Thought it was about time I put up some photos of my custom minis for classic HQ.
These are all unpainted, sadly... for now, at least. They get more interesting further down, I promise!
Please don't be alarmed by the use of real classic bases. I got hold of some broken and damaged HQ figures from eBay to 'borrow' bases from.
Chaos Archers, Chaos Warrior leader, and Beastmen
The Chaos Archers are from Battle Masters. So are the Beastmen. The Chaos Warrior leader is from mid-90s Warhammer (maybe Talisman too?)
Dark Elves
Dark Elves with swords, Witch Elf, Sorceress, Assassin
These are all from 3rd edition Talisman, although the Dark Elves with swords were also sold in a box for Warhammer.
Skaven
Skaven plus a leader
The ordinary ratties are from Talisman/Warhammer Quest while the leader is from Advanced HeroQuest.
The leader can count as the White Seer in the Halls of Durrag-Dol quest from White Dwarf magazine.
I would have preferred the older Skaven models from the 'Fantasy Regiments' box, because they're smaller and face forward instead of sideways, but I couldn't find any of those.
Sir Ragnar and Orc leaders
Sir Ragnar is from Advanced HeroQuest. The Orcs from left to right are from Battle Masters, Warhammer Quest, and a Black Orc from Warhammer. I see them as Grak, Ulag and Ograk respectively.
Return of the Witch Lord - Spirit Riders
These four represent the special Spirit Rider monsters in Quest 2 of Return of the Witch Lord, 'The Cold Halls'. When we faced these guys they absolutely wiped the floor with us and we had to run away. I wanted to honour them with unique miniatures.
The figures are all from Reaper Miniatures. The one undercoated black is hard to see (sorry), but it's a female skeleton. If you go looking for these, be warned that they come on integral metal bases. I had to carefully cut the feet away from the base. (The trick is to cut around the feet first, leaving them standing on tall platform shoes, and then snip off the undersides.)
The inspiration for the choice of figures comes from the 90s cartoon SKELETON WARRIORS. The bad guy in that show had four henchmen: a many-armed skellie, a female skellie in bikini armour (!), a cyborg skellie (represented here by the armoured guy), and a short thief skellie, represented here by a Halfling skeleton.
The third skellie from the left is painted because I originally planned to use him as Skulmar. He's a bit skinny, though, so I demoted him.
Return of the Witch Lord - Boss monsters
From left to right: Skulmar, THE ONE AND ONLY WITCH LORD, and Kessandria
Skulmar is an old 4th edition Warhammer Undead Wight figure. He's lead and loving it.
THE WITCH LORD is... well, see the next picture for details.
Kessandria (undercoated black) is a female robed skeleton from Reaper Miniatures.
Return of the Witch Lord - THE WITCH LORD HIMSELF
I'm proud of this figure and finally get to show him off! He took a bit of work to find and convert.
There are amazing custom Witch Lord sculpts out there, but I wanted a Witch Lord that matched the classic chunky, exaggerated style of HeroQuest figures, rather than trying to copy the Les Edwards painting exactly.
Eventually I found the perfect mini in the 5th edition Krell, an Undead special character for Warhammer. Krell was a Chaos Champion when he was alive, so he has a Chaos star on his chest. Very unusual for an Undead model... but perfect for HeroQuest, where the dead fight for Chaos. Plus, he has horns!
I paid through the nose for him (for some reason as soon as I started actively searching for a Krell to buy the secondhand prices doubled).
Once I finally tracked down his ancient barrow, I made a few changes. Originally he had an axe, but I cut off the blade and glued on an animal skull from a spare Reaper Miniatures figure. I reckon it does a passable job of suggesting the birdlike staff on the box cover art. I then carefully bent his horns with pliers (wrapping the horns to protect them first) so that they resembled the ones in the painting instead of looking like Viking horns.
He comes with a back banner but I left that off the model. I still need to fill in the hole in his back where the banner would normally attach.
Up till now I've always thought of the Witch Lord as a silent, menacing type. But since his Spirit Riders are themed after the Skeleton Warriors cartoon, I now imagine him acting like Baron Dark from that show, mocking the heroes at every turn and generally having the time of his life... er... undeath.
Female heroes
Front row, left to right: Barbarian, Elf, Dwarf, Wizard
Back row, left to right: Rogue (counts as Dwarf), alternative Wizard
It took me a long time to find minis for female heroes. I went through several alternatives before finally settling on this set. They're all from Reaper Miniatures.
Three of them in the front row were chosen because their poses are similar to the classic HQ heroes. I've since improved the female Wizard by chopping off the bat-symbol on her staff, so she doesn't look so sinister.
The 'rogue' in the back with the axe just counts as a female Dwarf for anyone who prefers their beer cold and their Dwarves male. The alternative Wizard with the book and cape and fireball is just a mini I liked because she reminds me of Lina Inverse from the old Slayers anime. Obviously she should be used with the Japanese rules. "FUAYA-BOORU!!" Or rather "BOORU... OFU... FURAEMU!!"
