dungeons and lasers [Group/Open] Dungeons and Lasers

[Auberon 16363]

I looked back a few months and didn't see any group/open WIPs so maybe nobody does them anymore.  I have been around long enough to remember when they were a thing so I'm willing to give it a go.

 

This thread is for anyone to post their work in progress shots from the Dungeons and Lasers kickstarter, be it figures, props or terrain. Or animal companions.  Or dragons.  Really you have options.

 

I am starting with the wooden cottage.  I went to the store and purchased some DecoArt craft paints to use for my terrain.  They were chosen by eye for how they should look but I need to paint something to see if they do work.

 

First, priming!  I have white, I have black.  I went black.

 

 

There's no pic of it, but after this I gave my test piece a wash of dioxazine purple mixed with a little black. It will just make sure the black is not a "pure" black.  Then I went over all the raised details with a heavy layer of Dark Chocolate. More than anything this is just to cover up the black and make a base for the actual wood paints.

 

 

This was followed up with my two base colors, Milk Chocolate and Burnt Sienna. Picking out individual boards was a bit too tedious for for terrain and doesn't really give me much benefit.  For the rest of it I'll just paint the Burnt Sienna in patches.

 

 

The grid is somewhat disguised here, but if it is too disguised that also is a problem.  I plan to make each square darker in the middle and then lighter around the edges.  This calls for some Honey Brown.

 

 

I got some Honey Brown in the wood grain so I did an experiment with two different ink washes to restore the wood grain.  One was Raw Umber, the other was Burnt Umber.  To the naked eye I thought the Burnt Umber was a little richer in tone, but in practice I don't think it will matter.

 

 

Honey Brown back around the exterior.

 

 

And pop the edges with some Buttermilk. A bit much?  Probably so. I tried a half-step with the Honey Brown/Buttermilk but it wasn't quite right either. The detail is deep enough though that I can just go back over it with the Honey Brown and not worry about building up too much paint.

 

 

And more to come!

[Adrift 11801]

The last photo with the whitish edges might be a bit much for an indoor piece of wooden terrain. I’d expect that level of weathering more on outdoor planking exposed to sun and rain. Awesome to follow however as I’ve been wondering what to do with my own!

[R2ED 3360]

I agree with @Adrift. The sides with that whitish highlight really bumps the wood grain, but takes away from the wood look.  It's not bad, just might be a little high.  

 

Your 2nd to last photo with the sepia looked solid. 

 

Overall, this is really helpful.  I'm glad you decided to put this together for me people to learn from. 

[Auberon 16363]

Today's update is boring, but one of those things that must be done - hook all the floor together and base coat it. A downside I have found to the DecoArt Dark Chocolate is that the coverage is surprisingly poor. Usually darker desaturated colors have pigments that cover great, but this took at least two to start, and in some places three passes before I started to get a solid dark brown.  I think in part it is a combination of the paint consistency plus the stiffness of the bristles of the brush I am using.  Next time I'll try softer bristles and see how it goes.

 

 

But once it is finally dark brown the next coats go on just fine.  For speed I covered everything in Milk Chocolate and then painted patches of Burnt Sienna in.  Once I start to highlight it will break up the Burnt Sienna.

 

[Auberon 16363]

The borders have been hit with Honey Brown and it has been reapplied to the test piece. The rectangular pieces do not have a single board that ends in the middle of the tile.  Instead it is just a row of nails.  It works ok at less than arms length but I find the effect too subtle 4ft away on the table.  For me at least some additional highlighting is need to make it playable.

 

[Auberon 16363]

Since Buttermilk was too much last time I instead went for a mix of Buttermilk and the previous Honey Brown.  This mix was a bit more desaturated than I would like so I added in some Cadmium Yellow.  The yellow was a bit potent. So is my lighting. This went around the borders and I also hit some of the holes to really enforce the grid.

 

 

With it being a bit too yellow I then went back to my original mix of Honey Brown/Buttermilk to make a light brown. This did not completely cover the previous edging, just the very outer bits.  With the bright lighting my camera is picking it up as almost white, but it is not. 

 

 

I switched a couple of tiles to break up the pattern and then tried using levels to get closer to the "true" values you would see under normal ceiling lights.  This is closer but still not quite right.  Once I have some walls painted I'll just take a pic with ambient lighting.

 

 

At this point I have yet to do a wash, largely because I have to make more.  I think I'll wait until after I've painted all of the walls and then just wash it all at once.

[Glitterwolf 217130]

looks great!

[Auberon 16363]

Nothing to see here, just some trims.  Actually this is probably my last update for a few days as the next step is to paint the walls.  Given they have two sides and my dark brown is taking a couple passes for decent coverage it may take a few sessions to get it going.

 

[Auberon 16363]

I didn't bother taking any pics of the wall painting as it used the same steps as the floor.  After all that the final step is the ink wash bring it all together.  It will fill in the wood grain and add some saturation back to the highlights.  First, the test pieces.  It was actually a little stronger than I wanted, but not so bad I'm going to repaint it.

 

 

I made more with less ink and washed the rest of the floor tiles. One is not quite like the others.

 

 

The walls pre-wash.  Gah, camera flash!

 

 

I tried watering down the wash a little more but it ended up not being potent enough.  No point in doing two washes if you don't have to.

 

 

Here they are after the final ink wash.

 

 

And finally put together.  Even though I made the wash with 50% matte medium it still made things a little glossy. Some walls ended up with a double wash on the top after doing both sides but I can live with it.

 

 

I was rushing a bit in the end so there were a few places I ended up heavy on the final highlight, like this door frame. If I'm motivated later I might touch it up.

 

 

But now, on to the next set!

[Auberon 16363]

For my next set I am painting the sewers.  I suppose most people would have gone for the normal sewers first and then the toxic magic goo as a follow up.  I took the opposite path.  If I like the funny one maybe I'll pick up regular water someday.

 

Most of the pieces are still in the box and need removing.  This is just a test to see how the plan will work. The wall was primed black and the clear was primed gloss.

 

 

I hear the Tamiya clear paints work well but I don't have any of those.  I do have inks and have had some success with them on clear minis before.  For my goo I would like the water to remain mostly green but have yellowish highlights and blue shadows. To try and accomplish this I have:

 

 

On the first test piece there is promise and problems.  The main problem is that the yellow medium azo doesn't really do much.  The rest work as expected, and this is straight out of the bottle.  When cut with some type of medium the greens should work just fine as tints.

 

 

And yellow.  And not much change. The yellow azo just kind of makes things hazy, if you can even tell.

 

 

And the first phthalocyannine green (yellow) mixed with gloss sealer.  It tinted the water green(er than it was) but still remains clear.

 

 

And... kinda forgot to stop to take pics... So the second phthalocyannine green (blue) makes it even greener wherever it goes while still remaining mostly transparent.  The turquoise deep only went in the bottoms of the ripples to create some depth and make them not so transparent.  I found that as manufactured the plastic is so clear that you can see the connectors right through the tiles.  Some opacity should help break up their profile a bit.  And lastly, the yellow azo still doesn't cover well.  I tried blobbing it on the tops of the bubbles, but in order to get coverage it starts to go opaque.

 

 

If the yellow azo is opaque I may as well try something else.  Reaper's clear yellow is neither clear nor a particularly vibrant yellow. It did cover the bubbles though and a glaze of yellow azo gives it a better color. You can ignore the light blue shadows.  That is just camera + gloss messing with the image.

 

 

To recap, with the tools I have:

• I can tint green and make shadows with my inks.
• I cannot color shift to yellowish without losing the transparency. 

I may need to bite the bullet and add some Tamiya to my arsenal.