This is my first (but hopefully not last) post about miniature painting. I got into painting way back in secondary school when I started playing Warhammer with a group of friends and still today the majority of miniatures I painted are from that system. I painted less and less as the 8th edition progressed and pretty much stopped altogether. Recently, board games got me back into painting, but at a very slow pace. But slow progress is still better than no progress at all.
I'm a fan of the Heroes of Might and Magic (HoMM) series and played all games from the second to the seventh installment, but especially the third one. A friend backed the board game adaptation of HoMM 3 and after I had a chance to play it with him, I invested into the second crowdfunding campaign. Now I'm the proud owner of the base game and all factions released so far.
I decided to paint the heroes and towns first and leave the units for later, so that I can bring as soon as possible some painted miniatures to the board. First step is of course priming - since this is my first post about this topic I'll show the primed miniatures too for those unfamiliar with the process.
I don't have any more WIP shots, but basically I paint a base coat for each color. Sometimes multiple layers are needed, depending on the color. Then I apply one or more washes to the whole miniature. A wash is basically a kind of very fluid color that gathers in edges and recesses. Usually I use plain black, with lighter washes for skin and other bright colors. This gives the miniature depth and is a cheap way to "paint" its shadowy parts. It also gives a "blacklining" effect that helps to define the details of the miniature. The HoMM miniatures are very beautiful with lots of details, but especially those of the base game and first expansions are also cast somewhat blurry.
But enough rambling. After the wash dried, I paint the highlights and then fashion the base. These last steps are the most fun for me and usually the lights are far more important for the appeal of the miniature than the shadows. And now let's have a look at the finished miniatures, starting with the Castle Faction and its two heroes Lord Haart and Adelaide.
Next comes the Dungeon faction with a pretty cool Overlord miniature that I can't really identify with any of the heroes from the computer game and a Warlock that represents Sephinroth for me.
Last for today, but not least is the Necropolis faction with an impressive Death knight (again, I don't know any hero from the computer game that it obviously references), and a Necromancer clearly inspired by the infamous Sandro.
To be honest, I finished painting these miniatures already a while ago, but didn't get around posting about them. But better late than never. The next miniatures I'm painting aren't from the HoMM board game but a relatively quick side project that I'm more than halfway through. For today, let's close this post with some impressions from the actual game.
