Warhammer Quest — Core game pieces

As I said previously, one of my goals for this year is finishing the models for my 1995 Warhammer Quest set. By now, I’ve finished all the core game pieces, i.e., the models you need every game, so have some pictures!

About Warhammer Quest

For those that don’t know, Warhammer Quest is a co-op game for four players. The players each take control of a hero and together the party descends into a dungeon to perform a task. This task is randomly generated, as is the dungeon (The first by means of a roll and a scenario book, the second by means of a card deck). Each turn, there is a chance of a random event happening, which in many cases means the appearance of monsters that need to be slain. The game received several expansions. The most common of these were the Warrior packs: Alternative heroes for the players to command. Another type were new scenarios, focussing on a specific class of enemy (Orks and Undead, respectively). The final type were decks of treasure cards, so the players had more variety in the loot they acquired.

The game came with a metric shitload of models: 4 Warriors, 12 plastic doorways and 87 monsters of various sorts. It also had a lot of full colour cardboard floor tiles and tokens, three card decks and three thick rulebooks: The game rules, the scenarios, and a roleplay book, which gave rules to turn the game into a full-blown RPG, complete with stat progression, as well as giving rules for pretty much every monster GW made a model for at the time (as well as some they didn’t).

Because of the random nature of the dungeons, the possibility of doing stat progression and the options of using different heroes and monsters, the game has a great replay value. Because it’s co-op, it’s also nice to play with people new to the Warhammer universe and/or miniature games in general. The game also managed to walk the fine line between being too easy and being too hard. The players need to work together to finish the mission, with each player having a role. The Wizard is needed to heal the players, the Dwarf can soak up damage, the Elf can pick off far-away enemies with his bow, etc.

The models

Warhammer Quest WarriorsAs I said earlier, the basic set includes four heroes you use each game (unless you are using the warrior expansions): the Barbarian, the Dwarf, the Elf and the Wizard. I painted each to basically match the artwork on the appropriate warrior reference card. The Dwarf I finished years ago, the others I did in the last year or so. 

Dwarf

Warhammer Quest Dwarf - Scenic BaseI originally modelled the Dwarf on a scenic base. This looked nice, but was a hassle during play. It also made the model the tallest of the four, which was just silly. When I picked up painting again, I got a set of pre-fab resin dungeon bases from Back2Base-ix, and moved the Dwarf to one of those along with the others.


Barbarian

The barbarian was tricky. These are old-style plastics, which were bad at showing fine detail. With these centerpiece models, it’s often there, but not sharply defined. For instance, there is a dagger in the barbarian’s right boot, but if you don’t paint it, it’s hardly visible. This also meant that the muscle tone is hard to get right. The edges are either very hard, or not there, meaning it’s hard to use washes. But altogether, I’m not dissatisfied with the result.


Wizard

The colours for this model differ the most from what I’d done if I wasn’t simulating the reference cards. Left to my own devices, he would have either ended up as Gandalf or as a red (fire) wizard. That said, I really like how he turned out. The shine on the gemstones and bottle was done by going over those areas with a gloss varnish (After varnishing everything else with a matt varnish first, which is my standard).


Elf

The most recently finished model of the four. The paint-job is pretty straightforward, but I feel it really fits the model. The characters on the hem of his cloak are just random giberish.


Doorways

These are used to connect the dungeon floor-tiles together. While they are less fancy than the heroes and the monsters, I found it’s worth putting some effort into them. After all, unlike the monsters, you’re sure to need these each time you play Warhammer Quest. Painting was pretty straightforward. Dark grey basecoat, black wash. Then all raised areas drybrushed with a lighter grey. Metal rings and such were done with a random mix of rusted iron and oxidized copper (A good chance to try out the technical paints in GW’s new range) to create some variety between the different doorways.

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