Lost Egg's 2022 Plog - Classic HeroQuest & more...ish

[Lost Egg]

Once again it's the dawn of a new year and I thought I might actually start a new plog for the year as I have been meaning to...for many a year. So, without further ado welcome to...

Lost Egg's 2022 Plog

I know it's New Years Eve but I thought I'd get things started with what I've been working on this festive season, some classic HeroQuest orcs. I know they are fairly basic but I really quite like these minis.

Next up for painting are some classic metal minis for the Orc Chieftain, Shaman and a small base of Snotlings, all for HeroQuest. After that it'll be a classic troll.

So what's coming for 2022 I hear you ask? Well for the last couple of years I've been running a summer HQ campaign for the kids and each year I've been slowly working away at cobbling together a set, getting everything built and whatnot. For the 2021 quest I had the board built and painted as well as all the furniture so this year I'm going to try and get all the minis painted. It'll be the culmination of the story so I have quite a list: Heroes, Orcs, Undead, Skaven, Fimir & Elves.

Apart from HeroQuest I have a load more minis to paint and I've been playing about with some rules for a couple of games too. I'm trying not to set anything too solid lest my head explode so we'll just see how the year goes.

[Lost Egg]

And here we are just a week into the new year and I've already finished some minis...

Some classic metal minis which fit in quite well with the plastic ones (see below). In order to tie them all in together I went with the same colour selection though I added purple for the shaman to make him stand out a wee bit. Here's a shot of all my HQ greenskins...

The only mini I have left for this faction is a troll who's next in my painting Q.

[Lost Egg]

Update time! Behold a dread(ful)ed troll!

Another lovely classic mini. I won this gruesome chap off ebay last year and the daft whatnot who posted it to me just chucked him in a jiffy bag so he arrived doing the limbo and both his ankles snapped when I tried easing him back into place. In the end I had to pin the feet back on and resculpt the ankles but I think he now looks no worse for the ware. For his colour scheme I took inspiration from...the gummy bears cartoon 

I thought I'd throw in a shot of the big fella next to his nemesis. Hopefully I'll get a game of SoloQuest in on Thursday so we might see these meet up for a fight!

I was going to paint a couple of heroes next but I feel the pull of the dark side once again...

[Lost Egg]

I finally gave up on trying to find someone to make me some custom D8 HQ Combat Dice and made up a batch of my own...

I also made up some new D4 Movement Dice; they have the numbers 1-4 repeated on the faces. The black D4s are for recording monster body points.

I've also been playing with the idea of a new board, one without corridors; the outer ring of squares would be grass to represent outside of the dungeon / temple / cave etc. I'd also like to make the squares bigger again so I came up with this paper mock up using 40mm squares...

My slayer tragically met his end just before the entrance to the Orc Chieftain's Throne Room. Hmm maybe he should have gone exploring with a buddy...but at least he racked up a fairly good tally first...

[Bravo Six]

That's quite an output Lost Egg!  Will you be using your "Age of Heroes" rules for this?

[Lost Egg]

Thanks Bravo Six.

To be honest it hadn't occurred  I've not done anything with Age of Heroes for a while as I kinda got snowed under with projects and crashed. So I decided to try and keep things simpler with the new year, focusing on finishing my HeroQuest set, or at least enough for a campaign I'm playing with the kids over the summer.

[Bravo Six]

Ah ok. HeroQuest is great fun! Loved that game. 

[Lost Egg]

Fimir!!

Great minis even though something odd happened to their necks fusing their heads to their bodies 

I really like these minis and much prefer them at this size (the right size).

Next up will be some heroes...

[Lost Egg]

Painting progress has been slow but I have not been idle, first up the barbarians!

The HQ barbarian's sword had snapped off previously so I had to pin that back on. Painting wise I'm happy with this couple. I'm not convinced with the sculpting of the mouth of the female barbarian but never mind. My kids use these guys for our SummerQuests and so I went with a 40k Salamander transfer for the shield as my daughter is a bit crazy for dragons.

Next up is my progress on my new HQ board, first up the card and paper test piece...

Then here's a WIP shot of the new board, it's a 50x50cm 12mm thick plywood sheet with some stripwood sides and I've started sticking on the magnetic receptive sheet...

Finally the sheet is all on and the grid marked out...

The random black area in the middle is where I ran out of white sheet and had to use black instead, it's slightly thicker but should be ok as its less than 0.5mm difference. You can see it next to my current Compact HQ board which while good can feel a little cramped sometimes in game. The squares for the new board are 40mm and with the new way of orientating the rooms there is so much more space.

So the next job will be to cut & glue all the foam floor & wall tiles...this may take some time...

[Bravo Six]

Oh man.... that looks awesome Lost Egg!! 

[Lost Egg]

Thanks Bravo Six!  I've already started work on trimming up some foam.

[Lost Egg]

Progress! Working on the foam floor & wall tiles...

Tiles are done and sand added...

Finally a bit of colour...

The board is chugging along quite nicely; the colours are blocked in so now its shading, highlights etc. As you can the plan for the outer ring of tiles is to make them 'outside' the dungeon / temple etc.

[Bravo Six]

That looks very HeroQuest like Egg. Good job on all of that!  And you probably spent less making it than one would on a used, hard to find, extremely expensive boxed version on eBay these days! 

[Lost Egg]

Cheers Bravo Six  I expect so though I do have an actual board that I picked up fairly cheaply on eBay a few years ago 

The squares are tiny though...even with the 15mm minis I was using back then. The new size works much better, once it's finished I'll have to play a SoloQuest and share some pics.

[Bravo Six]

I expect so though I do have an actual board that I picked up fairly cheaply on eBay a few years ago 

Well that almost NEVER happens so Bravo! Usually bits and bobs, and even rules can be expensive.

...once it's finished I'll have to play a SoloQuest and share some pics

Yes, please do!