The HeroQuest Hero Quest: The Chaos Sorcerer

Best thing about Heroquest is the CHAOS SORCERER. 

First of all, he's a cracking figure to begin with, the details are sublime and just sharp enough to be visible without being too obvious to let the painter some freedom of judgement about what is what.

Best thing about the sorcerer is clearly his evocative Y shaped pose making anyone think about whether he's doing aerobics, preparing a genkidama, giving a hand for airport traffic or simply showing his dad how big a fish he's caught.

Best thing about this guy is that he has big muscles for a sorcerer, that's just how badass he is really. Instead of spending all his time in the library reading, whining about how heavy the books are, this one is doing one-armed pushups and squats while reading unholy tomes.

Best thing about this model is that it comes from a long line of skull headed badasses such as :

Masters of the Universe's very own Skeletor

Now of course Skeletor has to be the best inspiration when you look at this guy really. Problem is : everyone's done it before. That means my Hipsterish contradicting self won't allow me to go this way...

The Horned king from the Black Cauldron

Now here's the first fantasy villain that's really impressed me. Seeing that guy on the big screen back then surely left quite an impression on me. This is WAY more like it.

Willow's General Kael

Nothing earns respect amongst your troops as blunt undeserved violence, slaughter and wearing skulls for helmets. Awesome.

Highlander extraordinaire : The Kurgan

Same minus the beard and with a touch of arrogance that makes it one of the best villains EVER.

Games of Thornes' Lord of Bones

Because free violence and tits might not be enough to please the fans, here's a cool guy with bone armour as well. 

Now given all the ideas above, I had to draw a line of where I wanted to stand.

- Was the guy gonna be wearing spandex or be half naked ? 

I opted for a naked necrotic skin. That guy surely has the power to maintain his physical integrity and might at its best via unholy means... I'm a little disapointed the pictures don't show but there's actually a tint of purple in some parts of his flesh to make it look creepier and a little more organic.

- Was the guy wearing a mask or was the skull his own face, and then what colour should it be ?

This time I knew I didn't want the skull to be his face but a mask. I also had the feeling a bone face would be déjà-vu. For some reason I kinda wanted to have his skull face black to make it look terrifying but when I got to that part I realised it just didn't work, the face was not visible at all so I switched to some bluish steel instead to make it stand from the black helmet. I added glowing purple eyes and hesitated making the hands glow as well but refrained.

- What kind of gear would he be wearing?

Right from the start, I knew I wanted to give him some red with some freehand to make a small nod to his former incarnations. After painting the bright red of his tunic, I realised it would be hard to make checkers work. I thought about a line of them in the midlle of the tunic but it would have been a nightmare to do and messy to look at because of the folds. I then opted for simple lines in strategic places. It gives a bit of identity and offers a good but simple contrast, the kind of cheap tricks I like.
I decided to go for weathered red leathers for his boots and gloves too so I used a method I rarely do.

Starting from a dark grey (german grey from PA) I started building highlights with brighter red until orange (cadmium red from PA) and then toned it down and blended everything with 1 or 2 coats of Nuln Oil. I usually reach my level of shade/brightness from below so this was a bit unusual for me. I do love the look of it though.

Funnily enough, 2 models I've enjoyed a lot this year just happened to be the very plastic monopose monstrosities I usually despise. There's a french saying that roughly means "only idiots never change their minds", I guess that's so called "plastic crap" for you.

So who's going to follow me after this ? Well I'll summon He of three names !