Like a lot of people, my dive into the world of miniatures gaming really began at ages 11-13 with a combination of the Fighting Fantasy game books, and the board games HeroQuest and Space Crusade. It wasn't that long before I was gifted a big stack of White Dwarf magazines by my friend Matthew, along with his Warhammer rules and Wood Elf army (more on which in a future post!), and so I discovered the wider Games Workshop-iverse, the local GW store and inevitably Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader, opting to paint my marines as Blood Angels because they were my favourite squad in Space Crusade. I played 40k up to around 5th edition with 3 or 4 armies... I don't think I got the 6th ed rules, though a check in mum's loft might tell me otherwise. I maintained a passing interest, though got more into board games for a time, and then after brief stints of painting the miniatures for Zombicide and Massive Darkness, I got Darklight: Memento Mori around 7-8 years ago and painted that set, which involved me having to re-invest in paints and brushes. A little later, friends told me of the existence of Frostgrave, and I got very much back into wargaming, albeit through a refreshingly different lens, allowing me to discover all sorts of lovely independent companies (again a story for another blog post probably!) So, back to HeroQuest. Around 2021 I had a look at the state of HeroQuest and Space Crusade, and determined that despite the awful caked-on paint, they might actually be salvagable. Witness my handiwork at age 12-13 and despair:

So I brought them home with me and dunked them in Biostrip 20 - and miraculously they were mostly pristine beneath (excluding breakages)

Several figures had broken weapons and arms, with the poor Gargoyle needing extensive repairs and pinning, and the Elf needing a replacement sword, as well as some Orcs and Goblins that were beyond fixing due to missing parts and over-thick use of glue 30+ years ago, for example.

So then began a 'labour of love' project to restore and repaint them in between (many) other projects, which concluded yesterday. There are not quite the full complement of goblins, orcs and skeletons due to breakages, so at some point I might seek out replacement figures to fill in the gaps. But it's definitely a playable set! So I am looking forward to getting it on the table soon.

It would be lovely to acquire the Wizards of Morcar expansion set one day, but it's going for silly money on eBay, so maybe not... So here is a gallery of my HeroQuest collection, and I am really pleased to have completed this project! I have also made headway with my Space Crusade set, so I think I will aim to finish them off next year.