Back to the Painting Desk after batch painting an army of Anglo-Saxons. This time I wanted to tackle painting some individual models. Thankfully, I had a few models sitting around. This was the perfect time to get First Light supplement, a Reaper Storm Giant, and the Path of the Wandering Monk minis on the desk to paint up.
However, before we get into the painting, let's talk a bit about the Path of the Wandering Monk supplement for Heroquest.
For two miniatures and some cards, $15 is a lot of money. At least I think it is. However, I am old and out-of-touch on modern pricing. I will say that Avalon Hill tried to go out of their way to package these up like they were worth $15. The packaging is over-the-top!
Once inside, there is a nice little promotional scroll that is tied up, a display box, and the cards to play with the two miniatures. The two miniatures are typical Heroquest quality, and they have a Male and Female version of the model. I like that.
The new rules are pretty straight forward. The Monk has a card for each element, so 4 cards. Of note, you can not use the Fire card unless all the other cards have been used previously. In addition, the Monk can choose to refresh their cards at any point no monsters are on the table. I think I will House Rule that where they have to use their turn to Meditate and refresh the cards i.e. No moving or searching. That makes it a bit of a choice.
The base stats for the Monk are not over the top. However, they get additional attack dice for being unarmed, which can be useful in some scenarios. The Monk looks like a good swap for the Dwarf or Elf from the basic party. Good defense, some fun abilities, and good-enough in a fight.
Pallette Cleanser
Before painting up my new Heroes, I needed to do a bit of a palette cleanser. I had a Reaper Storm Giant that I was going to use in a variety of games or proxy in as Zeus; sitting on my desk. He was primed and ready for paint. Therefore, I took a couple hours to clear him from painting desk. I used all Armypainter Speedpaints and Metallic Speedpaints on this guy. He was a big boy.
I used Sand Golem for the flash tone, to give it a more Olive-skinned complexion. I know traditional Storm Giants have a greyish/Blue tone to their skin, but this was also a Zues stand-in. That would not do! The belts are Grim Black with the armor being Golden Armor, Brazen Bronze, or Hoplite Gold depending. The loin cloth is Stormcloud Blue, which seemed appropriate. The sword, hair, and base are all Runic Grey. The strips on the loincloth are Leather Brown and Aztec Gold.
With this guy done, I was ready to move onto First Light, the Wandering Monks, and the Mage in the Mirror Elf.
HeroQuest Heroes (and 1 Dragon)
This time, I did not want to batch paint! I was going to paint each miniature individually. That is not how I normally paint miniatures at all, so this was a big change of pace for me. I did spray undercoat them all with GW Grey Seer, then gave them a dark grey wash of cheap Acrylics, and then a drybrush of white. This is my standard prep for Speedpaints and it works pretty well.
For no particular reason, I got started on the Dwarf first. Of note, I used different skin tones for the miniatures. The Dwarf was Sand Golem, the Barbarian was Barbarian Flesh, the Wizard was Tanned Flesh, and everyone else was Elf Flesh. This gave them a variety of skin tones.
After the first night of painting, my first three Heroes were painted up! These paint up surprisingly fast and are relatively crisp. They have good detail and the Speedpaints generally go where they are supposed to go. They finish off really well with a Light Tone brown based wash.
Of note, I would paint the inset details on the swords, shields, staffs, and other weapons first before giving them a coat of their base color. This allowed some of that detail to "pop" on the final model. This also worked well for some of the scarring on the Monk and Barbarian.
The First Light Barbarian and Dwarf are very different from the Core sets models. There is no doubt that these are different heroes than the original models. It could be fun to swap them out if some of the OG Heroes die while on the Quest.
The next night, I moved onto my next set of heroes. This would be Ms. Monk, the new Elf, and the First Light Elf. These all had used the Elven Flesh for the skin tones. These again took about 1-night to get all painted up and ready for their wash. Once again, a Light Tone wash is a great finishing step.
The Monks I used Zealot Yellow and Fiery Orange as key parts of their attire. The Elves I used Pallid Flesh as a metallic color, which makes them unique from everyone else's metallic choices. My Core Set elf uses a cloak made of leaves, so for this one I decided that those leaves were instead Raven feathers and went with Graveyard Grey for the cloak. This makes her very distinct from my other Elf. The Mage in the Mirror Elf I used a white cloak and made them blonde. They also have a very distinct look from my other elves and will be easy to tell apart from the other Heroes.
This left the Dragon and the Wizard. The Wizard in First Light looks much older and more experienced than the one from the Core set. That ones looks like a young man, while this one is much more mature and seasoned looking. His clothes, facial hair, and haircut all look more world-weary than the Core set wizard. Therefore, I went with a very different look for him as well. Instead of the bright yellow and reds from the Core model, I chose a dark purple to contrast his moon symbols. This gave him a much darker and malevolent look, I think this guy could fill in for the Fire Mage or other NPCs at different points.
That left the big Dragon, which I did not take many pictures of as I painted him. I decided to go with a Blue color scheme. His armored chest was Runic Grey, his skin was Stormcloud Blue, and his scaly hide was Magic Blue. I am not that happy with the dark blue undertone to his skin and wish I would have gone Runic Grey skin, Magic Blue chest, and Stormcloud scales, but oh well. In addition, I gave this guy a Strong Tone wash which is a black based wash to dirty him up a bit. That helped the final look a lot.
This took me about 1 week to paint all the models. From there, I had to finish basing them and sealing them. For their bases I used a simple Runic Grey on the tops, and then an Armypainter black around the rims. This really helps them stand-out in game. The final step was to wait for a nice day and then give them a heavy protective coat of spray-on Matte Finish.
Final Thoughts
Well, after batch-painting 90 models over the course of a few weeks this was a well-earned break! Each one looks like an individual and it was a nice change of pace to paint one at a time.
I use one of those fidget popper toys as my palette. There are about 28 little pockets for paint. As I went along, I kept track of what color was in each pocket by setting up the paint bottles to mirror the palette lay-out. That way, I could "re-use" the same pocket for any colors I re-used through-out the week. That meant there was a lot less cleaning up as I went than usual. A little tip? I guess if you have a wet-palette you wouldn't need it.
Finishing these allowed me to clear my desk and get ready for the next big project. Right now, that is looking like the Mage in the Mirror boxed set.
Until next time!
