KrautScientist finally paints his HeroQuest set

[lestodante]

Well I don't want to go Off topic but ... I do not agree about what you wrote before about miniatures from the add ons.
Dragon strike figures are really of a lower lever than any HQ mini in my opinion; anyway I agree that both BQP and EQP feature some miniatures that are not really compatible with the base set.
The Ogres have a total different base, for shape and size and the same for the Frozen Horror. All the other figures, including the 4 Wizards of Morcar, the mercenaries and the other Elves in particular are a lot smaller than the originals. The other figures are monsters of different races so you can't compare with them in size. I think only the female Barbarian can match the same size, but really hate the female elf and her "banana sword". Elves have hands and heads that are about half the size of the Elf hero. This is what I don't like about them but I can't say they are bad sculpts. As for the human figures (wizards and mercenaries) I can say that in real life we are not all of the same height, weight and other sizes. But I would have preferred them to be alittle bit more tall, especially the Orc Shaman (ok, he's not human) because he is shorter and smaller than the standard Orcs.

[arch8ngel]

I don't mean "bad sculpts" in the sense that the poses are bad, or anything.

But they are scaled REALLY inconsistently -- they don't match baseline HQ and the don't even match each other across the expansions (mercs are sized differently than female elf/barbarian, the elf sorceress is tiny, etc)

And that "too small" sizing loses quite a bit of detail compared to the baseline miniatures, in my opinion.


Not an issue for most of the "big guys" (the ogres are decent -- actually LARGER than GW ogres of the same era, the war bears are good, as well as the frozen horror).

But the dire wolves and yeti... are pretty detail for what they are, in my opinion. The fur lost a lot of detail in the conversion process to molds for plastic minis.



I don't have the UK expansions, so I can't speak to THOSE ogres, or to the extra wizards.

From the pics I've seen, those are all great sculpts. My only critique is with the Elf / Barbarian packs, and wanted to be clear that nobody is "missing out" by not spending $400 per quest pack to get those minis (when there are MUCH BETTER substitutes available from other model lines)

[KrautScientist]

Whoa, would you look at this -- I am only away for half a day or so, and suddenly this thread erupts into activity -- go figure

Anyway, in all seriousness, on the matter of the expansions and the prices:

When it comes to desirability, I personally am mostly interested in Against the Ogre Horde and Wizards of Morcar - and the former rather than the latter, in spite of the Ogre supplement probably being objectively more bang for the buck, both regarding the models and the quests. I am somewhat less interested in the American expansions/quest packs, mostly because it feels to me like most of the models are mostly afterthoughts, and while some do fit the look and feel of the base game rather nicely (the female Barbarian, some of the Elves), some of the models are just a bit too tacky for me (the Ice Goblins and Yeti seem like the worst offenders). But I wouldn't pass on the chance of painting them either, of course.

As for the quality of the sculpts, I actually know both the ogres and Wizards from firsthand experience, as my friend Annie owns both expansions (and in mint condition, no less -- *sigh*), and I'd say they are on par with the models from the base game. The ogres are obviously more complex than anything in the Game System, whereas the Wizards are certainly less impressive than their prototype models, but still kinda nice -- in fact, there's just something about those wizard models that tickles my fancy, so I can most easily see myself coughing up the dough for WoM -- but only if I really feel the need to indulge myself. Because there's asking a fair price for something that's legitimately rare, and there's the kind of shadow economy around HQ that has (at least the German version of) ebay in an iron grip: To wit, there seem to be suspiciously large amounts of mint WoM expansions, and usually at 70-80 Euros BIN. Again, maybe I'll be greedy enough to just pull the trigger one of these days, but that's 80 Euros for four single piece, mono-pose models, essentially, which is nuts. Which is not even talking about everybody and their cousin breaking up HQ and its expansions into its components (one guy is seeling single Ogre arms -- like, I don't even...) and asking astronomical prices.

When all is said and done, it all comes down to what you are willing to pay for something you really want to own -- for now, however, I am able to hold my horses...


Anyway, back to some actual content I want to share with you: Here are the unpainted pieces of furniture I still had left prior to today's hobby session:



The torture rack actually still boasts its very first "paintjob" from my days in elementary school

So I started with the sorcerer's table:



That blank page on the right kept teasing me, because I knew I wanted to do something fun with it -- simply leaving it blank would have been such a wasted opportunity, but simply adding more scripture also seemed like a somewhat bland solution, so I went for something a little more involved: I figured that whoever the owner of the table might be, they could possibly be trying to summon a dastardly monster to sic it on the heroes, so I did this...



My mini-version of the Gary Chalk artwork that appears on the back of the monster cards:







I have also made a start on the alchemist's table, although it still has a ways to go:



There's also this guy:



I wanted a model for whenever the quests call for some kind of Orc warlord, and my search for a period appropriate (GW) model led me to the Battle Masters Orc, whose somewhat more armoured look made him a pretty good fit, at least until I can think of something even better.

So here's the model quite a bit further along, albeit still unfinished:



As always, let me know what you think! And happy Easter, everyone!

[Anderas]

Love your painting on that page! I was thinking of putting a HQ gameboard on that page.

I see your candlesticks were going the way all candlesticks did.

[arch8ngel]

As for the quality of the sculpts, I actually know both the ogres and Wizards from firsthand experience, as my friend Annie owns both expansions (and in mint condition, no less -- *sigh*), and I'd say they are on par with the models from the base game.

Well, excuse my original post about the expansions, then, since I was thinking about this from an American perspective (where the rare local expansions are Elf/Barbarian Quest Packs).

I haven't seen the UK exclusive expansions first-hand, but from the ogres that come with the Elf Quest Pack, I would assume the ogres and wizards are decent quality (at least assuming the ogre warrior mold is the same and judging from the other pictures online).

You're completely correct that the Elf and Barbarian quest pack minis seem like "afterthoughts", when compared to the detail of the base game, though.




And to your on-topic update -- those pieces look great!

[KrautScientist]

@ Anderas: Cheers, man! Actually, I do have another sorcerer's table with the candles ...mostly intact:



As you can see, it was subjected to an earlier, less sophisticated paintjob, and I really wanted to start fresh with an unpainted piece. Plus I also chose the skull and rat setup for nostalgia reasons: You see, when I received my first copy of HQ, the table never had the candles -- either they weren't included in the box for some reason or (equally likely) my dad didn't realise what they were and threw them out when he assembled the original game for me. Anyway, I only realised the candles were a thing when buying my second copy years later, so I thought it would be a nice shout out to those golden days of yore to build the table with the rat and skull

@ arch8ngel: Oh, no worries: It's an interesting and very relevant discussion to be sure -- getting hold of the expansions or approximating their contents in some shape or form is obviously a very enjoyable part of the whole HQ hobby. Maybe I'm just mad at myself that I didn't get the more interesting expansions (that contained actual new sculpts), but chose The Return of the Witch King (basically by virtue of the cover artwork alone). Oh, and I'd agree that the ogres in the Elf Quest pack use the exact same sculpt from Against The Ogre Horde -- at least that's what it looks like to me.

So, another few tweaks and touchups, and the pieces I showed you yesterday are finished.

First up, the sorcerer's table again (I actually replaced the skull with a freshly painted one, because it looked awful):









And here's my counts-as Orc Warlord that can stand in for Ulag and/or his son:







Like I said, I think the model works fairly well as a leader for the HQ Orcs: The pose and overall look are close enough, whereas the added armour really make him look like a leader figure for the lesser orcs. Here's a comparison picture:



In fact, when checking out the HeroQuest cover artwork for the umpteenth time just now, I discovered this guy lurking in the background:



It's a huge coincidence, obviously, but I still feel kinda vindicated by this discovery

So here are the Orcs and their new leader:



This also means that I have completed three "bonus models" for my HeroQuest set: Sir Ragnar (Manfred), The Orc Warlord and the Witch Lord:



As always, let me know what you think!

[arch8ngel]

I love the free-hand work on the sorcerer table's spellbook!

Also, that is a great choice for an orc leader.

Maybe I missed it elsewhere in the thread, but what models did you use for Ragnar and the Witch Lord?

[KrautScientist]

Cheers, arch8ngel!

Ragnar was built from WFB Empire plastic parts (legs from the older state troops, torso and arms from the flagellants, head from the plastic Knights of the White Wolf), while the Witch Lord is a conversion based on an old WFB Dark Elf Sorcerer (a closer look at the conversion and painting process can be found starting here.

[Thor-in]

I like everything you have painted, great job, love the nice brush work. Happy Easter to you also.

[KrautScientist]

Thanks a lot, Thor-In!

The weather over here is quite wonderful at the moment, so I have spent another highly enjoyable painting session in the garden, dealing with the next piece of HQ furniture and getting all the pieces of the Alchemist's Bench ready:

Once again, I spent quite some time creating something resembling a wood texture via a mixture of drybrushing and painting on some subtle woodgrain-like patterns:



The top of the bench was painted to look suitably grimy and dirty, with lots of stains and scuff marks:



And, of course, I chose to incorporate some smaller "special effects" on the scales and flasks:





And here, without further ado, is the finished piece:











As always, let me know what you think!