The HeroQuest Hero Quest: The Sixth Orc

Or, the THIRD Heroquest orc, as I suppose this post might originally have been called as I signed up for orc number three.

Now the astute among you may notice that this means that orc number three comes after the fourth and fifth orcs, and that this means this orc is both three and six, but that's not a mistake as you might initially assume. Nor is it that I am spectacularly bad at finishing things (like, for example, blogging about a figure that has been painted for months) - what a suggestion! No, it is deliberate because it follows the infamously non-linear, occasionally non-Euclidean, and perpetually non-sensical counting pattern* of orcs themselves. I'd go into this in more detail, except the requisite chemical consumption for it to make sense is not a suitable topic for a family-friendly blog like this one.

[note from the producers : Since herding painters is even worse than herding cats, this will be the sixth orc that should have been third since the third will come later. Please don't ask.]

What's that? You want a picture of a painted miniature, not a monograph on orcish numerological peculiarities? Suit yourself. *grumble grumble* Peasants! Ignoramuses! 

The HeroQuest Hero Quest: The Wizard

Last to the party, but still with monsters following behind him, comes The Wizard!

Fistion the Fabulous (The name given to him by his parents was Reginald, but seriously who's going to be in awe of 'The Mighty Reginald'!?!) jogged through the dimly lit corridors. A drip of something cold fell from the ceiling and ran down inside his tunic.

Buffdar the Buffoon (something that Reggie promised himself to say out loud one day) had gone into the next room and Fistion could hear the clash of steal. It was probably more orcs; Buffdumn always roared that way when fighting the greeskins.

Fristion heard a grunt from his cerebrally challenged companion and immediately reached into his pockets for his spell cards.  Looks like the big fellow was going to get the healing spell again. Fristion really hoped that the diminutive grumpy one managed to release Mydicyn... er..... Medicanyc...  er..... The Elf from the lat trap. He hated having to use his staff on orcs - it wasn't fair! They had more dice than him!!

I volunteered to paint the wizard almost straight away. I have long planned to paint my heroquest set and what better way to start than as part of a Creep project. I started him only shortly after Cheetor started his dwarf and almost immediately stalled. This has been the most difficult model that I have ever painted! He has no details other than the ripples on his cloak. I have been told to avoid free-handing a 28mm face and I now know why - it destroys your soul!

However, after getting an awesome Secret WIPster present of Mongrol, I set myself the restriction of not being allowed to paint anything else, until the wizard was done.

So, here he is (he's not perfect, but I'm reasonably pleased with how he came out):

I really hope we get the chance to put all these HQ models together for a game one day.

The Creepmas Secret Santa

The Creeps organised a Secret Santa gift exchange last December, with each participant getting a single miniature from another anonymous Creep on Xmas Eve.

The Heroquest Hero Quest: The Second Goblin

When I got invited to participate in The Heroquest Hero Quest, I was courteously informed that the pickings were fairly slim in what was left to paint. I recalled the HQ goblins being decent miniatures, and had a vague recollection of one residing in one of my shoeboxes of old WHFB miniatures. Some digging followed, and I was on board with this little fellow:

"Decent" status debatable

As you can see from the photo, I had done a wonderfully clean job back in the 90s of removing him from both his integral base and his right foot. I had then cleverly circumvented the problem by simply ignoring it and gluing his stump of a leg to the base - a 20mm square to befit a goblin in WHFB.

The basing provided me with a bit of a problem, and I wondered whether I should try to rebuild the foot out of putty and if I should give the poor goblin a more prestigious base. The 20mm slotted square, after all, combined several poor elements: it had a huge slot in the middle, it was small and cramped and due to its size I hadn't even been able to glue the poor gobbo facing directly forward.

I decided against changing the base, however. I felt a weird sense of obligation to an 17 or so years distant version of me, who had decided that this was the way to go with this particular goblin. Who was I to argue with teenage me, full of enthusiasm for a newly started hobby, after all. So the 20mm square stayed on. This left just the problem of the foot. I decided to follow the same principle, and not rebuild the foot.

I left the stump as it was, but designed the base to suggest that the goblin was wading in mud and the foot was just submerged. I had long wanted to try out Citadel's Stirland Mud texture paint, so this was a good chance for that as well.

Instead of painting the goblin as a greenskin, I went for a mustard yellow/brown skintone. I had tried this earlier on some goblins and liked the result a lot. This combined with my aversion to painting green skin (after years of painting orcs and goblins for WHFB) sealed the deal. This would be a pale and pasty creepy little murderous underground dweller - or in a word, a goblin.

I kept the paintjob simple, with a basic brown robe, grey boots and a worn, rusted axe blade. I painted the axe haft red as a nod to that 90s orc and goblin aesthetic, but kept the red dark and toned down to fit the mini.

I puttied over the slot in the base, slapped a lot of Stirland mud around, slapped a lot of brown wash around and slapped a lot of gloss varnish around. Add in a few tufts, and voilá! Goblin standing in deep, icky mud it is. So rather than working on a teenage mistake, I had just literally ended up burying and glossing it over as an adult. Art imitates life and all that...

Anyway, here's the finished product, hope you like it! It makes me happy to finally see this mini painted. After all those years and that chopped off foot, he deserved it.

The HeroQuest Hero Quest: The first Orc

Hi everyone! Suber here reporting for duty! I'm coming on board of this sweet, crazy HeroQuest Hero Quest project. So let me take my hat off to all of you and get down to work.

When I was approached for this, I thought 'fuck, I've already painted all my HeroQuest minis!'. No sweat. I'm ready to strip and repaint whatever you throw at my face. Ha!

Yes, I know. The most obvious answer would have been buying more stuff. Under general circumstances I would have done so. But I was so excited I couldn't wait!

I'm in charge of an Orc. The reliable backbone of any self respected Evil Army. The quintessence of dungeoneering. The... well, you get the idea. I chose this mini as starting point:

Huh? What's wrong with me?

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 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).

 

The HeroQuest Hero Quest: The Fimir

Milton Bradley: "So guys, everyone knows about orcs, goblins and mummies and stuff, but what about these
 'fimirs' we're putting in the game? Tell me all about them!"

Games Workshop: "Uhhhhhhhhhhh...." 

Woooooooooooooooo! Look at me playing with the big boys! Hello to everyone, this is Rochie from Buried Under Lead, and thanks to the lads for taking the fence down and letting me in for a bit!

The HeroQuest Hero Quest: The Barbarian

The best thing about HeroQuest is the Barbarian's hair boots

Buffdar the Huge, Warrior of the North, Bearer of the Biggest Guns, Five Time Champion of the Frozen Lake Loincloth Vigil, swung his broadsword into the bony face of a skeleton, smashing it to powder, before hacking a zombie in twain with the backswing. He hummed a crude little undead-slaying tune as he turned and smashed his sword pommel into the face of an advancing mummy, causing it to stagger backwards. As it did so, the hulking barbarian stomped down on a trailing rag and watched with amusement as the ancient creature comically unravelled, spinning helplessly across the rough dungeon tiles before tumbling into a yawning stake-pit, it's dessicated husk becoming impaled on multiple rusty iron spikes. The mummy continued to groan and twitch, each motion causing it to slide a little further down the shaft, where it would remain until it finally crumbled to dust.

Haemo-Erotic Tag 5: Chodus Virilius Clungerender

Challenged by Mr Saturday Night, I have painted my Old Skool GoreChosen of Khorne.

Meet Chodius Virilius Clungerender:

Chodus Virilius Clungerender stands ready awaiting all opponents.