A Tomb for Heroquest

Home decorating has taken up most of my free time recently, but I've managed to squeeze in this quick project.

At my daughter's urging I've been putting together a workable set of HeroQuest, MB Games' 1980s foray into fantasy gaming (with assistance from Games Workshop).

HeroQuest is the ancestor of many modern dungeon crawling board games, Dungeon Saga not the least. But I wanted to go back to the original.  I bought several sets when the game first came out, and I thought I had just about every supplement produced as well.  My recent research shows that the US market had a slightly different base game, and even two special supplements.  I should admit that my purchasing was mostly for the minis, many of which ended up in various Warhammer armies or RPGs at the time, though I enjoyed playing the game, especially with my kids when they were younger.

The decades (and conditions at the back of the loft of shame) had not been kind to the box I found, but a bit of rooting around turned up nearly everything I needed for a basic set.  In fact, the only thing missing was the tomb.  I know I have at least one, and that it will turn up (probably when I'm looking for something else) so I decided a quick XPS replacement would do for now.

XPS tomb coated in mod podge

The tomb is simply a block of XPS glued to a thinner, wider plinth which is stuck to a card (chipboard) base for strength.  The knight, shields and other decorations are lightly drawn on with a sharp pencil, then a craft knife deepens the cuts.  I used various improvised tools, including a blunt pencil and a matchstick, to press the foam in to give a sense of relief to the carving.

Completed tomb flanked by HeroQuest undead

It might not match the original, but its obvious what it is, and it will do for a few games.  Once the proper tomb turns up it will make a nice bit of scenery for D&D games.

This was a nice quick job. I think I'll put together a 'travel set', as apart from the board, everything needed for the base game fits in a 4 litre Really Useful Box.  In the past I've had a go at painting many of the minis, with various degrees of success, so I'll finish painting a set and then, perhaps, look at the supplements.

Beginners Guide to Miniature Painting - New Techniques - Black Lining

If you've followed my beginners guide, you should have minis that are basecoated.  Perfectly good for the tabletop, especially if you're a GM and you are collecting monsters.  They never seem to last long against the heroes.  However, you  might be wanting to try new techniques to improve the look of the minis you paint.  

The New Techniques series is designed for just this.  Try them out and see which ones work for you.  Some are techniques that you will apply from the start when painting minis, others can be added to your already painted collection.

In the Basecoat post I mentioned blacklining when I painted the studs on the goblin's belt and sword.  This is a very simple technique that can add a lot of depth to a mini.  When I was just beginning to paint minis (1970s) we discovered blacklining and it was hailed as an amazingly realistic effect.  I still think it adds something if used sensibly.  It's certainly a great way to add interest to hordes of monsters, and its good for painting buttons, studs etc on any mini.

When and Where to Blackline. Blacklining separates different areas on a mini and makes it easier for the eye to pick out, say, belts or straps, or small details that otherwise might get lost.  The term is slightly misleading, as you can use different colours, I rarely use straight black; any dark colour can be used, and some are particularly appropriate, depending on the surrounding colours.  Black or very dark blue is good for armour, weapons etc.  Dark brown is good for leathers, hide and many fabrics.  A dark brown/flesh mix can even be used on skin; paint the margin of the face where it meets the hairline and the gaps between the fingers.  If you're feeling especially brave you might even try lining the eyes and the mouth, though I'll look at faces properly another time.  Certain companies sell liner, such as Reaper, but its easy to make your own.

Mixing the Liner. On the goblin I painted over the studs in black, then carefully painted the top of the stud with metal.  This works perfectly well for small items.  For larger areas, such as the line between a belt and a tunic, its better to paint in a thin line of the dark colour.  This is much easier if the paint is thinned.  You are looking for a consistency not quite as runny as water, we want the paint to run along the gaps.  painting guides usually refer to the consistency of milk, though that can be subjective.  Skimmed or full fat?  What if you're lactose intolerant?  

Seriously, I find that mixing the paint with roughly equal amounts of water is about right.  If its too thin its much easier to add another coat than if its too thick and clogs the detail.

Applying the Liner. Don't overfill the brush.  It's tempting to put too much thinned paint on the brush simply because its not as evident on the hairs.  Also beware, thinner paint will tend to wick up the hairs, and you don't want it drying in the ferule, that's a great way to ruin a brush.  Use a thin brush and draw the hairs along the gap you are lining.  Use the side of the brush rather than the tip, more so that when you are normally painting.  You are using the thin shape of the brush hairs to help you form a nice smooth thin line on the mini.

This will take some practice, but its a technique easily added to minis you've already basecoated, so if you have loads of practice minis, you should be fine.

Quick Tips. As with painting the studs, there's a 'cheats way'.  For thin items like belts, simply paint the whole belt in the dark colour making sure to paint the edge you want lined.  Then when its dry, paint the belt again with the colour you want it, making sure to leave a little of the lining showing around it.

Examples. I'm using a Wizkids Deep Cuts Guard to show blacklining.  The mini has several layers of clothing which will benefit from this technique.  The mini comes pre primed, so straight on with painting.

The guard mini unpainted.  The primer is a pale grey rather than straight white.

Basecoated. I've left the various straps unpainted as I want to show the quick method on these

Black lining around armour plates etc, dark brown around tunic etc.  Belts and straps painted dark brown or dark red.

Belts etc painted up leaving a thin line of the lining showing

The completed guard.

And there you have it.  I realised as I was painting in the belts that she is wearing another layer between the leather armour and her tunic, so I quickly painted this in blue, then lined it with black.

This is a nice mini, though the detail is a bit fine for my eyes to pick out.  

Practice blacklining where you think it works best.  Not all of a mini needs to be treated this way, and there are other methods for showing shading that we can look at later.  It's still a very good way of picking out small detail.

Beginners Guide to Miniature Painting - Your First Mini (Basecoat)

Now you have your mini primed its time to get the basecoat on.  For now we are gong to call the mini done when its basecoated, but when we get on to fancy shading and highlighting this will just be one stage of several.  The basecoat puts down the basic colours, and there's no reason why all your minis can't just be basecoated.  Wargamers have something called the 'three foot rule': if it looks OK three feet away (the typical distance armies are seen on the wargames table) then its fine.  The important thing is that we are painting minis and they look miles better than unpainted minis.

Planning. As I mentioned previously, its a good idea to think before hand what colours you want where, and decide what order to paint things.  I usually start the basecoat with the flesh tones and then work outwards. Painting the largest areas early on is good too, as is getting hard to reach bits done first.  It's different for each mini, you'll find the process that works best for you for what you are painting.

Using the Brush. Hold the brush close to the end of the ferule (the metal bit) near the bristles.  This gives you good control over the brush.  Shake the paint really well (making sure the top is firmly on). Only use a small amount of paint, and it often helps to add a little bit of water to the paint on your palette to help it flow more easily.  You're aiming for a runny consistency, but still thicker than water.  However, don't add water if you are painting directly onto unprimed Bonesium.  The nature of the plastic means that watered paint won't bond properly to it.  

When putting brush to mini, aim to use the side of the tip rather than pushing the tip of the brush onto the surface.  If you use the tip like a pencil, you will bend the hairs and quickly ruin your brush.  Draw the hairs across the mini towards the tip.

Try to keep the paint right at the end of the hairs (and that blob of paint is too big!)

You might find it difficult to keep your brush hand steady, making it hard to get a controlled brush stroke.  Hobbyists call this 'The Shakes'. There are several ways of addressing this, you can lean both elbows on the table or desk and hold the mini and brush right up to your face; you can rest one foot on a chair, raising your knee and resting your wrists on your knee. One technique I often use is to rest my forearms on the table edge, hold the mini on in my left hand and rest my right hand against the left.  This contact provides extra stability, though I find I'm bending my neck a bit too much if I paint for too long. Experiment and find what works for you.

My preferred painting posture, ideal for detail work.  Here I'm painting the monk's belt.

Basecoating. Paint the edge of an area first.  This way you can get a nice clean line.  Fill in the rest once the edges are done.  Try to be as neat as possible, but if you do get paint on a primed area, then you'll cover it when you paint that area.  If your 'happy accident' is in a dark colour it might help to go over it first with the primer.  If you've gone over another area of basecoat you can simply go back and paint over it later, once everything is dry.

Painting the monk's flesh starting at the edges

Fill in the flesh colours, nice and neat

Mixing Paint. Our selection of colours is small, so we are going to get used to mixing paints.  Dropper bottles make this easy, you can control the amount of paint you put on the palette to mix.  You have much more control over the mix if you put separate drops on the palette and then take small amounts of paint from them to mix.  This is where your notebook comes in handy.  Record the colours you mixed and what mini you used them on, that way you can reproduce the colour on future minis.  The goblin has a tunic painted in a 1 to 1 mix of blue and black and the trim is a 3 to 1 mix of red and black.  The leather boots and belt are 1 to 1 dark brown and yellow with just a touch more yellow added for the other straps.  Play around with your paint mixing and find something that works for you; one reason for using something white as a palette is that you can see what the mix looks like on the primed mini.

Goblin showing mixed paint colours

Little bits of detail.  Don't worry about detail such as eyes or teeth on your mini (I chose the monk and the goblin because they didn't have much in the way of fiddly bits).  However, one quick way to make small items stand out is to line them.  I'll talk more about this in a later guide, but essentially, paint the detail in black first, then touch it with its final colour, the black should still show around the detail like a shadow and help it stand out.  This is particularly effective on small metal details, such as studs and rivets, and helps give definition to them.

The studs on the goblin's belt and the rivet on his sword have been lined.  (Yes, I missed the rivets that hold the strap to the shield)

A Note on Painting Black or White.  Black and white are difficult colours to get right.  Straight black or white paint tends to look too artificial, especially for the mock Medieval fantasy minis that most roleplayers collect.  I find adding a very small amount of white to black gives a much better result.  the goblin's shield is done this way.  Similarly, the tiniest touch of colour added to white helps.  Experiment with different colours, I've used a touch of blue in white as the basecoat of my Imperial Stormtroopers and Clone Troopers here.  Remember, you are mixing a very tiny bit of paint in with the black or white, the end result should fool the eye into thinking it's still black or white.

Dos and Don'ts

DO wash your brush regularly, especially between each colour.  It keeps the brush in good condition, stops paint drying in the hairs and stops cross contamination of paint colours.

DON'T dip your brush into the pot, use your palette.  You have far less control over the amount of paint that gets on the brush, and if you're mixing paint you risk contaminating the pot.

Now you've got your first (few) minis painted.  What next?  Well, nothing beats practice, so get a few more done.  look critically at each mini and see what you like and what you don't like.  Experiment with different paint schemes.  You can always paint over any happy accidents, or in extreme cases, strip the paint off (material depending).  Make sure you keep that first mini though, it'll be fun to look back and see how much you have improved.

Examples. Here are the goblin and the monk after basecoating.  By mixing paints I'm able to get a far wider range of colours.  I mentioned some of the goblin's paint mixes above, the monk has trousers mixed with 2 to 1 white and black with a tunic of 4 to 1 white and black.  The belt is 1 to 1 red and dark brown, and was chosen to give a bit of colour to the mini.  The slightly 'patchy' look of the monk's outer robe is simply the paint mix (1 to 1 dark brown and yellow) being watered down.  The thinner paint tends to pool in the folds of the cloth and concentrates there, giving a darker shade.  "We don't make mistakes, we have happy accidents" and we'll explore this method of adding shade and depth later.  the bases are either the black plastic 'slotta base' in the case of the goblin, or 1 to 1 white and black for the monk, painting the integral mini base, often called a 'broccoli base'.  Basing is worth a post on its own, so I'll discuss it another time.

Completed goblin and monk

Next time I'll show you some very simple techniques for improving the look of your mini.  Meanwhile, practice.  If you have any questions please leave a comment below.  Is there something you particularly want me to cover?  Just ask.

Beginners Guide to Miniature Painting - Your First Mini (Priming)

Welcome back.  If you missed the introduction, this is my beginners guide to miniature painting.  You can find it here.  I'm now going to cover priming and getting your first mini painted.  Given the length of the post, I'll split it into two parts. 

You've got your paints, brush(es), water, paper towel, palette and somewhere comfortable and light to paint. Hopefully you've also got some minis to paint, choose something with few moving parts different areas, and hence few different colours. 

Before actually putting paint to mini its a good idea to wash the mini.  This removes any of the oils used to make sure the mini doesn't stick in the mould, plus any sticky fingerprints from fellow hobbyists.  Simply use warm water and a little washing up liquid (dish soap).  A good scrub with a toothbrush will help, then allow it to dry before applying paint.

Why Prime?  Back when all miniatures were lead or pewter (or various alloys of them) you needed a coat to prime the metal for the paint to adhere to.  Now-a-days some plastics (notably Reaper's 'Bonesium') claim not to need it, and some miniatures come already primed, such as the various Wizkids minis.

Unless the mini is pre primed I'd recommend giving it a coat anyway.  Although dedicated primers/undercoats are available, for now just use your white paint.  If you're painting a Reaper Bones mini, make sure that the paint isn't watered down for this; the plastic repels water and makes it very difficult to get paint to stick (that's one of the reasons we are priming it). 

Priming. Drop a little bit of the white paint on your palette.  Dropper bottles, such as Army Painter, Reaper or Vallejo make this easy, otherwise you'll have to use a brush or something like a cocktail stick to get the paint out of the pot.  If you're using a brush, only use the tip of the hairs.  You should NEVER get paint more than three quarters down the hairs, so aim for half way as a maximum.  If you feel you need more paint on the brush, use a bigger brush instead (those multi packs of brushes are useful).  Priming doesn't need a small brush anyway.  I find holding the brush about two thirds of the way down the handle is about right for priming, or indeed any large areas such as on terrain.  You can get nice broad sweeps with the brush this way. 

While you're undercoating the mini take a good look at it. Decide what colours you want where, believe me, it helps when we get to the next stage.

A good sized brush for priming, and a good brush hold for coverage.

When you've finished the priming coat, have a good look at the mini, you might spot bits you've missed, and its always easier to touch them up now rather than later.  This check is very good practice for when you are painting the mini (what they call round here 'a coit o' looking at').  Once you're happy, give the brush a good swill around in the water and dry it off on the paper towel by drawing the hairs gently through the paper towel from ferule to tip.  Clean?  Well do it again, just to be sure.  The white paint might not show up too well, but once we get on to the other colours, you'll see some paint still coming off apparently clean hairs.  Dirty brushes don't last as long as clean ones, they don't come to a point as easily either, and there's a risk of transferring pigment onto the model.  When you've finished painting, make sure the brush is clean.  If the hairs are starting to splay out, gently form them back into a point again (lips work well for this), and store it away with the protective collar on.

Once you've finished, give the primer plenty of time to dry. If you're not sure, check the paint on your palette. 

Examples. I've chosen a very old Games Workshop hard plastic goblin and a Reaper Bones monk. Both have very few different areas, and are ideal for our limited starting colours (though we'll cheat a bit with this as you'll see).

Here they are already undercoated. 

Next time we'll get the basecoat done, and you'll have finished your first painted mini.