Painting up HeroQuest 1989 for my son 205-02-28 (core game done)

[Anatoli]

So I have a 4 year old son who loves board games, and always watches me painting miniatures and presses his nose against my cabinets filled with miniatures in my man cave. I thought it would be neat to get a copy of HeroQuest in Swedish to play with him since he loves small monsters and heroic figures. I was not planning on painting up the stuff right away, as I am knee deep in my own Bloodborne project, but having played a few made up scenarios that was him moving around the board and fighting baddies he asked me "when are you going to paint my miniatures, I don't like that they are single colored" 

I told him I could squeeze in some minis every now and then between my own painting, and said I would start with the 4 heroes.

I must admit I had a pretty good time painting these up even if the cleaning process of removing most of the mould lines was time consuming. I actually purchased 2 versions of the game. I got the 2021 version to get a slightly larger board and the vastly improved terrain, cards and other stuff. Then I got the 1989 version just for the miniatures as I think the "old school fantasy" is both more aimed towards children compared to the hideous 2021 minis and something I myself never was a part of and wanted to try painting up.

Then my wife came and said "Don't put too much effort into a game you are going to play with a 4yo". Naturally I proceeded to paint them up to a standard I would prefer for myself and while I was at it I thought this project would be a very nice and self-contained experimental chamber for me trying to learn proper Non Metallic Metal. For some reason I also thought about that scene from Dumb & Dumber when Harry tells Lloyd to go shopping but not waste their small amount of money, upon which Lloyd answers “Yeah, I’m not an idiot” 

Anyway, I have the base game and the expansion Kellars Keep, in total some 50 miniatures which I think will be quite managable.

I will be updating this thread every now and then when stuff gets painted up.

[Anatoli]

More pics of the heroes.

[Citizen Sade]

Looking good. Lucky kid. Bonus Dad points for you.

[Anatoli]

Been painting on these miniatures every now and then as a side project, but finally made a focused effort to get the base game miniatures done last week. Some were a lot of fun to paint, the orcs and fimir monsters in particular. Other miniatures were awful, like the chaos knights. I tried to strike a balance between good paintjob and still having in mind that this is a game that is being played with my 4 year old. I did a "sloppy NMM" on the metallics since I wanted a cartoon feel and as such excluded real metallic paints.

Very happy to be done with the miniatures, I am considering painting the furniture from the 2021 version at some point, but for now I will get back to my own projects. My son is super happy and has stopped nagging me about "painting up his miniatures" now haha.

[Anatoli]

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[Anatoli]

Full core game collection.

I do have the "Kellar's tower" expansion with additional greenskins end femir, but will save painting those for another day.

[Tom Dulski]

 Well done!

[Daeothar]

Approved! 

That is some lovely and nostalgic painting; great work. Now to play out some adventures... 

[Neldoreth]

Super cool, way to bring it all together, looks fantastic.

[Frugalmax]

Great work! You did an excellent job of making those old sculpts look their best.

I've got the new edition of Heroquest, and the only miniature that I'd say was really improved from the old edition was the Barbarian (for me and my particular tastes, of course!). I get that they had to change certain aesthetics to move away from Games Workshop's style, but I will always like the Oldhammer style orcs and goblins over the World of Warcraft/D&D 4+ style which they've turned towards. I'm thinking of ditching the "new look" miniatures for replacements as I find suitable ones (including but not limited to old Heroquest ones- I've got the elf and some goblins laying around, wish I had that dwarf!). Thanks for the inspiration!

[Elbows]

Always love seeing the classics painted up beautifully!

I considered picking up the new Hero Quest for my nieces and nephews...but I admit the "World of Warcraft" styling killed my enthusiasm for it.    I cannot put into words how much I hate that modern style which has taken over so many fantasy products.

[The Golem]

Great paintjobs! I love the bright colors.

[Frugalmax]

@Elbows (with apologies to Anatoli for derailing his great thread with a tangent): in case you are still considering the new Heroquest- with the exception of the aforementioned orc and goblin style (which kind of bleeds into the skeletons), I think the quality of the components is pretty darn good. I feel like even if I replace most of the miniatures with others I prefer, the furniture and the board are quite good. I've played it with my kids a bit and they seem to enjoy it (though perhaps not as much as their dad)!

[barbaric splendor]

Great painting overall; really love the bases.

[Anatoli]

Thanks for the kind words guys. I really prefer the old miniatures as well, as said the "new" look like they belong in World of Warcraft. Truly awful and messy sculpts. I gave them to my kid to play with unpainted while getting old miniatures to paint up for gameplay 

Edit: Board and furniture of the new edition is excellent however. When I get a chance and little else to paint I will paint up the furniture as well.