As key luminaries of the realm have aptly pointed out, one of the best things about HeroQuest is the Gargoyle:
And while I stand by my earlier assessment that the Chaos Warlock is actually the cooler miniature, the Gargoyle pretty much won by sheer shock and awe tactics, back when I originally opened the game box: He was massive! He came in three separate parts! I remember a younger version of myself not wanting to let go of the model for the entirety of Christmas, back in 1989 
A couple of years after that, I actually painted the Gargoyle, trying to match the paintjob that appeared on the back of the HeroQuest quest book (once again, courtesy of Mike McVey). Here’s the result:
I remember being over the moon with my paintjob back in the day. From a modern perspective, it’s easy to see how my approach was hampered by the limitation of seemingly never using any shading and merely painting on the base colours I am still pretty pleased with the colour blending on the sword, though…
Now it was clear that painting another Gargoyle would have to be a part of my #HeroQuest2019 project. My original plan was to keep the Gargoyle for last and only paint him once all of the other monsters had been finished. But then real life (TM) had been such a slog recently that I felt I deserved a little reward for soldiering on, so the Gargoyle jumped the queue a bit.
When it came to the actual painting recipe, I didn’t have to think all that long: Sure, one option would have been to actually paint the model as a stone statue — after all, the Gargoyle is supposedly rather a stone effigy come to life than an actual Daemon. Plus there are some rather gorgeous “stone” Gargoyles, painted by fellow hobbyists, out there. But this approach just seemed a bit boring to me.
These days, I am actually aware of the fact that the HeroQuest gargoyle is a slightly rebranded Bloodthirster of Khorne (or a statue of a Bloodthirster brought to life, to be precise). To the point where the vintage metal Bloodthirster from the time HeroQuest was released actually included options that allowed you to basically assemble a bigger HeroQuest Gargoyle.
And a Khornate Daemon required bold colours: Red and brass. So I ended up back with the “official” Mike McVey paintjob yet again:
Now the picture above doesn’t really use the actual Gargoyle model as included in the HeroQuest boxed set, but rather a slightly more elaborate metal prototype. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why my paintjob ended up looking slightly different — although it’s still heavily based on Mike McVey’s approach. Here’s a first tentative look:
I wasn’t so sure about the somewhat different look at first, but the model has definitely grown on me over the last couple of days, and I am pretty happy with the finished model now — definitely an improvement over my last paintjob from the mid-90s (even though the difference doesn’t look quite as stark in the photo as it does in real life):
I would also be remiss not to mention Tale of Painters’ flame tutorial yet again, which really came in handy when painting the Gargoyle’s sword — I merely reversed the recipe this time around
So with the model finished, I set up the usual, proper “glamour shots”. So here, without further ado, is the Gargoyle:
All in all, I am really very happy with the finished model — this guy will make for a brilliant boss monster to pitch against those pesky heroes…
What’s more, with the completion of the Gargoyle, Team Chaos is now finished as well. Just look at them, all glorious red and dark metal:
At the same time, I still need to complete quite a few models before my HeroQuest set can be considered finished: The Goblins are still missing, as are the Fimi/Fimirs/Fimirach (?!). And then there’s the furniture, of course, something I am already looking forward to quite a bit! If nothing else, though, I do have at least one model for each of the monster types now:
And while we are at it, here’s a look at all of my completed HeroQuest models right now:
As you can see, the assembly also includes the two “bonus models” I have created to round out the set, namely Sir Ragnar and the Witch Lord.
What’s more, I was surprised to find out that this collection actually makes for some forty models that I have mostly managed to paint in the first quarter of 2019 — that’s quite an achievement, given my – usually glacially slow – pace when it comes to painting!
So that’s it for today. Of course I would love to hear any thoughts and feedback you may have, so don’t be shy! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
