On The Painting Desk: Return of the Witchlord- Heroquest

 

Hey, I was supposed to be painting my Anglo-Saxon army by now?  What gives?  Well..... I guess I'm not!  I have been cruising along on my Heroquest stuff, and I decided I did not want to break the streak I was on.  Don't worry, this is my last expansion on the desk so if you have been waiting with held breath for the Anglo-saxons..... well..... you should probably take a breath.  

I wrote a review of the expansion pack Return of the Witchlord earlier.  Once I get this one painted, that will complete all the OG content that Hasbro has come out with for Nu Heroquest.  I will have the Core, Kellar's Keep, Return of the Witchlord, and Against the Ogre Horde.  

I am secretly hoping they come out with a re-box of Battlemasters, but that ties explicitly into Heroquest with Dread Warriors, Orcs, Goblins, Abominations and Ogres on one-side.  Then on the other side would be Guardian Knights, Elves, and Dwarves.  The Witchlord and his army could be an expansion.  They have some basic sculpts for some of them all ready.  Hasbro, if you are reading this.... call my agent!  

Anyway, this set basically just has some old sculpts from the Core set.... but MOAR of them.  You get 4 Zombies, 4 Mummies, and 8 skellingtons.  Then, there are the two new doors that are duplicates from Kellar's Keep, or are they one in Kellar's Keep duplicates of these doors?  

I did the usual Grey Seer undercoat, dark grey wash, and white drybrush.  I did that to all of the models in this set at once.  I didn't even bother with a photos.    

I started with painting the mummies.  Sure, they are the most dangerous of the undead, BUT they are also the easiest to paint.  I took out my Malignant Green and hit all the exposed skin, there are some fingers, elbows, knees, and toes..... knees and toes....  Then, I gave them a blast of Dark Wash.  Base with Runic Grey and a black rim.  That was it.  Done.  Easy-peasy.  Painting Mummies is the best!   

After the Mummies, it was time to tackle some of the harder to do undead.  I decided the Zombies should be next.  I actually really like the zombie sculpt from Heroquest.  However, when you will have 6 of them, do you want to think a bit about how you want to differentiate them a bit to avoid monotony in the painting and if you need to tell them apart on the board for some reason.  

For the skin, I started by painting them Malignant Green like my orcs and goblins.  However, to make them look a bit different I then hit them with an Armypainter Green Tone wash.  This gave them a very different look than the Greenskins.  I then painted them all up, with a few metallics here and there for some details.  However, the majority of my metals I tried to stick with Graveyard Grey and Runic Grey for a NMM look.  The most fun was picking out their hair colors.  Then, I gave them all a Dark Tone wash and finished up the bases the usual way.  Sadly the Dark Tone Wash made some of the hair colors look identical at distance.  Oh well.  

With the zombies done it was off to the Skellingtons.  There was one miscast in the set I got, but take a look and see if you can find him in the crowd?  This would triple the number of skeletons I had in my HQ collection with this set.  I went back to my painting blogs for the Core Set and reviewed how I painted them up.  Unsurprisingly, Pallid Bone was going to do a lot of heavy lifting for these guys, with Graveyard Grey armor, and the scythe blades being Runic Grey with a few other metallics thrown in for flavor.  I used a variety of colors on their bits of clothing, again in case I needed to differentiate them for some reason on the table.  Bases were the standard runic grey and black trim. 

The last step was painting the two doors, one wooden and one metal.  I used some different colors from the Kellar's Keep doors I painted just in case I wanted to differentiate them for some reason.  No idea what that reason could be, but you never know.    

With the all the miniatures done, that wrapped up my Return of the Witchlord expansion packs to Heroquest.  I am open to suggestions for what expansions I should get next.  I want to expand my collection of heroes and mercenaries, so let me know which set helps me do that.  Don't worry, I am not done with Heroquest because I like painting them and it is a good family game, solo, or casual game I can play at the True Crit Gaming , at home, and even with non-gamer folks. 

Next up on the painting desk, it is finally time to get those Anglo-Saxons painted up.  I am also hoping to add a pack of Dark Age archers to the mix too.  Can I get it all done before next year drops?   Keep tuning in to find out!   

I have also been doing some research on another project as well.  Perhaps you will get an idea from some of the secondary sources I am working with.....

So, I think that is about all for now.  Let me know in comments about the best Heroquest expansion I should look at next, and what else you may think I am working on.  Until next time! 

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