Board Games and Painting

I’m currently painting some old Warhammer miniatures, a couple of Dwarves and Lizardmen. I’m not as good as I should be considering how long I’ve collected fantasy miniatures. I usually get about halfway through painting a few and then leave it for the next day, which never comes. So, I have a lot of miniatures with just base colours down without the details of highlights or shadows, or just simply half finished. It can happen all too often with paintings too, or any artwork for that matter. I’m the worst for starting something and not finishing it.

I started a Kate Bush painting there a couple of weeks ago, it’s not finished but I’ll make it my mission to get it done before Christmas. It does look like her, but in a distorted kind of way. It’s done in acrylic, but I don’t think acrylic suits me. I always struggle to bring an image from sketch form to full colour. No matter how happy I am with a sketch, I always feel like I ruin it by putting paint on it.

Anyway, one of my best Christmas presents was the Hero Quest board game way back in the day. It’s a simple fantasy dungeon game where the Heroes play against a Dungeon Master to complete smaller quests, which all add up to completing the game, and unravelling the story. I still love the game, although it’s a long time since I’ve played it. Back before gaming consoles are what they are now, Board games were it, although I do think there’ll always be a place for them.

One of the extra features of Hero Quest, was that the miniatures from the game were to be painted. I didn’t attempt to paint any for years in case of making a mess, and when I finally did, I made a mess of them anyway, all part of learning.

I still have my original versions of Hotel and Mysteries of Old Peking, two board games which I loved. They’ve both had reissues in recent years. My original Monopoly is in bits, although probably still just about useable. Even in the age of game consoles, I still like to play board games, and there’s no better time of year to crack them out.

Last year I bought the reissue of Ghost Castle. We played it a couple of times, but it wasn’t great, although the original probably wasn’t great to begin with. My little one is at an age now where she will play the odd game if she’s in the mood. She does like to paint the miniatures too, her favourite are the undead. If I’m lucky I might be able to get her to play the odd game of Hero Quest, it would be a nice Christmas tradition we could start.  

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