The terrifying tyrants from the tor!

 It was a dark and stormy night and the captain said to the mate "Tell us a story". So the mate began, "Look what Oakbound Studio have just released..."

Yes, it's time for another Oakbound Kickstarter and since it's halloween we've picked the scariest thing we can think of, a country in the grip of a mob of ruthless, self-centred, arrogant and incompetent villains.

For one week only these old-school, slightly satirical lead ogres/trolls/spriggans are available in our KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN. Hopefully they'll be suitable adversaries for many a fantasy wargame/RPG (including, of course, The Woods. Keep an eye out for their warband list in the forthcoming supplement "Mythic Cycles").

Bucky O Hare issue 17

The metalquest continues!

 

Whilst we're on the subject of Heroquest miniatures, here are the substitute heroes I've been working on, plus a gargoyle/bloodthirster. Now having mentioned how rare/unknown the original prototypes are I decided to try and find 'proxy' miniatures instead. You know, to tide me over until they inevitably appear for sale! 

The dwarf is one of a few obviously based on the same John Sibbick art, this one is the 90th anniversary white dwarf. He's quite stocky compared to the prototype and plastic HQ dwarfs but I think of him as the same adventurer grown older, more grizzled and wiser as well as spreading a bit with his years!

The elf is, I think, a Citadel Silvan Elf. Chosen for his similar locks, pose and armament he's rocking the stripy trousers of his dungeon equivalent.

The barbarian, sorry BARBARIAN! with his Broooooaaaawwwwdswwwoooooordddd! is a Mark Copplestone Grenadier miniature with his axe swapped for a Celtos sword. Chosen, again, for similarity of pose, hairstyle and adornments. The Celtos sword is a bit chunkier but a bit shorter than the plastic miniature's and not as pointy as either of the prototype barbarians' but hey it's a broad-sword, right?

And the gargoyle is, of course, the relevant Citadel Bloodthirster. He's too tall, has too fussy details in his armour and face and frankly pales in comparison with the prototype, but failing another Marauder Bloodthirster hitting the open market he's probably as close as it's possible to get. The whip has been reposed and smoothed with some putty to better resemble the one on the prototype miniature.

Of course there's a hero missing here. The wizard seems pretty unique among fantasy miniatures in that he isn't based on Gandalf, with a long beard and floppy hat. There are a couple of preslotta 'young wizards' that look right but are too small to fit nicely with the set. My solution? A 4th/5th ed High Elf mage with sword swapped for staff and pointy ears hidden by further flowing locks. Unfortunately I have yet to acquire him, so you'll have to wait for that update. I've stuck in a dwarf wizard instead to uphold the magical arm of the party. He's probably about as competent as a junior apprentice shoved down a tunnel to face horrors beyond his wildest nightmares...

 There haven't been nearly enough miniatures on here of late. My apologies, steps are being taken and that will change! Here's a starter for 10... The metal prototypes and plastic equivalents from Advanced Heroquest:

Heroquest was my gateway drug into the world of miniature gaming and has long held a place in my heart. Advanced Heroquest though? That was a much later acquisition, 50p in a village hall jumble sale! I never actually played it until even later on. It's just great though, isn't it?

At BOYL a few years back Marcus Ansell sought me out with a little box of miniatures he was giving away to people who'd run games over the weekend. Appropriately I think I had run a Heroquest session. There were some delicious things in there, but when I saw this little chap in the box I knew immediately which I was going to pick! Of course I had to look for other heroes in metal once I had one, and my first selection was the Time Warped Wizard Elf (yeah, definitely not a wizard, but maybe a sneaky spell or two?) Foundry released (re-released, except it was originally unreleased, so maybe just released then?) that same year. There was some speculation at the time that he was the actual AHQ prototype mini, but a bit of googling revealed he wasn't, nevertheless a close enough match in pose and weaponry. I tried to bend his arm a bit but it didn't really work.

Fast forward several years and I did a bit of sculpting which ended up in the hand of the famous Jason Lye of Ye Alchemist. Now in his online shop I had spotted a couple of other AHQ prototypes and so mooted the idea of a trade, sculpts for rare lead. To my surprise the bargain was struck! Adding the warrior, wizard and henchman to the ranks. What a nice man.

The original plastic heroes I painted several months back, so it was fun revisiting them and trying to remember the paints/techniques used. Normally I keep a log of colours used for my armies but in this case I hadn't anticipated completing the set so didn't. The henchman colours are taken from the article "Paint Your Wagon... Er, Orc!" in the Marvel Heroquest edition. He's to the right of the front rank. I chose these because my Empire army is red and yellow so he could fit into a unit if needed.

The real AHQ prototypes in the cabinet at Foundry. 

The henchman is on the shelf below along with the skaven, 

for some reason I don't have a picture of them.

These four heroes appear to have had a limited release in a blister together, so whilst not common there are a few of them around. The elf and the skaven, however, never seem to have ventured out of the factory and are hen's teeth rare. If you see one let me know!

On to the Heroquest set... I believe I can only dream about owning one of those prototypes, although there was a gargoyle on ebay a few years back (when I didn't have £200 to throw at one... I imagine it would be twice that now!) and the chaos warrior was given out as a young bloods painting prize at a few stores so logically there ought to be some kicking around. The quest continues!

Bucky O Hare issue 16