As I mentioned in my original Hellboy: The Board Game post, I wanted to get just the base set painted, along with all of the additional Frogmen and Frog Swarms that were stretch goal rewards (so they matched), but there were also a few other extras I wanted to do at the same time: the Target Priority Mini Busts.
I had a bit of dilemma for painting – I like to paint all the models that need to match at the same time, so they are consistent, but in addition to the busts and extra frogs, there are also a few other Hellboy variations, and a few more BPRD Agents.
I figured that the other BPRD Agents dont have to exactly match with the core set models, and, likewise, some minor differences with the Hellboy variations wont be a problem, as they are unlikely to be used together. The frogmen and swarms, of course, were the highest priority, as they would all definitely be used at the same time. By the same logic, I concluded that I would need to do the Target Priority busts of the 4 base set Agents as well.
For some strange reason, though, I neglected to take photos of each Agent model next to their respective bust. 😀
As I mentioned in the first Hellboy post, I was really excited for these models – I not only had all of the regular Hellboy Clix, but also got the HeroClix/HorrorClix BPRD set (as perfect as the BPRD would be in a HorrorClix setting, I never got a chance to play it… much sadness 😦 ) – I was really looking forward to painting up a nice sculpt produced on high-quality material.
These models are the plastic ones that come with the game, but I do have a couple resin copies of Hellboy to paint in the future – I treated this set as a trial run to figure out my colours.
Sadly, these were painted before I started keeping a careful log of my paint sessions, so I dont know exactly how long they took me, but it was probably in the neighbourhood of 8-10 hours a model.
I DID, however, write down the recipe for the beige jackets/jumpsuit (there are more BPRD models in the Agent pledge) and Hellboy’s red skin (there are more Hellboy models in the Agent pledge, and they will all need to match).
Beige:
Airbrush Scale Colour Walnut, airbrush Scale Colour Thar Brown, and airbrush Scale Colour Birch, in that order. Then switch to brush and applied the final hilight of Scale Colour Birch and Vallejo Model Colour Pale Sand mixed 1:1. Then I brushed Vallejo Model Colour German Camo Black Brown into the deep shadows, and finished off with some glazes of Scale Colour Birch in the quarter tones and Scale Colour African Shadow in the three-quarter tones
Red skin:
Airbrushed Scale Fantasy Colour Hastor Purple, airbrushed Scale Colour Blood Red, and airbrushed Scale Colour Antares Red. Then I switched to the brush and did the final hilight in Vallejo Model Colour Sunny Skin Tone and painted Vallejo Game Colour Imperial Blue into the deepest shadows. I finished off with a couple overall thin glazes of Scale Colour Antares Red.
I’m showing both the Frog Monster and Tentacle Monster today – the models share most of the same colours (colours also shared with the Frogmen), and were painted at the same time.
Obviously, these were much larger than the Frogmen, so took more time to paint, though I was surprised how quickly the Frog Monster went – I didnt record how long he took me, but I recall at the time thinking how fast it was: most of the textures were created with stippling and washing and were actually easier to do on the larger model (compared to the Frogmen) – even though it’s over twice the size of the Frogmen, it didnt take twice as long to paint… maybe 7 hours instead of 5. The Tentacle Monster took considerably more time – more detail work in the form of the suckers, as well as several hard-to-reach spaces – so probably around 10-12 hours.
Again, I didnt log the colours I used – I didnt plan on painting any more Hellboy frogs after these, so I didnt think I would need the records.
I was really excited for Hellboy: The Board Game – an IP I have absolutely loved for years (interestingly, I didnt actually get into Hellboy until the Heroclix Indy expansion: I was REALLY into Heroclix when it was first released, but I always had a personal rule that I couldnt play Clix that I didnt know anything about… and I never really read many Indy comics, aside from Judge Dredd, so, I started picking up trade paper backs to get caught up – Shi, Kabuki, and, of course, Hellboy! – and I’m really glad I did as I became a big Hellboy fan from then on… but I digress…).
I got an Agent pledge, plus an embarassingly *large* number of add-ons (in particular, the resin models: I’ve always hated how miniature boardgames have absolutely amazing sculpts… then proceed to reproduce them in the worst material imaginable… every time CMON does another Kickstarter, I always wish they would release a ‘painters set’ of all the models…), including an extra Base set, with the intention of re-purposing the Nazi models for other games, like a Weird War 2, and V-Commandos (now V-Sabotage).
Fast forward to 2021, where gaming isnt much of a thing any more due to the world ending, but, while I didnt have much motivation to paint during the apocalypse, I did manage to make some time to get started on painting *some* of the models: with well over 130 models in the Agent pledge (excluding all the extras I bought) I decided to do what I usually do and just paint up the base set models, though I did paint up all the extra stretch-goal frogmen at the same time (there were 20 frogmen in the Kickstarter set, but only 12 in the retail set).
I’m starting the reveals with the badguys, again, as I always do, and today I have the Frogmen and Frogswarms:
I did these prior to when I started keeping a log/journal of all my painting activities, so I dont know how long they took me, but probably in the neighbourhood of around 5 hours a model for the frogmen. They were painted in my older process – successive stages of apply highlights, glaze up, wash down, repeat – using a mix of Vallejo and Scale Colour paints. Exact colours, again, I dont really know: these would be the ONLY frogmen I paint in my collection, and I wouldnt be doing any more, so no need to match the colours at a later date.
For base treatment, I was tempted to do something similar to my Zombicide: Black Plague set and match the Hellboy tiles, but the Hellboy tiles arent consistent like the Zombicide ones… if I matched to the blue tiles, it wouldnt match the green tiles, etc. I opted instead to do simple black – so they would look at home on each board tile.
Now, about the swarms, they were… a pain in the ass, ngl. I tried to do my usual snobby approach and really detail them, but not only are there a HUGE NUMBER of frogs on the swarm bases, but they are not particularly detailed to begin with. I abandoned my initial approach, and decided for a high-contrast, Mignola-esque treatment. I ended up drybrushing them, followed by some washes and glazes. I’m not sure how long the painting took me, but 5 hours a base probably sounds right. Lastly, I painted the eyes simply using a bamboo BBQ skewer whittled down, repurposed as a stylus and dotted on the yellow eyes. It’s MUCH easier to paint a dot/circle with a stylus than with a brush. If you havent tried a stylus for small dotted details, like pupils, I highly recommend it.
Finishing off the Cadia Stands boxed set, I have the Armoured Sentinel for you today.
This was painted to Tabletop level in late 2022, and sold on ebay in Jan 2023, with the rest of the Cadians. I spent 5 hours on this model, including transfer and base work.
Much like with the Field Ordnance Battery, I wanted to to have the effect of something worn and pitted, instead of fresh off the assembly line. I used the exact same process as well – a mix of drybrushing and stippling, followed by glazes. BTW, the numbering on the front… those are provided on the transfer sheet as *individual* numbers… I have no idea how the GW studio managed to get them so straight on the box art… lots of trial-and-error I guess. o.O
This was also the first mech unit I’ve painted in over 20 years – the last ones I painted were probably some old-timey Rhinos – I did paint several Warjacks for Warmachine in the early 2010s, which are kind of mechs, but werent as large as this.
Continuing with the Cadian models, today I have photos of the Field Ordnance Battery – a bombast field gun and a malleus rocket launcher.
These were painted in late 2022 and sold on ebay (along with the rest of the Cadia Stands boxed set, as mentioned in this post) in Jan 2023.
I think this might have been the first time I ever painted up Artillery pieces… I know I painted up a few Dark Elf Bolt Throwers waaaay back in the 90s, but never anything for 40k. And, even if I did, they certainly wouldnt have been this big or complex! o.O
I wanted to create the effect of a worn and pitted paint job, so I used a mix of drybrushing and stippling followed by glazing for the guns and ammo boxes/accessories. The crew were painted at the same time and the same way as the other infantry to ensure consistency.
I normally completely build my models before painting, but in this case I did do sub assemblies: each of the crew, the ammo boxes, and the guns were all separate. In both cases the gunners hands were attached to the guns – the hands are part of the wheels on the gun – in hindsight, it would have been a better idea to attach the hands to the gunner, then attach the whole piece to the artillery: slight variations in colour/tone wont matter on the wheels, but will matter on the flesh.
These were painted to Tabletop Quality level, and took 14 hours for the pair, including the crew, accessories, and decal work.
Today, I have for you a follow-up to the Cadian Command Squad post from earlier in the week. I know many people get intimidated by painting banners, especially by freehanding text. I wish there was some secret technique I could share with all my readers that democratizes reehand text, but, short of custom made transfers, there isnt. 😦
It really just comes down to ‘Practice, practice, practice’.
‘But Cbag’ you are probably saying ‘buying models just to practice on is expensive!’, and you are ABSOLUTELY correct… so, while I cant impart the steady hand and experience needed, I can do the next best thing: give you a blank template to practice on!
When I was painting the standard bearer model, it dawned on me that I should snap some good photos of the finished banner before I added the text – and the photos have been sitting here for over 12 months waiting to be finally used. 😀
I did my best to position the model so that the plane of the banner was flat to the camera – there is a *bit* of perspective on it still, but it’s pretty close – and I shot the photo with a pair of 1″x1″ squares in the frame so I could make sure the model was size-as.
Also, I know the painted model might be a bit distracting for text practice, so I went ahead and made you a black and white line art of the banner as well if you would prefer to practice on that. You’re welcome. 🙂
The above JPEG is very high resolution – 4.25″ x 6″ at 650dpi – which should be high enough to give a nice, clear print. When printing, just make sure that my Frame of Mind logo is 1″ wide, and the image will be very close to actual size of the model. Sadly, I cant really help you with how to print the image to be the size I created it – maybe it will be trial and error, or maybe it’s easy to do on a PC, I really dont know – I use design/publishing software on my Mac for all my printing needs… I dont think I’ve ever even printed a physical document off my PC before.
Regarding HOW to do the text, that is entirely up to you. I typically just freehand text with thinned paint and a good brush, but I know other painters will sketch in the text with a soft lead pencil, or use a Micron pen – every path chosen is a viable one. 🙂
Continuing with the Astra Militarum, here is the Cadian Command Squad from the boxed army I painted in late 2022.
There were painted to what I consider ‘High Quality Tabletop’ level. Basically, tabletop with extra care for nicer blends, more detail work, etc. The whole squad took me 23.5 hours, so about 4 hours and 45 minutes a model, BUT, 5 hours of that time was just the banner – excluding the banner, I averaged around 3 hours and 45 minutes a model.
I’m honestly a bit surprised how long the banner took – aside from the text, it’s all sculpted detail! – but, in hindsight, it is pretty big in relation to the models, and, it’s double sided. 😀
I picked up a copy of the Astra Militarum army box back in late 2022 – with all the models in the box being new sculpts, I wanted to see how quickly I could get the box built, painted, photographed, and listed on ebay, to take advantage of the ‘new hotness’ of the kits.
The exercise turned out to be a worthwhile endeavour: one collector bought out all the separate auctions a couple weeks after we listed them! It was a great surprise to get, and, on top of that, he left some wonderful feedback:
❤
Having a happy buyer always gives me such a rush. 😀
I have every intention of repeating this process for all the new boxed armies and sets, but I currently have such a huge backlog of painting projects – both personal and ‘commercial’ – that it’s not really a wise course of action at this time.
But, I digress… back to the matter at hand, and the reason you clicked on the title: Cadian Shock Troops!
Each squad of 10 took me around 12 hours to do, so about 75 minutes a model (!!!!) including transfers.
And speaking of transfers, I never really used them in the past – I always found them fussy, and didnt like the finish… I would instead hand paint all my numbering and markings, which, obviously, takes a significant amount of time – and it’s hard to maintain consistency across a range of models.
Painting for other people means that I need to be really mindful of the final product – while I might not mind variations in markings on my models, a potential buyer will likely prefer a consistent, cohesive appearance. So, transfers are the only way to go! I’ve started using MicroSol and MicroSet, and, honestly, I couldnt be happier with how the transfers ended up looking. 🙂
Lastly, you may have noticed that Frame of Mind Studio logo on the new photos: I’ve decided to start watermarking my miniature photos with my logo, which is the first step in a full rebrand for my painting activities – I do plan on redoing the look of this blog as well, and tying all my social media together.
All this effort, just to paint toy soldiers for other people. 🙂
– I probably spent around 6-8 hours on him. 
The Cbaggery 