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.

The HeroQuest Quest : The First Goblin

'Allo Creepers -  Littleleadperson here!

In the latest instalment of the HeroQuest Hero Quest we have the most fearsome creature of all! Behold and despair for he will tear down your towns and eat your daughters - it is the horrific, the earth-shaking.....

Goblin

Let's be honest this little grunt would be lucky if he got to scrape the Barbarian before having his green arse flattened like a pancake.

To paint this little punk I followed some techniques I unearthed from the White Dwarf number 97. 

I've been poring over the 'Eavy Metal and Blanchitsu articles from those early days and the work of Richard Wright struck me with his very clean but subtle work. 

Following his methods as described by John Blanche in this edition of Blanchitsu I undercoated him white and mixed Goblin Green with Citadel Yellow Ink to give him his skin colour.

Then with a very thin brush tip I built up the colour and highlights by mixing in white layer by layer. I added blue ink to the mix to shade down in the crevices. Adding some black Nuln Oil to the mix i then shaded between the goblin flesh and other surfaces.

For his belt, boots and tunic I did much of the same with paint mixed with inks to create the light and shade. For the sword I also followed Wright's M.O. and this time covered it in a diluted layer of blue ink and adding more and more grey to the mix I applied a progressively lighter drybrushes.

I really enjoyed this technique - it brings out the detail early on and so the character of the figure is easily and quickly apparent.

Now on to the entry of everyone's favourite Frenchman JB !

The HeroQuest Hero Quest: The Third Fimir

Unlike the lovely chaps who are running and participating in this HeroQuest painting challenge, I have never actually played HeroQuest. Or any of the quest-y type games. I'll just let that sink in for a moment while you pick yourselves up from the floor...

Nor have I ever painted any of the plastic figures that came with the quest-y games, having previously viewed them with an abhorrence that is usually reserved for the dubious brown mush you find under your shoes after a stroll through a park popular with dog walkers.

But I was wrong. Well, at least in this case. I chose to paint one of the Fimir because I had picked up a bunch of them in bare plastic a little while ago because I saw them for sale on the cheap. The first figure I pulled out of the group had appalling mould slippage on the plastic, and I nearly decided to call it a day at that point. But on the off-chance I thought I'd check out another figure in the group, and it was fine. I had no idea that mould slippage variation like this was a feature of the plastic figures. Live and learn....

So, after small amount of mould line cleaning and a bit of green stuff filling of a hole in the small of the Fimir's back (some sort of plastic injection side effect?) it was time to think of a colour scheme. Well, actually, I'd already had one in mind. I was going to go full 1980s on this one:

I went with Foundry's Bright Green triad mixed with a little of their yellow for the main body colour, with a bit of a yellow glaze at the end. I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked this sculpt, and it was a complete joy to paint.

I decided to keep the base very simple because I didn't want it to detract from the rather fetching layout I've put him on. I don't think it's a piece of HeroQuest board, but I found it in my stash of scenery boards and I rather liked it.

Thanks for stopping by!

Next in line : Ashley

The HeroQuest Hero Quest: The Second Skeleton

Don't you love it when stuff coincides? Back in the summer I painted a load (over 200, not that I'm bragging or anything...) of miniatures, mostly for the big Morcar-themed battle at BOYL. That meant loads of HeroQuest minis. So last month, when a certain Asslessman asked me to contribute a figure for the HeroQuest Hero Quest I had already painted all my orcs, goblins and fimir... that meant I was turning to the forces of undeath... but wait! Aren't I just about to start a skeleton army? Why yes I am. Sounds like a good opportunity to decide how I'm going to paint all these bones.

I do owe quite a lot to the HeroQuest skellibob with his big scythe (and big bones!). HQ got me into Citadel Miniatures in the first place and I was always more keen on the forces of undeath than on the greenskins. My first army (at least 50% of which was HQ miniatures from the main box and Witch Lord expansion) was undead (4th ed, although we used the 3rd ed book, 4th ed "get started guide" and I actually had the 4th ed undead armies book- a Christmas present from my parents). Sadly that army was given away along with most of my miniatures collection when I went through a brief spell of adulthood. With the Fimir done (for now) I have decided it is time to set myself a new army and want to recreate my first undead horde- recreate it as I would have liked it to have been back then that is!

The HeroQuest Hero Quest: The Second Chaos Warrior

Time for a guest spot from someone half-human, half-warhead, all idiot.  It's Curis.

Let's do a dungeon-bash quickie between big projects!  To recap, the three Scale Creep commandments of the project are:

• Paint a charmingly basic model from HeroQuest
• nO cRaZy CoNvErSiOnS
• Replacing the sausagey rectangle base is encouraged.

I picked a Chaos Warrior. To the 7-year-old boy learning words from game components, but not pronunciations: a "Chouse" Warrior.

"Hoots mon!  There's a chouse louse about this house!"

Theottovonbismark has already shown off Slambo and the 4E plastic Chouse … ahem … Chaos Warrior.  Here's the HeroQuest dude alongside Battlemasters and Legend of Zagor Chaos dudes, for no reason other than to showcase the breadth of my vintage Chaos.

Prejudiced against gorefs, means he's a gorefist.

Otto's updating of this old plastic has freehand and a jazzy base.  My version is painted so tamely in comparison. I've gone for the red-and-metal scheme which you might think is a homage to the original HeroQuest art, but is really so he ties into my 1980s Chaos Warband. Being a 1989er *I think* he is actually the newest miniature.   Everything is relative.

"Oi HeroQuest! Bet you're so young you don't remember POGs!"

After modern-style crisp highlighting you start to realise the limitations of the miniature – a combination of 1989 plastic technology and 27 years of man-handling ("manchild-handling"?).  So to hide the dalrymples I painted some textures: sponge-chipping the armour; fluting on the horns; notching the axe blade; and blood-spatter over the finished piece.  I've recently become aware that competition painters like different textures on a miniature to provide interest and contrast, and to showcase their skills.

He's left many a nasty axe wound.

The texture I'm fondest of at the moment is the blood-spats.  After a lot of trial and error with a Blood Bowl team recently I've hit upon the following method: load up a tiny brush with your blood-effect paint of choice, put it right in front of your lips, and blow.  You instantly get realistic spines, satellite spatters, cast-off patterns and other terms I'm just regurgitating from a CSI episode.

Guess this means he's the Herald of the ApocaLIPS.
(•_•) ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■)

That's all for now!  Next in the chain we have a man who goes where no ordinary rabbit would dare – Geoff Solomon-Sims.

The HeroQuest Hero Quest: The Second Fimir

Today, the Creeps are happy to let our friend Phreedh present his own addition :

When the handsome fellows on the Scale Creep blog invited me to join their HeroQuest Hero Quest, I could hardly turn them down. After all, I had already embarked on this journey myself and could use an incitement to revisit the project. A week later, I can offer up a rough looking bog cyclops for your viewing pleasure!

I chose to submit a fimir, because it was… already a work in progress. For me, the hobby is all about cutting corners and reaching results with the least level of effort. 

I’m a firm believer in “80/20″. Applied to the modelling hobby, one can say a model reaches 80% of the potential result when you’ve spent 20% of the total effort on it. 

For me, that’s a pretty good spot to stop in. Could I do another level of highlights? A few more glazes? Maybe a free hand pattern? Sure. Would it matter, in the long run? Nope. 

Instead I can spend the same time finishing another few models to an acceptable level… or browse interwebz forums. At least, it’s better than my old paint jobs from the early 90s.

There’s not much to say about the finished fimir. Gretchin Green base coat, washed with Devlan Mud and highlighted with Gretchin Green mixed with Vallejo Pale Flesh and Bronzed Flesh, and another wash of Gryphonne Sepia. The basing used is the same as on all my fantasy models. A 25 mm metal washer, with painted sand and static grass. Simple things!

It’s a bit more traditional in colour scheme than what the godfathers of Fimir (Mr Saturday and Fimm) have used, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I spent some unnecessary effort on the eye. A yellow eye ball with a black pupil would’ve sufficed. Instead I did a white eye ball, black dot, yellow iris and then a black pupil. Doesn’t even show in the photo. Nuts!

Coming up next, Curis – master of elbow painting and sphincter trumpeting! Knock it out the box, Curis!

The HeroQuest Hero Quest: The Elf

Cheetor said: "No-one will want to do the elf, it's a pile of plastic crap*."

I said: "I'll do it, I quite like it actually..."

*paraphrased

So I volunteered to paint up the Elf, happily one of the few HQ figures I happened to have lying around in a box. Something about Elves has always pressed my buttons anyway - I don't like buffoonish Orcs or gruff, humourless Dwarves. I do like long-haired folk wearing tight trousers dancing around with rapier-sharp blades though...

Anyway, here is the classic red plastic of the HQ Elf post stripping of the previous paint job. Note the added dagger in his right hand. This was an addition by a previous owner and I decided to keep it, because it may very well have been a contemporary addition (so kind of doesn't break the "no messing" rule too much). Plus it looks cool.

The Elf. Unmodified (nearly).