Ye Olde Inn

Hello everyone,

like I said in my introduction thread, HeroQuest was my gateway drug for getting into the whole tabletop (war)gaming hobby back in the day, and it feels like 2019 could finally be the year when I realise one of my oldest hobby dreams, that is to own a fully painted set of HeroQuest

Everything started with a rather spontaneous decision to salvage some of the Hero models from HeroQuest and Advanced HeroQuest that my younger self had really done a number on all those years ago:



And here are the salvaged models:



Painting those old chestnuts in that bright, high fantasy style was such a wonderful palate cleanser from my usual diet of usual painting (my regular, mostly Warhammer 40k and INQ28 focused blog can be found here, in case anyone's interested), and I was instantly hooked. So I dug out my old copy of HeroQuest (only a few odds and ends remain from the first box I received back when the game was release, but I was lucky enough to snap up an Advanced Quest - or "Master Edition", in German - set when they were sold off cheaply at a local supermarket back in the late 90s), and to my delight, most of it was still there, except for a couple of cardboard parts and a single miniature (a Man-at-arms).

For this project, I will mostly be sticking to the models that are part of the original HeroQuest set, the maybe add the Men-at-arms, possibly. This leaves me with a sizeable, but still manageable, amount of models to paint, which is important because I am a bit of a hobby butterfly and occasionally have the attention span of a chimpanzee that's been set on fire:



I'll be chucking in an extra model here and there, whenever I feel like it, if only to round out the collection a bit. I also have some Talisman 3rd edition models that would make for a rather nice addition to the collection, but those will come later. And there's the furniture, of course, something that I am really looking forward to:



Maybe, just maybe, I'll even be able to pick up the missing bitz and bobs to complete the set again, but ebay prices for German HeroQuest articles are woefully inflated at the moment...

Anyway, in order to really get things into gear, I had a longer painting session yesterday, tackling nine Orc models. Here they are, although they still need quite a bit of cleanup before they are finished:



Batch painting really isn't my forte, even though it made a lot of sense in this case. But after spending several hours on those Orcs, I needed a little variety, and I also felt I had earned the right to reward myself for the work thus far, so I painted the next hero character, the Elf:





Please excuse the somewhat fuzzy photos -- it's awfully dark and rainy over here right now, which doesn't lend itself all that well to taking proper photos

Anyway, I am pretty pleased with how the Elf has come out and hope I'll be able to work up the motivation to finish up those Orcs as soon as possible! Until then, please let me know what you think, as I thrieve on feedback and constructive criticism for my hobby projects -- as do we all, I assume!

Very nice... except that mostly of the photos were already posted in your previous post. Good job on the Elf! And maybe you can paint in white the Orcs teeth?

Cheers for the feedback, lestodante!

I realise most of the photos already appeared on the introduction thread, but I at least wanted to start from the beginning with the log. And I think the painted elf warrants an update

As for the Orcs, like I said, they are nowhere near finished and lack almost all of the highlights, hence the brown teeth.

I quite enjoy the looks of the mini's you have painted. Nice work.

I like your style. The bases could use some attention though. (Nice stone work design or something.)

Wish I could paint half as well as a lot of people on the Inn.

Thanks, guys!

@ j_dean80: Regarding the bases, I doubt I could ever be patient enough to paint a detailed tile texture onto them

My rationale for choosing this look was to end up with a look that a) looks like a reasonably convincing stone/granite surface (and I'd argue the effect works better in real life, and not all that well in the photos, unfortunately) and b) at least slightly looks a bit like a plinth, so as to at least give a shout out to the somewhat artifical, game-pice-y nature of the models (seeing how each monster race really only has one sculpt, for instance).

Great stuff! We'll done for getting started and so quickly, looking forward to seeing more. Wish I could paint this good! I have the original HQ system and the four European extensions and I have painted every mini but not to this scale.

Thanks a lot, Kitch1982! That is very kind of you to say!

As for the quality of my painting, I have my moments But at the same time, painting those HQ models is always a bittersweet affair, because I finally have to own up to the fact that they'll never look as good as what appears on the box -- or as the work of some people here in the forum, for that matter. Even so, I think when all is said and done, having a completely painted game at a reasonable standard definitely beats hoarding unpainted models with the far-off goal to paint them some day in the inteterminate future (i.e. NEVER)

KrautScientist wrote:As for the quality of my painting, I have my moments But at the same time, painting those HQ models is always a bittersweet affair, because I finally have to own up to the fact that they'll never look as good as what appears on the box -- or as the work of some people here in the forum, for that matter. Even so, I think when all is said and done, having a completely painted game at a reasonable standard definitely beats hoarding unpainted models with the far-off goal to paint them some day in the inteterminate future (i.e. NEVER)

I would love it if my minis were painted this well. I think they look outstanding!

Thanks a lot, Spookyhappyfun!

A more detailed update is on its way, but for now, I'll just leave this here to show you the four hero models have been finished:



Let me know what you think!