Phew, the heroes are a totally different ballpark, in that each of them is basically a project of its own. I'd definitely advise you to save them for last, especially if you're just getting into painting, so you hone your skills on the models that come before them -- unlike the Goblins, Orcs or most of the other monsters, you get just the one shot with these
That being said, the general approach is the same: Block in the base colours you want, wash to achieve shadows, higlight with a lighter version of your base colour -- only the heroes deserve several extra steps of layering and tweaking, of course. You'll also need a proper recipe for "healthly" looking human(ish) skin: With the overall high fantasy look of HeroQuest, I have found Cadian Fleshtone to work well as a base colour, washed with Reikland Fleshshade and highlighted with Cadian Fleshtone with a tiny drop of white mixed in. Take your time with these -- they are precious
And do some research beforehand about what you want them to look like -- the artwork on the role cards that come with the game worked pretty well as a reference for me.
So, some of you may remember that I was not yet fully pleased with the recipe I had used for my first Fimir test model. This chap here:
So I gave it another try and came up with a tweaked recipe -- in fact, for an extra bit of fun, here's an evolution of my various Fimir models over the years:
I and II weren't even painted by me, but by the first of my friends to dabble in miniature painting, back in elementary school. I think he was onto something with the red Fimir, though, and if I should ever paint another set of Fimir, I think I'll be going for an alternate scheme like that. III was the first Fimir I painted (with scale model acrylics, no less). IV was painted with Citadel colours, but I'm not quite sure what I thought I was doing there -- I seem to have had a pretty bad painting streak during the early-to-mid 90s, in hindsight. V was my recent tester, with too stark highlights and an all around too dirty paintjob. And VI is my tweaked recipe, with more careful layering of highlights. Here's a comparison between the two latest models:
Granted, still not award winning material, but I am pretty happy with the finished Fimir models:
And with that, I have actually managed to paint all the models in the classic HeroQuest Game System:
And here's the entire collection so far, with the extra monsters and added characters. Quite a few models, if I do say so myself:
Honestly, I never thought I'd see the day -- this project has been thirty years in the making...
Of course I still have a couple of ideas for additional models (and there are still those men-at-arms to take care of), but for now, it's on to the furniture.
As always, let me know what you think!
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