Always...

Hoi,

In town we have a lovely toy-shop, Het Hobbelpaardje (the Rocking Horse) that sells high quality toys, not the plastic, electric screaming neon colours trash you find in most toy-shops nowadays. They also sell board games, can you guess where this is going? Yeah, a short while ago they also started to sell GW stuff and are now an independent retailer for Warlord Games as well. I might have told in an earlier post that I have painted up a set of  GW "First Strike" figures for demo use and that's pretty much that got me back into painting Space Marines.

Now Arthur has been into Harry Potter for some time now and that got me curious about the Knight Models HP miniature game. As it happens Martijn, the shop's co-owner, had two of the games lying around; one personal box and one for the shop. Since he apparantly has two left thumbs he broke pretty much half of the wands in the boxes and I promissed to see whether I could fix them. "If you are able to make one complete set out of the two that's fine!" he said, yeah well so I made him one big set using all figures by doing some small conversions ;-)

The forces of evil

The Death Eaters:

Slytherin students with Draco to the left:

Giant spiders, Aragogs offspring:

 

The evil force all gathered together to do Lord Voldemort's bidding.

 

The forces of Hogwarts 

 

One of the Hermione figures had..yup a broken wand, so I replaced her hand and painted her up like Cho.

Draco (left) and Ron (right) are both made using the Ron figure. The wand on Ron's figure had broken so I painted the remains brass to represent the deluminator.

Harry himself (right) and an unnamed Slytherin student using the same figure but since the want had broken I replaced it. 

Hermione and the lads all together facing the forces of evil.

So what's the judgement? Well figure-wise, the resin is really fragile it will brake as soon as you look at it. That said the figures are beautiful, truly! If you're a true Potter-head you'll want these in your collection. Price-wise they are pretty expensive so that's a bit of a thing. I was allowed to borrow the rule-book as well and have a look at the magic cards. I think I rather dig the rules excepting the wound-tracking system, that looks like unnecessarilly complicated to me.

For now I have decided to buy some Nano Minifigures Metal Harry Potter figures and re-paint them for use with the ever flexibel Hero Quest rules. More on this project later!

Showdown:

Return of the Witchlord

Hoi,

When I bought one of the two Warhammer Quest boxes I own, the contents were supplemented by a white metal wraith king on a throne. I believe it to be an old Grenadier Miniatures set, but have not taken time to check it.
Anyway, it screamed "Return of the Withchlord" to me, that's one of the Hero Quest expansions for those of you unfamiliar with HQ.

So I took my cue and tried to paint it up like the cover art of said expansion.

I love the little details all over the base and this will make a very nice centrepiece for the final mission of this Quest I am sure.

Cheers Sander

Fantasy Galore!

Hoi,

Another small post today, this time fantasy related.  A while ago I bought an incomplete 1st edition Warhammer Quest box. Inside, as an extra, were these 5 Lizardman (no idea what specific type they are). While at first I had no real clue what to do with them I soon realised they could have a use in a more exotic setting for Hero Quest or Ghost Archipelago. So I decided on the old skool look and put paint to them.

Another small fantasy lot with perhaps some use for HQ as well, are these resin Mandragora. I totally forgot which manufacturer is responsible for these mad sculpts but hey why not put use to them?
 

I am not sure what I will get done for the next post as the workbench is overflowing and time is limited.

Cheers Sander

Heroquest!

Hoi,

There's no better end to the year than a regular review, I am saving that for tomorrow. Okay to be honest there are far better ends to any year, but as far as the hobby goes a review in which you can look back to goals achieved and ones to look forward to is pretty nice.

 Noble son number 1 Arthur thinking about his next move

That said, this post will, yet again, concern itself with Heroquest or HQ for short. Somehow this little game sparked something in me. Whether it is my inner child that is chuffed to bits with being able to find a decent use for all those long forgotten minis lying around around, or the gamer in me that rejoices about at least 1 game a week at the school club.
Or even the collector, who is eagerly searching the net for bargains of Oldhammer figures to be used or the rare "true" HQ find like the illusive extensions. It seems that many gamers have been lucky finding the extensions in second hand shops in the UK. Well no-go for me! We do have those shops but there are no HQ games to be found there. So what? I hear you think, weeeell while you can download pretty much all the paper content of any thinkable extension for the game, it does not beat the feel of the original box and the figures in your hands. At this moment I am the proud owner of:
- 2 basic boxed games (the game-system) 1 at home and 1 at school.
- 1 Kellar's Keep extension
- 1 Return of the Witchking extension
- 1 Wizards of  Morcar extension
- 1 Advanced Heroquest box set
- 2 x half box of classic Warhammer Quest

So yeah I would really like to get my grubby paws on any of the other extensions like Against the Ogre Hordes or the Barbarian- or Elf Quest packs. The prices those seem to go around for are ridiculous, go to Ebay and look for yourself. There are boxes tagged for $1200,- and I even saw a HQ stickeralbum go by, for which $5000,- was asked...that is waaaay beyond me to be sure!

Now on Friday December 22nd I hosted a major game at the school club for the pupils to enhance their characters and for me to try the rules out at a more skirmish- and out-of-the-Dungeon level. We have two "fellowships" at the club, one which we jokingly call the "Young Hounds" and the other, erm well... the "Old Dogs". Both were now playing on the same table with a more regular wargame scenic lay-out.

I had prepared briefings with personal goals and background stories for each member.

And yes I have Lord Kitchener and Lord Vader hanging next to each other in my classroom ;-)  To recount the entire story that was played out and explain all outcomes would take too long so I won't do that here, but I do have some impressions of the game in progress. I didn't have much time to take many pics, what with trying to DM 8 people in at least 3 locations at once, but hey here they are.

The rules were basically those of the main game-system with some additions and small changes like instead of rolling 2d6 to see how many squares you can walk you now roll and walk that many inches. Simple enough.

So what did the adventurers gain in this Christmas Quest?
Well first up, everyone was awarded 10 gold pieces for each monster killed, with thanks from the local populace.

The Old Dogs:
Sir Olwyn of Farthingale (yeah I know ;-)  achieved his main goal of freeing Farthingale of Wights and became it's lord. He also gained one Bodypoint.

Sir Skyrithm (for your information: the names were made up by the kids not me!) found a necklace which would have protected him from any magic used against him, but he sold it for 300 goldcoins. He also gained 1 BP.

Sir Jonas Paladin of the Order of the Lion was promoted to Commander in his order, for giving them the necklace he bought off Skyrithm. and also got an extra Bodypoint.

Baroness Blackwood was able to protect a lockingstone to a portal to the Warp and thus prevent a major Chaos incursion. Therefore she gained 1 Mindpoint, handy for all future spells.

The Young Hounds:
Dame Glacia of Clan Redwinter found a Dagger of Frost which functions as a Wand of Recall (i.e. you can use two spells each turn instead of 1)

Icicles, Guardian of the Power of Ice was able to acquire an henchmen for free.

Erofillios of the Rangers (again: I know!) gained a mind point but was also possessed by a Chaos Deamon which will manifest itself if, at the start of each following Quest he will roll a 1 on a D6.

Sir Hadrian rooted out the Chaos coven that had desecrated the Temple of Taal in Ardglass village. He then spent a turn in prayer before the altar and gained, yup you've guessed it, another BP.

Surprisingly both Glacia, Icicles and Erofillios turned to the Dark Side and became followers of the Dark Gods. This will make future Quests rather interesting...

These games at the school club really made for a highlight in the work-week as you can imagine. The kids all are so funny and really get into the thick of things without the whining that is so common in modern day youth.

So that's it for now, but I do hope that from this you have gleamed a bit of why I like this game so much. Although after so many weeks of DM-ing I would like to get some time in as a player as well ;-) 

Cheers Sander

Hero Quest Part VI

Hoi,

Some more baddies today! I love painting up the Hero Quest figures because even though they are very simple in detail they have loads of character. Continuing with the figures from the core set here are the Orcs and Fimir all done up.

Now a lot of characters need to be done...

Cheers Sander

Holiday blues and some news

Hoi,

It's raining miserably over here, typical Dutch weather, but with a lot of work in the garden waiting for me this is not funny anymore. So we went into town, Arnhem in this case, and got me something new.

Now I know I have said earlier yhat I wouldn' t support GW anymore and well basically I don't, butt... I did buy the June and July issue of White Dwarf and the WHF Empire Battle Wizard from in independent  retailer.

Why did I do this? Well you're not going to like the answer! The answer is that I have started yet another project. For quite some time I have longed to get a box of Hero Quest, some weeks ago I managed just this, I got a secondhand box. From then till now I have played more than 10 games with my son Arthur, with kids at school and with friends, boy is this a great game!

The battle wizards are meant for Arthur to get an unique player character and in this we succeeded because he's all for the bright or fire wizard wanting to hurl fireballs everywhere!

Anyway, when the rains stop, I will make some pictures of the HQ figures I have already painted.

That's all fornow folks

In between

Hoi,

So what's been going on over here? Quite a lot, but sadly I have not touched a paintbrush in about a week. School has started in earnest again and the long and intensive workdays leave me without the energy to get at the workstation to paint.

That said, two weeks ago I have managed to finish a few single figure projects and I will try to photograph them and put them up here soon.

Yesterday the postman brought in a pair of nice books which I'd like to tell you about. The first is "Wargame scenarios; The Peninsular War 1808-1814" by Jon Sutherland and Diane Canwell from Pen and Sword Publishing. This very nice book is actually meant to accompany the Grand Battery Napoleonic rules from Pen and Sword, but it is a very use-full  scenario guide for pretty much all rule-sets available. The book contains 20 scenarios, an overview of the conflict, orbats for each battle but also a general orbat for the armies combating over the Peninsula and an overview of said armies. Very nice book indeed.

The second, and to me more important addition to my bookshelves is "The Shepherd's Crown" by Sir Terry Pratchett. This is his last work which he luckily finished before passing on. I have mixed feelings about the last 10 Discworld books he wrote since they do not seem to have the depth his earlier works have. The many humorous layers of story-plots but also all the little sideplots dissecting human nature and our many faults, are sadly gone from the main narrative leaving just a pretty good read, yet not the brilliant work of the first 30 or so books he has written. Well at least that's how it is for me.

But this book is a bit different. People who would like to read it (by all means buy it, it's good) and don't won't a spoiler should stop reading here.

Pratchett has done what other great writers have done before him, but what we readers all dread greatly: he has killed one of his favourites. In this book Granny Weatherwax has met Death for her last journey at last. And while this was a bit predictable, Pratchett has managed to write a story that is not corny or overly sentimental but very sincere and touching. It shows that while the parting of our loved ones and the ones we look up to, is not only an ending it is also a new start. We all have to let go of our elders at one point, be it parents, grandparents or mentors, to go our own way and make the world a bit more our own. I see this at school daily, elder and more experienced co-workers have a profound and overbearing (not necessarily "negative" mind you) influence in work meetings where the policy of the school is decided. In the group of pupils I mentor which organise music and sketch shows, I see that younger kids are being held back in developing their acting and other theatrical skills by fear of displeasing the older ones. And when these older people go on pension or graduate, the Young Guard steps in and creates their own niche in the world. 

So in all I think this is a worthy farewell by the Grand Master to us his readers and while I really could not warm up to his Long Earth trilogy, written with mister Baxter, The Sheperd's Crown is a very welcome last complementation of my Pratchett collection.

Cheers Sander

She's a witch! (boobie alert!)

Hoi,

Some time ago I bought a bunch of miniatures from Avatars of War, some dwarf and goblin characters and the Dark Elf Sorceress seen below. I've had her standing on the workbench for quite some time because I couldn't decide on what skin-tone to give her. Now right after painting the Barsoom figures it came to me: the Dejah Toris figure had some in-satisfactory skin colour so I decided to try to get a better one and here it is. She will double as a Barsoomian witch if necessary.

Cheers Sander

Listening to: "Days gone by" by the Offspring

Finding your own pot of gold...

Hoi,

Well you can: find your own pot of gold that is! In the webstore of Warlord Games. There in the Non-historical section they have this very nice Leprechaun, called Marty McGuinness. I have a friend and co-worker who's terribly fond of Ireland, has worked for Guinness while studying in Dublin and who's family name translates into Brewers in English so what better present to give him, for his birthday then this mini? Oh I guess a huge collection of speciality beers would be better but there's no fun in there for me now is there?

So without further ado here are some pictures of my version of Marty McBrewers!

The figure itself is pretty nicely detailed, there's even a small shamrock on his coat. Yet this complicates painting a lot since you'll need at least 3 different shades of green: coat, pants and shamrock. For his hair and beard I chose orange, because I wanted a spot-colour to contrast with all the green. The pot of gold is attached to the figure itself but to make the base more interesting I added a small beer-stein and a barrel of ale.

In short: a very nice little model deserving your painting attention if ever you fancy something non-historical!


Cheers Sander