HeroQuest: Alternate Grey Plastic Figures

Chaos Warriors, Gargoyle, and Chaos Sorcerer

The miniatures in HeroQuest are shipped in groups with different color plastic. The Heroes (already completed) are red plastic. I decided my next milestone in my updated HeroQuest game project would be the grey plastic which consists of 4 Chaos Warriors, the Gargoyle, and the Chaos Sorcerer.

Chaos Sorcerer

Chaos Sorcerer

The HeroQuest Chaos Sorcerer miniature wears a horned helmet and skull mask and with his half naked appearance is often painted to resemble Skeletor from He-Man. The more recent "Chaos Sorcerer Lord" model from Games Workshop (here) appears to have no resemblance. But a head swap with a GW Chaos Warrior (as seen first on Reddit by u/cyber-333 here) looks fantastic and inspired me to pick this project back-up and update/replace every mini. 

Gargoyle

Gargoyle

The classic HeroQuest gargoyle miniature is based on the old Games Workshop Blood Thirster models. This "Guros, Darkspawn Captain" model from Reaper Miniatures shown above is a really great minor demon figure which lands halfway between the classic HQ gargoyle and a modern Blood Thirster. Specifficaly, Guros has the more realistic sculpting style / body proportions of the 2000's era and is not a giant miniature like the last incarnation from GW.

• The model's natural horns and ears shooting out horizontally from the head match the helmet shape on the classic gargoyle (and the classic Blood Thirster).
• The hooves match the GW Blood Thirster models.
• Guros has a whip and an empty hand (which can be modified to match the weapons on the classic HQ model, e.g. whip and sword)

The sword was added by drilling out the hand with a pin-vise and attaching a sword and pommel cut from a GW Chaos Warrior sprue.

Chaos Warriors

These Games Workshop Chaos Warriors just went out of print, but you can probably still find them at your local Game Store. These multi-pose kits are fantastic and after 10+ years I still have bits floating around to kit bash the other models in this post!

Vargskyr

Vargskyr - Cursed City

Vampires in Cursed City occupy a spectrum in thier ability to control the ferral aspects of the curse. A Vargskyr has lost the battle and is entirely a beast.

This paint scheme is a significant departure from the game/box art. But I saw this style used on Redit and loved it.

I used Army Painter Speed Paints to quickly paint this fellow in one coat of 50/50 Highlord Blue / Gravelord Grey.  Then made the eyes appear illuminated with white paint and completed the effect by tinting the white with a thin (watery) yellow.

Here be Dragons

I've had these dragons for a while but they were never based properly and among the first minis I painted.  It was fun to do a quick update.  Both dragons are from Reaper Miniatures, the Fire Dragon and Skeletal Dragon. 

Basing

The Fire Dragon spent several days and two iterations in LA's Totally Awesome, but the paint did not  did not come as clean as expected. Each dragon will be based on two GW 40mm square bases making each base 80x40mm.

Green stuff combing two square bases.

Green stuff securing the model to the base.

The models were then fully assembled and based. Hot glue is cheap and was used to blend the elevation from the integrated bases to the new bases. Then the basing completed with common sand and PVA glue.

Painting the Fire Dragon

The models were primed black from below, grey from the sides, and white from the top resulting in a smooth gradient undercoat.

The Fire Dragon was painted mainly with Army Painter Speed Paint (APSP);

• Body : APSP Blood Red
• Under belly : APSP Zealot Yellow
• Wings and fins : APSP Hive Dweller Purple

A pink color was added for highlights on the wings and fins. and GW Agrax Earthshade was applied to darken the shadows and details on the underbelly. 

Painting the Skeletal Dragon

The Skeletal Dragon was coated in Games Workshop Agrax Earthshade (a brown wash) and the wings painted with APSP Hive Dweller Purple.

 

HeroQuest Project Reboot - Alternate Hero Models

I decided to reboot my Classic HeroQuest project. When I first got this game in 2012 to play with my son, I decided I would start painting miniatures. And that if I was going to invest that kind of time, I would also replace the 1990's figures with newer stuff...  Realizing that GamesWorkshop was still in business, I bought paint, brushes, and some miniatures and got started.  Unfortunately, GW did not have acceptable proxies for every figure and my set became a mix of new and old figures.

Fast forward to today and my painting skills are much improved, I'm much faster at painting, and willing to do more research and pick things up on eBay...  I'd like to complete this set.

Here are the first four miniatures (all of what would be RED plastic) which are almost ready for varnish.

The Dwarf

This fellow draws inspiration from the dwarf fighter in the video game Golden Axe, and is seen here holding a HeroQuest "Heroic Brew."  "Tilt one back with me dog!!"

Gilius Thunderhead (from Golden Axe)

This dwarf was painted a little while back for games of Rangers of Shadow Deep. He was assembled from the GW Dwarf Warriors box ~2004 which was still produced through the transition from GW Warhammer Fantasy to AoS.

I removed the annoying GW specific Dwarf tokens from the axe and had to re-sculpt part of his right hand because of it.  If I painted him today, he would be a bit brighter, but it really works here. His base needs some updating to match the other heroes.  And I will keep trying to get a better "Non Metallic Metal" paint job on the axe head.

The Elf

This fellow draws inspiration from Legolas (LoTR) and the classic video game Gauntlet (or "Get Medieval"). He carries a bow which is not available in the Base System HeroQuest game so I just re-skin the crossbow as a bow in the game.

Eryc the elf (Get Medieval)

This elf figure can be built directly from the Games Workshop Glade Guard (wood elves) box.

The Barbarian

My Scarlet Citadel (Conan) booknook (here)

For a dissertation on where this miniature comes from see Ampersand's quest for the ideal barbarian miniature on Something in the Dungeon. To recap, this barbarian is a now out of print Hasslefree Young Wolf miniature with head swap from an old GW Space Wolves box.

Clearly the HeroQuest barbarian was meant to be a Conan clone. And if you are a Sword and Sorcery fan and have not read the original Robert E. Howard Conan short stories you are missing everything.

The Wizard

Who doesn't want their dungeon crawl wizard to be a good bit like Gandalf?

My LoTR Dwarrowdelf Booknook (here)

I used the metal Brandle Birchstaff miniature from Reaper miniatures. It was speed painted it shows in the photos, but the colors are bright and the contrast works. It would be worth going back and smoothing out these blues and adding highlights by hand. But honestly it looks spectacular on the table, so I may just seal it and be done.

More views of the group

Bases and Corpse Rats

 

Speed painted the Corpse Rats

Ran a quick set of color match experiments for the bases and came out with a few different to get about the same final result.

The simplest one (third from the right) matches the shadows with 2 parts Highlord Blue to one part Orc Skin (both Army Painter Speed Paint). Then gets a dry brush of an unnamed Reaper paint sample.  A very similar effect is obtained on base four and five using GW Nikolakh Oxide followed by GW Nuln Oil.  And it may even be possible to dry-brush the Nikolakh on the top as it is a very thick shade.

Moving on to the bats and objective markers next.

Suffocating Gravetide

 

At the beginning of the month I discovered that Games Workshop brought back Warhammer Quest - Cursed City. It was thought to be out of print in... 2020?, and returned shortly after for a "pre-order only" campaign. But It appears to be back in print for a little while longer and I found it at my local game store and picked it up.

The game comes with a tile to represent the "Suffocating Gravetide" which (my current understanding as I have not played yet, as I need to paint it first) chases the players during some missions. But GW actually makes a model (out of print) and I found one for a reasonable price on eBay.

So I'm celebrating Halloween having finished painting this model rolling through the Cursed City.

Rolling Thunder (Arcade Game) Inspired Cultists

 

Rolling Thunder is a 1980's arcade game, maybe you remember it?  All of the enemies wear hoods and their uniform color schemes tell you their attack behavior.

I painted these models with hoods in red, yellow, brown leather, and one in a dirty off-white cloth. These hoods can be interpreted as different orders and/or ranks among the enemies. I will be using these models as "Cultists" in Rangers of Shadow Deep : Ghost Stone and "Temple Guardians" in all of the other missions.

off-white hood 

red hoods

brown hood

yellow hood

These models are from the Frostgrave Cultists box and are 28mm multi-part models. I combined this with the Frostgrave Knights kit to achieve more diverse two handed weapon options and to pose one of the archers differently.

I built 16 of the 20 models (maybe I will need a special configuration in a later game?).  These are:

• 2 with spear (works as 2 handed or 1 handed weapon model)
• 2 with maul (2 handed)
• 1 with flail
• 2 with two-handed axe
• 1 captain (sword and shield)
• 3 with misc one handed weapons (2 dual wield)
• 3 archers (bow, quiver, and hand weapon on belt)
• 2 with crossbow (quiver, and hand weapon on belt)

I'm preparing for the RoSD Temple of Madness mission and I also re-based and painted up a Minotaur as "Greviks, Man-Beast" (figure from Games Workshop classic Warhammer Quest (1995)).

Greviks, Man-Beast (GW Minotaur)