Two Men, an Elf and a Dwarf walk into a dungeon...

[eek107]

Inside, a goblin says "is this some kind of joke?"


Hi folks, and welcome to (yet another) log. This time I tackle an older game: Warhammer Quest.

Quick warning, this first post is going to be a bit of a summary of the project and some tracking of progress so it'll be wordy. Feel free to skip to post 2 onwards for the pretty pictures.

Bit of background first. I missed the original release of the game by a good 4-5 years and never really heard about it until recently on the internet. Having an interest in dungeoncrawling from such games as Diablo 2 and Baldur's Gate, and getting a small tabletop fix from Descent, WHQ piqued my interest. The £150-£200 price tag on ebay for a good set didn't. I figured I could make my own for that kind of money and it's that thought which sparked this project!

Now, in making my own I can take the opportunity to fix a few things. 1: the miniatures. Charming as they are, I prefer something a bit more modern and... well, as much as I hate the term, "grimdark". 2: the artwork on the cards. Same idea as the minis, but since this isn't my area of expertise I'm going to talk to some artist-y friends about that. 3: the board. The design of the original pieces is great, but since making 3d ones from scratch is cheaper and will look better, that's a no-brainer.

So the aim is to create a more modern looking, 3d Warhammer Quest. For now I'm just going for the base box set, then maybe expanding later. I'll be tracking my progress here.


CURRENT PROGRESS

Heroes:
Barbarian - Complete!
Dwarf - Complete!
Elf - Complete!
Wizard - Complete!

Board:
Corridors:
7x Passageway - Complete!
1x Stairway
3x T-Junction - Complete!
1x Corner - Complete!
Dungeon Rooms:
1x Circle of Power - Complete!
1x Well of Doom - Complete!
1x Dungeon Cell - Complete!
1x Guard Room - Complete!
1x Monster's Lair - Complete!
1x Torture Chamber - Complete!
Objective Rooms:
1x Fire Chasm
1x Fountain of Light - water effects in progress
1x Tomb Chamber - tomb to be attached
1x Idol Chamber - flames and statue to be attached
1x Fighting Pit

Monsters:
12x Giant Spider - Complete!
12x Giant Rat - Complete!
12x Giant Bat - Complete!
12x Snotling - Complete!
12x Skaven - Complete!
6x Goblin Spearman - Complete!
6x Goblin Archer - Complete!
6x Orc Warrior - Complete!
6x Orc Archer - Complete!
3x Minotaur - Complete!

Now let's get this log started...

[eek107]

First up are the heroes!

I wanted to choose miniatures for the heroes that were perhaps slightly over the top, as fits their heroic nature. So I trawled ebay and came up with these beauties.

Starting with the leader, the Barbarian. I went for the (appropriately titled) Barbarian Hero from Avatars of War, A good, bulky figure which really stands out as the leader of the four heroes.



Next up is the Dwarf. For him I chose Sigurd The Strong by Red Box Games. He has a good nordic/saxon feel to him, and I like the proportions a lot more than GW's dwarves.



I have tried to keep somewhat faithful to the colour schemes in the original artwork, albeit toning them down considerably to make them less cartoony.

Total cost of these two: £14 (I'll be keeping track of my spending in this project to see how it compares with the going rate for the original)

Now I'm not going to show everything right away. As you can see from the progress in the first post, I've built up a bit of a reserve in updates just in case I have a quiet week.

In my next post sometime through the week I'll show the remaining two heroes: the Elf and the Wizard. I'd love to hear your thoughts on things so far.

[Daniel36]

YES!!! Always happy to see more Warhammer Quest love! Good luck on everything. I will be checking back every now and then to see your progress.

How are you going to do the dungeons?

[eek107]

YES!!! Always happy to see more Warhammer Quest love! Good luck on everything. I will be checking back every now and then to see your progress.

How are you going to do the dungeons?

Thanks for stopping by!

I'll be going into the full procedure of the dungeon tiles after the heroes are posted up (so probably next weekend). Basically they'll be mostly made out of foamboard with a bit of texturing and decorating using various bits and bobs, staying true to the look of the original tiles.

[Daniel36]

Have you had previous experience with foamboard?
If not, be careful with using it. It can warp if you're not careful.

I understand why you would use foamboard though. While stuff such as triplex or MDF is sturdier, it also needs to be cut using expensive machinery. Takes money and a lot of time... No fun.

I am looking forward to seeing what you do. My mates and I are in need of dungeons too, but I haven't yet found a good way of building them that suits me.

[eek107]

Have you had previous experience with foamboard?
If not, be careful with using it. It can warp if you're not careful.

I understand why you would use foamboard though. While stuff such as triplex or MDF is sturdier, it also needs to be cut using expensive machinery. Takes money and a lot of time... No fun.

I am looking forward to seeing what you do. My mates and I are in need of dungeons too, but I haven't yet found a good way of building them that suits me.

I've used it for quite a lot of terrain projects already, the warping can be a pain but it hasn't been an issue this time. The main reason I went for it was because I have a whole lot lying around already and I can't really afford the time and money for stronger stuff. The weight is a bonus!

I hope what I'm doing might come in useful for you guys too.

[Inchpractice]

Another quester Great work.

I bought a new model for all the heroes except for the barbarian. I did see this one and am really tempted but I do love the figure and pose of the original barbarian. The AoW model looks even better painted so I may have to rethink.

[eek107]

Hi folks, quick mid-week update with our two remaining heroes.

First, the Elf:

Yes, it's a girl! Let's get a bit of diversity on the go! The mini is Nienna, Female Elf Ranger by Reaper. I hacked away the branch she was standing on and replaced it with some rubble to suit WHQ a bit better. Again, I tried to give a bit of a nod to the original artwork with the colour scheme.

Finally, the Wizard:

This is Vistaril Quillscratch, again by Reaper. It took me quite a while to find the figure that felt just right next to the others, but I'm very happy with this one.

Total cost of these two: £11
Total cost of the heroes: £25

Given what heroes tend to sell for, and how much better (IMHO) these ones look, I'm also quite happy with the budget so far.

At the weekend I'll go into a little more detail on how the dungeon is being put together, and next week I'll start showing some monsters!

All comments and criticisms are always welcome.

[Brush_Licker]

Great potential here, i love the " stand in " miniatures you have chosen for the hero's, so much better than the originals ( but then the originals are getting on age wise now lol ) you have given them some really nice understated paintjobs aswell, not over the top but adventurey ( is that a word?? ) non the less. subbed and looking forward to more!

[eek107]

Great potential here, i love the " stand in " miniatures you have chosen for the hero's, so much better than the originals ( but then the originals are getting on age wise now lol ) you have given them some really nice understated paintjobs aswell, not over the top but adventurey ( is that a word?? ) non the less. subbed and looking forward to more!

Thanks, that's very much the look I was going for, glad to hear that it worked!

[EmperorNorton]

Very nice.
Nienna is such a great model.

[eek107]

Hey folks, long time no see!

No excuses, I got lazy! :P I stopped posting, but work continued on this project, and I'm happy to say the base game is almost done! The list up top has been updated to its current status.

As a result, we've also been getting in some gaming time on it for the past few months, and have a good level 5/6 party of a Barbarian (me), Elf, Wizard, Witch Hunter and Chaos Warrior. More on our adventures will follow.

So to make up for some lost time, I'm going to show off all the monsters from the base game, which are finally complete, as well as a few extras. The photography isn't the best, I really need to make myself a good lightbox for this and retake them.

Giant Bats & Giant Spiders

GW bat swarm - £8.50 (ebay), plastic halloween decoration spiders - £3.20 (ebay)

Goblins & Snotlings

BFSP Goblins - free (already had them spare), GW snotling swarm - £10.75

Ocs & Black Orcs

WHFB 6th ed Orcs (trade, can't recall price, say £10)

Skaven Clanrats & Giant Rats

GW Skaven Clanrats - £16.40 (Wayland Games), Ral Partha Giant Rats - £3.50 (ebay)

Minotaur & Beastmen

GW Minotaurs - £22.16 (Wayland Games)

Chaos Hero & Chaos Warriors


Bringing the total for the base game monsters to £74.51, and the project total to just under £100 on miniatures. Going by ebay prices, I'm on target so far!

Still to come sometime soon: the base game rooms, our extra characters, and the start of the monster tables!

[HereBeDragons]

Fantastic! I've just started an almost identical project! I found the game online earlier this year and I've just got all the models together recently. My own 3D tile set is in the works (I used the blue dense polystyrene stuff), but alot of work still needs to be done. So far only snotlings have been painted, but I'll get there in the end. There are pics in my blog (see my sig ). I'd love to see some pics of your tiles and the cards you made? My plan with the cards is to print off copies from the online sets and stick them on to some nice sturdy cardboard. I'll probably get some of those see through plastic card protectors that card gamers use to keep them in one piece. Id love to see what you've done there! Especially as you mentioned updating them with new images.

Btw I used exactly the same barbarian model!

[eek107]

Fantastic! I've just started an almost identical project! I found the game online earlier this year and I've just got all the models together recently. My own 3D tile set is in the works (I used the blue dense polystyrene stuff), but alot of work still needs to be done. So far only snotlings have been painted, but I'll get there in the end. There are pics in my blog (see my sig ). I'd love to see some pics of your tiles and the cards you made? My plan with the cards is to print off copies from the online sets and stick them on to some nice sturdy cardboard. I'll probably get some of those see through plastic card protectors that card gamers use to keep them in one piece. Id love to see what you've done there! Especially as you mentioned updating them with new images.

Btw I used exactly the same barbarian model!

Looking good, I can't wait to see more, especially of the tiles! What figures did you use for the elf and dwarf?

Sadly the friend I mentioned didn't have the time to create any new artwork, so I just used the pictures from the old cards instead, which still look great. I managed to remake all the cards from the base game, then lucked out and found an original, pretty much complete copy of the game plus some extra treasure cards for £30 at a local wargames event, so we're using those now :P I'm still making new cards though. Our Wizard needs them to keep track of his ever growing spell list, and I'm making reference cards for all the monsters in the game and the magic armour/items/weapons they can have.

I'll start putting up shots of the board sections in the next few days

[HereBeDragons]

Looking good, I can't wait to see more, especially of the tiles! What figures did you use for the elf and dwarf?

Sadly the friend I mentioned didn't have the time to create any new artwork, so I just used the pictures from the old cards instead, which still look great. I managed to remake all the cards from the base game, then lucked out and found an original, pretty much complete copy of the game plus some extra treasure cards for £30 at a local wargames event, so we're using those now :P I'm still making new cards though. Our Wizard needs them to keep track of his ever growing spell list, and I'm making reference cards for all the monsters in the game and the magic armour/items/weapons they can have.

I'll start putting up shots of the board sections in the next few days

The elf is a reaper model: Arthrand Nightblade, Wood Elf Sergeant. Its a nice sculpt, but a little short. He's only just taller than the dwarf unfortunately. The Dwarf is from Avatar's of War. The tiles will be waiting a while for progress since Im at uni atm and can't store them all with me but the models are being painted. You got lucky finding a full set like that! The seller clearly didn't know what he had! You're expanding into the role-play monsters and cards etc now then? A big task ahead of you there! Make sure you keep updating this time. I'm lucking forward to seeing future (and past) work!

[eek107]

The elf is a reaper model: Arthrand Nightblade, Wood Elf Sergeant. Its a nice sculpt, but a little short. He's only just taller than the dwarf unfortunately. The Dwarf is from Avatar's of War. The tiles will be waiting a while for progress since Im at uni atm and can't store them all with me but the models are being painted. You got lucky finding a full set like that! The seller clearly didn't know what he had! You're expanding into the role-play monsters and cards etc now then? A big task ahead of you there! Make sure you keep updating this time. I'm lucking forward to seeing future (and past) work!

Ah thanks. I'm eventually going to double up on warrior models, so I'm going to put him on the list
I know, I just couldn't pass that opportunity up! All that was wrong with it was no spell cards, a badly repaired barbarian sword break, the minotaurs missing their weapons and a half-melted clanrat.
We've been on the monster tables for a few months now, and I've slowly been gathering the required creatures so I don't have to re-roll the results so often! I've got most of the horde-ish creatures, it's mainly champions, sorcerers and the bigger monster types remaining. And, of course, the extra warriors. Half of the party have already picked their next choice of character for when they eventually die!

[mdiscala]

Great painting. I especially like the barbarian.

[Demoulius]

Nice minis! Any chance to see parts of the dungeon?

But eh... What are those? Giant bats?

They look like faces with wings and some small patches of fur the minis themselves mind...

[mrtn]

Nice to see this thread back, good work.

[eek107]

Great painting. I especially like the barbarian.

Thanks!

Nice minis! Any chance to see parts of the dungeon?

But eh... What are those? Giant bats?

They look like faces with wings and some small patches of fur the minis themselves mind...

Yeah, I'll start on the dungeon pieces tomorrow The bats are a little odd in terms of proportions but they're the best I could find at the time. It's not too noticeable when we play anyway

Nice to see this thread back, good work.

Thanks!