As a relatively new painter, I've recently learned that over-complicating things is a bad idea. By that I mean that in my impatience to paint like the painters in the White Dwarfs of old I had been practising every technique every time. Ink washes, two brush blending, detailed faces - the lot. With the result that everything took ages to paint,and then as often as not looked pretty ordinary at the end.
So I decided to go back to basics - keep it simple, with the aim on speed rather than perfection. And Hero Quest seemed like a perfect project for this new approach. The miniatures are pretty simple, and there's enough variety not to get bored.
I don't really remember playing it heaps back in the day - I couldn't even say that my brother and I got through all the quests - but it still has a nostalgic flavour to it, and once the children are older it'll be a good intro for them. And the game will have that extra something special if it's played with painted miniatures!
Here is the result...
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| The gang's all here |
Given the time I spent on each figure - not much! - I'm happy with how they've turned out. To be honest, if I'd slaved away for twice as long trying to blend highlights and so on, I don't know that they would have been much better.
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| Orcs... |
These guys include the first two that I painted ages ago, as a test pair before I painted a Ruglud's Armoured Orcs.
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| ... and their smaller cousins |
Technique-wise, after trying a couple of different ideas I settled on something I pinched from a chap on the
Oldhammer Community Facebook group - black undercoat, drybrush white, base coat, wash with Nuln Oil and you're done!
I felt that it worked better with darker colours than lighter ones...
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| The chaos types |
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| Swamp-dwelling rape monsters |
Although I did use Agrax Earthshade where I thought that would give a better result -
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| The dead walk - or at least shuffle- upon the Earth |
We'd lost a few minis over the years, but I replaced all of the missing ones thanks to the
Oldhammer Australia group and a bargain purchase on Gumtree. The only one of my original set that was (part) painted was the barbarian (by my brother most likely). In honour of the old days I left the paint (flesh and boots) and finished the paintjob.
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| Our heroes |
And there we are! For now I'm sticking with my keep-it-simple philosophy, and just painting up simple figures using basic techniques. Stay tuned to see how that all turns out...
