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WARHAMMER QUEST: RE-CREATING MIDDLE-HAMMER’S FINEST DUNGEON CRAWLER
Recommendations: 75
About the Project
I loved GWs 1995 Warhammer Quest set - I could finally collect all those awesome minis from various different armies and battle my way through them in my very own fantasy dungeon! Fast-forward to today and the forgotten boxed set languishing in my parents' garage had escaped several culls and clear-outs, with the cardstock surprisingly intact (even if many of the miniatures had long since vanished, probably sold on E-Bay when I thought I would never be a hobby gamer again!). Lovely as this card version is, I did wonder if I could re-create the board sections and 3D print them, for an enhanced tabletop experience. This started me down a 3D design rabbit-hole, and for the last 3 months I've been designing, printing and painting my brand new WHQ95 board sections
Related Game: Warhammer Quest
Related Company: Games Workshop
Related Genre: Fantasy
Related Contest: Spring Clean Hobby Challenge 2026
This Project is Active
MORE MONSTERS
I decided I wanted to try some variation in skin tone for my other minotaurs. This was painted using Vallejo skin tones, working from Athena Skin, to Rosy Flesh and then Pale Flesh, with white highlights. As the sculpts had exchangeable hands, this one has the upper torso of the poor knight in his right hand 
This last of the three minotaurs is also from Heresy, but is actually a fantasy football mini that I chopped the hands off and used my leftover weapons from the previous two minotaur minis. He's a tad smaller than the others, but he's in a much more dynamic pose
The base size for these guys might be an issue on the tabletop - but that said if you draw the 1D3 minotaurs card there's probably enough on the table to be keeping you occupied! 
I still had 6 of the original monopose snotlings from the original box, and as a birthday present a friend kindly printed me out some STL files he'd found that are pretty close approximations to the original files. I did find the resin quite brittle on a couple of the minis, and had a few snapped legs/arms. I managed to repair a few, but sadly was still one short. However a quick shift through my old bits box found a few metal snotlings, so I topped up my numbers with one of them to make the required 12
I also had 6 of the original monopose night goblin archers. Again I decided not to go for the bright yellow stripes and details of the original set, choosing instead to stick to black, grey and brown so they fitted in with the other Orcs and GoblinsDICE TOWER
Although not part of the original box, I have memories of dice scattering across the table and onto the floor during the heat of battle, or as a result of over-enthusiastic rolling during the Power Phase when nobody wants to roll a 1! So I went back to Vector Works and drew up a suitably Fantasy-esq dice tower
It worked well as a print, although I think I might need to teak a few bits to make the hinge a little smoother if I do anything like this in the future
Finally a stone paint job to finish it off
MINIATURES: ADVENTURERS & MONSTERS
I was lucky enough to find my original WHQ Adventurer minis from 1995 - I'd thought they were long gone, but they were lurking amongst an old bits-box of stuff. I had painted them when I first got the box and matched the original 'Eavy Metal Adventurers - apart from the Dwarf's beard! I opted for black because the wizard already has a grey beard. I had a few of the extra warrior packs, but although the cards were still there for a few of them, the only one I could find the miniature for was the Troll Slayer. The Elf had a snapped bow, which I have replaced with a similar bow from my bits box. I also repainted the bases grey. The original 'Eavy Metal minis were all Goblin Green. I never really understood this for a dungeon crawler, but vaguely remember hearing one of the GW Old Guard talking about this in an interview. The guidelines were that all bases were Goblin Green, so even minis for games like WHQ and Necromunda got the same treatment, regardless of practicalities
I was also lucky enough to find 6 Goblin Spearmen - not all the spears survived so another hunt through the bits box for spares was needed. I also wanted all the Orcs and Goblins to have the same shields, so after looking through my old collection I scrounged enough moon-face shields to suit my purposes. These minis hadn't been painted in 1995, so I was free to choose a colour scheme. I departed a little form the bright '95 reds though. I wanted something a bit more grounded and authentic, so I went with brown leather
Unfortunately I wasn't as lucky with my Orcs - I had one original mono-pose plastic mini, plus another couple of Oldhammer Orcs that had been lurking in my bits box for a while. I had a search on-line and found some armoured Orcs on Black Tree Designs website and as they were sold in a pack of 3 I thought I'd give them a try. They're a little smaller in stature than the old Citadel sculpts, but for the purposes of this game I thought they would fit quite well. Again I went with blacks and browns for the colours
And I also used the Moon Face shields with grey bases
Black Tree also had some nice Orc Archer sculpts, so I stuck with them for the 6 Orc Archers
I did manage to find a lone '95 spider amongst my collection
But as I needed 12, I had to do a bit of searching on the internet and found these Baboon Spiders on Ebay. I quite liked the realistic sculpts, and again went with a more natural paint scheme, rather than the bright red and black of the old minis 
Another Ebay purchase for Giant Rats - this time from Reaper I believe. 
For the Minotaurs I went to Heresy Miniatures. It's a much bigger sculpt than the original WHQ minis, but it's also a bit more dynamic with a warrior's half-dismembered body in one hand FULL SET OF PAINTED BOARD SECTIONS
Here is the full set of 3D printed and painted board tiles and doorways as per the original box. Once painted I gave them all a coat of semi-gloss clear spray varnish to protect them a little. Now I just need to have a game on them!
FIGURES FOR PODIUMS
I found this baby dragon from Iron Gate Scenery, which luckily fits exactly on my podium!
It really needs a pile of gold and treasure to be sitting on
A lick of gold paint - I used Vallejo Tinny Tin, dry brushed with Glorious Gold, then Polished Gold
I found this Hero Quest Gargoyle on Etsy, which was a quite close match to the image on the original painted board section
A quick stone drybrush
I think they work quite well to finish the board sections off
PAINTING THE BOARDS: OBJECTIVE ROOMS
The Fire Chasm. I painted on wood-grain for the bridge, and marble effect for the plinth that will eventually hold my dragon
Tomb Chamber: I tried to get a more terracotta colour for the tiles, which I thought had worked at first but it dulled a little as it dried. The 3D Knight on the tomb has worked quite well though 
The Idol Chamber: On reflection I would have liked to have created a void in the fire cauldron and put a light in - I haven't really done anything like that before but I've seen it used to great effect in other peoples' projects
Fountain Chamber: I painted on the water effects which I think have turned out ok - I'd like to learn Blender or Z Brush so I can sculpt more organic forms and elevate this a little more
The Fighting Pit: I like the way the forced perspective has worked out here. I also think the level changes have worked without making the board section too chunky or unbelievable PAINTING THE BOARDS: DUNGEON ROOMS
The Torture Chamber was one of those board sections with weapons and bits on that I chose to leave out in the design stage. Now it's painted it's a bit clearer which room is which!
Replicating the chequer board pattern for the Guard Room was actually quite a challenge - black and white and tones of grey for highlight and shade took more fiddling with than I thought to get right! 
The Well of Doom
The Dungeon Cell
The Monsters' Lair
The Circle of Power - struggled with the very bright green/turquoise colouring of this so i might re-visit it later
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