Female Wizard Hero (custom sculpt)

I've always wished for a female wizard to join my party of heroes. One project of mine was to completely re-write the Wizards of Morcar expansion turning it into my own Wizard Quest Pack (since the original pack was never released) and featuring a female hero as it happened with the released Barbarian and Elf Quest Packs. This project was then shelved (but not abandoned) as the real drafts for the two unreleased Wizard Quest Pack and Dwarf Quest Pack came to light recently thanks to one of the original designers who shared them with LucaPaschi (which is one of the greatest HeroQuest collectors I know) and Luca involved me with the process of "restoring" them.

 

 

So, let's go back in topic! This miniature was originally inspired by a drawing from Luis Octavio NB - link here but modified a lot of times during the sculpting process.
Then I was sitting together with my friend Valentina Conte aka Valevidart and she started to sculpt the miniature, at first following the sketch, but then we tried to include elements to recall the male wizard too. The intent was to have a mini which could immediately remind to the official HeroQuest wizard and looking as a model coming from the 90's. I have to say I am not easy on liking something so this mini was subjected to several revisions and the whole process was quite long but in the end I am very satisfied with the achieved result.
Instead of using a solid base, I preferred the miniature to feature a slotta base, removable, so it could be used both as a HeroQuest mini and as a Warhammer mini. Valentina sculpted a classic lipped, rectangular, HeroQuest base which is removable and the slotta tab under the wizard's feet allows the miniature to be mounted on its original base or over any standard base (squared or rounded).

Wizard Quest Pack - Unreleased Sculpts

This is the first part of my posts regarding unreleased models and prototypes inspired by Rod Phelps (aka Skyknight) photos. In the previous posts I've shown you the 4ups sculpts for the Barbarian and Elf Quest Packs which are basically the prototypes of the models used to create the final miniatures.
Years ago on Boardgamegeek and the Old Scratch Heroquest Forum there were rumors of unreleased questpacks for the Wizard and for the Dwarf. But first I would suggest to have a look at Toco's website at http://tocoking.be where he reported his searches for proof of existence of the unreleased questpacks.
While he was in search of an illustrator to paint a cover for a custom questpack, he get in touch with Rick Graysons, who painted the Frozen Horror artworks:

"With patience he found out that The Frozen Horror was painted by Rick Grayson. Now Rick Grayson has shared with me a concept sketch of the Dwarf wearing a fur cape and wielding a hammer. He clearly stated that he did not work on "Quest for the Dwarf", but nevertheless claimed the 3 characters were concept sketches for the small plastic movers. Following the publication of the picture, SkyKnight confesses he has seen that Dwarf before. A clear hint to Quest for the Dwarf!"

Then he get in touch with Don (or Donald) L. Kueker who confirmed being the one who draw the Mage of the Mirror artworks and... even more:

"Then I started browsing the internet and after a while I got in touch with a studio where Don Kueker worked. What happended next was one of the biggest surprises in my life. (True!) Don confirmed he had been the artist of the box cover for the "Mage of the Mirror" expansion set, and more! He made concept sketches for what appears to be a "Quest for the Wizard" expansion set!"

Toco continues his searches and talking with a lot of artists and he was able to receive some of Don Kueker sketches for the unreleased Wizard Quest Pack but also permission to post them. They are all posted on his blog I linked above. So it seems Don Kueker's sketches featured a female wizard hero, a giant spider, a skaven warrior, a saber-toothed tiger, and a centaur.
So after many years of rumors and unfullfilled requests, Skyknight finally shared pictures of the unreleased models. Seems there is no model for the Centaur while the female Wizard exists but is currently in the hands of another person. Rod Phelps sayd:

"This is the rumored Wizard quest set... or part of it. The saber tooth!!! I know who has the hero for this set and I’m trying to get a pic of her model for ya."

And few days later he continued: 

Back from fishing so day two reveal. Showed you the Sabre tooth and the sketch of the female wizard (borrowed from Toco, just confirming). So now that we went down the Wizard path, any other guesses on what may have been in that pack? Here’s a hint. Was always surprising with games worskshop involved that this was not included in the mix. Update; ladies and Gentlemen. The Skaven!!!

Please note, I asked him permission to post the photos.
Edit: it is confirmed both questpacks exist! the Wizard Quest Pack is titled "The Sinister Sorcerers".

 Check the links below for more information about these rare figures:
- Barbarian Quest Pack - Original Sculpts
- Elf Quest Pack - Original Sculpts
- Wizard Quest Pack - Unreleased Sculpts
- Dwarf Quest Pack - Unreleased Sculpts

Conversion: Wizard -> Thor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently had a lot of fun doing this conversion. This was a gift I prepared for the Ye Olde Inn Christams Exchange 2017 and my recipient was... Thor-in! Of course this post was hidden so he can not read this before receiving his gift. So, reading his nickname I guessed he must be a Thor fan and decided to have a try at converting the HeroQuest Wizard in a Thor miniature. The main body is taken from the Wizard, the arms are from a HQ Orc (hmm, maybe too big) and the hammer was gently gifted by the Advanced Heroquest Dwarf while some green stuff did the rest.
Mixing some words, Odin (the King of Asgard) and Houdini (the famous wizard) plus Thor and the word sorcerer, I named him "Odinì the Thorcerer".

Wizards of Morcar: the unreleased metal prototypes

Here are the rare metal miniatures from the Wizards of Morcar pack.
If you think you've already seen them, you are right; infact they are shown in the photo on the rear of the box of the expansion pack.
I guess the prototypes were used to test the game and as a guide for sculpting the plastic models. Grawshak, the Orc Shaman, is way bigger than its plastic version, while the others are just a little bit taller than their official plastic counterparts. Boroush, the Storm Master, has no necklace and got a stone on his staff. The prototypes have better details than the plastic models.
Men-at-Arms were released with alternate heads and four body variants and used for Warhammer but this is the right model you can see on the back of the Wizards of Morcar box.

Please note, not all versions of the box are showing the metal prototypes, later releases show the plastic models instead.

The Wizards (x4)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More updates with my painting, this time is the Wizards post. again I can see lot of defects.
As told before, I like the classic colors but I like to experiment with alternate color schemes.
I tried a dark version of the wizard outfit, with purple trousers and dark blue shirt.
The other two are completely different, the one with the skull I wanted to applya heart on the chest with a snake and a second snake around his leg, but it was too much for my skills. The first three photos below show the work in progress while the last four represent the design I had in mind for the alternate outfits.

More heroes!

Here are some miniature that I own in my collection but that are not painted by me. I bought an extra Heroquest about one year ago on eBay and these minis were included in the box. I like the precision used by the painter on the small details but in my opinion it would be better if he used more shades too. In particular, I like the wizard's cloak and the barbarian's boots and the dwarf is also very well painted, while the elf looks to be a little poor if confrontated with the rest of the team.

Heroes... part 2

Well.. few days ago I finished to paint my heroes!!
So the Elf and the Dwarf are finally ready to join their friends.
While I used classic colors for the elf, I decided to try to give a blue armour to the dwarf.
I used a generic metallic paint on the elf sword that was looking good at the beginning, but I actually don't like anymore. Next time I'll try to use NMM (Non-Metal-Metal) style for a better result. Also, the barbarian at this point got a new face and looks a lot better than before. Some slight retouches were added to his sword and to the wizard's eyes too.

Heroes... part 1

Now that I felt more comforable with the brushes, I decided to start to paint the heroes. I've seen a lot of Heroquest heroes painted all over the net and for sure many of them are painted way better than what I can do, so the only chance I have to let them stand out of the masses is by using some unusual color schemes... or at least this is what I tried.
As for the wizard, usually I've seen him painted like the one on the side of the game box, where he is wearing a white suit instead of the yellow/blue used on the top cover of the box and on the character's sheet (and also on the new wizard's spell from Wizards of Morcar pack); so the first approach was to use the Les Edwards color scheme as reference.
Instead for the barbarian I tried to go out of the schemes and so his hair were painted red! I mixed some red to the skin tone too to give him more color and create some contrast beetween the skin and his pant. I also tried to paint the sword in blue but without good results (I will re-take it later).

he still had cat eyes here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

my first attempt with this barbarian