Cold hard stone, wait did it just move?!

It's been almost a year (and quite a while since I made a post at all) since I did a Heroquest blog post and finally the last monster hit the paint table. I could say other projects had taken priority but honestly it was more down to being unsure of how I wanted to paint the stone boss of the original mainstream dungeon exploring game.

Yes the Gargoyle! The dread statue that rolls more attacks than the barbarian and is often best avoided if it can be helped. It's such a great model I wasn't really sure how I was going to paint it at first. Do I go down the route of painting it like a small Bloodthirster or maybe make it a sandblasted rocky colour like on the cover art of the Kellar's Keep expansion.

Despite the menace, I do like that one goblin struggling not to fall.

In the end I decided on a halfway between stone and being alive. I decided for a more grey stone than the above artwork as I felt it fit the aesthetic I wanted a bit more.

Behold my power, living stone becomes living death!!

First I need to explain my current camera is not ideal for taking photos and lighting is an issue at the moment so in comparison to some earlier posts these are not the best photos.

I went for the classic khorne style colours for the top half of the gargoyle, nice to use reds and bronze makes a change from the green of orks.

Death comes for this plane of wooden ground and chair mountains!

This is the reverse shot of the Gargoyle. I tried to keep the wings simple and just went for some shading on the orange/red colours.

Where is that barbarian? I will cleave his head from his bloody corpse!

There we have it all the Heroquest monsters and Heroes are complete, might get a group shot up of them all when this lockdown comes to an end.

In the meantime have a great day and thanks for reading :)

Burly and Mean - Gladiator Ogre

If you enjoy oldhammer and especially the late 80s early 90s era then you almost certainly have seen the amazing Ogre models that were produced at the time.

An ogre shaman meets two trollslayers in a dungeon.

There was a large range of varied sculpts from a mercenary to a berserker, I happen to own four in total and I am looking for one more to make a nice group of five (possibly use them as ogryns in my ork force or for a warhammer fantasy chaos warband). Today though will be about the first of the four I do have. It’s the gladiator ogre. This guy was more of an impulse buy rather than one of the actual ogres I originally wanted but it is still an excellent model and easily worthy of my painting time. I'm not up to spped on my old warhammer fantasy lore from the time but I don't remember any coliseums or other gladiators in the old world.

Are you not entertained? Look at my finely toned musculature.

 One thing I have changed with this model is the base. Normally I am fine to just have a base witha little bit of flock on it. However my bounty hunter ogre I bought on ebay came with a lovely base that someone made which wouldn't fit witht he other ogres. Fortunatley I recently bought that starter age of sigmar kit from the newsagent with the three sigmar knight guys. The bases those three have are very detailed and so one went to this ogre. No fancy marbel though, this got turned into ruined paving slabs in a marsh. I think it came out quite well as a n alternative to my normal basic basing style. 

I earned enough in my last fight for some nice new green hair dye!

To paint this ogre I first started with a white undercoat and then a heavy wash of rhinox brown. This then followed with some elven flesh . The gauntlet and flail were boltgun metal and mithril silver with some black wash for the crevices. The hand is a combination of brass scoprion and gold on top of those previous colors. I decided to be a bit bold and go for a lilac purple loincloth, why is he weaing only a thong loincloth the world will never know. Lastly the leather straps are black with a grey highlight attempt.

Mine's several pints, or do you want a smack?

As with all Jes Goodwin ogres the faces are the best part. The mohawk is a mix of greens with putrid green being used as a highlight. The nose got a light wash of red gore to give the look of a heavy drinker and the eyes and mouth were done using rakarth flesh.

Grrr, think I'll just duff you up for yer gold anyway!!

One oldhammer ogre down several more to go. I hope you enjoyed looking at these pics as much as I painted this guy.

Until next time :)

New Year, Old Projects and an Ancient Evil

2019 is here and the cold weather is settling outside, the perfect climate for outdoor activities, no wait that is summer. This is the perfect time for indoor activities like tabletop gaming and painting. With that in mind; blows the dust off a very old box ...

Braawd Swoord!!

The Heroquest: Design your own Adventure Kit! Ah yes this is an amazing blast from the past. This is what you needed back in days of yore before PCs had become affordable and could only just about run Space Invaders. 

Dib dib dib dib

Clad in plate of steel, the Chaos Warriors (Heroquest)

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about something we can all relate to, something that is unquestionably, inescapably… Chaos!

I am referring, of course, to our great national pastime - merciless combat. Or so it had been. That's right, wasteland dwellers. Before we were devastated by heroic deeds, each lair had its OWN professional combat team. Imagine, a perfect, rain soaked day. The sun is enveloped by darkness and misery. And on the horizon, they appear, like knights of yore, armed with axes of hate and malice.

"Erm, guys the camera is this way!"

Their name? The Chaos Warriors. Their purpose? To make you, dear reader, revel in the joys of savagery and blood, if only for an afternoon.

... you never know what lurks around the corner!

From the swamps and bogs they came, shrouded in mist ready to haul away unsuspecting townsfolk and their pets!

Quick find the Hobbits! ... What do you mean wrong franchise?

Those dungeon heroes should really be careful ...

... you never know what might show up in the catacombs beneath the old world.

Yep over the weekend I have completed painting and basing a whole host of Heroquest miniatures ready to ambush an unwary hero or two.

Ow my ankles, damned crafty goblins sneaking about!

Two Battle Master goblins, not a fan of these minis as they are a bit lacking in detail so difficult to paint up properly. Still nice to have some variation in the goblin ranks.

Orcs with big swords, flails and an angry temperament!

An orc with a cleaver, meats on the menu boys!

With these six orcs complete, all of the orcs have now been painted up. I did enjoy painting these greenskins, the blue tunic one was a bit of a throwback as that was the original colour scheme I gave him. All I did was tidy him up a lot and base him, I'll use him as an orc with a big sword in a quest as he stands out from the rest.

They found some shambling rags, must be the work of a shaman!

Two more goblins here which completes the set of diminutive greenskins. Plus the final mummy, you can see some red areas which are a younger me giving it blood marks, tidy up and complete once again.

Something new, or is that very old and rotten? :)

The shambling horde approaches, finally got around to painting up the zombies for Heroquest one of which was missing a head. This meant searching the bits box for something else. Finally found a zombie head from the warhammer range and after a bit of filing down got it in place. I think it looks good and adds some variation to the trio. I have always liked these zombie minis they have the right amount of ghoulishness for the heroes to overcome.

That's it for this post, the fimir will be up next. Those cyclopean monsters are going to be great to paint.

Until next time :) 

My Top Five Least Liked Miniatures...

If there is a best there must be a worst, so here are my five least favourite miniatures of all time. This is purely my own personnel taste and in no particular order. Off we go ...

Quick Heroquest update (extra image added)

Just a quick update for today, finished two more greenskins from Heroquest.

Cleaver time!

An orc (yes the cleaver was broken off, so hastily glued it together in the past) and a goblin ready to chop up some heroes in the dungeons :)

Look at that skull, he must be dangerous!

Thought I should add this chap to the entry. A goblin from Battle Masters a game I never owned but somehow a few of the goblins ended up in my collection.I used them in Heroquest instead, this one in paticular got a role as a goblin champion for a bit (thus the skull). 

Until next time.

Memories: My Top Ten Oldhammer Miniatures:

Having read some time ago various blogs with lists of top ten miniatures in the oldhammer community, I thought I should put forward my own and share with you all. Thus what follows is my personal favourite miniatures of all time.

When deciding on a list of ten I tired to keep to models I have a very fond memory for or have some significance to me as I have been gaming. So although I like a lot of models that have been produced over the years these are the ones that really stand out and made an impression on me. I also limited it to models I actually own. Let's get going then ....

Heroquest Mummies: Do not read from the book!

One thing I really do like about Heroquest is the variety of monsters you can find lurking in the dungeons. One of which I am happy they bothered to include at the time was the Mummy! A bandaged shambling corpse from Egyptian legend. The miniature is really good and I like the fact it has no need for weapons and will simply beat or strangle the heroes to death, which it certainly can with the dice it can roll.

The tomb robbers will be punished! 

Here are two of the mummies painted up, I have one more but it still needs some painting. I do like the shambling stance of menace they show.

Who let these sneaky Goblins slink in!

Yep got three goblins done too, the middle one had lost his base so had to glue him to another base and steal some feet from the bits box, which is why he is a little taller than the other two.

Now orcs are here, quick search the taverns for the heroes!

Three Orcs complete and based. Always like that they came with a variety of weaponry from the ball and chain to the meat cleaver! The middle orc was chopped up in the bits box when I found him so had to add some arms and a knife to bring him back up to scratch.

So another Heroquest update for you to enjoy is done.

Until next time.

Summon an Astropath, we need to plot a course:

As I was unable to really get much time for the hobby at the weekend this post is just going to be a "What is on the agenda" for me to get done.

⚀ Heroquest
My aim is to paint up all the monsters and heroes for the boardgame Heroquest. This project is going well as the Skeletons are all done, as are the Heroes who you can see here:

By Ollar's Ghost! Get to questing!

The zombies & mummies are up next for the paintbrush while the orcs and goblins only need basing, shouldn't take too long. The Fimir are partiality painted up which leaves the Gargoyle, Chaos Sorcerer, Chaos Warriors. So expect some updates on this throughout the year.

⚁ Necromunda
In a previous post I showed a bounty hunter conversion I am working on. I hope to have him painted up soon. Also I am looking at getting an Orlock gang to at least tabletop standard (which would leave only a van Saar gang to go). Hopefully get some Necromunda games in too.

⚂ Orks
Certainly more greenskins will be painted up in the foreseeable. Been enjoying painting the batch of Goffs might even get some of those 2nd edition gretchin painted up too (probably not all 40 of them though). Got some 2nd edition wierdboys and boarboys that are begging for some paint.

⚃ Chaos Warband
Generating and painting up a chaos warband is definitely on my list. A bunch of Pantheon of Chaos miniatures arrived recently and I have already started painting up and rebuilding some daemonic fiends for this. As well as the beginnings of some conversions, like this dark elf below.

Oh my, a tentacle!

⚄ Film Reviews
Done some film reviews in the past will probably do some more in the future. Will definitely be leaning to the monsters/aliens and horror films for this. They can be great not just for watching a good film in the evening but also inspiring ideas for gaming.

⚅ Other
Keep reading you never know what might show up on here to be blogged about.

"Heroquest Skeletons: Rise up, you dead ...

... slain by the Heroes of the old world. Rise from your graves and avenge us. Those who steal from the dungeons of Morcar must die."

                                                           King Aeetes - Jason & the Argonauts (adapted)

What a fantastic film Jason and the Argonauts is from giant metal terror Talos, past the Clashing Rocks and on to the finale with the skeletons: The Children of the Hydra's teeth. It is why I like science-fiction/fantasy so much as watching this film and Clash of the Titans as a child really captured my imagination (or maybe it was Spinal in Killer Instinct).

Time to Harvest some Heroes.

A quick rundown of how I painted these skeletons:

First up I undercoated them in skull white. Then I used a watered down chaos black covering the entire model. Left to dry and did the same for the other four. After drying, I drybrushed the bones with skull white trying to avoid the recesses.

The scythe shaft was painted with a vermin brown first and then a slightly watered down scorched brown. Whilst the blade of the scythes were first painted with Brass Scorpion, then drybrushed/stipled with boltgun metal and then very lightly covered with some watered down chaos black.

All that remained was to pick out parts of the skeleton with bleached bone and tidy up on skeletons head that wasn't as well defined as the rest.

Basing was chaos black, followed by white glue and then flocked with Javis Moorland Mixture (bought at Pullingers or can be found online).

For early photos of these skeletons you can check them out here:
https://oldhammer40kquest.blogspot.com/2017/02/heroquest-skeletons-dem-bones.html

I wonder if they talk like Murray from Monkey Island?

That's all this time. Stay tuned when I should have some 2nd Edition space orks painted up to show you. 

Heroquest Skeletons: Dem Bones

Got some time to get some painting done this weekend so been working on the Skeletons from Heroquest.

As a big fan of the game as a child and now with some showing interest in playing the game I thought it might be worthwhile painting up the miniatures. A lot of the orcs and goblins are done so I thought I should move on to the other most prolific monster you may find on your adventures.

The undead arrive.

As you can see these scythe wielding undead were in a various states when I got back to the them, one (the middle one) also somehow was severed from the hip bone for some reason.

A quick superglue connection and some watered down black paint and these guys soon began to take shape. Drybrush after with skull white and then paint up the wood part of the scythe followed by the blade (trying brass scorpion as a bit of an experiment here).

Looking tabletop ready now

Due to free time running out I had to finish here so the blades metal paint and the bleached bone highlights will have to wait for the time being.

You may be wondering about the one skeleton with the scythe facing the other way. Well as I was painting I was flicking about on the internet looking at Heroquest stuff and found the monster card for skeletons which looks like this.

Undead Poldark 

From an actual action point of view this makes sense as to swing a scythe you would hold it like that, From a gameplay use it's a bit clunky and wide. But hey I thought why not switch up one for some variety. A quick cut and flip and presto skeleton with scythe facing the other way.

 Beware heroes the undead are ready to harvest!

Well that's it for today, some skeletons ready for the board after a little tidy when I next get another chance with the paintbrush.

It's January! 2017, better post something ...

Yep 2017 is here and I have had a busy month so not a lot of time for making any blog posts or working on any projects. Also it's been a bit cold outside.

Hum your own musical ice number here.

Until I do get some more time here is a bunch of Heroquest Orcs and Gobbos to tide you over.

Enjoy :)

What's that in the background?