05/02/2015

Project HeroQuest: Ogres

Here it begins! Stage 2 is on the go. But, 'what the hell does that mean?' I hear, 'did we finally lose him in madness?' Not yet. Time to explain my plan...

After I finished bringing back my old original HeroQuest (I'm leaving you the last entry I did about it just to refresh memories) in what I pompously called 'Stage 1' of this project in my mind, I knew I was not going to stop there (No geek with some self respect would). Step 2 into completeness meant doing the same with all the original expansions, which I was lucky enough to have as a child :)
Then, this so called -by me 'Stage 2' ain't but an extension of Stage 1, I'm afraid.
A future Stage 3 will comprise the renovation (little by little) of the ranges. Those Otherworld Skellies or Orcs are too tempting for me to resist.

Anyway, enough of plans fo the future; you came here for minis, so minis I will bring.
Was there a way of making these guys look different? (You know, my eternal obsession...) The sculpt is designed to make them look kinda shabby, and that's how they've always been depicted. But if you have a look at the art from the box, they actually don't look anything like that.
 
The image had little to do with the minis inside...

 They look menacing and wealthy in fact, members of a society, a culture, not just ugly giant cavemen. What if I explored that vibe?

Not wanting to alter the sculpts or make any conversions (that will probably come for Stage 3?), but rather working just with the raw material, I thought of adding details to the clothes, to make them look more opulent, in a slightly better style.
 
Arabesques is the solution, man
 
It's amazing how much a simple pattern can make appearances change. The tiny laces on the jerkin's neck put me on the path, so I tried different trimmings on all of them.
 
Some of them simpler, some of them more intrincated
 
Couldn't really say if they look medieval, Byzantine or whatever, but I found peace of spirit in this, so I went on :D
Ogre Champion

Ogre Chieftain

Ogre Lord
 
It may be an easy solution, but I think it was a fine, uncomplicated way to make them look different to the usual Ogres and to make them different one from each other, given the little variety of sculpts.
 
Uhhh, guys, we have a problem...
 
Well, a little challenge, I enjoyed trying this. In fact I wouldn't mind repeating the experience, may have to look for more Ogres... ;)


Bonus!
The next step for this Stage 2 will obviously be (tracking and) painting the Wizards of Morcar expansion set. I already painted the Orc Shaman, but I still have to find the rest of the minis. I've been delving into my bits boxes and for the moment this is what I rescued from oblivion:
 
Strikingly awful paintjob from the nineties! Aaargh!
 
So, well, while I'm trying to find all the missing minis and pieces, I'll keep on moving onto other projects, so... different stuff coming soon!

19 comments:

  1. Awesome work. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the sorcerers as they are cool figures.

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    1. Thanks! I can't wait to put my hands on them!

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  2. Oh, my God!!! I haven´t more words... awesome work.

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    1. Thanks, pal! Enjoyable experience, I must say :)

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  3. Awesome, love how those Ogres have turned out!

    I never saw this expansion back in the day, though I think it did get an Australian release.

    Regardless, great work Subes!

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    1. Wow, thank you!
      I'm not quite sure about how the expansions were distributed along the world, apparently different regions got different expansions. As far as I remember, there were four expansions available here, 'The Return of the Witch Lord' (more Undead minis), 'Kellar's Keep' (more Greenskins minis), 'Against the Ogre Horde' (these Ogres)and 'Wizards of Morcar' (The Wizards and mercenaries).
      I've already found a couple of mercenaries too, but still have to find the rest!

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    2. yep, they were the UK's expansions as well, the first two are far more common then most people realise, have been release in 1989 and staying in production right up to Hero Quest's untimely demise.

      The second two are harder to find, and are on a similar rarity as the oversized Hero Quest box set labeled Advanced Quest, which was the last Hero Quest set made IIRC.

      The USA had two special expansions, very rare as they didn't make many, and the mini's weren't by games workshop, and they can easily bring low hundreds of pounds in the UK.

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    3. Oh and the Mercenaries came with the Advanced Quest set as well as the Wizards of Morcar set, which makes those figures that little bit easier to get hold of.

      On a side note, I find the Battle Masters figures from MB's table top follow up to be quite in keeping with Hero Quest figures if you base them up right.

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  4. I saw these ogres on Ebay, but I thought they were so identical and hard to convert. You have shown us that I was wrong. Amazing work, Suber!

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    1. Thanks! I didn't dare to convert these, but now I'm toying with the idea of a whole Ogre Army in a new aesthetics... Hmm...

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  5. Buf... Impresionante... simplemente impresionante...

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    1. ¡Gracias! No es tanto, pero el resultado queda vistoso, yo lo he disfrutado :)

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  6. Bravo, bravo... Que bonitos estรกn

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    1. ¡Gracias, tampoco son ninguna maravilla, pero han sido muy divertidos de hacer!

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  7. Eso es lo importante!!!! Son divertidos =)

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  8. Suber, I am honestly in awe of the cloth patterns you managed to paint on the clothes. AWEOSME WORK! This reminds me to catch up on some 'how to paint freehand patterns on clothes' tutorials I have with me. Again nice work!

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    1. Wow, thank you! They may catch the eye, but they are not that complex anyway :)

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  9. Your work on the clothes those Ogres are wearing really works well, well done.

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    1. Thank you! I like it when I manage to make this kind of stuff look different :)

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