m sure he’ll make a triumphant return sooner or later as I do want to get him finished up one of these days.
I switched gears and worked on Fallout a bit as some mindless terrain sounded good. I worked on some more fencing and then finished all of them by varnishing and basing them. I have six pieces done now which isn’t as impressive looking as you would think. It is works as a pretty decent pen for some cattle but its not enough to protect someone’s yard yet.
I’ll have to keep chipping away at the fence as I have the motivation so I can use the fence in a game later this year. That will be really cool to see. In the meantime, I fiddled around with a few different miniatures to come up with a more cinematic photo using the fence and here is the best of what I came up with.
Since I finished up the fence, I decided I was ready to tackle another piece of terrain for Hellboy. I think this one is going to be a bit more arduous and time-consuming as there are a lot of details to paint.
Painting a bookcase is harder than you’d think because there are a lot of color choices to make. My thinking was to have some “themed” coloring on each shelf and I’m not so sure that was a good idea. I think it might look a little too “cutesy” in the end though I’d love to be wrong on that. I even painted one of the bookmarks in a space/cosmic pattern though it kind of looks more like dots than the evening sky in many ways. I’ll keep chipping away on this one this week and we’ll see if it doesn’t look better as I make some more progress. Of course, if you have any thoughts on the themed colors, I’m happy to hear ’em as well. Right now, I’m leaning towards doing a second book shelf and giving it mostly drab colors as I think that will probably fit Hellboy’s art style better.
Focusing on some easier painting was a good choice as I got sick on Memorial Day and had to take a couple days off this week to get over it. I did get a bit bored of painting and playing Binding of Isaac so I decided to rent Kong: Skull Island which I saw a few years ago when it was relatively new and I still really like that movie. I’m a fan of Kong, in general, but the visuals of the movie are great. It has a pretty strong cast and it might be the best pulp movie we’ve seen in the last decade. I also admire how the movie uses subtle horror and surprise character deaths to show how dangerous Skull Island is. I don’t like horror movies at all but I really like those aspects of this movie as much as anything else. I will also admit that I’ve watched a decent amount of Vietnam movies because my Dad is a baby boomer so that makes Kong appealing to me as well. Its almost a bit nostalgic going back to that time in movies as strange as that is because ‘Nam was hellacious. Is Skull Island going to change your life or bring about world peace? No! But it is a really entertaining movie and watching that big ape smash stuff is really satisfying. When I get Lokaris done, I’ll throw myself back into Monsterpocalypse as I’m eager to bring more of that diorama to life after watching Kong: Skull Island.
And finally, I wanted to highlight some cool miniatures I’ve seen lately. Modiphius has released some really nice looking new sculpts, some of which are quite cinematic. First up, there are new Minutemen officers including fan favorite, Preston Garvey. I have to say that the faces do look quite a bit better (and quite possibly, larger) on these miniatures and I like the look of them overall. I own the earlier sculpts for two of these characters but I’m still very tempted to double up and get the new versions to see if I can’t make them look even nicer.
Modiphius have also created two different sculpts in Power Armor using a Raider like they’re a toy. Its a shame I can’t find a better picture that shows the Raider which almost looks comical in its expression as its getting dragged along. Either way, these are really cool miniatures and could almost be turned into a vignette, if you were so inclined.
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I’ve recently become interested in fantasy dioramas. One of the ideas I had for Conan that I haven’t mentioned previously is a tavern where the Cimmerian can brawl. While I have no idea when I might work on such a project, I came across something equally intriguing. Have you heard of Dunkeldorf Miniatures before? They’re a Danish manufacturer that I just stumbled across and they make some pretty unique miniatures and terrain. It is ostensibly for people into RPGs but to me, they basically give you everything you could want to create a diorama which is very appealing to me.
As you can see, these minis have a lot of personality to them! I like how there is a bit of a cartoonish quality too. The only downside I can see is that they’re pretty pricey to get here in the US with no local supplier as far as I can tell. These are also metal minis with slotta bases, which I don’t like for dioramas because you have to figure out what to do with the tab and miniatures often don’t balance well without it. Having said that, I’m very intrigued by these and as I get a bit more spending money, I wouldn’t be shocked if I try some out and see what I can do with them. I know quite a few of you can appreciate this sort of thing so I figured I’d mention it in case it grabs anybody else’s attention out there.
Kuribo's Painting 