KrautScientist finally paints his HeroQuest set

[KrautScientist]

Cheers for the feedback, everyone!

@ arch8angel: Yeah, I definitely need to keep pushing before I lose interest in this project, lest I end up in a similar 75% finished scenario. As for your green recipe, my advice would be not to sweat the details: You can always subtly touch up your "old" models to resemble the new recipe -- or live with different hues of green.

@ Weltenlaeufer: There are as many approaches to painting miniatures as there are miniature painters, and everyone's got their own approach that's equally viable. Hence when I give you advice about which part to start with or which approach to use, this always happens under the proviso that there's a myriad ways that would lead to an equal - or maybe even better - outcome. That being said, I was looking for an excuse to finally have a go at painting my Goblins anyway, so maybe this will help you - a step by step:

-- come to think of it, you may even want to start with the Goblins, as they are even easier to paint than the Orcs, yet you can re-use many of the steps for both kinds of models --

Step 1: Undercoating

I use a (spray) undercoat of GW Mournfang Brown. Here's what the model looks afterwards:



For the Goblins and Orcs, I would actually suggest finishing at least most of the painting steps for the skin before you paint anything else, because that way you can allow yourself to be really messy during the first couple of steps. So let's continue with the skin:

Step 2: Skin basecoat

The skin is blocked in using GW Knarloc Green (no longer available, although something like Deathworld Forest would be a pretty good replacement -- or any darker green, really):



Step 3: Skin middle tone

The exact same area is covered with GW Gretchin Green (or any lighter, yellowish green, really):



Step 4: First highlight with 60% Knarloc Green and 40% Gretchin Green:



Step 5: Second highlight with 40% Knarloc Green and 60% Gretchin Green:



Step 6: Wash the skin with GW Seraphim Sepia:



Step 7: The other main colours

After everything is well and dry (!), block in the other main colours (Mephiston Red for the fabric, Doombull Brown for the boots and belt, Balthasar Gold for the sword's grip and belt buckle, Leadbelcher for the sword's blade, a dark grey for the base):



Step 8: Selective washes:

Wash the red fabric with GW Carroburg Crimson, the brown and bronze areas with GW Agrax Earthshade (or any brown wash you like) and the sword and base with GW Nuln Oil (or any black wash you like). If you want to keep things even simpler, use this rule of thumb: Anything that isn't skin or metal gets a brown wash, every silver metallic area gets a black wash):



If all you're interested in is to get your models game-ready, you can basically stop here. I would advise against it, however, as from here on out, the whole process really gets to be fun -- and the model can also develop from looking okayish to good -- or even great. I'll update as soon as I continue painting (hopefully tomorrow).

Speaking of which, I am actually painting five Goblins at the same time (and there's also the - already finished - test model):



@ lestodante: Cheers, mate! As for your remarks:

1) I agree 100%
2) I wouldn't agree to that as a blanket statement, but in the case of HeroQuest, we can at least agree that these old models are very good indeed!
3) So would I, more than anything else, really. But I don't own the expansion, and the prices on German ebay are so inflated that I doubt I can justify dropping a 100 Euros or more on WoM. That being said, I would LOVE to paint those wizards!
4) Thanks!
5) Hopefully, he won't have to suffer long...

As always, let me know what you think!

[Weltenlaeufer]

Cheers for the feedback, everyone!

@ arch8angel: Yeah, I definitely need to keep pushing before I lose interest in this project, lest I end up in a similar 75% finished scenario. As for your green recipe, my advice would be not to sweat the details: You can always subtly touch up your "old" models to resemble the new recipe -- or live with different hues of green.

@ Weltenlaeufer: There are as many approaches to painting miniatures as there are miniature painters, and everyone's got their own approach that's equally viable. Hence when I give you advice about which part to start with or which approach to use, this always happens under the proviso that there's a myriad ways that would lead to an equal - or maybe even better - outcome. That being said, I was looking for an excuse to finally have a go at painting my Goblins anyway, so maybe this will help you - a step by step:

-- come to think of it, you may even want to start with the Goblins, as they are even easier to paint than the Orcs, yet you can re-use many of the steps for both kinds of models --

OH MY GOD!!

Speechless!! Thank you soooooo much for taking the time and taking the pictures and posting all of this Krautscientist! This helps me so much! I cannot tell you how much!! Its for the first time that I got an understanding how the thinking process in painting minis goes and I have a guidance on how to start exploring this and try to replicate its! Its so intstructive! If you ever come to Krakow, Beer is on me brother!!!!

Many many thanks!!!

[KrautScientist]

Haha, just glad to be of help! Like I said, chances are that part two of my step by step tutorial might go up sometime tomorrow.

That being said, Polish beer is pretty good, as far as I am aware, so I'll definitely keep your offer in mind

Oh, and seeing how you are from Krakow: On a note completely unrelated to HeroQuest: Are you aware that there's a very cool, albeit somewhat disturbing, Cyberpunk adventure videogame called Observer that's set in a futuristic Krakow (on account of, I believe, the development team being Polish)?

[KrautScientist]

Okay, so here's the second part of the Goblin tutorial. Here's where we left off yesterday, only this time the model has been photographed in broad daylight:



From here on out, the world's your oyster, really -- you can spend as much time on the model as you want. In my case, I was interested in a relatively quick paintjob, so I only went through one or two additional steps:

STEP 9: Highlights

This can be as simple or as sophisticated as you want it to be, but the gist of it is to add highlights using a brighter version of your respective base colour (so a bright red or orange for the clothes, light brown for the shoes, bright bronze for the sword grip,...). HeroQuest models are great in that they usually feature fairly deep folds, so merely carefully adding a higlight along the raised ridges (on the clothes, for example) will already do wonders. Oh, and I already picked out the eyes (with Wild Rider Red) at this point.



STEP 10: Additional highlights and finishing touches.

One important finishing touch was to add a highlight of Camo Green to the skin. This makes the entire Goblin look slightly brighter than the Orcs, which fits their smaller size and slighter build. The eyes also received a pupil/highlight with Fire Dragon Bright. And some verdigris was added to the sword hilt by thinning down turquoise to a very, very thin consistency. So here's the finished model:



STEP 11: Varnish your model (especially when you want it to see actual gaming use)!!!

And that's it -- hope this helps!

On a related note, this means I have now finished the HeroQuest Goblins (at least the number of models that is included with the basic Game System):



To be fair, those paintjobs are far from spectacular, but they are serviceable enough, and with ending fatigue slowly setting in, I felt it was important to push through and get those models finished.

Here are all of the greenskins assembled into a bigger group:



As always, let me know what you think!

[Spookyhappyfun]

Amazing and gorgeous work as always!

[arch8ngel]

Looks great!

And yeah, I'm not trying to exactly match my old scheme, as I'm rebuilding my paint collection and learning some new techniques along the way.
It is basically just going to leave 4 of my orcs in the old style, and the rest of the orcs and goblins will get the updated treatment.

Right now it is a lot of experimentation and trying to find that balance of "good enough".

[Weltenlaeufer]

Haha, just glad to be of help! Like I said, chances are that part two of my step by step tutorial might go up sometime tomorrow.

That being said, Polish beer is pretty good, as far as I am aware, so I'll definitely keep your offer in mind

Oh, and seeing how you are from Krakow: On a note completely unrelated to HeroQuest: Are you aware that there's a very cool, albeit somewhat disturbing, Cyberpunk adventure videogame called Observer that's set in a futuristic Krakow (on account of, I believe, the development team being Polish)?

So much appreciated! I feel super inspired and gonna start with the goblins this week.

Yeah polish beer is great, if you come let me know!

And no I havent been aware of that videogame I gonna check it out.

This thread is GOLD krautscientist! . Thank you for part 2. I gonna start with the goblins, then hopefully the orcs and the heroes! I am inspired!

[Weltenlaeufer]

Thanks to your recipee and tutorial, I am almost done with my first 5 goblins! I loved painting them, I had so much fun and they turned pretty okay for my first try! I didnt get that nice contrast and popping color effect you achieved with your models yet. Yours just look supercool. Ahhh babysteps!

Could you maybe share which colors you used and color progression you used for the other goblin and Orc clothes? Like the dark ork red, goblin orange, dark blue and brown? I love your color scheme and knowing your progression helps me a lot to get a feeling for it. I try to match yours.

Thank you!!

[lestodante]

As always you did a great job with your miniatures.
Also, I see you painted some parts of the Orc's sword with bronze and blue.. Did you ever try to use the water-green █ instead of the blue? I've seen a guy painting a HQ Tomb with bronze color and then adding shades in green and the result is very nice in my opinion.

tomba_HQ_GP.jpg

[KrautScientist]

Cheers for the feedback, everyone!

@ Weltenlaeufer: Regarding the Goblins' clothes, those recipes are really, really easy. As far as I remember, I used the following paints:

- all the brown leather parts are GW Doombull Brown, washed with Army Painter Dark Tone and then highlighted with GW Mournfang Brown
- the red fabric was painted with GW Mephiston Red, then washed with GW Carroburg Crimson, then higlighted with GW Wild Rider Red
- the blue fabric was painted with GW Incubi Darkness, then washed with GW Drakenhof Nightshade, then highlighted with a 50:50 mix of Incubi Darkness and white
- the orange fabric was painted with GW Jokaero Orange, then washed (or rather, glazed) with GW Bloodletter, then highlighted with GW Fire Dragon Bright

I think that just about covers it

@ lestodante: As a base for the verdigris, I actually used turquoise (mixed with white), rather than blue, so the finished colour is actually pretty close to the one you've pointed out, only it maybe doesn't come across that well in the photos?!


In other news, I also have another update for you all: While my original plan was to paint the final missing Fimir models yesterday, it turned out I only had very little hobby time, but I still wanted to finish something, so I made a start with the furniture and began by painting the fireplace:





And then I went for the Sarcophagus next, earlier today. Now back when I made a previous attempt at painting my HeroQuest set, I had those grand plans of rebuilding the cardboard parts of the furniture, as inspired by Damien Thevenien's brilliant work. I even made a start with one of the Sarcophagi:







These days, however, I feel slightly different about the whole affair in that it seems to me like the cardboard parts are themselves part of the game's original charm and deserve to be preserved. So my current sarcophagus uses a little more traditional approach:









So yeah, here are my first two pieces of furniture:



On a related note, my friend Annie was wonderful enough to let me have some more leftovers from here extra copy of HeroQuests, namely the monster cards and Master Edition questbook, which brings me one step closer to owning a complete set again:



As always, let me know what you think!