With my lovely wife getting me both Heroquest and Advanced Heroquest for xmas, I now have a stack of models that I can use to improve my painting. Last night, I finished the first of these, The Red Knight, and I can honestly say that this is the best model I have ever painted, the pictures just don't do it justice.
I really have pushed myself with this model, the face was done following a GW faces masterclass pdf, and although initially, I wasn't that happy with it due to the highlights. Once I realised that trying to compare it to GW modern faces, I became I lot happier. I'm not blaming my tools so to speak, but the latest GW painting techniques work really well on detailed faces, whereas this model was cast over a decade ago. It's also the first time I've done teeth or lips, eye's are still a challenge to be met one day.
The red clothe and shield were done with layering and washes, basically mechrite red, then black wash in the recesses, then reapply mechrite red, then scab red, then scab/blood red, then blood red, then blood red/blazing orange, then pure blazing orange and finally a red wash to tie all the layers back together. Now that was an experience, but produced a great look.
The armour was more a simple working of a base of boltgun metal, followed by various washes and boltgun highlights. Quite simple really, but very effective.
Finally, his boots and gloves, which started like the red clothe with a base colour and a black wash in the recesses, but instead of using different colours, I simply got my base colour calthan brown and my highlight colour bronzed flesh and mixed them up as I painted, and then used a devlan mud wash to blend the highlights back together. It's the first time I've ever mixed paints on the fly, and once I sort out a wet palette, it's something I'm going to be doing a lot more of, it's so much quick and produces and much smoother look than different colour layering.
So there you have it, my first model a month and in my humble opinion, an outstanding one at that. The other thing I've noticed is how much I've enjoyed painting him up. My guard are normally batch painted to get them on the table but this guy was just a pleasure to paint. I'd highly recommend doing something like this yourself if you've been batch painting an army for a while.
Don't worry, more guard stuff coming soon but keep your eyes peeled for another Heroquester at the end of next month, although I'm not sure if it's going to be a elf, wizard or dwarf as of yet, only time and inspiration will tell.
