26 October 2016

The HeroQuest Hero Quest: The Second Skeleton

Don't you love it when stuff coincides? Back in the summer I painted a load (over 200, not that I'm bragging or anything...) of miniatures, mostly for the big Morcar-themed battle at BOYL. That meant loads of HeroQuest minis. So last month, when a certain Asslessman asked me to contribute a figure for the HeroQuest Hero Quest I had already painted all my orcs, goblins and fimir... that meant I was turning to the forces of undeath... but wait! Aren't I just about to start a skeleton army? Why yes I am. Sounds like a good opportunity to decide how I'm going to paint all these bones.

I do owe quite a lot to the HeroQuest skellibob with his big scythe (and big bones!). HQ got me into Citadel Miniatures in the first place and I was always more keen on the forces of undeath than on the greenskins. My first army (at least 50% of which was HQ miniatures from the main box and Witch Lord expansion) was undead (4th ed, although we used the 3rd ed book, 4th ed "get started guide" and I actually had the 4th ed undead armies book- a Christmas present from my parents). Sadly that army was given away along with most of my miniatures collection when I went through a brief spell of adulthood. With the Fimir done (for now) I have decided it is time to set myself a new army and want to recreate my first undead horde- recreate it as I would have liked it to have been back then that is!



On to the paint scheme then. It seems there are three 'classic' methods of painting skeletons. Spray black and drybrush, spray white and ink and spray bone and wash. I had three unpainted HQ skeletons, so a chance to give each method a go. I think I mixed all these methods as a kid (not very successfully!) and will probably do so again to get some variation across the units, but I do want to pick a dominant method to help with cohesion as well. Across the army skeletons of various age, state of decomposition and buried under different conditions will have been pressed into service so some variation is good.


On the left is the white base coat, washed with Army Painter Strong Tone and then shaded with Vallejo Sepia ink. The guy on the right is the same but with the original bone colour the HQ skellies come in. They give nice, clean-picked and shiny bone effects and I will definitely be mixing both these quick schemes into the units, but I have decided to go with what I think was also my dominant bone method in my first army...



Black undercoat, drybrushed with Vallejo Leather Brown, then Vallejo Khaki, then Khaki and White with a bit of white highlighting and shading with Sepia ink. The bone texture looks rougher and more aged- which is probably scientifically wrong but it looks more old-school and grim and it's the aesthetic that counts as far as I'm concerned! So there he is, my submission for the HeroQuest Hero Quest and my test-model for my old-school skellie army. Time to get onto the metals!

Now It's time for Steve to show us what he's able of !

9 comments:

  1. Thats a great post Fimm, good stuff :)

    The chunky HQ skeletons are quite a lot of fun, characterful in their own slightly gauche way.

    When shading Skeleton #1, how liberal with the sepia were you? Im interested in how you added a lighter wash/ink element over a darker one, as I usually do that in reverse.

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    1. Very sparse with the sepia, only applying it to the darkest recesses. The Army Painter Strong Tone was applied thickly over the whole thing. I find the Army Painter quickshades excellent, not as strong as ink but with a better saturation than washes (which I'm not keen on). So I don't think I added a lighter element over a darker, the ink is more saturated than the AP quickshade.

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  2. Nice post Fimm, those scythe wielding skellies have a special place in my heart, along with many of the HQ minis. I like his wee comb-over. Adding foliage to undead is a cool idea, it adds to the rotty ambiance.

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  3. A fine job Fimm, as Dave mentioned already the extra foliage really adds some great character to it. I have similar memories of experimenting with skeleton colour schemes. In addition to the methods discussed I also have some that are basically grey! :)

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    1. The monster card shows him with either remains of a scalp or a clod of grassy mud on his head... I decided a bit of static grass could make him either a recently-deceased punk or a recently-risen grave buster! :)

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  4. Looking good. I like his tufty hair.

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  5. I love fresh skeletons like this one. You can sense he's full of unlife. Nice idea to show the different recipes too !

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  6. I can't believe i forgot to comment on this one - I absolutely love it when skeletons have moss or grass growing on their heads, I don't know why, I just do. Maybe it was in an old illustration or something. Anyway this is a great skeleton, good stuff Geoff! :D

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  7. Skeletons. They were a bugger to paint. You either got them just right and they looked awesome or you bodged em and they never looked right. I think my method was paint em black if plastic brown if metal. Then dry brush with rotting flesh, then gently with white. Pick out the teeth with a pin. Still, like I say...win some lose some.

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