UNDEAD and the WITCHLORD

With the barbarian all finished up you would of thought id of made a start on the other hero's, but like everybody else into this hobby....I got sidetracked. this is why we have project running for years and years right? its amazing because I do actually finish jobs off. just some take longer than others. so I don't have a new dwarf or a new elf or wizard (and boy do we need a new one of the him!!) but I've got some more undead.
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.

the chaos sorcerer.......OK so he does look like he's about to do a bungee jump but I love this mini. what i hated was that everywhere in the quest book this guy was basically the 'substitute'!!!
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.

Ok so he's not totally dissimilar. but the witch lord even got his own sequel! RETURN OF THE WITCH LORD. and still cameo chaos sorcerer was to be used as the witch lord. he became the where's Wally/Waldo and
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.

good luck finding this guy. if you do, be prepared to shell out a lot of cash. anything warhammer quest related these days is somehow treated like gold dust and costs excessive amounts on ebay and the likes.

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.

reaper miniatures

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.

reaper miniatures

Tar-Baphon, The Whispering Tyrant

probably not one of the better options. but definately has that lich lord sort of look to him.

reaper miniatures

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.

reaper miniatures

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?

reaper miniatures

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

reaper miniatures

Dauron, Necropolis hero

I guess with a different head he might be a good choice if you want a more warrior styled witch lord.

reaper miniatures

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.

reaper miniatures

Neb'nesew, Nefsokar Warlord

if you want the egyptian look i guess he would be handy/

reaper miniatures

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

reaper miniatures

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

Pathfinder

Other world miniatures

otherworld miniatures

Otherworld Miniatures wraiths

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

mantic games

Wight lord

heresy miniatures

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.

Games workshop

Games workshop

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

Treasure Chests

ok just a quick update on my heroquest furniture. ive created 4 new treasure chests. they arent masterpieces by any means. and i probably would of been better off just buying some new ones. but then that would be cheating wouldnt it? :)
i decided to make 4 completely different, but still ambiguous looking chests. I had toyed with the idea of decorating them with bits of gold and such around the bases, but in the end decided against it. the generic look is to hide the fact that all four contain deadly traps..had you fooled huh?

 Anyways, i just wanted them to be simple chests, nothing fancy, just simple chests

i kind of rushed these also, as like always. i got side tracked away from all the furniture onto something else...which i hope to be showing very soon. i wont say too much but..'he's' looking pretty cool and is something ive wanted to do for a long long time :)

as for furniture. what do i have left?

• fire place - in progress

• alchemists desk - got some bits and bobs done for it (i really want this to look cluttered and well used)

• altar - havent started this yet. i wanted to take a completely different approach maybe using some slate to create a more stone henge sort of looking altar. havent finalised yet what i want to do.

i believe then that will be all of them...so just another 20 years to complete the expansions too! hehe
anyways its late. and im fed up of firefox crashing on me. so thats the lot
G'night folks!

Descent 2nd edition - the rest

Now. Whilst this blog is generally anything i like within the hobby. i do tend to predominantly aim most of my focus towards heroquest... i do play other games honest!
but a while back i posted a little review of descent journeys in the dark 2nd edition. part of that review was focused on my distinct lack of liking any of the figures. now ive seen on various forums etc how people have praised these mini's for their amazing detail. but to put it bluntly if i had no desire to give them a decent paint job. there must be a perfectly good reason for that right?
we really enjoy the game in this house..but quite frankly the models really are shit.
up the scale a bit. stop focusing on pointless detail and actual make some cool models..sorry to the sculptor/s but they really just dont do it for me. they kind of look like they have been made with a 3d modelling program and then printed with a 3d printer. has anyone else ever noticed the difference between hand scupted and digitally sculpted? I'm not sure if they were digitally sculpted. but they definately have that feel about them....soulless!
am i wrong? id love to hear if people do actually disagree with me. because im sure my comments must of been viewed by many. infact i know they have, because that 1 single post is the most popular post on my entire blog with more than double the views to its nearest post....that says something. descent is popular i guess. its a newer game..possibly using newer technology to create the models.
anyways i thought id post this up as a little bit of a filler as ive got lots of stuff in the works at the moment but havent really got anything finished. and i havent posted for a few weeks.
anyways...take a bow...the cast of descent!

Ashrian

awful to paint........

 Grisban the Thirsty

definately my favourite of the heroes. and one of the much better sculpts, probably because just like me....he is an alcoholic.......:)

 Barghests

just love the curly bases dont you?

 Dragons.

these deserved a better paint job...but at this point i just couldnt be arsed.

 Elementals.

this are just frikkin weird. I didnt even want to paint these....so i taught my 10 year old daughter how to dry brush...and et voila! not bad huh?

 Ettins

i so wanted these to be better models. i just love how the chin and neck are the same thing. again awful to paint.although they came out better than i thought they would

 Flesh moulders

not even these could remould themselves to be good sculpts

 Goblins

ridiculously small.awful to paint...base colours and army painter were my only friends here

 jain fairwood

not a bad sculpt..again though shitty scale..at this point i was losing the will to live. and just wanted to finish the job

 Leoric of the Book

smug looking git!! nuff said.

 Merriods.

weird sharky things...actually my fave models in the entire set..still not good enough for me to finish the bases hehe

 Spiders

just spiders aint they? you can pick up better ones in the little toy bags for about 50p

Forgotten her name...dont care!

another awful one to paint. some nice details on the armour. but the face is just deformed!

 Tomble Burrowell

came out better than i thought for a 15 minute paint job lol

 Widow Tarha.

i actually like this one....not sure why. still a shit sculpt

 Zombies.

gimme heroquest ones anyday..these are flimsy as hell. i have to move them on the table with a pair of tweezers out of fear of them breaking in half.

Ok there we go..thats all of them. Finito!


ps. back to HEROQUEST soon :)

The Barbarian

Call him what you like. Say what you want about him, he was always my favourite bad ass! If there was ever a call for who was gonna play as who. I was always jumping to the front making my claim to be playing as the barbarian. He even got to be the feature point of the box art!!!

 so if anything became the face of Heroquest. he may not be skilled in the arts of magic or have a handy knack of spotting big spikes sticking out of the ground. but hes pretty mean with that broadsword. Now I'm not sure if he was everyone's favourite. but he still is mine. even playing fantasy video games, Skyrim or whatever. I still play as the brutish sword wielding oaf.

it seemed also when you took a look at him, that there were 'variations' of the figure.
in the box you got this red plastic dude with a slightly warped sword.
on the back of the quest book you had this awesome 'Mike Mcvey' painted version.
and also a metal variation was also floating around

 

I wanted that dude in the middle!! I've never even seen a picture of that same figure anywhere at all. the picture on the right claims to be the same. but we can see side by side. they aint the same!

i think that figure has popped up on Ebay for a substantially ridiculous amount over the years. and rightfully so if it really is that rare!

so who's fault is it?

 Get to the choppa!!!!!

Yes his fault. Conan the camel punching barbarian. I've never read any of Robert E Howard's tales, nor have i ever touched the comic book. but when i watched this film as a kid. i was just blown away. Arnie is Conan and not even Kal drogo can do anything about that!

So it comes as no surprise that anything called barbarian after this film, was pretty much a copy of, or so influenced by Conan that it may as well of been a copy.

Heroquest's barbarian also had to of been strongly influenced by his portrayal. and anything barbarian esq for the next few years also seemed to be that way. i collected so many of citadel's metal barbarians and still have many of them today.

sadly the whole 'barbarian' thing seems to of drained away. the nearest you see to a barbarian in games workshops catalogue of today are chaos marauders. but if you ask me they aren't even good models let alone barbarians.

Sadly many moons ago, because he got used so much every time Heroquest got played, (I'm sure I used to carry him around in my pocket for safe keeping too,, not safe enough though!) as he was the first and only casualty of a big heavy foot of doom. my foot to boot! (great pun!!)
but that wasn't so bad. i was pissed that id lost out on my favourite character, but i had loads of barbarians that could fill the void. OK none of them were a perfect match, but that didn't matter.

Over time i would change the figures I used as my barbarian.each time thinking I've moved onto something better. with the introduction of the internet I was starting to see I wasn't the only person doing this, be it a simple repaint or a complete proxy like i was doing.

was nice to see everyones own personal takes on the barbarian.

Some went for the straight up repaint

courtesy of Gunamar Ironwill

courtesy of goblin-king

We had He-Man barbarian!!

courtesy of painting agency

some gave him new weapons

 courtesy of Bruenor

Some took to having a female counterpart

courtesy of Sjeng

then some went with alternatives from other dungeon crawlers

coutesy of Tasao

So I scoured the web, every time I saw something that looked like that barbarian on the back of the quest book, I would nab it! for a few years i settled on the below figure from the Celtos range.

apart form the dodgy fringe line, i saw him as being the closest in pose and stature to that barbarian on the back of the quest book. and was very much my staple for a few years

throughout this time i was convinced i had the best fit barbarian for the job!

others cropped up on the net, but still i felt i had made the decision to rule them all. and I'd never need another replacement figure again......

not even this wonderfully painted original could sway me

 courtesy of Massive Voodoo

then i spotted this little figure from Hasslefree miniatures

wolf

Great pose! even has a identical sword to that of the Celtos barbarian i have been using for the last few years. But I'm still not sold?? out of the 3 heads available, I would have to sculpt some hair. I have got no problem with that! but still.... I'm not sold on it and not sure why! I then happened to stumble on a magnificent blog by damien thevenin, who's complete reworking of Heroquest is nothing short of amazing!! He too had used Hasslefree's wolf mini to make his barbarian!

this is fantastic right? it truly is, and still i'm not sold.  for me this version almost hits the mark but has a bit of an Arabic vibe about him. not sure why. but this confirmed why id chosen against using this previously. all the above..great versions of. But for my picky self i still thought there was something better out there. in truth i was totally wrong. id scoured the web into every dank dark corner possible. Google searched so much i was ending up in all sort of weird places.
Truth was my answer lay right under my nose all the time!

i had stumbled upon a fantastic thread on Warseer that was a worklog for someone creating warhammer quest characters and the likes, he hit upon something i had been trying to do for a while. and that was creating character! any model can be painted up in a various sort of way. of customised a little just to add a little bit more. even with the original Heroquest barbarian he had managed to give this a new lease of life

Courtesy of eastern empire

so i go back to the drawing board on this. a bit of rope, a vial, generally just a few things that make someone look like they are kitted out for some adventure time!

so i start looking at the wolf miniature from Hasslefree once more...what if i add a few things to his belt? and a new head? of course a head that fits what i want much better.

then completely out of the blue i find this gem of a blog and they have some wonderful projects on there. including a Warhammer quest log. of which they have used a wolf mini as the barbarian also.

and et voila. the perfect head too!!!!!!!!

so of course at this point I know I'm close to getting that barbarian i want...

now just gotta find that head right? some of you may recognize it already. so i scoured everything i could think of. every GW sprue that i could possibly think of. until i finally broke. and just asked the creator (of which you can see my pleading on his blog)

and it turns out it belongs to a space wolves sprue!!! space wolves????? i never thought once to look at 40k stuff at all!

so there we go. that was my journey to creating my (for now) perfect barbarian.

I've got the mini.

I've got the head.

I've got more bits than i can comprehend.

so let get cracking.

bish bash bosh,,paint paint paint

I did initially just want a smooth sword, but I couldn't quite fill in the etchings on the sword to be as smooth as i wanted. plus i has all my bits ready and just wanted to get him done. maybe a little bit of a rush job...but i was excited to get him completed! I carved the diamond shape on his brow to be more triangular and gave him a nice 80's rock band hair style!

also sculpted some fur around those boots

attached a bit i had found in my bits box. this seems like something a barbarian might be carrying around. a pouch for his gold. a vial of some concocted potion. a big ass dagger! and some looted gems!

oh and gave him some stubble too :)

 

so there we have it. a little bit of my journey in creating and very little on the actual creating of! It took a long time, but thankfully the gift of the internet and the many many wonderful ideas people have, helped me get to where i wanted with my favourite Heroquest character. all the great ideas I've seen everywhere helped guide and influence. and hope for many years the community continues to thrive with such magnificently creative souls!

hope you enjoyed

till next time! :)