My Ulfenkarn Journey
Today I’m talking (well typing) about one of my favorite projects, Warhammer Quest Cursed City. The main focus of my writing will look at the models (since they are my favorite part), but I will also briefly touch on the game itself.
The Game
The game as a whole is a fun multipart quest to enjoy alone or with up to three friends. It takes place in Ulfenkarn, a seemingly doomed city that is ruled by Radukar the Wolf, a powerful Vyrkos vampire. There are several missions for the group of intrepid heroes to work their way through the ranks of Radukar’s undead minions. Those heroes are wildly varying types that, for one reason or another, would like to see Radukar fall. Each mission, you move them through some part of the city, and the wide mix of game board pieces are placed in different configurations each time. And of course, many enemies will try to stop those journeys, all with beautifully sculpted miniatures. You will fight, run, and possibly die through the streets and buildings of the Cursed City on your way to take down the Big Bad Evil Guy.
The Models
Now I’m late to the mini game (hah), as I missed out on the earlier installments of WH Quest. But, as soon as I saw the news drop for Cursed City, starting with a couple of the amazing models, I learned a lot. Then, I waited, and luckily, my local friendly game store was able to snag a box, and my name was put on it thanks to a friend (you rock Trey.) And then it arrived. And then I was like, “ooh, aah.” And then I started gluing. A small internal struggle ended with going 100% stock builds, no conversions, because the models are that damn gorgeous!
Well, 1 small conversion… Radukar clearly was missing something held in his left hand, and I found that to be a severed head. Okay, I also kitbashed a custom model for the ninth hero you could get for the game. And, I made a Gravetide model since I didn’t have any of the endless spell models. Oh, there were extra Skeleton bits, so I added a couple arms and greenstuff cloaks to have 12 instead of 10…
Buried tokens and lychgates. I modeled markers for them too. That’s it. I swear. (The custom display board, and converted wood box don’t count.)
Before I could attach models to bases, I had to do the custom brick work I wanted. I didn’t have a texture roller, and I was so ready to get the full models primed, so I spent a couple days of hobby time hand carving each base with milliput. (t’was cheaper than Greenstuff, which is my preferred putty) I was nice to myself and only did about half of each base as brick, and the other side as dirt. Add some skulls and other bits, slap the models on, and Prime Time!
I started painting with the slightly less exciting stuff, the objectives and such. I had just recently acquired some Fluorescent paints from GreenStuff World (highly recommend), and I knew I wanted to use them for accents in this set. I also decided to take a video game feel/aesthetic with these accents. So the objectives got an orange glow near the top, similar to what a video game might have for this type of point on the screen. The imps and cats just got orange eyes, as I liked the thought of just glowing eyes when they first appeared from the shadows. The Gravestones had candles and flowers to pop with the noen, and that seemed fitting as well.
Bats and rats also got the orange eyes like the cats, along with subdued, realistic tones elsewhere. I pictured them like the enemies that aren’t hard because they’re beefy, but they are difficult to see and annoying to fight.
The Grave Zombies got the same flower treatment, as well as green glowing eyes. The eyes would become a thing for all the humanoid baddies. They also got the first blood. I am a huge fan of blood effect paints, and I use them on many of my minis (BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!)
The Ulfenwatch, Deathrattle Skeletons, and their Captain got the first extra fun fluorescent accenting, on their flowing fabric edges. Similar to those part of them being highlighted/glowing in a video game. I went pretty gritty with their armor and weapons, and of course the green glowing eyes.
The bigger baddies were what I was really looking forward to painting, particularly Gorslav the Gravekeeper. That model was one I wanted from the moment they revealed it. I kept the red fabric with neon edges for most areas of these characters, driving home that unified force of enemies for the heroes to fight.
On Torgilius the Chamberlain, I didn’t use the neon on the backside, where the candle doesn’t shine, for a neat darkness effect.
The biggest model in the game, the Vargskyr, was also a joy to paint, and I wouldn’t mind seeing, and painting, more of them.
Big boys with deadly intent. Another couple models that I’d love to see units of. They are gnarly and ragged in all the right places.
Since the Vyrkos Bloodborn didn’t have much in the way of clothes, I used neon accents in their hair. I think it worked out well, especially on the longer hair.
The big Vyrkos boy, Radukar the Wolf. This guy puts the big in BBEG. A stout and imposing vampire wearing a wolf pelt; overall it’s a solid model. I kept the red, and added a classic contrast of blue.
And at last, the heroes. I spent a bit of extra time on each of the ‘good guys’ to make them nice, clean, and pretty. I also went with more magical or lighting effects with the fluorescent paints. I didn’t use red on any of them to help have a contrasting difference to the enemies.
Extra Extra!
After that, the display board was a venture of foam, magnets, and paint. I cut and placed the foam to make the layout I wanted, and marked out where all the models would stand. Some magnets hot glued into those spots that would click with the ones I put on the bottoms of the model bases. Then a little texture and paint. I printed the small backdrop out and put it on a foam board. I also magnetized it to keep it from breaking off in a bad way.
Converting the box was a matter of finding a nice box at a craft store and adding to it. I made a couple of custom foam board trays to section some areas to hold the cards and tiles in place. (I also bought an organizer to put all the dice and tokens into.) I took and put some thin craft foam and covered much of the inner wood to help stop the tiles from sliding and rubbing. Add a couple stencils to paint the logo and symbols on the outside and boom.
I also custom made and printed a mat to lay under the gameboard space, for just a little extra touch. It looks very immersive when used along with a bunch of scatter terrain to fill in the spaces between tiles, and bring the doors to three dimensions.
-I like aesthetics as much as gameplay sometimes 😉
I am very excited to see what expansions will come for this awesome project with the announcement of its resurrection. I await eagerly to add on to this collection.
Happy Gaming.
[This post was originally published at Otherverse Games & Hobbies]
Steven
Hello, I’m Steven, and I’m a plastic addict. I live in a small city and do graphic design, sign, and shirt work on the weekdays. I tend to spend a lot of my hobby time painting/making Warhammer or D&D mini stuff. Occasionally, I play video games as well.
Instagram: @mindlesstelepathy
