these come from the games workshop skeleton sprue. Now I'm very much an old hammer when it comes to miniatures. and plastic? (they call it resin to make it sound like it has more worth these days) so plastic miniatures replaced metal ones...blasphemy!! well not quite. but I gotta be honest I much prefer a weighty figure to paint than a 'plastic' one. so all my doubts aside. some of Games Workshop's sprue stuff is quite amazing despite me trying my hardest to not like them. you have the option for a lot of variation, and variation adds character to dungeon fodder in my eyes. so we got the barbarian and he needs to crunch some bones!.
now I actually finished these about a year ago.
i had made my own little twists on them to give them more of a Heroquest vibe. i turned every spear into some crazy 'not so big ass this time' scythes and painted them up, but these have been sitting in a box all that time with no bases on them, I re-based and here we go
Now these are kind of my first of my 'reworked Heroquest figures. all previously were just paint jobs. so these are my first in replacement figures to bring them up to date and add a bit more depth and detail instead of just having 1 skeleton type. we have a few scythes and two champions. but that's not just everything.
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One thing that always bugged me with Heroquest was this guy.
for sir Ragnar - use the chaos sorcerer, blah blah. so this just demoted him to an extra that played multiple parts. This demeaned any possible nefarious position he would have as being the bad guy
he was also the 'please use for the Witch lord.
that just wasn't enough for me. I've just made my barbarian and he needs a nemesis!
so over time I've scoured the net thinking that if I was to get a model for the witch lord I would need to find some amazingly sculpted proxy to choose from. there are some great undead models out there. in particular I envisioned a Wight or lich king type being the closest.
Everything I found that came anywhere near just somehow didn't do it for me. I've scoured around searching back on those that caught my eye as being 'potential' choices.
now Warhammer quest had an expansion call THE CATACOMBS OF TERROR and i believe that the witch lord made a 3rd appearance? please correct me if im wrong.
onto my other searches.
firstly I found a lot of potential from reaper. if you ask me these guys are the masters of character models, their library is huge. if you need a specific looking character, there is a good chance reaper will fill the void.
Barrow warden mystic
This one seems like a very good choice to me. he has a mixture of warrior and mage, which is what i saw as perfect for the witch lord. but for me he lacked a sword. now if i would of swapped one of those hands out for something that was wielding a sword. it would of dragged it away from what I wanted. 1. swap out the staff and he looks too much like a warrior. 2 swap out the ball of fire and his hands look too cluttered. but still for other i think this is a great choice.
Vordakai, cyclops lich
This one seems like a good proposed option if you want to take the mage type of witch lord. simply swapping the head out for something suitable would give a pretty decent witch lord I think.
Tar-Baphon, The Whispering Tyrant
probably not one of the better options. but definately has that lich lord sort of look to him.
Vardus The Interred
ive seen this one mentioned a few times to be a option. but for me. those shoulders pads are better off left in wardrobe for some 80s tv show.
ive seen this one mentioned a few times to be a option. but for me. those shoulders pads are better off left in wardrobe for some 80s tv show.
Dragoth The Defiler
this one is kinda similar to the one from warhammer quest. for me personally ive got some weird mental block about having a figure move around and taking his throne with him..weird right?
Dragoth The Defiler, Undead Lord on Throne
i really like this mini, but like the above i would never use it... but that thrones pretty neat regardless. i wonder if the model comes in 2 parts. i would like that throne in my collection
Dauron, Necropolis hero
I guess with a different head he might be a good choice if you want a more warrior styled witch lord.
Laumarak The Pale
i quite like this one purely for the awkward twisted body look. hes got the magic sword and a staff which lends itself nicely to the warrior/mage look i want. but the head aint right. and looking at the figure. i dont think swapping heads would be a simple task.
i quite like this one purely for the awkward twisted body look. hes got the magic sword and a staff which lends itself nicely to the warrior/mage look i want. but the head aint right. and looking at the figure. i dont think swapping heads would be a simple task.
Neb'nesew, Nefsokar Warlord
if you want the egyptian look i guess he would be handy/
Barrow warden lord
I wish i had of found this guy previously as this probably would of been my top choice. of course i would of changed the head to something more skeletal. but still another great choice
pathfinder minatures
doubt this one would be easy to find. ebay maybe? it cropped up on a google search and looked like a good option. so i thought i would include it
Lich King
mad puppet miniatures sadly sold out
Liche King
i like this dude. he has that awkward twist to his body than kinda creeps me out. but that scenic base made this a no no for me. maybe it could be seperated? but i wasnt prepared to shell out cash to find out otherwise
Wight lord
Vampire Counts Krell, Lord of the Undeath
i am quite surprised at games workshops lack of undead. but these 2 here were the only 2 i saw as being anything remotely fitting.
OK... so that was a run down of all my internet searching and research. because me being me... I took inspiration from all of those I found. all of them good in their own right. and from the bits i liked. i decided i was going to make my own Witch lord! i know i would never be happy with a substitute that im not totally happy with, and at least in making my own, it all becomes my own take on him. first I decided that I didnt want him to look exactly like this.
So im about to attempt making him from scratch. and i pretty much almost did. all I've used is some arms, a rib cage and a head from my bits box
so yeah id gotten my research completed. now the biggest risk i got here is that im not really a sculptor. i do bits and bobs here and there. but this is something i saw as a task that was stretching out of my comfort zone.ive been doing more and more green stuff pushing recently and im starting to get a little more comfortable with a few things. ive learnt a few new tips and tricks. but here with this figure i was about to put them to the test..
I knew I wanted a warrior/mage type Witch lord. i didnt want him to look too much like he was a knight from a past life. or a wizard from a past life. but i did want him to look like he and learnt a few things here and there. gathered a few magic artifacts and such. the one thing i did choose against though was to give him the spirit blade. he does have this at some point but i just wanted him to have a sword. nothing fancy. so anyways. heres what i came up with!
all the new techniques i had read up on for first attempts didn't turn out too bad. the chainmail..not perfect but still good enough for my first attempt i also decided to show the magical side of him with a ball of fire. originally i was going to go with a skull on fire in his hand but decided against it as all the skulls i had didn't quite sit right in his hand/ so ultimately i went with just fire. i also chose not to give anything magical on the sword as i wanted to do some source lighting (also a first for me here) and the glow from the flame in his hand was enough. if i then had of put some magical glow or flame on the sword i would of been forced to add more source light to the other side. and i think this would of overwhelmed the mini.
the legs weren't as easy as i had hoped. i really struggle to get greenstuff to have any sharp edges to it. i know its possible. but i don't think my skill levels are quite there just yet. but as part of the warrior/mage balance i figured a few armour type items on his frame would help give the mixed impression. i also sculpted some simply bracer's onto his arms and some shoulder pads (yes they do resemble corn on the cob)
the coat wasn't as hard to do as i thought it would be. and I'm happy how it came out. i wanted it to be all torn and hanging off him. and feel I got that pretty much down to a tee! i did the torso part first. then added the sleeves after wards.
hoods...this is the second hood I've ever sculpted. and think I need to go back to the drawing board with hoods. and use a little more source material as I'm not sure I get how the material hangs down properly.
in terms of artefacts. I wanted to have lots. but ultimately tried to keep it simple in the end as I didn't want to add too many items and clutter him up. so I sculpted the pendant around his neck, and gave him a magical ring on his flame hand. we can pretend that helmet is magical too..and the sword! :)
so there we have him. finally i have 1 mini that is the Witchlord!
now the barbarian has something to fight through! :)
hope you enjoyed folks. of course now ive made a mini for the witch lord im going to have to make one for sir ragnar too. and every other supporting character in heroquest. i could well end up making that chaos sorcerer redundant...poor him hehe
till next time
Peace
