A fitting beginning to my experience painting miniatures must also be one of the first and most memorable miniature games that I have ever played: Hero Quest. The game was, I learned later, an extremely simplified version of the classic role-playing games of the day, complete with a game master (referred to in the game supplements as "Zargon") and four heroes. Two heroes were defined by class (barbarian and wizard), while the others were defined by race (elf and dwarf). To the 12-year-old me though, Zargon was "Mom" and I got to play "Barbie, Elfie, Dwarfie, and Wizzo."
All miniatures were painted and photographed by me.
All miniatures were painted and photographed by me.
Inspired by woad raiders of celtic history, my barbarian wears blue war-paint. I also textured his skin so it would show the years of dirt he had gathered.
A "traditional" look for the elf, with green tunic and boots. The gold-leaf paint added as an accent suggests a more aristocratic adventurer.
This version of the elf is inspired by Link from The Legend of Zelda video games, featuring his blonde hair, brown fingerless gloves, Goron Tunic, and Master Sword.
A "traditional" dwarf, inspired by Gimli from the Lord of the Rings.
An older dwarf, with paler skin from being underground most of his long years as a miner. Emphasis of purple as a sign of royal blood.
Hero Quest came with cardboard and plastic furniture pieces to further customize the gameplay. I kit-bashed one of the polearms from a weapons rack to make the wizard into an aging palace guard. What once was a magical gesture now could be a hand thrown up with a "Halt! Who goes there!"
My chaos warlock was inspired by another skull-headed villain from my childhood: Skeletor from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.
Roughly-based on the green knight spoken of in the legend of Sir Gawain, this chaos warrior has been coated in a thin layer of silver paint to make it gleam like polished metal.
