A little slime-covered Mire Kelpie has told us that Warhammer Quest: Darkwater is available to pre-order on Saturday. Just like all of you, the Warhammer Community team is excited to get their hands on the box and start playing campaigns with their friends and loved ones.
We were lucky enough to get an early copy, and have some campaign groups and skirmish sessions set up for when we’re not busy writing, designing, and doing all the social and webstore copy that’s required. We decided to split the heroes between the group so that we could paint some cool alternate versions. You can check them all out below.
Kelthannor, the Forest Prince – painted by Joel
I chose Kelthannor as my hero. I’ve been a fan of the Kurnothi faction ever since painting up the Skaeth’s Wild Hunt miniatures for Warhammer Underworlds many years ago, and I always tend to go for the nimble ranged characters in Warhammer Quest games.
When I painted that Underworlds warband I chose a wintery scheme, primarily using white and blue, and decided to adapt that same colour scheme for this new character.
The animal portion of him was painted using Grey Seer spray as a base coat, layered up with Ulthuan Grey and a final highlight of White Scar. The skin was a 50/50 mix of Cadian Fleshtone and Kislev Flesh, with some darker and lighter blends. I used Lupercal Green for his cloak, being very careful not to get it on the white animal skin! The hair, gems, and other blue sections were based with Lothern Blue, highlighting up to Baharroth Blue to make it look more icy, in keeping with the winter theme.
Drolf Ironhead, the Grizzled Explorer – painted by Catherine
While I adore Drolf’s blue scheme from the box art, I thought he might struggle to blend into his forest home. So my grizzled explorer’s theme is inspired by the autumnal yellows and browns I can see outside my office window right now. I painted his cloak using Orruk Flesh and Averland Sunset, and his many fine leather accessories are a mixture of Rhinox Hide and Steel Legion Drab. A liberal amount of Agrax Earthshade helped him look like he hadn’t seen the inside of a bathtub in an age, and a few swipes of Corax White and Averland Sunset with an old dry makeup brush brought out all his lovely details.
Bren Tylis, the Renegade Saint – painted by Luke
Painting heroes for games like Warhammer Quest is already a fun challenge because they feel a little “solved” by the ’Eavy Metal miniatures and accompanying art. I decided to only tweak my version of Bren Tylis a little, giving her a more rich purple cloak and armour with an iridescent tinge, achieved with thin glazes of Luxion Purple and Aethermatic Blue. I thought that was a good fit with the fish motif that can be found on the end of her scabbard, and the water flask she’s carrying, which I painted as if it were glass.
I tried to keep colours muted across the board, desaturating the skin and cloak by adding various greys to the paint mixes, whilst also adding a decent patina to the bronze and brass metals. The face was a challenge, as I wanted her to look gaunt, but not overly so, and I spent a lot of time going back and forth with light and dark skin glazes to reach a shade pallor that I hope reads “tired of it all, but still kicking”.
Edmark Valoran, the Manticore Knight – painted by Jon
As a lover of all things armoured and bashy, painting Edmark was an easy choice. I wanted to lean into the classic knightly tank archetype of the adventurer, so used a halved red and white scheme for Edmark’s shield and tunic, alongside bright silver armour. So that the red of the Shield of the Manticore would stand out, I mixed Khorne Red, Mephiston Red, and Abaddon Black to create a dark maroon/leather colour for the cloak, weathered by a drybrush of Steel Legion Drab and Karak Stone at the end. (I did this on a whim at 11:30pm one night – thankfully I was pleased with the result!).
To ground the otherwise bright and shiny scheme with the dank surroundings of the Jade Abbey, I glazed Gutrippa Flesh Contrast onto sections of all the armour and gold to add a patina of age to the mini.
I prefer to paint in sub-assemblies, which can sometimes be a challenge with push-fit minis, but Edmark split very easily into three, including an ingenious bit of design where the helmet crest and visor are attached to the cloak front and shield, separate from the rest of the head. This meant I could paint Edmark’s visible eyes before the visor was added over the top.
Inara Sion, the Cleansing Blade – painted by Kristyna
I decided to give Inara my own twist by painting her hair in a different colour and adding some dramatic blood effects to show she’s not afraid of what’s waiting in the Jade Abbey.
Painting her reminded me why I love the Warhammer hobby. Every project is an opportunity to learn something new, try something bold, and bring a character to life in a way that feels yours.
I’ve been around the hobby for a while now, but this is only my third miniature painted to completion. I’m still learning, and Warhammer Quest: Darkwater has been a great excuse to push myself. There’s so much talent and passion in this community, and it genuinely humbles me how everyone comes together to support and inspire each other on their hobby journey.
Jacobus Vyne, the Jade Wizard – painted by Grog
Wizards are very cool, and weird little guys are even cooler, so clearly I got to paint the best character in the party.
My version of Vyne isn’t too dissimilar from the box art. It’s pretty simple stuff – Contrast paints for a nice smooth basecoat, and then highlights manually applied with Layer paints. Using Contrast paints also made it really easy to blend the colours on the staff to transition from the brown of the tree to the light green of the staff head.
I decided to go off-piste for Wisper and paint them in vibrant colours like an orchid or cyclamen, but the end result kind of looks like they’ve been flayed. Oops. At least it might scare some of the monsters.
Drasher Vorn, the Rampaging Beast – painted by David
I was drawn to Drasher due to him being so unique, we haven’t seen anything quite like him in the Mortal Realms so far. Drasher is a shapeshifter from the Realm of Beasts, and presumably draws on the magic of Ghur to change his appearance. I wondered what it might look like if he instead drew on the magic of Ghyran, hence the green colour.
With so many different textures, he was a joy to paint. I started with a Zandri Dust undercoat and worked mainly with Contrast paints to get the main colours down before picking out the details. The large gems were particularly satisfying to paint.
The pools on the base were created by painting the edges in green, leaving black for depth, and then building up several layers of Stormshield Technical paint.
Now we just need to decide how to arrange the party for our first campaign! You’ll be able to get your very own copy of Warhammer Quest: Darkwater when it hits pre-order on Saturday. If every copy goes, don’t worry, more will be on the way… Grandfather Nurgle loves spreading his gifts. Let us know how you’re going to paint yours on the official Warhammer Facebook page.
You can still take part in the Forge Your Destiny email journey for Warhammer Quest: Darkwater in order to get a taste of the horrors that await when you finally take your own adventuring party into the Jade Abbey. Even if you haven’t been taking part yet, you can catch up now and compare your actions to everyone else by checking out the official Warhammer Instagram page.
-g7kobk80zo.jpg)
